World Affairs

Put a little spice in your box

Viagra can now be bought over the counter at Boots. But hold on – look east and you will find far better, natural remedies for “exhausted passion”. Ziauddin Sardar offers a user’s guide

The empire strikes back

On the eve of an eagerly awaited Ashes series, Peter Wilby reveals how the forces of globalisation are killing off the old game of cricket and predicts that the future belongs to India

Traffic out of control

Observations on Canada and drug trafficking

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Obama and Israel: a new hope

The signs after Barack Obama’s inauguration were all in favour of the pro-Israel lobby. But the signals of the past few weeks have caught Tel Aviv off guard

Honduras wavers on the brink

The events of 28 June took everyone by surprise – shooting in the night in Tegucigalpa, followed by the exile to Costa Rica of the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya. Suspicions persist that the US was behind his overthrow.

Q&A: Edward Platt

Edward Platt, who reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the New Statesman, talks to George Eaton about the chances of Obama brokering a peace deal, the possibility of a binational state and the rightwards shift in Israel

Oil is still a dark stain on Iraq

A sense of an ending

Washington must cut the umbilical cords that ties it to Tel Aviv. If it doesn’t, the conflict in the Middle East will hasten American decline

What lies beneath

If Sarkozy banned the burqa, he himself would be oppressing the women who wear it. Making something invisible does not make it go away