Reframing the private school debate
I'm not a huge fan of the traditional debate but I recently agreed to do one for the New Statesman at the Cambridge Literary Festival. The motion was: 'This house believes private schools should be abolished.' I was on the opposing side which I knew would be a hard sell – especially to a Cambridge audience – and, alas, our side lost. For me, this is a debate about education for all rather than the way it's often pitched, as a battle between rich and poor. Private schools serve a wide range of children with huge benefits to society as a whole, but they are easy targets in a culture war where both children and their parents are derided for holding on to entitlement rather than having a conscience.
We have all kinds of inequalities in British society that keep people apart and reduce life chances for many, but most neither start nor stop with private schools. Perhaps if we invested more in levelling up educational standards, resources and discipline in the state sector, and did everything to help all young people realise their potential, we might stop using private schools as a political football.
When salvation comes
I've just spent a few fun days at Abu Dhabi's Culture Summit. Many of the discussions and keynotes explored the rapidly growing impact of AI. I know very little about AI, but I do wonder what people mean when they claim that generative AI will be our salvation: what is this technology supposed to be saving us from? There was a general sense at the summit that AI will have all the answers, but I wondered if the idea of this 'posthuman' future shouldn't make us pause, even tremble a little. My question is: if AI superintelligence can outperform humans in everything it does, what is the added value of being human? If humanity can be so easily copied, then in the world of culture and the arts authenticity will cease to matter, and we will go from being creators to intellectual-property holders.
I don't disagree that AI is transformative, but as I listened to the speakers in Abu Dhabi, I wondered whether the value of being human is that our creativity comes from our desires and vulnerabilities, from our need to feel emotional and intellectual fulfilment. Unlike AI, we create because we have to.
A chapter ends
After 13 years, I'm leaving Edinburgh University this summer. I can't decide what to do with the books in my office. Ideally, I would bring them all home,but I can't, and, sentimental attachment aside, I want other people to be able to read them. So, I've decided to sell a few hundred of my collection to a European bookseller.
In a world of increasing digitisation, there's a certain romance in holding on to real books. I have never had a Kindle because opening and flicking through pages is uniquely comforting in moments of solitude. There's a quiet pride in building up a library over the years and simply staring at the shelves, which reflect so much of your life. Saying goodbye to my books will feel like saying goodbye to a part of me. But if owning books is a privilege, being able to share them with others is no less of a joy.
Family feuds
Whatever you think of Prince Harry's recent BBC interview in which he admitted to wanting reconciliation with his family, we all know healing such a rift is hard. You can feel close to your brothers and sisters one day and barely speak to them the next. And the longer the silence and avoidance goes on, the harder it is to reach out.
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Most of us struggle to get past the hurt or betrayal. But I also think that, rather than worrying about forgiveness, sometimes there's a value in not minimising the offence but choosing to protect yourself. Yes, I know life is short and family feuds are often pointless, but in my experience, rushing to forgive someone who won't accept some accountability never really mends a broken relationship.
'My most beautiful masterpiece'
At what age does going to the garden centre become the number one activity on a sunny bank holiday weekend? Perhaps somewhere around our early fifties? Claude Monet said: 'My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.' The quiet pleasure of pottering in our garden, enjoying the freshly cut grass and the gorgeous colours of spring flowers maybe the midlife love story we all need.
