By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 26 July 2025

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 24 October 2024

As Jugoslavija broke down and slid into war in the early 1990s, part of the political warfare between the parties was an effort by Serbia and Bosnia to portray Croatia’s president, Franjo Tuđman, as a “fascist”.
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 18 June 2024

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 September 2022
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 June 2021

Writing recently about the first meeting between Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco at Hendaye on 23 October 1940, where the Führer tried to enlist Spain into the Axis, I concluded, drawing on Franco: The Man and His Nation by George Hills, a former BBC journalist and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society:
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 August 2018

The leader of the Islamic State (IS), Ibrahim al-Badri (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), released a nearly 55-minute audio statement today, his first statement for eleven months, which in turn came eleven months after the prior speech. This is al-Badri’s thirteenth speech since he became leader of the IS movement in May 2010 and the eighth since IS declared the restoration of the caliphate in June 2014. The title of today’s speech, “Give Glad Tidings to the Patient”, is drawn from a verse of the Qur’an that promises “glad [or good] tidings” in Paradise to those who remain steadfast on the path of faith in life, which is very much the theme al-Badri sticks to. Continue reading