Section: The United Kingdom
Europe in revolt
Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, addresses a Paris crowd. The poster depicts Joan of Arc and says: “No to Brussels, yes to France” ©Kenzo Tribouillard/Getty Images From the timeless cafés of Vienna, or from the trendy bars of Berlin and Amsterdam, it is easy to dismiss Brexit as a curiously British affair. Did Winston Churchill not...
America: the failed state
Trump addresses the 2016 Republican National Convention: “the greatness which Trump promises to regain will not be that which America used to imagine for itself” ©Action Press/Rex/Shutterstock Adam Tooze writes on the birth of the American Century here Donald Trump’s evolution from a buffoonish fringe candidate taken seriously by no one to...
Merkel says sanctions against Russia over Ukraine must be extended
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday sanctions against Russia over the crisis in eastern Ukraine would have to be extended because of a lack of progress in implementing the Minsk ceasefire agreement. …read more Source:...
Rebellion in Europe as Netherlands seeks to derail EU deal with Ukraine on migrant concern
THE Netherlands has dealt a blow to the European Union by attempting to block a deal with Ukraine over fears the former Soviet nation could join the beleaguered bloc and heap further strain on stretched resources. …read more Source:...
EU foot-dragging fuels sense of betrayal in Ukraine
Pro-western citizens feel let down by bloc they saw as a model and mentor …read more Source: Financial...
Exclusive: Dutch want guarantees on Ukraine deal at EU summit – draft
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte wants EU leaders to say on Thursday that the bloc’s new agreement on closer ties with Kiev covers no extra security or financial obligations, a draft said. …read more Source:...
Europe’s states of disorder
Those optimistically talking about a “soft Brexit” are missing the bigger picture. Europe has entered one of its periodic states of protracted disorder. It is too early to gauge the full impact of the Austrian election and the Italian constitutional referendum. The increased majority for the Green-backed candidate in Austria shows a...
History’s losers: intimate stories from survivors of the Soviet empire
Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich is an empathetic treatment of collective memory – and grief. Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, is not so much an oral history as a lament. The work is multi-vocal, like a chorus, pierced in places by the solo of an anguished voice. Readers are...
‘Putin’s new ghetto has no barbed-wire fence – just surveillance and harassment’
A Crimean Tatar activist says the world is staying silent as his people are persecuted by RussiaThe Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, has swiftly degenerated into the scene of the greatest repression being conducted anywhere in the entire country.The targets of the Kremlin’s crackdown are the Crimean Tatars, the ethnic group...
Crimean Tatars accuse Russia of kidnappings and political arrests
Moscow said to be trying to scare activists into submission over annexation, with growing numbers disappearingHuman rights activists have warned of a worsening campaign of harassment in Crimea against Crimean Tatars, including political arrests, trials and kidnappings.Crimean Tatars lived in the area for centuries before it was settled by either...