Mona Siddiqui is a broadcaster and professor of Islamic and interreligious studies at the University of Edinburgh
[See also: Faith is a half-formed thing]
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The Herald Scotland
24 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump pushes peace, invites Zelenskyy to White House after Putin summit
Trump said Zelenskyy would be coming to Washington on Aug. 18 for an Oval Office meeting with both leaders after a contentious Feb. 28 clash, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy and accused him of being ungrateful. More: 'No deal': Takeaways from Trump's Alaska summit with Putin The Trump administration paused intelligence sharing and weapons shipments to Ukraine after the incident. Zelenskyy declined to apologize for his part in the spat in the immediate aftermath. But he sent Trump a conciliatory letter that helped put the relationship back on track several days later. Trump started to turn away from Putin and toward Zelenskyy in late April after Russia bombarded Kyiv with missiles. He said he'd allow Europe to purchase weapons from the United States for Ukraine in mid-July and threatened to hit Russia and its trading partners with sanctions and tariffs if Putin did not agree a peace deal in short order. The resulting summit with Putin in Alaska was lauded by both presidents as productive but ended without a concrete agreement and no mention of a ceasefire. Trump said in an interview with Fox News that would be up to Zelenskyy to accept an unspecified deal that Putin forward during nearly three hours of closed door talks. He said the next step in the process would be for Zelenskyy and Putin to meet in person at a summit of their own that he offered to mediate. Zelenskyy was the first to reveal his plans to visit Washington next week in an overnight post on X. He said he and Trump spoke by phone during the U.S. president's flight home. They talked for for roughly and hour and a half and were joined by European leaders during the latter part of the call, he said. "In my conversation with President Trump, I said that sanctions should be strengthened if there is no trilateral meeting or if Russia tries to evade an honest end to the war. Sanctions are an effective tool," he said. "Security must be guaranteed reliably and in the long term, with the involvement of both Europe and the U.S. All issues important to Ukraine must be discussed with Ukraine's participation, and no issue, particularly territorial ones, can be decided without Ukraine." In a statement of their own European leaders threw their support behind a Putin-Zelenskyy summit with Trump and pushed for U.S.-backed security guarantees for Ukraine. "It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory," the leaders said. "International borders must not be changed by force."
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump's ‘art of the deal' fails again outflanked by a wily Putin
EMBLAZONED on the podium's backdrop were the words, 'Pursuing Peace'. But just around the time that US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were wrapping up their much vaunted meeting in Alaska on Friday, at least seven regions of Ukraine were under air raid alert. 'Elusive Peace' instead it seems was the prevailing message to come out of this the first meeting between a US president and Putin since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. After nearly three hours of talks, there was a brief appearance before the media, during which Trump and Putin said they had made progress on unspecified issues, but offered no details and took no questions, from the journalists gathered. Trump, usually loquacious and ready to bat off reporters' questions, seemed to sense that he would be asked about his pre-summit threats of 'very severe consequences' if Russia did not end the conflict. Instead, the assembled global press had to settle for both men hinting at 'progress made,' 'points agreed on' and talk of a follow up meeting with a glum looking Trump insisting, 'There is no deal until there is a deal.' Trump's much sought after ceasefire deal it seems remains out of reach for now, but what followed the summit was a lengthy phone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with the leaders of some NATO countries including UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, joining for part of the conversation. Trump and Zelenskyy also agreed to meet in Washington on Monday. It's long been recognised that successful diplomacy of any kind requires give and take on both sides, but for now that - in public at least – does not seem sufficiently forthcoming for any major breakthrough. (Image: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire) So, what then does the outcome of the Alaska summit mean for both Trump and Putin. What too does it signify for Ukraine and its European allies in terms of the way forward? To take Putin first, the consensus among many observers is that the Russian president came out of the summit having achieved one of his major goals, which is