Turkey’s two-year state of emergency ended yesterday. The special measures president Recep Tayyip Erdogan took following the attempted coup in 2016 have resulted in the dismissal of 150,000 civil servants and imprisoned 50,000 people, many of whom are still awaiting trial. The crackdown to regain power drew international condemnation and crushed investor confidence in the country. In usual circumstances, returning to normality would be a cause for celebration – but not here. Proposed on Monday by Erdogan’s AK party, the state is expected to pass a new set of anti-terrorism laws retaining many of the powers that Erdogan has grown used to: arbitrary detentions, dismissal of civil servants and restriction of public gatherings. Opposition and human-rights groups are rightly fearful: Erdogan’s repressive tactics are simply being formalised.

The decline of the printed book industry in the UK has been heralded since the invention of the wireless. But in 2018, it seems that the full adoption of tablets, e-readers and smartphones still hasn’t dented the country’s love for paper and print. According to an annual report by the Publishers Association, the book industry hit a new record in sales last year with a 31 per cent increase across all hardback titles, with fiction specifically increasing 37 per cent to £97m (€109m). By comparison, sales of e-reader titles saw an uptick of 3 per cent. While this is good news for publishers, questions remain over how this ties in with the long-term decline in authors’ fees: a study this year showed a fall in the number of people able to make a living by writing books.