World

Oscar Pistorius has now been granted bail ahead of his trial in June. His case has raised many basic questions abroad, such as: is it normal for South Africans to have loaded guns on hand? And is it a defence to say that you killed someone because you thought they were someone else? There’s a fair bit of soul-searching in South Africa about whether the Paralympian would have been granted bail had he not been so well-known and what this says about the justice system. But the case is also opening up a debate familiar to other countries too: on gun control. Here are some quick facts: There are 2.9

Steerpike is back in this week’s edition of The Spectator. Here is a sneak preview, as ever: ‘Ed Miliband, meeting Denmark’s prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, gobbled up his Danish pastry double-quick so that he could immortalise their interview on Twitter. ‘Discussed growth, living standards and how to make Europe work for its people,’ he told his followers. The technical term, ‘people’, here refers to beneficiaries of the gargantuan EU bureaucracy like Glenys and Neil Kinnock who, by an apt coincidence, are the parents-in-law of Ms Thorning-Schmidt. Mr Miliband then sprinted off to a top-level seminar on innovation. This prompted another newsflash. ‘Hearing about Laila Ohlgren who invented the call button

The White House is piling pressure on the EU to ban Hezbollah after Bulgarian authorities linked it to a bomb blast in Burgas which killed six people last year. The intended target was a group of Israeli tourists, of which five died in the attack along with their Bulgarian bus driver. An extensive investigation lasting more than six months identified the Lebanese terrorist group as the culprits. ‘Europe can no longer ignore the threat that this group poses to the Continent and to the world,’ wrote President Obama’s National Security Adviser, Thomas Donilon, in the New York Times. He continued: ‘The Bulgarian investigation has once again proved to the world

Part 1 “Russian Justice” A judge at Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court stopped the trial of Sergei Magnitsky (above) yesterday – but not because the defendant was dead. Magnitsky’s demise was of no concern to the judge. It did not bother him in the slightest. The court merely postponed proceedings until 4 March when the world will see something rarely seen since the Middle Ages: a prosecutor arraigning a corpse. The Putin regime – that mixture of autocracy and gangsterism – is desperate to discredit the late Mr Magnitsky and his employer, Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital. If you don’t know the story, I’ll explain why. Browder exposed corruption in Russian

Before British coverage of the American debate on gun control goes any further, I have to hope the BBC and a lot of other Anglo-Saxons who really ought to be better informed try to find out what they are talking about. The chatter started up again last week after President Obama’s State of the Union address. I don’t mean the ignorance here of the origin of the right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, thought there is that, too. The amendment was not an invention of James Madison, the principle author of first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights. In

In the Wall Street Journal today there is a wonderful piece by an American tourist struck by the level of friendliness and civility he found amongst the British people. He starts with our tube etiquette: ‘Three times in the space of 24 hours young men offered their subway seats to my wife, who is neither elderly nor pregnant. They seemed to do this out of a sense that giving up one’s seat to a person at least one generation older was the sort of thing gentlemen did, even though not one of them fit the narrow technical definition of a gentleman. One guy looked like a gangster.’ And then again… ‘At the

Ten years ago today, Lloyd Evans joined the anti-Iraq war march in London. Evans had an open mind about the war, until he joined the peace movement and met Bianca Jagger. Here is the piece in full from our archive. I’m bursting with excitement. I can hardly get the words down fast enough. There was an amazing occurrence in Hackney last week at a meeting of the Stop the War coalition. I swear this happened. A protester said something perceptive. You don’t believe me? No, really, I was there. He was an old guy with white hair and a lovely crinkly face. ‘The bigger the march,’ he said ruefully. ‘The

Don’t take my word for it. Ask the redoubtable Ms Penny herself. Contemplating the “lesson” of the anti-war protests a decade ago, she writes: Tony Blair’s decision to take Britain into the Americans’ war in Iraq was an immediate, material calamity for millions of people in the Middle East. I’m writing here, though, about the effect of that decision on the generation in the west who were children then and are adults now. For us, the sense of betrayal was life-changing. We had thought that millions of people making their voices heard would be enough and we were wrong. Poor lambs. Of course there were millions of people around the

