Mr Trump brought his own brand of Christmas magic to US troops serving in Afghanistan this week. As is so often the case, there were complications. Before we address the particulars, we might well take the opportunity of the end of Mr Trump’s second year in office to take stock of his position. (More…)
On a cold day in the Turkish city of Kayseri last November, we sat in the living room of two young men, Mustafa, aged 18, and Hafiz, 23, as they told us about their life since they arrived in Turkey. For single Afghan men such as these, seeking refuge in Turkey has always been a challenging affair. But in recent months, it has become all but impossible. (More…)
On 21 September, a boat carrying almost 40 Syrian refugees sank off the coast of Lebanon. They’d paid a smuggler to help them reach the European Union through Cyprus. Luckily, they were all saved – that is, almost everyone. A 5-year-old child, Khaled Nijmeh, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. (More…)
The UK is facing the greatest crisis in its post-war history. While the House of Commons is paralysed, the March deadline on Brexit is fast approaching, and no one, in either the UK or the EU, agrees with the government’s plan to leave. All the prime minister can do respond with delays because she’s run out of ideas. If she ever had any to begin with. (More…)
Sunday, August 25th, 1968, Lincoln Park, Chicago. The Yippies had set up an event called The Festival of Life as part of the protest activities directed at the Democratic National Convention. They’d sent out invitations to a lot of heavy hitters (Janis Joplin, etc.) but the only band that showed up was the MC5. (More…)
It couldn’t have been more personal. Granted, the topic was European anti-Semitism. I happen to be Jewish and live in Berlin, and I worked for a French news outlet for nearly four of the last five years. (More…)
In the midst of the “Gilets Jaunes” movement these last two weeks, riots erupted, in Paris, but not only, and various acts of sabotage have taken place. Since then, a certain number of anarchists have raised the question of intervention within this movement, in the same way that they have always intervened in other social movements. (More…)
On 11 December, the UK parliament will vote on the EU withdrawal treaty. The May government is at imminent risk of collapse should parliament fail to ratify the Brexit treaty. All of this matters in Arizona and every other US state. (More…)
Even as the 2016 New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants and twin United Nations-led global compact processes seek to improve the global response to people on the move, states are increasingly hostile toward them. Indeed, anti-refugee rhetoric seems to be everywhere these days. (More…)
You’re sitting in a suburban Starbucks, sipping a flat white, as you look at photos of refugees from Honduras fleeing from the teargas American forces fired over the Mexican border. A nearby conversation starts to interest you. Someone is declaring that we need to “stop defaming immigrants, stop insulting them and blaming them for our mistakes”. Is he talking about the same news story you’ve been following? (More…)
Immigration has been a wedge issue for nationalists and conservatives to exploit for decades. The left must own this issue and stake its own claim on common sense. (More…)
To deter migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, European authorities have seized upon a seemingly innocuous bit of international maritime law to block NGO-run rescue ships from their lifesaving work: the requirement that every vessel with seaward ambitions – from search-and-rescue vessel to pleasure boat – carry a national flag. (More…)