The Week V. 1007

Greek voters sent shock waves across Europe on Sunday when they elected a far-left party that has pledged to defy Europe’s financial establishment and roll back austerity. Syriza, led by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, fell just two seats short of an outright majority. It has since formed a coalition with the Independent Greeks, a small far-right party that shares Syriza’s determination to rip up the terms of the s240bn bailout imposed by the so-called troika: the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the EU. Tsipras, Greece’s youngest postwar prime minister, declared that his country was “leaving behind five years of humiliation”; his new finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, described the German-backed austerity regime as a form of “fiscal waterboarding” that had turned Greece into a “debt colony”. Tsipras said he…

The prospect of a hung parliament following May’s election grew more likely last week, as the latest polls showed a surge in support for fringe parties. One poll put backing for the Greens at a record high of 11%, a result that could scupper Labour’s hopes in 22 key marginals. Another poll indicated that the SNP would trounce Labour in Scotland, winning all but four of Scotland’s 59 seats and leaving the nationalists holding the balance of power in Westminster. And both major parties seem sure to lose votes to UKIP, which now enjoys ratings of up to 15%. UKIP suffered a setback, however, when its communities spokesman, MEP Amjad Bashir, defected to the Conservatives, deriding his former party as “amateur”. And the Greens came under fierce attack after their…

The “epic hypocrisy” and “pathetic self-abasement” of Western politicians were “on full display” following the recent death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, said Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express. The flag flew at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. Barack Obama and David Cameron flew to Riyadh to pay their respects to this “tyrant” who led a “monstrous” regime. The PM spoke without embarrassment of Abdullah’s role in “strengthening understanding between faiths” – an “absurd” tribute, given that Saudi Arabia is “a savagely authoritarian Sunni Muslim theocracy in which persecution is rife and Christians are banned from practising their faith openly”. US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US had “lost a friend” – when in fact Saudi Arabia has helped export “the poisonous ideology of Islamic extremism all over the…

Düsseldorf, Germany Pee ruling: A German judge delivered a landmark ruling last week, that men have the right to pee standing up. The issue is one that has long divided Germany: in many families, boys are taught to sit down, and loos in bars, offices and homes often carry signs urging men to do so. However, many resent these edicts, and the phrase for those who do sit to pee – sitzpinkler – has become synonymous with “wimp” and “wuss”. The court case related to a landlord who’d tried to retain £1,420 from a tenant’s deposit, claiming that he needed to pay for repairs to a marble floor which had “lost its sheen” as a result of being regularly sprinkled with urine. Judge Stefan Hank agreed that uric acid had…

New York Russian spy ring: The FBI claimed this week to have busted a Russian spy ring operating in New York. Federal officers arrested 39-year-old Evgeny Buryakov – aka “Zhenya” – in the Bronx on Monday and accused him of being a deep-cover agent for Moscow. His alleged handlers – two Russian officials operating with diplomatic immunity – were charged in absentia, having already left the US. At an initial court appearance, Buryakov was portrayed as a prized agent, who was able to glean valuable economic intelligence through his job in a bank in New York. However, he was allegedly exposed as a result of basic errors by his handlers, who called him on an open line that was being bugged by the FBI, and used his real name. He…

The Poundland millionaire Steve Smith is the quintessential self-made man. The 51-yearold founder of Poundland grew up in the West Midlands, where his parents had a market stall. “When I was a baby, my mum put me to sleep in a box under the stall and my dad nearly sold me,” he told Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. Smith worked for his parents all through childhood – and later, when he wanted to start his own business, he remembered the remnants box on their stall: a collection of random items all priced at 10p. “It made more money each week than everything else on the stall.” At the time, the £1 coin had just been introduced – giving Smith the idea that would make him rich. He bought up…