David Blair's Blog, page 3

You thought Erdogan was bad before? The worst of Turkey's leader is yet to come

V engeful, irascible, authoritarian, obdurate. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was all of these things even before a cabal of Turkish generals tried to cast him into oblivion. Now that he has survived their machinations, his worst instincts will be redoubled and reinforced.

Turkey coup: In a country once dominated by generals, the army sees itself as the guardian of the country's secular constitution

T he army seals off key bridges across the Bosphorus; jet fighters scream low over Ankara. Whatever the outcome of the sudden turmoil in Turkey, one fact is certain: the generals have been at loggerheads with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from the moment that he came to power almost 14...

The crumb of comfort from the Nice attack is that even terrorists who plot alone can be stopped

T hey do not rely on guns and bombs, nor anything illegal or strictly controlled. They do not require special skills or training. Yet the latest breed of terrorist can still inflict untold harm.

South Sudan's civil war restarts as hundreds die in 'relentless' fighting

S outh Sudan lurched back into civil war on Sunday after ���relentless��� fighting in the country���s capital claimed at least 272 lives, with two United Nations bases coming under attack.

In reality, no plan on earth could have saved Iraq after the war

A fter four decades in the Civil Service, Sir John Chilcot is not given to strong emotions. But his Iraq report lapses into exasperation when he considers Tony Blair���s failure to prepare for the invasion���s aftermath.

Former Pirelli calendar model awarded ��75m in largest divorce settlement in English legal history

C hristina Estrada, the former Pirelli calendar model, has been awarded ��75 million against her billionaire ex-husband, the largest divorce settlement in English legal history.

Special Report: Crimea Tatars endure second tragedy under Russian rule

T he knock on the door came at 7.30am and the brutal interrogation lasted for almost eight hours. After being taken from his home in Crimea to a police station, Weldar Shukurdiyev was threatened and assaulted.

Why Nato's Warsaw summit is the most significant since the Cold War

W hen Nato leaders gather in Warsaw on Friday , they will face the most important decisions in the history of the alliance since the end of the Cold War.

Analysis: Iraq has moved on from the events described by Chilcot, but the country is torn by sectarian war

T he explosion that tore through a packed street in Baghdad was the deadliest terrorist attack in the capital's history. At least 250 people were killed by a suicide truck bomb dispatched last Sunday by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

How Saddam Hussein's monumental error led to Britain invading Iraq

T he Anglo-American decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was not made on a whim. To understand why this happened, you have to turn the clock back another 12 years to Saddam Hussein���s defeat in the previous Gulf War .