The journalist Julie Burchill has had a book contract cancelled after her publisher said she “crossed a line” with her Islamophobic comments on Twitter. Burchill’s publisher, the Hachette imprint Little Brown, said it had decided not to publish Welcome to the Woke Trials because she had used indefensible language when communicating with the journalist Ash Sarkar. Sarkar said…
Germany has one of the highest numbers of confirmed cases of the novel Corona virus (Covid-19) in Europe. Emergency measures designed to slow the spread of the disease mean that ordinary public life has ground to a halt. In a raft of sweeping steps announced on March 16, the German federal and regional governments prohibited…
As immigration has taken centre stage in political debates across Europe in recent years, stories of brave deeds and outstanding achievements by immigrants have become a staple of reporting. Defenders of migrants’ rights in particular have crafted and amplified narratives of ‘exceptional’ individuals in order to combat rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Brave men, superheroes, and honorary…
Austria has long been among the fore-runners of the right-wing populist wave in Europe. Since late 2017, the country has been ruled by a government bringing together the traditional conservatives of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) with the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). Led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, this coalition heralds the final arrival of the…
The renowned evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist, Richard Dawkins, has sparked controversy after tweeting ‘Listening to the lovely bells of Winchester, one of our great mediaeval cathedrals. So much nicer than the aggressive-sounding “Allahu Akhbar.” Or is that just my cultural upbringing?”