the start of his rehabilitation as a world leader. The Alaska get-together with the powerful photo opportunity it presented, ended Putin's isolation from the West. Almost from the moment he stepped off his plane onto the red-carpeted tarmac, Putin will have been pleased with what the Kremlin will view as a triumph. Read more Tears and trauma: David Pratt in Ukraine DAVID PRATT ON THE WORLD: Whatever happens in Brazil's resentful and rancorous election, the result will have major repercussions for us all David Pratt in Ukraine: It's hard to comprehend this level of destruction David Pratt: Kremlin's protestations have a hollow ring as atrocities mount up War Criminal NOT only was the Russian leader – a man wanted by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal - greeted with applause from his host, Trump, but his welcome stood in marked contrast to the public humiliation that Trump and his advisers inflicted on Zelenskyy during his visit to the White House earlier this year. 'The meeting looks like a win for Putin,' observed Oleh Shamshur, a former Ukrainian ambassador to the US and now a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. 'There was high ceremony and a warm reception -painful for Ukrainians to watch - a breaking out of diplomatic isolation, and a delaying again of a round of harsher direct and secondary sanctions. There was, in other words, quite a bit to sell his new 'victory' to the Russian public and to an international audience of both friends and foes,' Shamshur added. It helped Putin too that the Alaskan venue was rife with symbolism: the proximity of Russia and America across the Bering Strait, the sale of Alaska by Tsarist Russia to the United States in 1867; and the American lend-lease agreements that armed the Soviet Union to help it resist Nazi Germany (an important supply route ran through Alaska). Putin of course made the most of all this and in his closing speech recounted how, on arrival on the red carpet, he had greeted Trump with 'Good afternoon, dear neighbour.' But as the New York Times (NYT) noted, this was more than a photo op and move towards international rehabilitation for Putin. 'In addition to thawing Russia's pariah status in the West, the summit has sowed discord within NATO - a perennial Russian goal - and postponed Mr. Trump's threat of tough new sanctions,' the newspaper said. 'Little more than two weeks ago, he vowed that if Mr. Putin did not commit to a cease-fire by last Friday, he would punish Moscow and countries like China and India that help Russia's war effort by buying its oil and gas.' the NYT added. It went on to cite Ryhor Nizhnikau, a Russia expert and senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs as saying, 'Instead of getting hit with sanctions, Putin got a summit.' According to the independent Russian online news portal Meduza, even before the start of Friday's summit the Kremlin had issued instructions to Russia's state-controlled media on how to cover it. The guidelines says Meduza told pro-Kremlin outlets to emphasise that Putin spoke to Trump about 'Kyiv's unwillingness to negotiate,' that Moscow is 'ready for various scenarios in the talks,' and that the Russian president 'sets the agenda for Russian-American relations.' Meduza detailed how a media strategist working with the Kremlin's political team had told them told them that pro-government audiences were being prepped for the possibility that the summit 'may not lead to a pause in fighting.' 'It's a warm-up to keep expectations low -and avoid disappointment,' the source said. 'The main point is dialogue with the US for the sake of dialogue. Putin and Trump are working on an agreement, and it's Putin who sets the terms of that agreement.' Economic Pressure IN short, Putin got to share the stage with the US president and proffer enough flattery and meaningless talk of respecting Ukrainian security to stave off further immediate sanctions and economic pressure. Some observers say the Alaska summit was a stark reminder of their last infamous encounter in Helsinki in 2018. Back then by the time Trump came out of the room after his one to one meeting he looked dazzled by the Kremlin leader. Asked at a press conference about the conclusions of the US intelligence community that Russia had interfered in the US elections, Trump said: 'President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it should be.' Fiona Hill, Trump's senior Kremlin adviser on the US national security council, later said that she had considered pulling a fire alarm or faking a medical emergency to end the press conference such was the extent to which Putin had embarrassingly put one over on Trump. Putin's negotiating abilities of course are a point of record. In his 2020 memoir, A Promised Land, former US president Barack Obama in an assessment of foreign leaders, told how when his aide David Axelrod asked him his impression of Putin, he responded that he 'found him strangely familiar, 'like a ward boss, except with nukes and a UN Security Council veto.' 