The Charity Mess

W.G. Runciman, 19 July 2012

It may be too soon to be passing judgment on the Cameron government. But it does sometimes look as if we are back with the impatient legislation of the Blair era, along with the facile...

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Diary: Elections in Egypt

Adam Shatz, 19 July 2012

On 24 June, when Morsi was declared the winner, Egypt dodged a bullet.

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Diary: A Bad President

David Bromwich, 5 July 2012

Obama sees himself as the coolest head, the most reasonable listener, but these traits do not qualify him to render alone a decision that twelve could only with difficulty make in good conscience.

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In Athens

Richard Clogg, 5 July 2012

On 26 April 1941, the day before the German army raised the swastika over the Acropolis, Homer Davis, president of Athens College, was entrusted by the Greek War Relief Association with changing...

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On 16 October 1986 a maid went into a downtown Miami hotel room and found two dead bodies. One was tied to a chair, riddled with bullets; the other was kneeling, shot through the head. They were...

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The scandals that have engulfed News International over the past year have given us many memorable moments, but Rupert and James Murdoch’s appearance before the Culture, Media and Sport...

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In Berlin

Philip Oltermann, 5 July 2012

The day before the latest elections in Athens, the German tabloid Bild published an open letter. ‘Dear Greeks,’ it read, ‘Please don’t do anything stupid … The only...

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What if he’d made it earlier? LBJ

David Runciman, 5 July 2012

As a boy in Texas, growing up in poor and sometimes desperate circumstances, LBJ told anyone who would listen that he was headed for the White House.

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Longing for Greater Hungary: Hungary

Jan-Werner Müller, 21 June 2012

In the 1980s Hungary was known as the ‘merriest barracks in the socialist camp’. After the suppression of the 1956 uprising by the Red Army, János Kádár instituted...

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Michael Sandel’s What Money Can’t Buy does for the market what the London Dungeon does for urban history.

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Short Cuts: Leveson Inquiry

Daniel Soar, 21 June 2012

The event that turned a story about a few hacked phones into a scandal that came close to bringing down one branch of the world’s most powerful media empire was a piece of mistaken...

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Terrorists? Us?

Owen Bennett-Jones, 7 June 2012

The story of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran is all about the way image management can enable a diehard enemy to become a cherished ally.

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Lost in the Void: In Ciudad Juárez

Jonathan Littell, 7 June 2012

‘Over Sixty Hours without an Execution.’ When PM, the biggest tabloid in Ciudad Juárez, can’t find a corpse to put on its front page, it has to come up with something. On...

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Short Cuts: Yulia Tymoshenko

James Meek, 7 June 2012

If you forget the name, you’ll remember the braids; the blonde corona framing her head that declares: ‘Ukraine, c’est moi.’ After Angela Merkel, Yulia Tymoshenko is...

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You can tell Russia is not a real democracy because there is no great mystery about its politics. Democracies are slightly baffling in how they work: just look at America; just look at Europe; just...

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The ninth of the Crowns of the Martyrs by Prudentius, the great Christian poet of the fifth century, tells of his visit to the tomb in Rome of Cassian of Imola. Above the tomb hung a grisly...

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Black-shirted vigilantes from the neo-fascist Golden Dawn movement have been patrolling the streets and beating up all the immigrants they can find.

Read more about Save us from the saviours: Europe and the Greeks

Diary: In Syria

Layla Al-Zubaidi, 24 May 2012

The magical transformation of Bashar-the-Lion to Bashar-the-Scaredy-Cat to Bashar-the-Duck.

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