Latest from Coffee House

Why smartphones warp war

The Secretary of War is the face of America’s campaign against Iran. ‘War is hell, and always will be’, Pete Hegseth said recently. He is relentlessly focused on lethality, and decimating the Iranian military. His critics correctly point out that this isn’t strategic thinking, this is a strategy of tactics. Hegseth’s metrics of success appear to be counting sorties flown, ordnance dropped and missiles destroyed. This criticism has been levelled at American strategy makers throughout modern history. During the Vietnam war, the metric of choice was body count. During the global war on terror it was Taliban commanders killed. The difference this time is that these decisions are being made

Ed Husain

In defense of Dubai

As the Islamist regime in Iran attacks Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain and Kuwait with drones and missiles, some in Britain are quietly happy to see the Gulf’s skyscrapers lose their shine. ‘Dubai has no culture or history,’ say the armchair critics. Is this British bitterness caused by contempt of a former colonial power? When it comes to measures of wealth preservation, attracting millionaires, rule of law, social safety, artificial intelligence adaption and combating Islamist radicalism, the UAE comes out far ahead of the UK. But being British, we can’t acknowledge this, so we insinuate our snootiness is about culture, history, risks and future stability. The snobs are wrong. We insinuate our snootiness towards Dubai is about culture,

Cockburn

Iranian hackers breach the gates of Kash’s Valhalla

“See you in Valhalla” is how Kash Patel said farewell to Charlie Kirk. Unfortunately, it now seems that Patel’s own sanctum has now been breached. Iran-aligned hackers have broken into the FBI director’s personal email inbox and released the contents online. What did they leak? The un-redacted Epstein files? The truth behind the Kennedy assassination? Not quite. None of the 300 purloined emails were even sent during Patel’s time at the FBI. The hackers, no doubt cackling manically while doing so, instead released according to the Guardian: a series of personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible and making a face while taking a picture

Jason Brodsky

Meet the men now running Iran

Since the launch of Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury, Israeli and US strikes have thinned out Tehran’s political, military and security elite with a series of decapitation strikes. As the Trump administration seeks to explore diplomacy with the remnants of the Iranian regime, a core group of hardened men remain. The new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been injured and hasn’t appeared in public. Surrounding him are a group of influential Islamic Republic loyalists. They include parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf; the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr; military advisor to the Supreme Leader Mohsen Rezaei, and commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard

Mark Brolin

Denmark’s velvet trap has been exposed

Denmark is, by almost any measure, an extraordinary success. A nation of six million that has produced Novo Nordisk, Maersk, Vestas and Lego. Its GDP per capita is comfortably ahead of Sweden and Finland. Greater Copenhagen (including Swedish Lund and Malmö) is ranked among Europe’s top innovation clusters. Danish film culture – Bier, Vinterberg, the Borgen phenomenon – has convinced the world that Denmark has solved democracy, one subtitled thriller at a time. Copenhagen airport is the undisputed transport hub of the Nordic region. Denmark remains among the very happiest societies on earth, according to the latest World Happiness Report. Danish public debate has quietly narrowed to a short menu