World

Friday

Alexander Horne

Should the UK impose an arms embargo on Israel?

Yesterday, a letter from 600 legal experts, including four former Supreme Court judges, was published, arguing that the UK government should impose an arms embargo on Israel, impose sanctions on individuals and entities who had ‘made statements inciting genocide against Palestinians’, and suspend negotiations on a new bilateral trade agreement with Israel. It also demanded the UK review its current trade agreement with Israel and consider the imposition of sanctions more generally. Some might think, justifiably, that the lawyers’ letter is both one-sided and rather overstated The signatories believe an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in January, imposing what are known as ‘provisional measures’, meant that there was a ‘plausible risk

Limor Simhony Philpott

Will Netanyahu take Biden’s ceasefire ultimatum seriously?

When Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he had a ‘good’ talk with American president Joe Biden on Thursday, he was hiding a bombshell. It soon emerged that Biden’s words to Netanyahu were harsh and uncompromising. Biden demanded that Israel addresse the humanitarian situation in Gaza immediately, that it takes concrete steps to protect civilians and aid workers and that it reaches a ceasefire deal with Hamas. This was an ultimatum. Biden threatened to reassess American policy towards the war in Gaza if Netanyahu does not comply immediately. In other words, he refused to guarantee that the strong support he has given Israel since the war started in October

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France’s schools are succumbing to the Islamist threat

A 13-year-old Muslim girl was beaten unconscious outside her school gates in Montpellier in southern France on Tuesday. Her mother says she was attacked because of her religion but on this occasion most of the mainstream media has baulked at reporting the story. That’s because Samara was a Muslim who didn’t follow her religion the way many of her classmates did. ‘My daughter dresses in European style,’ said her mother, Hassiba. ‘They called her a kafir’ (unbeliever). The truth is that the Republic is as scared as its teachers Samara was also called names because she refused to wear her hair under a headscarf. She was proud of her hair.

Margaret Mitchell

Botswana’s President: elephant hunting isn’t cruel, it’s necessary

Last month, Botswana’s Minister for Environment and Tourism Dumezweni Mthimkhulu threatened to send 10,000 elephants to Hyde Park. This week, Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi went a step further and suggested sending 20,000 elephants to Germany. These are strange and not entirely plausible threats, yet they reflect the frustration that Botswanan politicians feel over western governments lecturing them about animal rights. The United Kingdom and Germany are both in the process of passing laws to block the importing of hunting trophies. The point Masisi and his government want to make is that, unlike westerners, the people of Botswana live in increasingly close proximity to the world’s largest population of

Thursday

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Rishi Sunak’s empty human rights threat

Is there anyone in Britain who believes that Rishi Sunak will take us out of the European Convention on Human Rights? If there is then that person may also still think they got an absolute bargain when they paid a man in a pub £10,000 in cash to take ownership of Tower Bridge. For the Prime Minister to airily imply that he is ready to take the UK out of the ECHR and the jurisdiction of its supervisory court in Strasbourg amounts to a new low point in his parlous handling of the small boats crisis. The embarrassing truth is that a flailing, failing PM is fixated on just getting

Terry Barnes

Australia’s activist governor-general spells trouble for the royals

While the King and the Princess of Wales both battle cancer, the business of monarchy goes on. In the realms of the Commonwealth that includes ensuring the Crown is represented in each respective constitutional government. In Australia, though, the choice of candidate for governor-general is far from reassuring news for the monarchy. Samantha ‘Sam’ Mostyn, an activist and lawyer, was named by Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese as the country’s 28th governor-general. ‘Ms Mostyn is known for her exceptional service to the Australian community. She is a businesswoman and community leader with a long history in executive and governance roles across diverse sectors’, said Albanese. There’s no question that Mostyn is a

Eliot Wilson

Nato’s unhappy birthday

Nato marks its 75th birthday today, but the alliance is in no mood for celebration.  At its foundation, and for much of its lifetime, Nato worked well. On 4 April 1949, representatives of a dozen countries signed the North Atlantic treaty in Washington DC ‘to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law’. Although the Cold War was not always cold, and flared into bloodily hot conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia and Angola among other places, there was never a face-to-face showdown between Nato and members of the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact, let alone a nuclear one.

