Instant Opinion: ‘Black, female 007 the worst kind of virtue-signalling’

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.

1. Jeff Sparrow in The Guardian

on climate refugees fleeing to Australia

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Australia’s Orwellian anti-refugee system hints at what’s to come for climate refugees

“Unless there’s massive political change, the bipartisan commitment to excluding people fleeing the carnage created (at least in part) by western military adventures will provide the basis for excluding people fleeing the carnage created (at least in part) by western industrial pollution. As the novelist William Gibson once said, the future is already here – it’s just unevenly distributed. If we don’t do anything now, the response to climate change will exacerbate and extend existing inequities, with the burden heaped upon the poor and the weak.”

2. Halie Soifer for CNN

on Donald Trump accusing four congresswomen of anti-Semitism

American Jews don’t want to be Trump’s political pawns

“Many Jewish Americans reject the President’s transparent attempt to divert the country’s attention from his own moral failings, just as we reject his attempts to politicise Israel and the rise of anti-Semitism. The President should recognise that Jews see his 280-characters of hate for what they are - an utter lack of character on his part and a betrayal of the values that truly make America great. Jews have experienced the devastating consequences of hatred and intolerance throughout history and do not want to be used as political pawns in Trump’s Twitter feed.”

3. Maha Hilal for Al Jazeera

on Hamza Yusuf joining Washington’s “commission on unalienable rights”

It’s time for Muslim Americans to condemn Hamza Yusuf

“One can argue Yusuf is only practising what he has preached by joining the Commission on Unalienable Rights and attempting to work with the Trump administration. But can we really believe that his inclusion in a human rights panel, clearly designed to enable anti-black, anti-women, Islamophobic and xenophobic policy decisions of the Trump administration, can lead to positive change? Can we give Yusuf the benefit of the doubt given his history of perpetuating imperialist propaganda and defending rights repression?”

4. Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph

on the James Bond franchise’s newest recruit

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s black, female 007 shows the new Bond will display the worst kind of virtue-signalling

“And although Ian Fleming purists can breathe easy – it turns out she’s not the new Bond, but an operative who takes over the spy’s secret agent number after he leaves MI6 – we’re assured the script has been washed clean of mucky misogynistic dialogue, with the phrase ‘Bond girls’ banned, and poor ‘new man’ Bond now a stooped, obsequious-faced, handbagged figure who has swapped the tux for a ‘This Is What a Feminist Looks Like’ T-shirt – and the microchipped cufflinks for a set of LGBT rainbow bracelets.”

5. Jenny Eclair in The Independent

on the “magic” of eating in restaurants

Today’s young people no longer appreciate the rare joy of eating out

“Then two girls were shown to the table next to us, both in their twenties, groomed to the elegant eyebrows, wearing incredibly expensive gym wear and clutching designer bags. They weren’t rude or noisy, they just weren’t particularly thrilled to be there (it was as if they’d popped into Maccy D’s for a burger). Neither had much to say to each other, one of them being a great deal more interested in her phone than her flesh friend. In fact, I think she only put it down to complain about her salad dressing.”