World

The Extinction Rebellion group of climate change activists have caused widespread disruption in the capital this week, as they blockade busy roads in central London to bring attention to the UK’s efforts to tackle global warming. Today, they ramped up the protests by specifically targeting public transport. In a press release, the group said that it’s aim was to ‘create moments in time when humanity stops and fully considers the extent of the harm we have done and are doing to life on earth’, which seemed to involve glueing themselves to the Docklands Light Railway. It appears though that while the group is steadfast in their belief that disrupting commuters

The timing of the burning of Notre Dame could not have been worse for Emmanuel Macron. The spire of the 850-year-old cathedral collapsed into the flames at 8pm, the time scheduled for his televised address to the nation. The president had planned to tell his people in the broadcast what measures would be taken after the three months of Grand Debate, the consultation launched at the start of the year in response to the Yellow Vest protest movement. Instead, Macron rushed to Notre Dame and looked on as the inferno consumed the country’s most historic monument. “Notre-Dame is aflame,” tweeted the president. “Great emotion for the whole nation. Our thoughts

Almost every day, somebody somewhere recycles the idea that President Donald J. Trump doesn’t want to be president. He never did, they say. His heart is not in it. He wants to protect his business empire first and foremost. He doesn’t like having to answer to Congress. You’ll have heard these arguments in one form or another. They all make sense, until you consider that there is almost zero evidence to support them. The truth is that, unless he is pulling the greatest con perpetuated against American democracy (not impossible), Trump is running again – and his campaign is deadly serious. In fact, in terms of organisational prowess, it may

In acknowledging post-colonial guilt, William Dalrymple asks us to perceive how others see us. If only those critics could ever see themselves (Books, 6 April). The Amritsar massacre of 1919 was a failure, but how many more families were affected by the Amritsar massacre of 1984? More people were killed by the Indian republic in ‘Operation Blue Star’ than by Dyer in 1919 — and thousands more Sikhs were killed in pogroms perpetrated with the connivance of the Indian National Congress in 1984. India has its own record of imperialist crimes. Modern India was scarcely months old when it invaded the independent principality of Hyderabad: 200,000 people were killed in

For 21 weeks now the Gilets Jaunes have taken to the streets of French cities to protest. It began as a demonstration against high and rising fuel taxes. These tax increases hit families getting children to school and the adults to work, and cut the earnings of the self-employed working from their vans and cars. The higher fuel taxes and slower speed limits were part of President Macron’s policy to curb carbon dioxide emissions. For his trouble the protesters put out of action a majority of the speed cameras, showing him what they thought of his wish to control their lives. The street actions have been stoked by some angry

Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow announced at a recent ‘Leave’ rally that he had never seen so many white people in one place. But political action is above race, colour or creed, and different interest groups are essential to democracy. So what was it about all these citizens? Too ‘unrepresentative’? Too ill-educated? Too (oh horrors) poor? Snow would have been aghast at what the consequences of such a dreadful mob were in Athens of the 5th-4th c bc. In the world’s first and last direct, radical democracy, Athenian citizens, defined as Athenian males over the age of 18, met in assembly every eight days to make final decisions about

Today’s conviction of nine leaders of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement on charges including ‘incitement to public nuisance’, ‘incitement to incite public nuisance’ and ‘conspiracy to public nuisance’ is, in itself, one of the biggest public nuisances in Hong Kong in recent years. And the verdict is yet another hammer blow to Hong Kong’s rapidly eroding freedoms. The nine convicted leaders include three of the most prominent activists and figureheads of the Umbrella Movement: law professor Benny Tai, sociology professor Chan Kin-man and Baptist pastor Chu Yiu-ming. They could face up to seven years in jail. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Hong Kong Watch, and members of the

Seventy years ago this month, a prime minister led a divided nation towards the exit from what was then one of the world’s most important organisations. On that occasion, Ireland was the country wanting to leave and there was no backstop to hold things up. Despite the pleas of the other member states, the Irish walked out of the Commonwealth. I was reminded of that moment this week as the budding bromance between the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and France’s President Emmanuel Macron unfolded. Relations have never been better, Mr Varadkar cooed to nods from M. Macron. As well he might. For Varadkar has just returned his nation to the

Yesterday, Mr Steerpike reported that the founder of the left-wing campaign group Momentum, Jon Lansman, had been removed as a person of significant control from one if its two companies. But it appears that there have been even more machinations going on behind the scenes at Momentum HQ. Today, the online listing of Momentum Campaign (Services) Ltd at Companies House was updated once again to show that after being removed as a person of control, Lansman has been reappointed as a director of the company. He had previously left the position in January 2017. It seems as if he’s taken the place of Christine Shawcroft, who’s resignation from the position

Washington, DC is a town full of tradition. There’s the State of the Union address at the beginning of the year and the cherry blossom festival in March and April, when tourists around the world descend on the nation’s capital. There’s the ritualistic glad-handing, ego-stroking, and gossip-milling. And, of course, there’s the never-ending infatuation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—the transatlantic security body that helped keep Europe whole, free, and at peace during the Cold War. The Soviet menace, however, has been dead and buried for close to 30 years. Ever since that infamous day in 1989, when the world woke up to the news that the Soviet machine was