ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
Fire and Fury: How the US Isolates North Korea, Encircles China and Risks Nuclear War in Asia
by TJ Coles
(Clairview Books, £10.99)
THIS short book by British academic TJ Coles will perhaps not receive as much attention as another recently released work on Donald Trump that shares its name. It is, nonetheless, an important and insightful book, providing as it does an alternative viewpoint on the escalating crisis over Korea and in promoting an urgent message of peace.
Coles's primary aim is to dismantle the idea that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is a serious danger to regional and global stability and that it is an aggressive nuclear state that deserves to be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” as threatened by the US president.
The summer of 1950 saw Labour abandon further nationalisation while escalating Korean War spending from £2.3m to £4.7m, as the government meekly accepted capitalism’s licence and became Washington’s yes-man, writes JOHN ELLISON
JENNY CLEGG reports from a Chinese peace conference bringing together defence ministers, US think tanks and global South leaders, where speakers warned that the erosion of multilateralism risks regional hotspots exploding into wider war
The US’s bid for regime change in the Islamic Republic has become more urgent as it seeks to encircle and contain a resurgent China, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ
VIJAY PRASHAD on why the US attack on Iran was illegal and why the attack could actually spur nuclear weapons proliferation