Aidan Hartley

Am I having a heart attack? 

Nairobi Some of our medical practitioners in Kenya advertise their services on street corners. ‘Bad omens, lost lovers, broken marriage, BIG PENIS,’ say hand-painted notices nailed to telegraph poles. ‘Love potions, LUCKY RING, Do-As-I-Say Spells, business boosting magic, land issues, lost items, herbs from the underseas.’ I admit to needing help on many of these things, but on this day, my GP only wanted me to get an electrocardiogram. Feeling on top of the world, I skipped into a gleaming white clinic in Nairobi, paid the fee, lay down, got rigged up with electrodes and had a pleasant chat with the nurse. Within minutes my report arrived, explaining that my

Fredrik Karrholm

Child gangsters: the new Swedish model

Stockholm There were 149 bomb attacks in Sweden last year. Though warring gangs are for the most part responsible, ordinary people are increasingly caught in the crossfire. The violence is brutal and ruthless, something I’ve witnessed up close as a police officer in Stockholm and have also analysed as a criminologist. Last year, 28 innocent citizens died or were seriously injured in bombings and shootings. Our country has gone from the bottom of Europe’s gun-crime league tables to the top and it prompts an obvious question: why has this happened in Sweden and why now? One of the most dismal elements of the epidemic of violence is how often it

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Even pilgrims are staying away from Jerusalem

Israel has a new train line: 25 minutes from Ben Gurion airport to Jerusalem. The Christian pilgrims would love it but they’re not here. Instead, there are soldiers and visiting American Jews. My taxi driver says American Jews come with thousands of dollars of cigarettes and drive around looking for soldiers to give them to. He says American Jews love Israel more than Israelis. Then he moves his machine gun – it’s on the front seat – and says: ‘Welcome to Israel.’ The American Jews go south to the massacre sites of 7 October to stare at the bullet holes. I don’t. You can’t forget the war here. At the

Anshel Pfeffer

Joe Biden is running out of time in the Middle East

Jerusalem The idea of a Saudi-Israel rapprochement would have been unthinkable not so long ago, and yet, shortly before the 7 October attacks, it was on the cards. The Emirates and Bahrain had recognised Israel’s sovereignty. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) was positioning Saudi Arabia to do the same. Now Joe Biden – who on Tuesday said he was ‘outraged’ at a convoy strike that killed seven people – is desperately trying to see if he can get things moving again. Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, is in Saudi Arabia this week meeting with MBS in a last-ditch attempt to save Biden’s grand design for Middle

Wednesday

Daniel Thorpe

The Besiktas nightclub fire was tragically inevitable

At least 29 workers died and two were seriously injured yesterday in a fire at an Istanbul nightclub. The Masquerade club is in the basement of a 16-storey building in the Turkish city’s Besiktas district, known for its nightlife, and was being renovated. Nine people have been arrested in connection with the blaze. The fire has shone a spotlight on the dangers to construction workers in Turkey. Last year, almost 2,000 died in workplace accidents. Trade unions and opposition parties have long accused the government of failing to enforce safety regulations in order to maintain economic growth and attract foreign companies. A construction boom has been taking place in Turkey following last year’s huge earthquake in which tens of thousands of people died, many from buildings collapsing. In the rush

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The truth about Israel’s ‘friendly fire’

David Cameron has got some front. The Foreign Secretary is haranguing Israel over its tragic unintentional killing of seven aid workers in Gaza, and yet he oversaw a war in which such ‘friendly fire’ horrors were commonplace. In fact, more than seven people were slain in accidental bombings under Cameron’s watch. Terrible accidents happen in war It was the Libya intervention of 2011. In that Nato-led excursion, in which Cameron, then prime minister, was an enthusiastic partner, numerous Libyans died as a result of misaimed bombs. Things got so bad that the West’s allies took to painting the roofs of their vehicles bright pink in an effort to avoid Nato’s