'Putin did, in fact, remind me of the sorts of men who had once run the Chicago machine or Tammany Hall (a historical New York City political organisation) -tough, street-smart, unsentimental characters who knew what they knew, who never moved outside their narrow experiences, and who viewed patronage, bribery, shakedowns, fraud, and occasional violence as legitimate tools of the trade,' Obama wrote. It might have been an unflattering characterisation, but many agree on its accuracy nonetheless. This weekend despite trying to put considerable spin on the outcome of the Alaska summit, Trump appears to have once again been outmanoeuvred by Putin's cunning and uncompromising tactics. As the Financial Times (FT) and others see it, Trump's lacklustre performance they say resulted in a political backslash on his return to Washington. The newspaper cited a number of political figures uneasy with the outcome. On the Democrat side, Illinois congressman Mike Quigley said: 'Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin - literally - and he walked away with a green light to continue his conquest.' But it will be criticism from his fellow Republicans that will bother Trump most. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, said it was time to reckon with one conclusion: 'This simple fact remains: true and lasting security can only be achieved with our allies - most importantly with Ukraine - at the table.' (Image: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire) Europe's Relief BUT it is in Europe that there will be a certain cautionary relief that Trump did not announce a deal with Putin that he would then present to them as a fait accompli. Trump's pre-summit talk of 'land swaps' had left some with frayed nerves. Many in Europe remain concerned about Trump's willingness to hold a summit on Ukraine that excluded Zelenskyy. It was significant then that almost immediately in the wake of the summit in a moment of coordination, European leaders put out a joint statement pushing for three- way talks between the US, Ukraine and Russia. In a statement, Keir Starmer - clearly in part designed to flatter Trump - insisted that 'President Trump's efforts have brought us closer than ever before to ending the war in Ukraine.' He went on to reiterate that the next steps must involve Zelenskyy and that peace cannot be decided without him. Clearly the uncertain outcome of the summit, with nothing agreed on paper, has bought the Europeans and Ukrainians time to try and shape Trump's future thinking. 'We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,' the European leaders said in a statement. 'No limitations should be placed on Ukraine's armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine's pathway to EU and NATO,' they said. According to two EU diplomats cited by Politico magazine, an extraordinary meeting of ambassadors representing all 27 member countries was convened yesterday morning to discuss the bloc's next steps. Envoys were asked to meet in 'restricted format,' without aides or telephones to minimise the risks of information leaking. Trump's remark that the US might get involved in guaranteeing Ukrainian security will be music to the ears of Kyiv's European allies and something they will want to build on in moving forward. But this being Donald Trump means that things remain unpredictable If Trump himself is unhappy and the unsatisfactory outcome of the summit eats away at him with his prospect of securing that coveted Nobel Peace Prize vanishing, then there is no guarantee he will end up directing his ire at Putin. There is always the fear too that Trump will walk away and be involved only from the sidelines. 'Now Trump seems to be shifting most of the responsibility to Kyiv and Europe but reserving some role for himself,' observed Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in the wake of the summit. All eyes now will turn to tomorrow's talks at the White House with Zelenskyy. 'If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people's lives will be saved,' insisted Trump yesterday still hinting that the Alaska talks went better than they appeared to. Trump's Motives FOR his part the Ukrainian president will doubtless be on his guard given a certain previous encounter at the White House, and also because back home most of his fellow Ukrainians remain equally wary of Trump's motives. As an editorial in the Kyiv Independent noted about the summit; 'If the two presidents failed to reach an agreement, it means that, despite all the chumminess on display, Trump didn't approve of Russia's absurd demands for Ukraine - demands that amount to Kyiv's capitulation.' If Trump went to Alaska with a degree of optimism as to striking a deal then he clearly he left disappointed. For his part Putin meanwhile no doubt went home with a smile on his face. In all, the summit turned out to be strange affair and there remains a prevailing sense that something surprising might yet come of it. If nothing else it certainly underscored the challenge of bringing this the biggest war in Europe since 1945 to a just and peaceful end.
