News of James Neilson

James Neilson

Former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald (1979-1986).

A low-key Pope gets rock-star treatment

14-11-2026 00:57 Unlike the Bishop of Rome, who came across as a broadminded gentleman who thinks that opposing views should be heard with proper respect, Milei is internationally notorious for his willingness to hurl obscene insults at anyone who disagrees with him.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Thumbs down for Donald Trump

06-11-2026 00:58 The Republicans got hammered in the midterms in large measure because they proved unable to defend the interests of the people who a mere two years earlier had given them their support.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Politics is a dangerous sport

31-10-2026 00:07 Democracy cannot flourish unless politicians, civil servants and members of the Judiciary are held in high regard. In some countries at least, this was once the case, but in most it no longer is.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

France is going, going...

24-10-2026 00:57 Though many blame Macron for his inability to stop the rot in France, there is no reason to think any other politician could have managed to save the doomed political order he thought he would be able to handle.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Young people trapped in an unfriendly world

17-10-2026 00:28 The sense of betrayal that has overcome a considerable proportion of youthful Westerners is easy enough to understand.

by James Neilson

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the state memorial ceremony for the third anniversary of October 7 attack, at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 5, 2026.

AS I SEE IT

Israel continues to surge ahead

10-10-2026 06:06 Now that Israel has emerged as a regional powerhouse that is far stronger than her Muslim neighbours, attitudes have changed.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Europe awaits its Milei moment

03-10-2026 00:04 Many European leaders would like to emulate Milei, but they know that most of their compatriots would rather not be told they would have to tighten their collective belts.

by James Neilson

Riding the roller coaster with Javier Milei.

As I see it

Riding a roller coaster

26-09-2026 00:20 Perhaps Milei was what the country needed three years ago. However, this does not mean that he will be the best person to steer the country through the years that lie ahead.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

The eve of destruction, perhaps

19-09-2026 00:25 If the tech bros are right about what their research teams have devised, it is already too late to do anything to put AI back in a far more restrictive “sand box” than the ones from which it has managed to make a Houdini-like escape…

by James Neilson

As I see it

We do need more education

11-09-2026 09:28 Argentine youngsters continue to fall farther and farther behind their peers in the rest of the world.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Time to batten down the hatches

05-09-2026 00:09 Economists and financiers are not the only people who suspect that bad times are in the offing. The “rules-based order” underpinned by the US is falling apart.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Creator and destroyer

29-08-2026 06:30 Many involved in AI say they want to press the pause button to give governments more time in which to come up with regulations. They must know that nothing like this is going to happen.

by James Neilson

The fall of the Cambridge don Jason Arday.

AS I SEE IT

The death of a self-made professor

22-08-2026 08:06 It was only to be expected that the fall of the Cambridge don Jason Arday would attract the attention of the media on both sides of the Atlantic.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Life in the age of empathy

15-08-2026 07:43 The ongoing drive to subordinate just about everything else to empathy has already had far-reaching geopolitical consequences.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The world’s most unlikely professor

08-08-2026 19:23 After leading to the creation of unabashedly politicised departments in prestigious universities and making big inroads in the humanities, the publishing industry and threatening even the hard sciences, those behind it are fast becoming the target of ridicule

by James Neilson

As I see it

Education everywhere is due for an overhaul

01-08-2026 11:40 Throughout the world there are millions of people, many of whom are now middle-aged or on the verge of retirement, with university degrees of one kind or another who, to their despair, have found out that they do not guarantee them a well-paying job.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The return of the ugly Argentine

25-07-2026 04:34 Does the abuse being hurled against the country’s footballers by aggrieved foreigners whose national teams got knocked out early matter very much? It clearly does.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Consumer prices trump geopolitics

18-07-2026 07:26 Like its counterparts in most other countries, the US electorate is more interested in consumer goods than in geopolitical questions that, sooner or later, could have devastating consequences.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The breaking of nations

11-07-2026 00:02 From ancient times, periods of relative stability in which one big power was strong enough to maintain a semblance of order in the region it dominated have alternated with others marked by strife like the one we appear to be sliding into right now.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The United States turns 250

04-07-2026 00:40 Much of the population thinks the United States is heading in the wrong direction, but there is no agreement at all on what would be the right one.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

The unsurprising fall of Keir Starmer

25-06-2026 16:22 From the word go, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer behaved as though he enjoyed the support of most of his country’s population, an illusion that was encouraged by the worshipful treatment he received from “progressives” in the media.

by James Neilson

Relationship difficulties: Bibi and Trump.

AS I SEE IT

Israel gets thrown under the bus

20-06-2026 05:23 Unlike the US president and his business cronies, the Israelis have no illusions about the fanatical Iranian regime.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Donald Trump and his Ukrainian bête noire

13-06-2026 05:34 Hard as it is for Trump to stomach, Zelenskyy has greatly distinguished himself as a war leader. As for Trump, unless he is very lucky, he could find his name permanently attached to a deal with the Iranians that will bring to mind Neville Chamberlain.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

The reign of Queen Karina

06-06-2026 06:00 Karina evidently shares her brother’s contempt for misguided people whose ideas and values do not coincide with his own.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Donald Trump and his doppelgänger

30-05-2026 05:12 Did Trump make a historic blunder when he chose to join Israel in what began as an attempt to overthrow the Iranian dictatorship?

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Human capital getting sidelined

23-05-2026 05:53 As has happened time and time again, the discrepancy between what seemed to be quite reasonable hopes and a dispiriting reality has bred discontent among the “overeducated and underemployed.”

