The Why? Curve

Is humanity kinder now than it has ever been before? Today we are appalled at things that were commonplace only a generation ago - unmarried mothers forced to hand over their babies for adoption, gay soldiers imprisoned for their sexuality, landlords refusing black tenants. So has empathy changed us...

Can we afford to boost national defence alongside the growing bill for benefits, health and social care? Can the UK's shaky finances cope with both? Or is there a choice to be made, as the Russian threat pushes the need for more tanks, drones and bullets? Simon French, chief economist and head ...

The bombs have stopped falling on Iran, but not on Lebanon. Israel is talking to the Lebanese government, but has not let up in its assault on Hezbollah, which continues to fire rockets into Israel. The war in the last few weeks has cost more than 2000 Lebanese lives. Lebanon has been attacked again...

While the world’s attention has been fixed on the Iran war, the conflict in Ukraine has not gone away - and what’s happened in the Gulf is changing the situation there too. Putin has more money from the rise in the oil price, and has seen the US use its diminishing stockpile of weapons against ...

As Iran gets pounded by the US and Israel, how are the Arab nations of the Gulf feeling about the resulting disaster to their economies, and the missiles and drones landing on their cities? This wasn’t a war they wanted, and they are being left to pick up the pieces, including getting access to the ...

The Iran war is not going down well in the US. Donald Trump's MAGA movement is badly split - this was the president who promised an end to 'forever wars' and provide a stable economy, yet troops could soon be on the ground in Iran and the price of filling up your car keeps rising. So how damaging is...