Nothing much stays with me from the first days of Twitter, which was publicly launched 20 years ago, on July 15, 2006. I had discovered the internet back in 1995 and early on, I started thinking about how to get my voice heard by the world. I created a couple of websites through Angelfire and 8m, but there was no real ecosystem to nurture the idea. It’s like...

At the White House on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump was warm and effusive towards Iraq’s visiting prime minister, the 40-year-old Ali al-Zaidi, describing him as “young”, “handsome” and as someone he wanted to work with. They shook hands warmly. Later in the day came the caveat, when US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned Iraq to disarm Iran-aligned armed groups in the country. As the war between...