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- French elections 2017: disintegrating left-right divide sets stage for political upheaval
- North Korea warns Australia of possible nuclear strike if it 'blindly toes US line'
- French Guiana strikes lifted after aid package agreed with Paris
- Trump’s offensive to ‘wipe out’ al-Shabaab threatens more pain for Somalis
- US forces say Taliban 'target of interest' since 2011 killed in Afghanistan
- 'Obviously we speak English': Brits complain about Australia's new citizenship crackdown
- Abortion in Ireland: committee votes for constitutional change
- Protesters disrupt rightwing German AfD party congress
- How insults and a campaign over sanitary towels landed activist in jail
- American Airlines apologises to woman hit with buggy by crew member
- Blame Canada: Trudeau forced on defensive as Trump targets trade
- March for Science puts Earth Day focus on global opposition to Trump
- Mike Pence in Australia says US and allies ready to tackle North Korea
- Stadium deals, corruption and bribery: the questions at the heart of Brazil’s Olympic and World Cup ‘miracle’
- Intersex and proud: the model finally celebrating her body | Aaron Hicklin
- Will Brexit reopen old wounds with a new hard border in Northern Ireland?
- Jessa Crispin: ‘Today’s feminists are bland, shallow and lazy’ | Rachel Cooke
- Who are the leading candidates in the French presidential election?
- The twists and turns of France’s strangest ever presidential election
- Danger ahead for European press
- Russia targeted Trump adviser in bid to infiltrate campaign: report
- Julie Bishop hits back at North Korea as Labor backs 'harder-edged' US stance
- Boy, 12, caught 1,300km into attempt to drive across Australia
- French election 2017: voters go to the polls in wide-open contest
- Thousands march in Venezuela in honour of those killed in unrest
- Germany's AfD party heads further right after leader suffers defeat
- French polls show populist fever is here to stay as globalisation makes voters pick new sides
- American Airlines employee clashes with passenger – video
- Trump's 25 executive orders in 100 days: more cosmetic than substantive
- Ten of the best March for Science signs – in pictures
- Pence and Turnbull call on China to put pressure on North Korea – video
| French elections 2017: disintegrating left-right divide sets stage for political upheaval Posted: 22 Apr 2017 02:00 PM PDT Squeezed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon on one side and Emmanuel Macron on the other, the presidential contest could mean destruction for the Socialist party French voters go to the polls on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that to the very end has brought little consensus or comfort and only one certainty: the result will be a political upheaval, whoever wins. Even as they walk into their bureau de vote, many will still be undecided, faced with paper slips for an unprecedented 11 candidates, only four of them thought to be serious contenders for the Elysée palace. There is a nail-biting sense that anything could happen. Continue reading... |
| North Korea warns Australia of possible nuclear strike if it 'blindly toes US line' Posted: 22 Apr 2017 07:20 PM PDT Foreign ministry spokesman quoted as saying Julie Bishop's comments can never be pardoned and Pyongyang is acting only in self-defence North Korea has bluntly warned Australia of a possible nuclear strike if Canberra persists in "blindly and zealously toeing the US line". North Korea's state new agency (KCNA) quoted a foreign ministry spokesman castigating Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, after she said the rogue nation would be subject to further Australian sanctions and for "spouting a string of rubbish against the DPRK over its entirely just steps for self-defence". Continue reading... |
| French Guiana strikes lifted after aid package agreed with Paris Posted: 22 Apr 2017 01:48 PM PDT Deal worth €2.21bn brings end to general strike spearheaded by coalition of 37 unions that had brought productivity in the territory to a halt Activists in French Guiana have lifted strikes that crippled the territory for almost a month after the government in Paris pledged an aid package worth billions of euros. A general strike by 37 unions has paralysed the French territory in South America, with locals pressing for a "Marshall plan" along the lines of the huge US economic support given to help western Europe to recover after the second world war. Continue reading... |
| Trump’s offensive to ‘wipe out’ al-Shabaab threatens more pain for Somalis Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Efforts to avert a disaster caused by drought are at risk from renewed offensive A new US-backed military offensive against Islamist militants in Somalia could undermine the massive international effort to help millions of people threatened by the worst drought there in more than 40 years, aid officials in the unstable east African state fear. More than £50m has been raised by individual donors in the UK and the British government has contributed another £110m to help avert hundreds of thousands of deaths in Somalia. More than six million people there are in need of immediate assistance, with half of them facing famine. Continue reading... |
