Dispatches

‘Uman has been called the Hasidic Mecca and the Hasidic Glastonbury. Overwhelmingly, however, the pilgrimage is rejected as “un-Jewish”, even by other ultra-Orthodox Jews’

‘One student identified himself as working class and a member of the Communist Party. I was, however, surprised to see a copy of Roger Scruton’s Meaning of Conservatism bulging out of his satchel’

Three years away from the Presidential election, the Democrat and Republican candidates are already having a tilt at the Oval Office

Assisting the Free Syria Army to overthrow Assad by force will only lead to further religious persecution, torture and death

‘When the leaders of China and the US met in June, one was accused of serious civil liberties violations, the seizure of journalists’ phone and email records and the use of state tax authorities to harass citizens. The other was Xi Jinpeng’

‘Without stop-and-search, Kelly estimates that he would need an extra 50,000 officers to police the city because people who don’t run the risk of being searched start carrying guns’

‘The reaction to lady thatcher’s death in the US brought an avalanche of affection and praise both on the Right and the Left’

‘The Obama administration has done everything in its power to terrify ordinary Americans with his dystopian vision of what the sequester will mean to them’

‘The low status of women in Syria and other Arab nations — as well as the cultural relativism practised by the agencies mandated to protect them — has resulted in abuse and violence’