Dalibor Rohac

The real reason Macron is suddenly talking tough on Russia

What should we make of the recent hardening of Emmanuel Macron’s position on the war in Ukraine? At the beginning of the conflict, France’s president spent countless hours talking with Vladimir Putin; now, he spends his time entertaining scenarios in which French troops could be sent to Ukraine, and calling on other European leaders to stop being ‘cowards’. The Wall Street Journal reports today that Macron used secret conversations with US president Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to get them to change the way they deal with Ukraine. What explains Macron’s new approach? Macron is a master of pursuing contradictory policies at the same time It is possible that the

Duncan Gardham

Did an Iranian hit squad attack a journalist in London?

Counter-terrorist detectives investigating a stabbing of a dissident Iranian journalist in London have discovered that three suspects left the country within hours of the attack. Pouria Zeraati, 36, a presenter for Iran International, was knifed in the leg outside his home in Wimbledon on Friday. The suspects fled the scene to Heathrow before boarding a flight. Police are keeping an open mind about any potential motivation for the attack but the chief suspects are operatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  Iran has a long history of targeting those they believe are threatening the regime, but the last two years have seen a peak in threats to dissidents living overseas. Since 2022, counter-terrorism police

Charlie Gammell

Iran is dangerous – but rational

We’ve been here before. Iran has been here before. In 2020 its most senior IRGC commander, Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US air strike on his convoy as they drove out of Baghdad airport. Soleimani was a much mythologised figure across the Middle East, famed for his ability to direct Iran’s regional proxies to do Tehran’s bidding. The world held its breath in anticipation of a terrifying response, a global war, commensurate with the purple prose coming out of Tehran’s military and political organs. And yet not a huge amount happened, save for a few desultory missiles being shot into the middle distance of northern Iraq. And the shooting

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

What would Marine Le Pen’s critics do if she wins?

A well-known French radio comedian recently suggested an armed revolution in the event Marine Le Pen is elected President in 2027. Mahaut Drama made her comments not in jest, but during a debate at a left-wing media festival in Paris entitled ‘How to fight the far right’. Envisaging a Le Pen victory, Drama said: ‘What do we do? Do we have armed factions too?… Should we start a revolution?’ She continued: ‘If there are people who are prepared to be brave to that extent, I can only encourage them’. Drama’s remarks, which were broadcast to a wider audience last week on the internet, outraged Le Pen’s National Rally party. Their

Tuesday

Charles Lipson

Joe Biden’s terrible Easter

Among the many political advantages of the presidency, surely one is the ability to extend warm wishes to Christians, Jews and Muslims on their holidays. It’s a golden opportunity to invite a few for pictures at the White House and explain how much the holiday has always meant to you. Easy-peasy. For a Catholic president such as Joe Biden, expressing solidarity with co-religionists on Easter ought to be a well-practiced routine.  Which voter group does the White House think its exclusionary message appeals to?  It took genuine incompetence and obtuseness for the Biden White House to muck up the chance to reach out to fellow Christians on the holiest day

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Anti-Israel virtue signallers should leave Eurovision alone

The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest – the final of which will be held in Malmö on 11 May – is the latest peculiar target of pompous virtue signallers. The hosts of the UK’s largest Eurovision screening have announced their decision to scrap the event. The reason? Israel, of course. ‘We have collectively decided not to screen the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest this year while Israel remains in the competition,’ the independent Rio cinema in Dalston, east London, said in a statement. Reminder: they are talking here, not about the fall of the Berlin Wall, or the Good Friday Agreement, but The Eurovision Song Contest – which generates

Zoe Strimpel

Britain should follow Germany’s lead in weeding out anti-Semites

On the surface of it, Germany’s new pathway to citizenship sounds like a rare dose of sense from the one country in the Western world whose modern history means it still understands why Israel has a right to exist. One surefire short-hand for establishing who means us ill is by singling out those who mean our Jews ill The shake-up makes it easier to get German citizenship, allowing people to apply five rather than eight years after they arrive in the country – and just three years for those with good language skills. But for die-hard anti-Semites, the process will get harder, with questions that may involve naming the date of Israel’s founding