| US forces say Taliban 'target of interest' since 2011 killed in Afghanistan Posted: 22 Apr 2017 08:55 AM PDT Quari Tayib was killed in an air strike and was a 'shadow governor' – people who direct Taliban insurgents throughout Afghanistan's 34 provinces The Pentagon said on Saturday Quari Tayib, a Taliban "shadow governor" in Afghanistan who evaded coalition forces for six years, has been killed. Related: Taliban kill more than 140 Afghan soldiers at army base Continue reading... |
| 'Obviously we speak English': Brits complain about Australia's new citizenship crackdown Posted: 22 Apr 2017 03:15 PM PDT 'You try to plan ahead, to plan your future for your family and it all changes,' says engineer on 457 visa Ian Sinkins, a British electrical engineer in Australia on a temporary skilled class 457 visa, has a serious beef with Australia's proposed new citizenship requirements. The changes, announced by the Turnbull government on Thursday, would require aspiring citizens to sit an English-language test, prove a commitment to Australian values and live in the country for four years as a permanent resident, instead of one. Continue reading... |
| Abortion in Ireland: committee votes for constitutional change Posted: 22 Apr 2017 07:45 AM PDT Citizens' Assembly votes 87% in favour of advising government to change eighth amendment on right to life A committee set up to deliberate on Ireland's strict abortion regime has voted for the constitutional rules to be changed. The Citizens' Assembly, a randomly selected group of 99 members of the public chaired by the supreme court judge Mary Laffoy, met on Saturday to discuss the contentious issue for the final time. Continue reading... |
| Protesters disrupt rightwing German AfD party congress Posted: 22 Apr 2017 02:36 AM PDT About 50,000 demonstrators attempt to block party delegates from entering hotel venue in Cologne Thousands of leftist demonstrators have tried to disrupt a gathering of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the rightwing populist party already riven by internal rivalries five months before the country's general election. About 50,000 protesters were expected to mobilise during the two-day AfD party congress in the western city of Cologne, with 4,000 police officers dispatched to keep the peace. Continue reading... |
| How insults and a campaign over sanitary towels landed activist in jail Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:05 PM PDT Stella Nyanzi's attack on her government's refusal to fund sanitary wear for girls led to a successful crowdfunding campaign, and prison Stella Nyanzi, an academic and formidable campaigner, is languishing in a jail in Kampala for describing her president as "a pair of buttocks". Uganda's 72-year-old leader, first elected more than 30 years ago, has become the subject of ferocious criticism for his government's treatment of the country's poor schoolgirls. To Nyanzi, the announcement that her country's government, under the leadership of President Yoweri Museveni, could not afford to supply sanitary towels to schoolgirls – despite three in every 10 missing school because of menstruation – was more than just another broken campaign promise. It was, to the academic, the epitome of abuse – a symbol of the humiliation that the east African country has endured at the hands of a political monarchy detached from the realities of those it leads. It was also the beginning of an activist journey that would land Nyanzi in a maximum-security prison for insulting the president the west once touted as a poster boy for African democracy. Continue reading... |
| American Airlines apologises to woman hit with buggy by crew member Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:01 AM PDT Video posted on Facebook shows woman in tears and flight attendant confronting passenger after argument over pushchair American Airlines has suspended an employee and issued an apology after an altercation on one of its planes involving crew members, several passengers and a young child. The airline responded after a video posted on Facebook by another passenger showed a confrontation between flight crew and passengers at the front of the aircraft bound for Dallas from San Francisco on Friday. Continue reading... |
| Blame Canada: Trudeau forced on defensive as Trump targets trade Posted: 22 Apr 2017 05:16 AM PDT As he unveiled his 'Buy American and Hire American' order, the president called out Canada's reliance on tariffs and controls to protect its dairy sector When asked this week what he had learned about Donald Trump during the US president's first months in power, Justin Trudeau paused. Related: There goes the neighborhood? Canada frets over Trump's trade agenda Continue reading... |
