Free Republic

When Andy Warhol predicted in 1968 that in the future everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes, he could not have meant Pastor Terry Jones. The idea that the world's media has been hanging on every word uttered by a low-rent bigot with a gun – who has been mulling over whether to burn 200 copies of the Qur'an today – is grotesque. Hillary Clinton, David Petraeus, Robert Gates, the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan and lastly Barack Obama himself have all been sucked into the media maelstrom created by the pastor with a dodgy past and 30 congregrants. And...

Another country Hours after news of a mass shooting of Amish schoolgirls had been flashed around the world, locals with no TVs and radios were still being informed in person of the news. Yet the 'plain people' do not live entirely in the past, writes Ed Pilkington. In fact it's their willingness to adapt that has allowed them to survive, and even prosper, in the 21st century In all the thousands of column inches of newsprint, amid all the hours of satellite television coverage devoted to Monday's carnage in the schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, it was the little details...

The Queen has made a rare intervention in world politics to warn Tony Blair of her grave concerns over the White House's stance on global warming. She is understood to have asked Downing Street to lobby the US after observing the alarming impact of Britain's changing weather on her estates at Balmoral in Scotland and Sandringham in Norfolk. The revelation gives an unusual glimpse into the mind of the monarch, who normally strives to stay above politics. Further evidence of the Queen's views on global warming will be seen this week when she opens one of the most high-profile conferences...