Richard Nixon

On this day: Significant events that took place on 21 February

American businessman Steve Fossett created history as the first person to fly solo in a balloon across the Pacific Ocean. The business magnet also held many other records to his name. In 2002, the adventurer became the first person to circumnavigate the world solo on a balloon.

Beyond The Lines | China’s Great Leap Backward — with Covid characteristics

Around 1.5 million people could die from Covid in the next few months in China. Like in the 1960s, the eventual numbers might even be fudged. Will the growing opposition turn into a colour revolution?

Like Nixon and Clinton, Donald Trump is in legal trouble. A scholar tells us why being an ex-president matters

Any decision for or against indicting Donald Trump could threaten the rule of law if it is not carefully considered and supported by the evidence

Explained: Did Joe Biden break the law by keeping classified documents at his former office?

Ten classified documents were discovered at Joe Biden’s think-tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Did the US president break federal law by storing presidential records in his office?

Orwellian doublethink: Why West has no moral right to lecture Qatar despite its jihadi connections

Qatar would have found itself among pariah nations by now, had it not been for the hypocrisy of the West that swears by democracy but is often found embracing some of the worst dictators and human rights abusers in world history

50 years of Watergate: The scandal that changed American politics forever

A burglary inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington in June 1972 grew into a wide-ranging political scandal that culminated in the resignation of President Richard Nixon two years later, in August 1974

50 years of Title IX: The landmark equality law that changed US women’s sports by accident

Signed into law by Richard M Nixon, Title IX has also been used to defend students from sexual harassment and assault, to ensure the rights of transgender students and protect pregnant students from discrimination

50 years of Watergate: Triggered by a tape, the scandal that toppled the presidency of Richard Nixon

This major political scandal in the US involving the administration of the then President Richard Nixon which led to Nixon's resignation

Inside the making of Gaslit: Why the story of Martha Mitchell's expose of Watergate scandal remained untold

“I really didn’t want to make a show that was a Wikipedia rundown of Watergate. I’m more interested in how complicity destroys people," says Robbie Pickering, writer of the miniseries Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts.

From The First Lady, Gaslit to Anatomy of a Scandal, women in US politics are stepping out of their shadows

These stories, from Julia Roberts-starrer Gaslit on Lionsgate Play to The First Lady on Voot Select, have ensured that the political wife will not be viewed as a doormat.