| March for Science puts Earth Day focus on global opposition to Trump Posted: 22 Apr 2017 10:23 AM PDT More than 600 marches held around the world, with organizers saying science 'under attack' from a White House that dismisses the threat of climate change Hundreds of thousands of climate researchers, oceanographers, bird watchers and other supporters of science rallied in marches around the world on Saturday, in an attempt to bolster scientists' increasingly precarious status with politicians. Related: Bill Nye the Science Guy on Trump: 'We are in a dangerous place' Continue reading... |
| Mike Pence in Australia says US and allies ready to tackle North Korea Posted: 21 Apr 2017 10:04 PM PDT Vice-president and Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull call on China to apply pressure but stress regime's nuclear aims cannot be tolerated All options including military action are "on the table" to deal with the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons, Mike Pence has said during a trip to Australia. But the US vice-president stressed he expects China to bring its influence to bear against the regime's nuclear ambitions. Pence said three times during a press conference with the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, that "all options are on the table" and refused to rule out military action against the recalcitrant nuclear-armed regime. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 23 Apr 2017 01:00 AM PDT The two mega-events were framed as a reason for Brazilians to be proud of a modern and forward-looking country; instead the economy has been shattered and a supreme court investigation keeps unearthing unsavoury allegations With their hands up in the air, ministers, four-star generals and International Olympic Committee officials danced to famous samba tunes at the closing ceremony of the Rio Games last August. While carnival was taking over the Maracanã Stadium, politicians hugged each other in the VIP area. It was a moment of relief, after seven years of tension and controversies. The confetti falling over their heads served as a curtain, closing the Rio 2016 Olympics on a high note. But the drums could not hush up the investigations into allegations of massive bribes related to the two sport events – the World Cup and the Olympics – that were to be used as a joint endeavour to present to the world a new image of Brazil: a modern country, sophisticated and, above all, responsible. Continue reading... |
| Intersex and proud: the model finally celebrating her body | Aaron Hicklin Posted: 23 Apr 2017 01:00 AM PDT When the Belgian model revealed she was intersex earlier this year, she gave voice to something she'd always been told to hide. Here, the face of Balenciaga talks about knowing she was different Like many models, Hanne Gaby Odiele has a lovely limber angularity. Sitting in a Manhattan restaurant booth she seems to open and close like an umbrella, expanding when she's in full flow, folding up when she's mulling something over. Folded up and closed off was how she felt for a long time. As a child, she knew something was different about her. She spent a lot of her summers undergoing surgery, and was aware that she would be unable to have children, but the why was always left vague. "The medical world tells us that we should not talk to anyone about it," she says. "Always, I was told to hide." In this way, children like Odiele are taught to be ashamed of a fundamental aspect of their identity: they are intersex. It's difficult to calculate the exact number of people who are intersex, but Intersex International estimates it to be about 1.7%, which is about as common as having red hair (1%-2%). Continue reading... |
| Will Brexit reopen old wounds with a new hard border in Northern Ireland? Posted: 23 Apr 2017 12:00 AM PDT Our writer, who grew up in County Armagh, travels the the Irish borderland and talks to those who live there The motorway from Dublin to Belfast crosses the Irish border just south of the town of Newry. The only clue that you have moved from one country and jurisdiction to another is provided by the speed limit signs, which change from kilometres to miles per hour. Since this stretch of the motorway was opened in July 2010, the journey from one capital to the other takes, on a good day, just 90 minutes. A few hundred yards away from the motorway, and running almost parallel to it, is the old Dublin to Belfast road, which, throughout the Troubles, was the main conduit for traffic between Ireland and Northern Ireland. On a bad day then, it could take up to 90 minutes just to negotiate the heavily fortified British army checkpoint that stood on the outskirts of Newry, on this road. Continue reading... |
| Jessa Crispin: ‘Today’s feminists are bland, shallow and lazy’ | Rachel Cooke Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:05 PM PDT Rachel Cooke talks to Jessa Crispin about her incendiary new book, Why I Am Not a Feminist In her slender but merciless new book, Jessa Crispin pours petrol over pretty much the entire surface of 21st-century feminism, and then gleefully sets it alight. Boom! Up it goes, leaving behind only scorched earth. What she hopes will grow in its place isn't completely clear. "I know! I know!" she wails, when I tell her she offers more questions than answers. But having no desire to be an activist, she doesn't see it as her business to fix the patriarchy. "Maybe this sounds disingenuous, but I was writing for myself," she says. "I just wanted to be clear about what I believe." The book is called Why I Am Not a Feminist, which is, of course, a lie as well as a provocation, for its author's feminism runs through her veins like blood. Crispin's principles, however, have their roots, radical and angry, in the second wave of feminism, not the third: she, for one, is not about to renounce the likes of Andrea Dworkin and Shulamith Firestone, whose uncompromising books she has, incidentally, actually read. Continue reading... |
