Why Trump changed his mind on Ukraine
This week, Yalda and Richard discuss Donald Trump's big decision to send weapons to Ukraine through NATO. Why has he changed his mind?
Yalda gives her take on the situation and why she thinks Trump is following a similar position to presidents before him when it comes to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The two also discuss the UK's secret Afghan immigration scheme after a massive data leak and gagged media. But how serious is this for those people still stuck in Afghanistan trying to flee the Taliban?
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The Independent
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- The Independent
New poll shows the gap between Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer
New polling indicates Jeremy Corbyn is considerably more popular among 18-24 year-olds than Sir Keir Starmer. Corbyn holds an approval rating of plus 18 within this demographic, contrasting with Sir Keir's minus 30. Despite this, both leaders maintain nearly identical overall approval ratings among the wider public, with Sir Keir on minus 40 and Mr Corbyn on minus 39. The survey suggests the government 's decision to extend voting rights to 16 and 17-year-olds could inadvertently benefit Corbyn's newly launched political party. Sir Keir Starmer's overall approval has reached a new low, with his government perceived as chaotic, while Corbyn's new political venture has been criticised by some as lacking seriousness.
The Independent
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- The Independent
From ‘Sapiens' to ‘The Book of Mormon': The banned books the Taliban deems ‘deviant' and ‘un-Islamic'
Taliban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has issued a directive ordering authorities across Afghanistan to identify and remove 'deviant' books from bookstores, school libraries, universities, and public and private institutions. Books including Dante's 14th century allegory The Divine Comedy, Joseph Smith's The Book of Mormon, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, and Yuval Noah Hariri's bestselling Sapiens – a wide-reaching history of humankind – have been pulled from circulation. The works of several well-known Islamic scholars and theologians, as well as Iranian intellectuals and Afghan writers, have also been blacklisted. Independent Persian spoke to publishers and school librarians in Herat and Kabul who confirmed that books on women's rights, United Nations edicts, the biographies of Taliban critics, secular government structures, and even those about the former Afghan Republic have been labelled 'deviant' and are now banned from sale, distribution or public access. Four Taliban ministries including the Ministry of Guidance, Hajj and Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Information and Culture, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Higher Education held a meeting on Sunday 13 July to reaffirm enforcement of this directive. During this meeting, the Ministry of Religious Affairs announced that, under an order from Taliban leader Akhundzada, a committee has been formed with representatives from all four ministries. This committee is tasked with reviewing books across the country and referring any 'suspicious content' to clerics for further scrutiny. Noor Mohammad Saqib, the Taliban's Minister for Religious Affairs, referencing what he called a 'special decree' from Akhundzada, stated that books written in recent years with the aim of 'misleading and corrupting society' and distributed in libraries, educational institutions, and public spaces will now be collected and removed. He added that guidelines are being developed for religious teachers and clerics so that they can educate the public about such books 'in light of Sharia principles'. Saqib claimed that Afghanistan has not only suffered from military intervention in recent decades but also from what he called 'cultural attacks'. He alleged that many foreign cultural institutions operating in Afghanistan aimed to 'undermine Islamic and traditional Afghan values'. Addressing Taliban officials, he said: 'It is now our duty to protect and fully introduce this [Islamic] culture to the Mujahid nation [of Afghanistan]'. Criticising books published under the previous Republic, Saqib said they conflicted with Afghanistan's Islamic and traditional values and 'diverted young people from their true goals'. He emphasised that now, under Taliban control, authorities have the opportunity to remove such works and replace them with content that is 'pure, Islamic and aligned with Afghan values'. According to the Taliban leader's decree, any books identified as 'suspicious' or 'deviant' will be handed over to a group of clerics who will evaluate their content and determine whether they should be banned. Previously, Taliban agents from the Ministries of Information and Culture, and Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, had already confiscated hundreds of book titles they labelled 'against national interests' or 'anti-Islam' from libraries and banned their publication and sale. Other Taliban institutions, including the Ministries of Education and Higher Education, have also restricted access to certain books in schools and universities. A banned book list issued by the Taliban's Ministry of Information and Culture and sent to publishers and booksellers last winter prohibited texts that they considered 'against national interests, anti-Islam, in opposition to the Islamic Emirate, containing false beliefs, promoting ideas contrary to Islam' as well as works on women's rights and human rights. Publishers were also given a clear warning that selling these books is completely prohibited, and violators will face punishment. Publishing professionals in Kabul say there is no clear or standardised process for reviewing books under Taliban rule. Any Taliban member, particularly officers from the Promotion of Virtue ministry, can enter a bookstore or library and ban any book they personally deem anti-Islamic or harmful to national interests. A Kabul-based publisher, who asked to remain anonymous, told Independent Persian: 'Since the Taliban returned to power, not only has Afghanistan's once-growing publishing industry collapsed, but even book imports from Iran have been restricted. Taliban border agents now inspect all books, cross out images of living beings and deny entry to many titles.' The publisher added that the Taliban's Ministry of Information and Culture has created a publishing committee made up mostly of clerics and individuals without higher education. 