With Tasers and placards, the women of Egypt are fighting back against sexism
Laurie Penny reports from Cairo.‘‘The youth will liberate Egypt!” A girl in a sky-blue headscarf is yelling and 300 women shout the words back at her outside the Sayyida Zeinab Mosque in central Cairo....
View ArticleGreece: "A promise from the army has been obtained to not intervene against a...
Explosive revelations from a former Greek diplomat.It is always enlightening to hear the frank assessment of a diplomat upon leaving the service, once unshackled from "the patriotic art of lying for...
View ArticleItaly’s elections and the European “misunderstanding”
Does the political return of Berlusconi represent a realistic danger for Western democracy?Will Italy’s parties be able to establish a proper government? How long will this last before calling for...
View ArticleDream on, DREAMers
Taking inspiration from the US to change the debate in the UK.When Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union speech in Washington on 12 February, five members of the audience on Capitol Hill were...
View ArticleThe Kafkaesque reality of Pakistan's blasphemy laws
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, is under police investigation for alleged blasphemy after making the case on television for the law to be re-examined and for the death penalty to be...
View ArticleIn Bahrain, British diplomacy is an insult to real democrats
Without taking definite steps to promote democracy in Bahrain, Britain will, to all intents and purposes, have sided with the oppressor.Exactly two years ago, a huge and overwhelmingly peaceful...
View ArticleSegregation and echoes of apartheid: Israel launches Palestinian-only buses
Separation and discrimination is a numbing fact of life for Palestinians in the West Bank.Unfortunately, the shock lies only in the act of making it semi-official. When Israeli media reported that the...
View ArticleHugo Chávez dies aged 58: what will his legacy be?
The Venezuelan leader's death will trigger a presidential election within 30 days.Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, has died at the age of 58, it has been announced.His death will trigger an...
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The Oscar Pistorius case: history written on a woman’s body
The Oscar Pistorius affair has exposed the fragility of South Africa’s post-apartheid settlement.The 14th of February was an eerie day in Cape Town: the heat, the road closures, the sense of a city...
View ArticleItaly has spoken, but what did it say?
Beppe Grillo's movement born in protest but now he will be under huge pressure to do something creative with it.Italy’s general election has done nothing to solve Italy’s and Europe’s pressing...
View ArticleRand Paul's 13-hour filibuster against drone strikes sets Senate alight
The junior senator from Kentucky is now getting some much-needed rest.Libertarian Republican senator Rand Paul, the son of wannabe Republican presidential nominee Ron Paul, made history last night with...
View ArticleDo Labour really want peace? A letter from Cecil Day-Lewis: 7 March 1936
From our correspondence.7 March 1936SIR,—The Labour Party has now banned the Authors World Peace Appeal. This is a body so loosely organised that it cannot be said to have a membership. It was founded...
View ArticleYoung, behind bars and in peril in Yemen
“Nothing is worse than life in a Yemeni prison.” The Yemen donors meeting in London this week have plenty of issues to focus on, but they should speak up about one forgotten group in Yemen – youth...
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Protests sweep Bulgaria following a self-immolation in Varna
Government resigns as high electricity bills force people onto the streets.Bulgaria erupted in protest last week, as a campaign against high electricity prices morphed into a general collection of...
View ArticleBulgaria, Greece and Turkey: The Syrian refugees at Europe's gateway
A letter from the border. A question for the European politicians thrashing out a plan to provide “assistance” to Syria: if a bedraggled Syrian escapes the war, if he escapes the chaos of the refugee...
View ArticleRepublican Party to unveil conservative fiscal package
The $4.6tn spending cuts to impact social programmes.The Republican Party in the US will unveil a conservative fiscal package today that they claim would cut government spending by $4.6tn over the next...
View ArticleWhy is Douglas Murray smearing me to distract from this damning UN report on...
Owen Jones made the same error as the Telegraph, Mail, Haaretz, Guardian, Sun, Washington Post, Human Rights Watch and Spectator. If Douglas Murray wants that to be addressed, he also knows that Israel...
View Article13 March 1937: British activist Agatha Harrison on progress in India
From our correspondence.Agatha Harrison was a Quaker, welfare activist and pacifist who worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian League towards Indian independence. She acted as an...
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Cracked heart of the old world
For centuries the Germans were at war with a shifting cast of hostile neighbours. Upheavals in the 19th century and two world wars brought about a settlement, but Germany today is both too strong and...
View ArticleShort cuts, strong men, quick fixes
It's not just Berlusconi...I often think Italy would get on better without a government at all. Those who govern fiddle things to promote their own interests, while the governed spend their time...
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