| Who are the leading candidates in the French presidential election? Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT Voters cannot complain of a lack of choice, with a leftist, a far-right leader, a conservative and a centrist in the running The first round in France's presidential election is essentially a four-horse race between two centrists and two radicals, one on the left and one on the right. Aged between 39 and 65, none has won a first-round presidential vote before. Seven other candidates make up the list of 11 hopefuls, but who are the frontrunners? |
| The twists and turns of France’s strangest ever presidential election Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT With the sitting president not on the ticket and big parties facing first-round defeat, this race has been unlike any before it Modern France's 11th presidential election campaign has also been its most extraordinary, with almost as many firsts as candidates. The outgoing first-term president, François Hollande, is not standing. Other big names such as Alain Juppé and Nicolas Sarkozy are also out. For the first time, France's traditional mainstream parties may not reach the runoff. Continue reading... |
| Danger ahead for European press Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT As press prize celebrations die down, it's time to reflect on the threat looming over journalistic freedom in many countries on the continent A final word on the European Press Prize as, awards delivered, a new season begins. The winners were all terrific. Congratulations to your Serbian investigators, young Romanian reporters, digital wizards from Bellingcat. Congratulations to three sensational writers from Stern and Spiegel. (Gosh! the Germans still invest mightily in good journalism). And more than a tip of the cap to Fintan O'Toole of the Irish Times (and Guardian and Observer) for his scintillating takes on Brexit. But one thing that sets these awards apart for me is a sense of danger – for Yavuz Baydar and his Turkish colleagues as democracy closes down, of a Warsaw government running amok and of Hungary's Orbán defying the whole European idea. The dangers the Serbian winners raised as many marched in Belgrade, fighting for press freedoms lost. Continue reading... |
| Russia targeted Trump adviser in bid to infiltrate campaign: report Posted: 23 Apr 2017 01:00 AM PDT Former aide Carter Page one of several Trump advisers whose contact with Russian officials raised suspicion of intelligence agencies, says CNN Russian operatives tried to infiltrate Donald Trump's presidential campaign through his advisers, including former foreign policy aide Carter Page, CNN reported on Saturday. CNN said this emerged through FBI intelligence gathering, which triggered an investigation into any possible coordination between Trump campaign operatives and Russian officials. Continue reading... |
| Julie Bishop hits back at North Korea as Labor backs 'harder-edged' US stance Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:22 PM PDT Australia's foreign minister says North Korea should look after its 'long-suffering citizens' rather than develop nuclear weapons Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, says North Korea should look after its "long-suffering citizens" rather than developing weapons of mass destruction after the regime pointedly warned Australia of a possible nuclear strike if Canberra persists in "blindly and zealously toeing the US line". Bishop issued a statement on Sunday declaring North Korea's threats of nuclear strikes against other nations "further underlines the need for the regime to abandon its illegal nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs". Continue reading... |
| Boy, 12, caught 1,300km into attempt to drive across Australia Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:57 PM PDT Child was stopped in Broken Hill, New South Wales, having seemingly driven across the entire state from Kendall near Port Macquarie A 12-year-old boy attempting to drive across Australia solo has been pulled over at Broken Hill, 1,300 kilometres into his journey. The boy was stopped in Broken Hill on Saturday morning having seemingly driven across the entire state of NSW from Kendall near Port Macquarie. |