'These people review content, and if a book doesn't match their beliefs, they label it anti-Islamic or against national interests and block its publication'. A source in Herat, who works as a literacy advocate, shared three separate lists of banned books from libraries in Herat with Independent Persian. These lists suggest that Taliban censorship is far more extensive than officially acknowledged. Together, the three lists contain 620 banned titles compiled by the Library Oversight Committee of Herat Schools. Members of this committee have already removed these books from shelves. The listed books are flagged with terms such as 'Shi'ism, praise of traitors, promotion of secularism, democracy, Western freedoms, defence of women, communism, praise of Iran, superstition, anti-Taliban views, UN laws, descriptions of the Republic, praise of music and undesirable content.' Banned authors include both Afghan writers and prominent figures from the wider Islamic world. For example, the Taliban have banned works like Kitab al-Tawhid by Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab; Four Reforms in the Qur'an by Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi; Social Justice in Islam by Sayyid Qutb; biographies and writings of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani; books by Abdullah Azzam; and numerous Iranian intellectuals like Ali Shariati, Morteza Motahari, and Ramin Jahanbegloo. Books by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, including his well-known The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, are also on the list. Many are marked as containing 'false beliefs, Shi'ite ideology, or heresy'. Currently, the Taliban have no formal procedure for reviewing or censoring books. According to reports, decisions about a book's acceptability are often made arbitrarily and based on personal biases. However, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has said it plans to develop guidelines that will be distributed to imams and teachers so that they can identify 'deviant books' and inform the public about them.
The Independent
4 minutes ago
- The Independent
Palestinian state recognition is a one shot opportunity for Starmer – but what does he want to achieve?
Keir Starmer will go into his emergency cabinet meeting this week under immense political pressure to change government policy and recognise a Palestinian state. The question which will be troubling the prime minister though will not be whether he wants to recognise Palestine as a country, but determining when formal recognition will have maximum effect. The problem is that recognising a state is a one-time move. Unlike a Brexit agreement or a trade deal, there is no going back to rework some of the details further down the line – with this, there is no room for error. That means for Sir Keir to do it he has to be sure it will achieve the goals he wants. The issue will be whether solving a political problem is more important than using it to achieve peace. Current policy The current policy is to support a two-state solution and to recognise a Palestinian state as part of the peace process - without specifying when this would be. Sir Keir has gone further and said in a strongly worded statement on Thursday that a Palestinian state is 'an inalienable right' of the Palestinian people. For some this was taken as a strong hint that he is edging closer to actual formal recognition. The reason it is important is that once a state is formally recognised, it gains diplomatic status and can in theory be recognised by international bodies – so the move would not be purely symbolic. Added to that, the UK's historic status as the former colonial power which effectively created the modern state of Israel through the Balfour Declaration gives recognising a Palestinian state added symbolic weight. Political pressure President Emmanuel Macron's decision on Friday to announce that France would be the first G7 country to recognise Palestinian statehood has ramped up pressure on Sir Keir to follow suit. Already his cabinet is split over the issue, with figures like justice secretary Shabana Mahmood and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner pushing for recognition, while others like chancellor Rachel Reeves are more sceptical of an early move. Recognition is backed by a clear majority in the Labour Party though, and Jeremy Corbyn's new party on the left – which has made Israel- Palestine its primary policy area – adds even more pressure. With more than 200 MPs from nine different parties signing a letter backing the proposition there is also clearly an appetite for it in Westminster. But weighing on the other side is Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), which is a group made more powerful by the need within Labour to repair the damage of the antisemitism which was allowed to flourish under Corbyn's leadership. It also has the support of a number of senior cabinet members. LFI backs a two-state solution and eventual recognition of a Palestinian state but warns that if the UK goes for recognition early, it will waste an opportunity to maximise the effect. All about Trump Over the weekend minister James Murray pointed out that 140 countries have recognised a Palestinian state, but it has had no effect on the peace process. There is a sense that it will destroy what is left of the UK's dwindling influence with Israel, although given Benjamin Netanyahu's attitude to international criticism that ship may have already sailed. The problem is that US secretary of state Marco Rubio was very critical of France's statement last week, and there was speculation that Starmer did not want to broach the recognition question until he had his bilateral with Donald Trump in Scotland out of the way first. But the UK government now seems to understand that the only way to get Israel back in line and for the peace process to restart is for Trump's administration to force everyone's hand. There is a danger that if he goes ahead with recognition of a Palestinian state, he may lose that last bit of influence he has on the White House. But in the end Sir Keir is a prime minister respected abroad but losing control at home. He may decide that the political problems recognition solves domestically are worth doing it even if it has little or no impact on the peace process.
