World

The morning after Mesut Özil’s shock resignation from the German national football team, his family’s ancestral home set to work. Enlisting the help of the local fire brigade, locals in Devrek, a small village near Turkey’s Black Sea coast, removed the large board at its entrance of the star midfielder in his Germany kit. The picture chosen as its replacement was a giant version of the image that first caused the furore – a photograph of Özil shaking hands with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The response of this small village was far from unique in Turkey. Özil’s resignation has played out very differently here to how it has in Germany.

Corbyn cheerleader-in-chief Owen Jones frequently rallies against what he calls ‘whataboutery.’ For those not familiar with the word, it is a technique used to distract people from talking about injustices on your own side by bringing up atrocities elsewhere. Or, in his own words: Given whataboutery is used to deflect responsibility for misdemeanours and crimes committed by ones own side this is a hilarious ironic tweet — Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 8, 2018 It is a charge he frequently aims at his critics on the right. But is Jones guilty of it himself when it comes to the Labour leader? Mr Steerpike thinks so. Last night, as Corbyn’s story fell apart

Why does President Xi Jinping of China dislike being compared to Winnie-the-Pooh? The new film about Christopher Robin and his teddy bear has been banned in China, apparently because Chinese dissidents make the comparison. True, Pooh is a bear of very little brain, lacks leadership skills and is somewhat stout, but it seems a friendly thought all the same. Wouldn’t a dictator be pleased to be considered cuddly? It is interesting that characters from children’s books are seen as subversive. Saparmurat Niyazov (‘Turkmenbashi’), the late dictator of Turkmenistan, passed a law banning anyone from dressing up as a hobbit. I wonder if, in Pooh’s case, there is some cultural misunderstanding.

President Trump has ended US participation in the Iran deal and imposed sanctions. No doubt this is annoying to the British and other Europeans who mistakenly helped devise it, but why are they — especially we — clinging to it still? Without the United States, it cannot work. Trump’s move is supported by our allies in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Israel — who are constantly threatened by Iranian-backed terrorism. Inside Iran, once again (but little reported), people seeking freedom and work are protesting, yet we actively support a regime which has, for 40 years, been bitterly hostile to our interests and way of life. The

Why is Winnie the Pooh like Ai Weiwei? Both have landed in political hot water with the Chinese government. The artist Ai has a long history of running into trouble with the Chinese authorities. In fact, earlier this week, Ai’s Beijing studio was demolished for reasons unknown (though perhaps you can take a guess). And Pooh’s become an equally worthy dissident, all because he bears an unfortunate resemblance to President Xi Jinping. Judging by his waistline, President Xi is obviously settling in to his cushy job with too much tea and honey. And he’s feeling sensitive about it. So much so that Disney’s upcoming film about Pooh bear, ‘Christopher Robin’,

On Monday, August 6, the long-arm of the U.S. Treasury Department reached into Europe and violently shook the continent. The first wave of U.S. secondary sanctions on entire sectors of the Iranian economy are now back in force, which means major European conglomerates and large-sized businesses have a potentially existential choice to make. Do we continue to do sign deals in Iran that Washington now explicitly prohibits? Or do we take the path of least resistance by removing our money from the Iranian market and saving ourselves the trouble of billions of dollars of U.S. fines, billions more in asset freezes, and severe damage to the company’s reputation? President Donald

Tommy Robinson has been released on bail after he won an appeal against a conviction for contempt of court. Here is the summary of the judgement from today’s hearing at the Court of Appeal. The key passage explaining the decision is in bold: BACKGROUND TO THE APPEALS The appellant attended Canterbury Crown Court on 8 May 2017 during the trial of four defendants for rape. The jury had been sent out for deliberation. The appellant carried out filming with a commentary on the steps of and inside the court building, although he did not film in the courtroom itself. He had intended to film the defendants but the trial judge