| French election 2017: voters go to the polls in wide-open contest Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT Top two finishers from 11 candidates will advance to runoff on 7 May that will decide the country's next president Voting is under way in the first round of an unpredictable French presidential election whose outcome could prove crucial for the future of a deeply divided country and a nervous European Union. Less than two days after a gunman shot dead a policeman on the Champs-Elysées in an attack for which Islamic State claimed responsibility, France's 47 million registered voters – nearly a quarter of whom are still undecided – go to the polls amid heightened security. Continue reading... |
| Thousands march in Venezuela in honour of those killed in unrest Posted: 22 Apr 2017 09:48 PM PDT For the first time since protests began, demonstrators managed to cross to the traditionally pro-government west side of Caracas without resistance Thousands of Venezuelans dressed in white have marched in the capital to pay homage to at least 20 people killed in anti-government unrest in recent weeks. Protests have been roiling Venezuela on an almost daily basis since the pro-government supreme court stripped congress of its last powers three weeks ago, a decision later reversed amid a storm of international rebuke. Continue reading... |
| Germany's AfD party heads further right after leader suffers defeat Posted: 22 Apr 2017 06:44 PM PDT Congress delegates refuse to discuss Frauke Petry's motion to shift the rightwing anti-immigrant party into the 'mainstream' The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) looks set to turn further right after its co-leader, who has struck a more moderate tone of late, suffered a defeat when delegates refused to discuss her motion to shift the party into the "mainstream". Support for the party, which attacks the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, for having allowed more than a million migrants into Germany in the last two years, has tumbled in recent months after reaching the mid-teens in opinion polls last year. Continue reading... |
| French polls show populist fever is here to stay as globalisation makes voters pick new sides Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:03 PM PDT Rift between global market's winners and losers has replaced the old left-right split All over Europe and the US, the populist dynamic is surfing on two basic trends: the demise of the traditional middle classes and the emergence of a multicultural society. The populist fever that has seized France, the UK and the US is consequently here to stay, reflecting a profound shift in western society and heralding political re-alignment along new social, territorial and cultural faultlines. One of the forces driving the populist dynamic is the gradual sapping of the social categories which used to form the basis of the middle classes. In France, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and the US the same people – blue- and white-collar workers, intermediate occupations and farmers – are joining the populist revolt. Moreover, this movement started long ago. Support for Trump is rooted in the rise of financial capitalism which started during the Clinton era. Brexit goes back to the rollback of industry initiated by Thatcher. In France, the (far-right) Front National (FN) began gaining momentum when heavy industry went into decline in the 1980s. Continue reading... |
| American Airlines employee clashes with passenger – video Posted: 22 Apr 2017 06:01 AM PDT A video posted on Facebook on Friday shows a woman in tears and a flight attendant in a confrontation with a passenger after an argument over a pushchair. Surain Adyanthaya, who shot the video on the aircraft bound for Dallas from San Francisco, said the incident occurred after the employee took a child's buggy from a woman, hitting her with it and narrowly missing her child Continue reading... |
| Trump's 25 executive orders in 100 days: more cosmetic than substantive Posted: 23 Apr 2017 12:00 AM PDT The president's 25 executive orders, 24 memoranda and 20 proclamations establish big goals, but few provide legislative prescriptions Since taking office on 20 January, Donald Trump has rolled out dozens of executive orders – aiming to fulfil a campaign pledge to undo what he called his predecessor's "unconstitutional" acts and take unilateral action on the economy and immigration. Related: Donald Trump's first 100 days as president – daily updates Continue reading... |
| Ten of the best March for Science signs – in pictures Posted: 22 Apr 2017 10:11 AM PDT Hundreds of thousands of climate researchers, oceanographers, bird watchers and other supporters of science rallied in marches around the world on Saturday, in an attempt to bolster scientists' increasingly precarious status with politicians. Continue reading... |
| Pence and Turnbull call on China to put pressure on North Korea – video Posted: 21 Apr 2017 07:14 PM PDT US vice-president Mike Pence says all options including military action are ' on the table' to deal with the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons. Pence spoke in Sydney on Friday with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who echoes Pence's position, saying that China needs to 'step up' Continue reading... |
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