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

The UK founders in choppy waters

16-05-2026 05:47 Less than two years ago, the Conservatives, then led by Rishi Sunak, were booted out of office. Now it is the turn of Labour, which has just suffered what Barack Obama would describe as an almighty “shellacking” in a host of municipal elections.

by James Neilson

Mass destruction is in the process of being democratised.

As I see it

Mass destruction gets easier and cheaper

09-05-2026 00:20 Until not that long ago, the ability to bring down civilisations was the preserve of a few powerful countries. It is now in the process of being democratised.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

When political rhetoric boils over

02-05-2026 00:35 The US may not be heading towards a full-blown civil war, but unless its leaders, especially Trump, tone down their rhetoric, it could soon see a repeat of the 1960s

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

The President and the Pope

25-04-2026 06:31 Trump was paying the pontiff a compliment by taking him seriously. Instead of treating Leo’s remarks as the maunderings of an unworldly holy man who should be praised for his idealism and then ignored, as so many regularly do, he thought the Pope’s allusions were worth responding to.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Time could be running out for Milei

18-04-2026 00:01 Governments that have little to fear from an effective opposition soon fall prey to the internal squabbles politicians so greatly enjoy.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Did the ayatollahs get one over on Trump?

11-04-2026 06:49 Even though Trump is desperately looking for an excuse to call it quits, he could change his mind yet again when it dawns on him that the remnants of the Iranian regime are making him look like a loser.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Milei gets a taste of his own medicine

03-04-2026 06:25 This is what tends to happen to holier-than-thou politicians who feel they are morally superior to their adversaries and make a habit of boasting about it.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

A dark cloud that refuses to disperse

28-03-2026 05:55 The coup d’état of 1976, and its aftermath, continue to weigh heavily on the collective Argentine mind.

by James Neilson

50TH ANNIVERSARY OF COUP

When military coups were normal

21-03-2026 00:07 Two months after the coup, I wrote: “One special danger presented by terrorism of any political colour is its effect on the security forces themselves. Men fighting a treacherous, slippery, hydra-headed foe, which has no scruple as to method, are often tempted to fight back in a similar manner.”

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Facing the Islamist challenge

14-03-2026 06:52 Will Trump and Netanyahu be satisfied with something less than “regime change”? Or are they dead set on continuing the war until the ayatollahs and their brutal enforcers have been replaced by a pro-Western government?

by James Neilson

As I see it

Trump the liberator goes to war

07-03-2026 06:50 Though few would disagree that a “diplomatic solution” to the Iranian problem would be far better than one reached at gunpoint, efforts to persuade the leaders of the regime that it would be in their interest to call a genuine halt to their nuclear programme were always bound to fail.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

The ‘indispensable nation’ goes AWOL

28-02-2026 06:01 Team Trump’s members think that, unless the Europeans adopt a turbocharged version of the policies they recommend, they could disappear from history before the present century has run its course.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Can democracy keep working?

21-02-2026 00:47 In much of the West, the pendulum is swinging towards the “right” because for years the ruling elites have spoken like leftists in the belief that it would allow them to assume a posture of unassailable moral superiority.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Westerners looking for a way out

14-02-2026 06:12 Trump and others who hope to emulate him are reactionaries. They tell their compatriots that they want their countries to go back to what they were half a century or so ago before the rot set in, hence the promise to make them “great again.”

by James Neilson

As I see it

The great Epstein saga leading nowhere very fast

07-02-2026 06:00 For well over a week, the doings of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who took his own life in a New York prison over six years ago, have dominated the news.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Under the shadow of Artificial Intelligence

31-01-2026 06:27 Could AI start programming itself in a malevolent way? Can it be coaxed into taking a philanthropic approach to the problems it is asked to solve? How can you make a machine with a 10-figure IQ obey you?

by James Neilson

As I see it

Europe hit by a butterfly’s wings

24-01-2026 07:09 Trump’s pathetic desire to win a prize that is awarded by people who despise him is reshaping geopolitics.

by James Neilson

As I see it

After Maduro, Trump takes on the ayatollahs

17-01-2026 05:32 Having pledged himself publicly to “protect” protesting Iranians, Trump has left himself with precious little room in which to manoeuvre.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Donald Trump is on a roll

10-01-2026 06:51 Though Trump and his aides insist that they have drawn up a plan to make Venezuela great again, they do not seem to be aware of the magnitude of the task they have undertaken.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Existential angst is for Europeans

02-01-2026 08:40 In contrast to the many Europeans, Argentines have yet to resign themselves to collective failure.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The intifada comes to Bondi Beach

20-12-2025 07:48 Those who feel that the land they live in has been taken over by foreigners who despise it and them may be a deplorably reactionary lot, but in democracies what they feel does not lack importance.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Trump the crusader goes into battle

13-12-2025 06:29 Trump and the people surrounding him evidently think that Europe is on its deathbed.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The Goddess of Reason returns

06-12-2025 06:52 Academics are not the only people who see the difference between perceived truth and falsehood shrinking at an alarming rate thanks in large measure to machines that, in theory, should be making it far easier to tell them apart.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The world is becoming a more dangerous place

29-11-2025 05:02 Toeing the US line would be a simple matter if the man in charge knew where he was going and approached his goals in a consistent manner, but it so happens that hardly a day goes by without Trump changing his mind about something of strategic importance.

by James Neilson