Geoff Dyer

For more than three years, beginning in 2009, staff members of the US Senate intelligence committee spent their days combing through millions of Central Intelligence Agency documents about its interrogations of suspected terrorists. Several years later, documents they uncovered have become the focus of a ferocious political battle pitting the CIA against Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior legislator overseeing the agency as chair of the intelligence committee. In a 40-minute Senate speech th…

There are many reasons why the 1956 Suez Canal crisis was a pivotal moment in modern history. It symbolised the twilight of British imperial power, demonstrated the new force of Arab nationalism and created a rare breach between the governments of the US and Israel. Cuba (since 1960): long, permeable and ineffective boycott against an ideology Iran (since 1979): escalated financial controls help push nuclear talks South Africa (1977-1991): debate lingers on influence in ending apartheid Nort…

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the Surveillance State, by Glenn Greenwald, Hamish Hamilton, RRP£20/Metropolitan Books, RRP$27, 272 pages

John Kerry, US secretary of state, was scrambling on Friday to organise even the briefest of ceasefires between Israel and Gaza amid new violence that spread to the West Bank and signs of disagreement between the US and Israel. With the unrest on the West Bank threatening a broader Israeli-Palestinian confrontation, US officials said on Friday evening that Israel had agreed to begin a 12-hour “pause” in its military campaign in Gaza on Saturday. Mr Kerry said he would travel to Paris on Saturd…

Victoria Nuland’s moment of cable news fame came in February when a leaked phone conversation caught her criticising the painfully slow machinations of the EU. “F**k the EU,” said the senior US diplomat for Europe who, as a young woman, spent months on a Soviet fishing vessel. Given that the Obama administration is convinced that the phone call was recorded and released by Russian intelligence to sow divisions between Europe and the US, Ms Nuland might have allowed herself a smile this week wit…

British prime minister David Cameron on Wednesday met Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, the first such encounter between leaders of the two countries since the 1979 revolution in Iran. The meeting, which was first revealed on Mr Rouhani’s Twitter account, was the latest sign of a thaw in the relationship between the two countries after the UK closed its embassy in Tehran three years ago following an attack by a mob. The two leaders are in New York for the UN general assembly, a forum whic…

In the world of hacking, one man’s criminal is increasingly another man’s spy. By indicting seven Iranians on cyber crime charges last week, the US is trying to send a message to foreign governments that it is willing to challenge publicly any attempts to manipulate the computers of important infrastructure. The charges against the Iranians follow a similar groundbreaking indictment in 2014 of five Chinese. However, there is one big difference in the cases. The Chinese accused of stealing trad…

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, known on Wall Street as the “king of bankruptcy” for his record of buying failing companies, will be tapped as Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, putting an advocate of renegotiating US trade pacts in a key economic post. Mr Ross was a close adviser to Mr Trump during his campaign and helped develop the president-elect’s policies for corporate tax cuts, increased infrastructure spending and international trade. Mr Ross declined to comment when contacted by the…

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Anyone who has spent time watching TV in America will be familiar with the stream of commercials for both junk food and the medications necessary to counteract the inevitable side-effects of bloating, wind and constipation. Likewise, all the already big global sporting events – the football World Cup, the Rugby World Cup, the Olympics – are getting bigger and more bloated: there are more teams, more matches and more events. While sated viewers long for the TV equivalent of a purge, the Olympic e…