Steve Bloomfield

Europe, wake up: this is what mass deportation looks like Deadly ICE raids in Minneapolis may cause a rethink in rightwing parties inspired by Trump’s immigration crackdown

When the Tories announced their "Removals Force" that would deport 150,000 people a year they claimed it was “modelled on the success of ICE”: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Cuba, Colombia, Canada, Greenland...? Where will the ‘pre... America’s actions in Venezuela are not simply those of a rogue state but something far worse: those of a rogue superpower

My piece for the Observer on Maduro's kidnapping, the rise of a rogue superpower, and the shocking weakness of the rest of the West: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Algeria’s protest poet will need more than awards to avoid a life in prison | The Observer

This weekend the Algerian poet Mohamed Tadjadit faces life imprisonment - or even the death penalty - because the regime fears his poetry. Is it too much to ask if the UK govt, which claims to defend human rights, can raise his case with their Algerian counterparts? observer.co.uk/news/interna...

World football can strike a blow against Israel – if it h... The country’s team continues to play as if nothing has happened, despite the Palestinian Football Association repeatedly calling for a ban

Russia was banned from international football four days after they invaded Ukraine. After 22 months of war in Gaza and 63,000 killed, why is Israel's national team still allowed to play? My column in this week's @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/interna...

In this weekend's @theobserveruk.bsky.social:
- why the far right in Japan is on the rise;
- @nickywoolf.bsky.social on Epstein and conspiracies
- the honeymoon is over for Ukrainians in Poland
- why Hezbollah is taking lessons from Sinn Fein
- + me on when to suck up and when to stand up to Trump

same, but when people say 'did you see that great piece in the guardian?'

Max Americana: Trump’s bombing of Iran opens the door to ... New world order being established by US president’s unilateral interventions may give carte blanche to his rivals

Max Americana: For @theobserveruk.bsky.social I wrote about America's attack on Iran, the myth of Trump's isolationism, and why the US's willingness to use force could lead to other nations reaching the same conclusion observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Likewise, Ivo Daalder - former foreign policy advisor to Clinton and Obama - is not one to panic. Yet here we are...

When people like Peter Ricketts - who is measured, sensible and not in any way alarmist - start speaking like this, it really is serious

No ordinary war: we have entered the age of impunity The US once held Netanyahu back. Israel’s attacks on Iran prove that restraint has gone

In this week's @theobserveruk.bsky.social, I wrote about Israel, Iran and the new age of impunity (essentially, why this really is as scary as it looks): observer.co.uk/news/politic...

Leader: it is time to recognise Palestine | The Observer The UK should recommit to the two-state solution

Strong leader in today's Observer calling for the UK to formally recognise a Palestinian state: observer.co.uk/opinion-and-...

Notable that Trump cares about only 0.2% of homicides in South Africa (oh, and some of the farmers killed are black)

How false claims of ‘white genocide’ made their way to the White House | The Observer South Africans arrived at Dulles airport last week to seek asylum at Donald Trump’s behest. What are they fleeing from?

Trump's embarrassing fact-free racist diatribe about South Africa would be amusing if it wasn't so dangerous. Its roots lie in far-right conspiracy theorists, both in South Africa and the US: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

And for those who claim Labour needs to "talk tough" on immigration, a reminder that John Reid said this 18 years ago

Most people don’t have a problem with most immigration. Or as @robfordmancs.bsky.social put it to me: “Attitudes towards immigration have moved in a liberal direction in most western countries with large migration flows."

Labour should look to Carney’s Canada for a plan on immigration | The Observer Despite higher levels of immigration than Britain, voters weren’t that concerned about the issue – and that’s the point

Tried to imagine a centre-left government that offered legal aid to asylum seekers, spoke of the strength of "diverse communities" and promised to “prioritise the world’s most vulnerable”... turns out it exists in Canada observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Analysis: Nations that dismiss soft power can end up on the naughty list | The Observer As Harvard professor Joseph Nye put it: 'Seduction is always more effective than coercion'

I wrote this week about the time I gave Santa a lift in a rented Kia, the global influence of Jospeh Nye, and how Trump is killing America's soft power: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Ekaterina Barabash: I fled Putin’s Russia with my laptop, three lipsticks and a can of hairspray | The Observer The Russian film critic was forced to leave her homeland, family and friends or face years in prison after denouncing the invasion of Ukraine

Kim Willsher's interview with Ekaterina Barabash, a Russian film critic turned Putin war critic, is superb: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Just because the corruption is in plain sight doesn't mean it's not corruption: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Could Friedrich Merz be the European leader we’ve been waiting for? While Starmer and Macron try to stay on Trump’s good side, Merz has embraced his inner Carney. And that, right now, is what Europe needs

Anyway, here's my piece that - so long as Merz eventually becomes chancellor - still holds up: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

to be fair, I did point out his domestic woes may hold him back

Germany's Merz falls short of majority in vote for chancellor Conservative Friedrich Merz unexpectedly falls short of the numbers needed to become chancellor.

Was about to confidently promote by column in Sunday's paper about how Freidrich Merz could become the new leader of Europe... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trump is enormously unpopular in just about every Western nation - running as the anti-Trump candidate (and painting your right-wing opponent as a Trumpite) is a winning strategy

Australia re-elects Anthony Albanese as prime minister in comfortable win for Labor party Opposition leader Peter Dutton fails to dissociate himself from Trump-like rhetoric and policies and loses his seat

For the second time in a week, the anti-Trump centre-left candidate has come from behind to win, while the mini-Trump has lost his seat.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Winners in the fight for Africa’s democracies are getting hard to find Independent journalism | News, culture & style | Investigations, analysis, features, ideas, recipes, newsletters & podcasts that make sense of the world

My column from Sunday's Observer on the creeping sense of authoritarianism across Africa: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

In the rest of the new international section we go on the campaign trail with Mark Carney, travel to Ho Chi Minh City ahead of the 50 year anniversary of the Vietnam War, ask whether climate change will swing the Australian election, and spend time on campus at a divided Columbia

‘Electing a pope is the stuff of novels – and Amen to that’ Vatican intrigues make for a page-turning read, writes the best-selling author of Conclave

Robert Harris, who was the Observer’s political editor in the 1980s, returned for the start of the new era to write about the politics of choosing a new Pope: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

The new Observer is here, and it’s a thing of beauty

Next week we’ll start again under new ownership and I’ll become the Observer’s international editor. The Observer is 234 years old, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, and I know it has a bright future

The final Observer produced by the Guardian and my last day as Head of News. Signed off with a front page on Gaza and enormous pride at what we’ve achieved over the past five years: numerous awards, great investigations, quite simply the best Sunday newspaper in Britain.