Benjamin Weinthal

Wednesday

Benjamin Weinthal

Meet Jeremy Corbyn’s German doppelganger

From our UK edition

Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has a socialist doppelganger in Germany. Her name is Sahra Wagenknecht and she serves as co-chairperson of the largest opposition party in the German Bundestag—The Left Party. Her remarks blanketed the German media on Tuesday because she equated Islamic State terrorism in Paris with Britain’s aerial campaign designed to help destroy the terrorist organisation in the Syrian and Iraqi theatres of war. 'Of course it is no less a crime to murder innocent civilians in Syria with bombs than it is to shoot them in Parisian restaurants and concert halls. One is individual terrorism, the other state-sponsored,' Sahra Wagenknecht, an admirer of the now-defunct East German communist state and Stalinism, told the Bundestag on Monday.

Saturday

Benjamin Weinthal

Just because European companies can trade with Iran doesn’t mean they should

From our UK edition

Iran uses cranes to hang citizens for offences such as 'waging war against God' and 'crimes against chastity'. These cranes are often made in Europe. Now, with sanctions against the Iranian regime lifted, European companies are are clamouring to get back into the Iranian market. The CEO of the Austrian construction giant Palfinger last week called Iran a 'promising market'. But after a human rights group in Vienna released a photograph of an Iranian dangling from a Palfinger crane, the company quickly backtracked on that statement. As Amnesty International noted last month, 'Iranian authorities are believed to have executed an astonishing 694 people between 1 January and 15 July 2015.' The number is expected to climb to more than 1,000 by year’s end.