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
How Ireland became a haven for Hezbollah's cocaine
In the end, it was a combination of the Irish weather, European maritime intelligence and engine trouble that scuppered a massive Hezbollah-cartel drugs shipment. The Irish government's failure to patrol the coastline has made Ireland a safe harbour for the fast-evolving drug trafficking network merging terror and narco finance. Hezbollah's involvement in the transnational drugs trade to fund its war against Israel is well documented, with the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam its main conduit into Europe. But evidence from an Irish court last month revealing 'a major Iranian nexus' in a cocaine ship off Ireland's coast indicates that Hezbollah now sees Ireland's under patrolled coastline as a 'point of least resistance' into the lucrative European market. One security expert is reported as saying Ireland was being targeted for 'tonnage loads by Iranian Hezbollah.' In September 2023, a Panamanian registered cargo ship, MV Matthew, set sail from Venezuela heading for Irish waters. It had 2.2 tonnes of pure cocaine on board, funded by an alliance of Hezbollah, the Dubai-based Irish Kinahan crime gang and a South American cartel. The ship was to rendezvous at sea with a fishing trawler, the Castlemore, which would drop the drugs ashore at isolated coves for onward transport to the UK and Europe. Unknown to the Iranian captain, Soheil Jelveh, the European Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC), was tracking the ship across the Atlantic and tipped off the Irish authorities. But with just one large vessel to actively patrol a coastline ten times the size of Ireland's land mass and depleted navy personnel, monitoring and intercepting both ships was always going to be challenging. So many things could have gone wrong. Luckily, the Irish weather lent a hand. A raging storm hit Ireland the day the Castlemore was due to rendezvous with MV Matthew anchored 13 nautical miles off the east coast. After two failed attempts in storm force winds and swelling seas, the Castlemore ran aground. Its crew put in a distress call to the Irish coastguard, setting a train of action in motion. The eventual capture of the Matthew was like a scene from an action movie. Over the course of two days the ship played a game of cat and mouse with the Navy ship, LE William Butler Yeats, engaging in evasive manoeuvres in lashing winds and swelling seas. The Iranian captain, Soheil Jelveh refused to comply with orders from the Yeats, saying the ship had developed engine trouble. In reality, he was receiving orders from a Dubai-based individual, 'Captain Noah,' a shadowy figure linked to Hezbollah, to change course and head for Sierra Leone. The Matthew was successfully captured after Army Rangers were lowered onto the deck from a rope suspended by a helicopter hovering overhead and the ship was stormed. The 2.2 tonnes of pure cocaine was valued at £136 million, rising to £650 million when cut, making it the largest drugs seizure in the history of the state. Jelveh, Iranian crewman, Saeid Hassani, and six other crewmen were jailed for a total of 129 years at the non-jury Special Criminal Court last month. It was a stunning success for the defence forces, thanks to the skill and bravery of the individual members involved. But it could have gone badly wrong. Just two of eight Irish navy vessels are currently in operation; the rest are tied up at Cork harbour because of insufficient personal. A former officer in the Army Ranger Wing, Cathal Berry, has said: 'By not resourcing our Navy we have handed the keys of the country over to the drugs cartels to do with us as they wish. It is painful to see €250 million of naval vessels tied up at Cork Harbour unable to be put at sea due to a lack of crew.' Irish and international law agencies are now examining the ship's telecommunication equipment to access the extent of the Iranian-Hezbollah involvement. There is little doubt Hezbollah is trying to increase its drug activity because it is under financial pressure. As one international law enforcement official put it: 'When you are getting hit the way Hezbollah is getting hit right now by the Israelis, the only way you can make money exponentially fast is with drugs.' It is extremely unlikely that the Hezbollah-cartel alliance would have risked such a massive investment on the first run. It is a safe bet that Matthew was not the first or the last shipment to use Ireland as a gateway to the lucrative European market. Former head of MAOC, Michael O'Sullivan, said: 'The Irish Navy is very strapped and that has not gone unnoticed. We cover an area almost ten times the size of Ireland. And time is of the essence. If you find where a vessel has left and you're trying to track where it is, it's not gonna stay in one place, it's not going to go in the one direction… You have got to get somebody out there to get a sighting of it. If you don't find it, it's gone.' The implication is clear: Ireland is not just a strategic waypoint, but an exposed hub in a fast-evolving trafficking network merging terror and narco finance for which the depleted Irish Navy is ill equipped to deal with.
