IT has been a tumultuous week on the global stage, with tales of the unexpected ranging from a youthful uprising, massacre and swift regime change in Nepal to the death by shooting of a prominent young far-right activist in Utah.

Charlie Kirk’s murder was weaponised by America’s ruling elite as a bludgeon against what it sees as the ‘radical left’, and the irony of targeting his posthumous critics, both domestic and foreign, is apparently lost even on those who elevate his (frankly hypocritical) commitment to free speech above his smorgasbord of obnoxious views on race, gender, immigration, gun violence, etc.

Any expectation, though, that the orc­hestrated national mourning would drown out the clamour over Donald Trump’s close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was dented by the dismissal of Britain’s ambassador to Washington on similar grounds. Unlike Trump, Peter Mandelson — an oleaginous, smarmy and allegedly corrupt survivor from the Blair administration — remained on close terms with Epstein even after the latter’s conviction over organised paedophilia. The increasingly unpopular Keir Starmer’s determination to stand by Mandelson until a few days ago has added to the British prime minister’s self-inflicted woes by raising........

© Dawn