I first came to discover the beauty of the Cornish shanty singers Fisherman’s Friends when I was on holiday in the West Country last year. I was late to the game and had bought a copy of their CD at Port Isaac on a whim. I assumed it was a novelty record that I would play once or twice on the car stereo on the way home. But as soon I heard the first phrase of the first tune, ‘Shanty Man’, I was hooked, reeled in, netted by the passion of this singing. The whole family was. And we know that CD by heart. Of all the songs, some humorous,

A three year open sore within the human rights community will be closed this evening when Gita Sahgal officially launches her new organisation, the Centre for Secular Space, at Toynbee Hall. Sahgal will also be launching the group’s first report, ‘Double Bind: The Muslim Right, the Anglo-American Left, and Universal Human Rights’ highlighting the ongoing scandal of the left’s promiscuous embrace of radical Islamists. The story of Gita Sahgal has been covered before but is worth revisiting. A lifelong human rights activist, Sahgal worked on issues relating to women’s rights, religious extremism, and racism before heading up the Gender Unit at Amnesty International. Then, three years ago she was dramatically

The Washington Post has an important story about how the Iranian regime is preparing for post-Assad Syria. The paper reports that American and Middle Eastern governments believe that Tehran is backing a 50,000 strong militia in the hope of keeping Assad in power and, if that’s not possible, defending its interests in the aftermath of his downfall. Iran’s ultimate aim, the paper suggests, is the establishment of a client state on the coast. This would enable it to continue funneling weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon allowing it to maintain its influence in Lebanese politics and to carry on supporting terrorist attacks against Israel. If the Assad regime does fall, it

It is now three days since a European journalist was visited at his door by an assassin. For three days I have waited for any response to this. The BBC reported the story in brief, as did the Mail and the Guardian posted the Associated Press story. But where are all the free-speech defenders? Where are all those brave blogs, papers and journals who like to talk about press freedom, human rights, freedom of expression, anti-extremism and so on? Where are all the campaigners? I have been scouring the internet and apart from Mark Steyn at National Review and Bruce Bawer at Frontpage, and a few other US conservative blogs,

My guard goes up when people in power say that they believe in investigative journalism. Everybody says they do, of course. Then everyone says they have a sense of humour, most especially when they don’t. Just as I doubt the merriment of someone who needs to announce, ‘I enjoy a joke as much as the next man,’ so I worry about politicians and bureaucrats who make perfunctory commitments to serious journalism. Look around and you will see that their deeds belie their words. Almost without anyone noticing, a great silence is falling over the British state. Civil servants, police and prison officers are shutting up as they realise the dangers

It has just been announced that my friend Lars Hedegaard, a Danish journalist and frequent critic of Islamic fundamentalism, has narrowly survived an assassination attempt at his home in Denmark. The BBC is reporting: ‘Police said a gunman in his 20s rang the doorbell at Mr Hedegaard’s Copenhagen home pretending to deliver a package and then fired a shot to the head which missed. TV2 News reported that the gun then jammed, there was a scuffle and the attacker ran off.’ Thankfully Lars has not been hurt in the attack. The Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has condemned the attack, saying: ‘It is even worse if the attack is rooted

Last night’s Super Bowl advertising gives an interesting insight into the ongoing gun debate following the Newtown shooting in December. Super Bowl adverts have become a phenomenon in their own right, generating as much interest and discussion as the game itself – with a 30-second slot during yesterday’s game costing up to $4 million. At that price most advertising slots are only bought by large multinationals. Yet, a campaign group called ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ took the opportunity to make the case for tightening background checks on gun owners. The advert can be seen here: Adverts with a political dimension are usually rejected during the Super Bowl, although an anti-abortion

An unemployment rate of 26 per cent (and 56 per cent for young people); an economy that contracted by 0.7 per cent last quarter; tumbling approval ratings. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had enough problems, even before claims that he received about €280,000 (£240,000) in payments from ‘secret’ accounts managed by the treasurers of his People’s Party (the PP). Protestors took to the streets of Madrid last night calling for his resignation. El País (Spain’s biggest newspaper) published hand-written accounts that it claims were kept by PP treasurers Luis Bárcenas and Álvaro Lapuerta between 1990 and 2009. They show donations to the party from businesses (mostly in the construction sector) and