Last Friday, Robert Mueller presented his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to US attorney general William Barr. On Sunday, Barr – a Trump appointee – announced in a summary that he saw no case for collusion or obstruction of justice. Trump, naturally, took this as a total win. However, as Barr attested, Mueller did not necessarily exonerate the president. But with Trump jubilant – what do these conclusions mean for despondent Democrats and for the 2020 election? If and when the full report is released, will Trump have more to worry about?
Also in this week’s issue:
Since our 22 February report about the end of the Isis caliphate in Syria, the world has waited for the last band of fighters in Baghuz to fall. Finally, last Saturday, they did. Martin Chulov has followed the story of Isis from the beginning. Writing this week, he explores how after a terrifying rise, the jihadist dominion collapsed amid paranoia and infighting. The Isis state may be dead – but it leaves behind a deadly ideology.
Speaking of paranoia and infighting … leading figures in Britain’s Conservative party spent the weekend at the prime minister’s country retreat where May made another futile attempt to get them to back her deal. Then, in dramatic scenes in the House of Commons on Monday evening, lawmakers wrestled control of the Brexit process away from Theresa May. MPs voted to seize control of the parliamentary timetable in order to vote on their own alternatives to her maligned Brexit deal.
With elections approaching in Israel, Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the United States would recognise Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights was seen as a boon to Benjamin Netanyahu. The news also elicited furious responses from Syria and its allies Russia and Iran. Israel’s control of the area – which dates back to the six-day war in 1967 – would once have provoked immediate fury among Israel’s Gulf neighbours too (Saudi Arabia finally denounced the move on Tuesday). But, as Ian Black reports, the secretive relationships between Israel, the Saudis, UAE and other Arab powers are increasingly coming into the open, thanks both to a mutual desire to impress Trump and to clip the wings of Iran.
Finally, it is over a year since the Italian elections that, eventually, led to the formation of Italy’s Lega-Five Star Movement coalition in June. With deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini leading the ideological charge, we have witnessed – argues Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano – a country entering a state of democratic emergency. One that must urgently rediscover its values.