Donald Trump has finally met a European leader he can stand for more than a moment: Italy’s bookish new premier, Giuseppe Conte. The former law professor, who was plucked out of obscurity by 5Star’s Luigi Di Maio and the League’s Matteo Salvini to be the nominal consensus pick of Rome’s anti-establishment government, is the kind of European Trump can do business with. Or at least that is Trump’s hope. For the brash billionaire, Europe has been nothing but a nuisance. Despite his proclamations of having a terrific relationship with Germany’s Angela Merkel and a kinship with France’s Emmanuel Macron, it is not difficult to see through the facade. Relations between

At a speaker luncheon last week, someone I didn’t know passed me a note asking ‘Have you stopped supporting capital punishment?’ As far as I could remember, I have never supported capital punishment, so I was slightly at a loss for a reply. My problem with the subject is that I have always felt ambiguous. On the one hand, capital punishment is horrible, bad for the executioner as well as the victim, and fatal to the innocent. On the other, I cannot confidently argue that, when conducted under law, it would be wrong in every single circumstance. Some times, and perhaps some actions, are so bad that the death penalty

The Labour Party’s tangles over anti-Semitism and Zionism raise basic questions about Western values that are routinely ignored. But sometimes we do need to go back to basics.  A central plank of the ideology of the West is pluralism – the belief that a state should allow the co-existence of various ethnicities and religions, and treat all its citizens equally. It is a slippery plank – some countries, including us, have traditions that technically contravene this principle (we have an established Church, for example). Also, there is an element of hypocrisy in almost every country’s avowal of ethnic and cultural pluralism. In reality, most citizens expect these things to be

The feel-good factor Emmanuel Macron hoped would surge through France following their World Cup win has failed to materialise. The president milked the success for all it was worth but he has been swiftly brought down to earth with a bump. It was actually more of a thump, administered by his now ex-chief bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, who was caught on camera beating a protestor while dressed as a policeman during a May Day march earlier this year. Since the story broke eight days ago, it has dominated the French media. Had the president’s people come clean the day the footage was first broadcast by Le Monde, the story wouldn’t have developed in

If the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party, triumphs in the country’s general election on 9 September it won’t be thanks to Vladimir Putin, no matter how many Swedes fear his drones are trying to swamp them with internet propaganda. It will be Elin Ersson wot swung it for them – along with the police and authorities at Gothenburg Airport. Ms Ersson filmed herself refusing to sit down on a Turkey-bound plane until a failed asylum-seeker, who was being deported to Afghanistan, was removed. He duly was.    Students have been doing this sort of thing for decades, of course – albeit without the benefit of live-streaming on social media, but

When I originally heard that DJ Spoony was curating a night of UK garage backed by a 36-piece orchestra at the Barbican, I was in Thailand surrounded by hostile monkeys. The news provoked such intense feelings of joy and nostalgia that I immediately sought out a rum and pineapple, downloaded whatever half-baked compilation that Twice as Nice had wheeled out and had an impromptu rave outside my hut. For those of us who came of age with this music, years spent manically twirling and bouncing like hyperactive string puppets, this event felt monumental: the Barbican endorsement was validating a genre that had long suffered from serious PR issues and gunshot

It’s not surprising that so many Frenchmen and women partied in Paris last Sunday to celebrate their country’s World Cup success. The French side played with style and panache and deserved their victory; there’s also the fact that France hasn’t had much to cheer about in recent years when it comes to sport so they’re entitled to bask in the glory of Les Bleus. As well as cheers last week there were also some jeers – and spits and slaps – all of them aimed at the British cyclist Chris Froome as he peddled up and down mountains in the Tour de France. These are more than just surly reactions to the recent

One of the joys of a world seized by identity politics is that everyone wants to let you know their self-identification: Israel identifies as a Jewish state and has passed a Basic Law explicitly saying so.  The law is, as a millennial might say, problematic, even if most of it is uncontroversial. It defines the name, flag, emblem and anthem of the state. The Hebrew calendar will still be the official calendar and Yom Ha’atzmaut will continue to be the annual national holiday. Jews will go on having the right to observe Saturday as their day of rest and non-Jews to observe their day of rest. Clause five recommits the state to promoting