Top stories: news and views from around the world

Keep right on till the end of the Rhodes
Hundreds of books have been written about Cecil Rhodes. One wonders how many of them have been read by student and tutor activists at Oxford University and how many of… Read more >

The Johnson and Patel way of dealing with asylum seekers exposes a “brutal hostility towards vulnerable people” says charity chief
Asylum seekers crossing the Channel on their way to the land of Hope and Glory By Trevor Grundy June 22 marked the 73rd anniversary of the arrival of the… Read more >

Sandro Bernardini (1945-2021) Sardinian restaurateur and host to Zimbabwe’s good, bad and ugly
Sandro Bernardini – Talking to him about history led you into another world, says friends and admirers Sandro , aka Alberto Paulo Bernardini, died on June 15, 2021 in… Read more >

Kenneth Kaunda 1924-2021: Farewell to Zambia’s best known Humanist and autocrat
Kenneth Kaunda with Julius Nyerere of Tanzania (on left) with Chinese friends who build a railway that linked Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. (Picture: Trevor… Read more >

Church leaders, academics, poets and musicians get ready to celebrate the 100th birthday of Zimbabwe’s “leper saint”
The late John Bradburne – Roman Catholic missionary, lover of the poor and dis-advantaged, eco-warrior and now a world – acclaimed poet by Trevor Grundy June 14, 2021 marks… Read more >

Cathedral survived the war(only just) but could now face closure because of Covid pandemic
The Cathedral’s income fell by 90 percent last year. It spends £8 million a year in running costs (Picture: Trevor Grundy) by Trevor Grundy St Paul’s Cathedral is one… Read more >

Plan to file secret racism reports at Cambridge University in 2021 reminds Jewish academic of the 15th century Inquisition in Spain
Francisco Goya (1745-1828) Procession of flagellants(detail) by Trevor Grundy A scheme by Cambridge University to name and shame anyone who students believe are behaving in a racist way… Read more >

Isolated Boris Johnson infuriates the public by saying millions of people have lived beyond normal life expectancy
New revelations by Johnson’s erstwhile spin-doctor- in-chief,, Dominic Cummings. The front- page of the Daily Mirror (July 20,2021) the morning after ‘Freedom’ Day. by Trevor Grundy Boris Johnson faces… Read more >

A timely and courageous insight into an African despot who won the hearts and wallets of the global elite
‘DO NOT DISTURB -The story of a political murder and an African Regime gone bad’ by Michela Wrong (Fourth Estate, London 2021 pp. 488) Review by Trevor Grundy… Read more >

Gordon Brown warns that Britain could become a failed state as Scotland’s first minister likens Boris Johnson to a frightened mouse
January 25th , 2021 and the legend of the great Robert Burns lives on. Tonigh, millions of Scots will raise their glasses and remember their greatest poet, a true son… Read more >