If you didn’t cry, you’d laugh. There are elements of farce to the saga gripping Britain—a tangled tale of criminality and corruption, of phone-hacking, glad-handing and back-slapping, of politicians in thrall to the power of the press and of police in the pay of the press. But for some it has been a tragedy compounded. Take Graham …
E.U.
Clashing Op-eds: Recommended (Perhaps Even Required) DSK Reading
Well-deserved props to both the New York Times and Washington Post (What? I can do more than criticize!) , whose op-ed writers today contributed interesting observations and arguments about where the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case should go from here—and how the next steps taken in it will reflect upon the American …
As One Alleged Strauss-Kahn Rape Case Cools Off, Another Heats Up
The legal travails of Dominique Strauss-Kahn seem to get messier as the days go by. As noted in our story yesterday, even as Strauss-Kahn’s troubles in New York seem to have dissipated with the prosecution’s case against him appearing to crumble, new charges of criminal sexual misconduct have surfaced back in Paris. On Tuesday, …
Macabre Tabloid Hacking Scandal May Finally Force British Newsrooms to Come Clean
UPDATE: Car manufacturer Ford has suspended its advertising with the News of the World pending the outcome of an inquiry into the latest hacking allegations.
They moralize endlessly, but Britain’s tabloid newspapers are notoriously relaxed when it comes to their own moral code. Even so, claims that Glenn Mulcaire, a private …
The Dominique Strauss-Kahn Story: A Cottage Industry For Theme-Seeking Journalists
Though it wasn’t deafening enough to mark the official opening of journalism’s summer Silly Season, a recent chorus of articles improvising on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn topic does merit the momentary elevation of the discerning reader’s eyebrow. Come on colleagues: this caper is sensational and dramatic enough on its own to …
With NY Case In Doubt, Strauss-Kahn Faces Attempted Rape Charges In France
Just as the legal outlook for ex-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn started looking brighter in the U.S. with news prosecutors’ case against him for sexual assault may not get to a court, DSK’s horizon seriously darkened back in France. On Monday, as various signs accumulated suggesting his political career …
Legal Holes Develop In the DSK Case, But Will Women Care?
News of the prosecution’s weakening sex assault case against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn–and the consequential court decision Friday morning to lift his house arrest awaiting trial–have added a new jolt of drama to what already had been a sensational story followed closely on both sides of the …
Early French Reaction To News That DSK Case May Collapse
(UPDATED: 11:50 a.m. EDT)
Reaction in France to the bombshell news from U.S. that prosecutors’ case against former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn for attempted rape and sexual assault was nearing collapse has thus far been muted—though that’s certain to change when the nation’s talking heads awake …
More Signs That Libya’s Conflict is Heading for a Political Solution
The news that France has begun supplying arms to Libyan rebels is likely to deepen discord within the NATO alliance, which is in charge of the 103-day Western military campaign, but has refrained from giving direct support to the rebels given that the mission was authorized by a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at protecting …
Why Even A Possible $5 Billion Tax Bill Won’t Keep Vodafone Out of India
At a dinner with reporters last night in New Delhi, Andy Halford, the chief financial officer of Vodafone, the British mobile phone giant, said that Vodafone “could potentially get an annual dividend of as much as $5.5 billion from its 45 percent stake in U.S. venture Verizon Wireless.” Here’s the Bloomberg story, which sent the …
French Military Admits Supplying Arms and Ammo To Libyan Rebels
U.S. President Barack Obama soon won’t be alone in taking flack about the legality of certain moves he’s made on Libya. On Wednesday, French military officials confirmed press reports that France has dropped arms and ammunition to Libyan rebels in what will doubtless spark protests that such action violates limitations the United …
A Talking Cure for Syria’s Pain? A British MP and a U.S. Congressman Visit Assad
“Visits to Syria have become a vexed issue. Reacting to a visit to Syria by U.S. senators in December, a White House spokesman said that ‘you can take a tough line all you want but the Syrians have already won a PR victory’ simply because visits give ‘legitimacy to a government that undermines the cause of democracy in the …
In Greece’s Austerity Intifada, a Challenge to Western Economic Orthodoxy
Tens of thousands of young people — and many older ones, too — gather in the main square of the capital, driven to protest by the despair of unemployment and a social system that cannot meet their aspirations for a decent life. And also by their realization that those in power serve outside agendas that have nothing to offer their own …