News of neilson

The eve of destruction, perhaps

Today 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

YPF investors say they’ll arbitrate $16-billion Argentina case

22-04-2026 23:58 Former YPF investors who saw US$16.1-billion US judgment against Argentina thrown out on appeal last month tell trial judge that they intend to pursue international treaty arbitration and further appeals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snug in the arms of Uncle Sam

22-11-2025 06:41 For good or ill, it would appear that for the foreseeable future the United States will continue to be the only superpower worth taking into account.

by James Neilson

Milei comes up trumps

01-11-2025 06:34 At least half of the over nine million people who voted for candidates linked to La Libertad Avanza did so not because they are devoted fans of Milei but because the last thing they wanted to see was yet another Peronist government.

by James Neilson

Milei and the master of the universe

18-10-2025 06:18 Trump is different: he wants everyone on planet Earth to know that his or her personal fate depends on him. By behaving the way he does, he has put Argentines in a bind.

by James Neilson

Two years after the pogrom

10-10-2025 16:27 Peace would have come to Gaza long ago if Hamas had returned the hundreds of hostages it seized on October 7.

by James Neilson

Democracies in choppy waters

04-10-2025 06:09 Needless to say, the United States is not the only country in which the recently dominant progressive elite is on the back foot.

by James Neilson

A kinder and gentler Milei?

20-09-2025 06:34 Two years ago, many came to the conclusion that what the country desperately needed was a madman prepared to do whatever would be necessary to put it back on track. Is this still the case?

by James Neilson

Milei gets his comeuppance

13-09-2025 06:44 It should have been quite easy for Milei to build a broad enough coalition. But instead of making an effort, egged on by Karina, he decided to go it alone.

by James Neilson

Crunch time approaching for Javier Milei

06-09-2025 07:19 Much is made of Milei’s emotional dependence on his sister. She seems to have made him her prisoner. If those who say he cannot sideline her without putting his own mental health in danger are right, Argentina is in deep trouble.

by James Neilson

Dark clouds line the horizon

30-08-2025 06:52 Millions who voted for Milei less than two years ago may have assumed that he would immediately replace the old political class but, needless to say, that was a pipe dream.

by James Neilson

All good things come to an end

23-08-2025 07:48 Western politicians and those who feed them ideas are ill-equipped to deal with the many challenges they face.

by James Neilson

Why Milei refuses to budge an inch

16-08-2025 06:11 Like “the Iron Lady,” late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, whom he admires, Milei lets it be known that he is not for turning.

by James Neilson

Fearful Westerners turn their backs on Israel

09-08-2025 05:29 Could what is happening in the Middle East be just a prelude to a similar drama in Europe and other parts of the West?

by James Neilson

Politics becomes a strictly personal matter

21-07-2025 05:49 Once upon a time, politicians were expected to stand for rather more than their own egos, but in most parts of the world, the more successful political parties now tend to be one-man bands.

by James Neilson

Milei hurt by yet another time bomb

05-07-2025 07:34 A New York judge has ordered the government to hand just over half the shares in YPF to a vulture fund that had purchased the rights of companies harmed by the cack-handed takeover of the oil firm in 2015.

by James Neilson

The world is Donald Trump’s playpen

28-06-2025 07:38 Trump clearly imagines he can reshape the rest of the world by treating lesser potentates like counters in a board game he has devised.

by James Neilson

Tougher times for politicians on the take

14-06-2025 06:41 Argentina is turning into a country in which even the most powerful among them understand that they would be well advised to respect the letter of the law.

by James Neilson

Milei looks like a one-trick pony

10-05-2025 07:45 Chainsaws are great but they can maim or even kill users who are too weak or too clumsy to handle them properly.

by James Neilson

Goodbye to the Argentine papacy

26-04-2025 05:00 While some of the causes Bergoglio embraced may have been good, by adopting them he blurred the distinction between Catholicism and what most of the “progressive” atheists and agnostics who have long dominated Western culture already take for granted.

by James Neilson

Milei goes low in an effort to get high

19-04-2025 06:00 To get the big electoral majority he is after, Milei will have to persuade such people that he is the man, as was Juan Domingo Perón in his moment and after him, Carlos Menem and Néstor Kirchner.

by James Neilson

Trump has China in the crosshairs

12-04-2025 05:41 The 19th century belonged to the United Kingdom, the 20th to the United States. And the 21st?

by James Neilson

Sailing blithely into the maelstrom

05-04-2025 06:15 Like Donald Trump with his error-prone minions, Javier Milei is accompanied by an entourage which includes far too many individuals who are unsuited for high office.

by James Neilson