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Archives Revue de presse - 2019

21 March 2019 - Justin Trudeau under pressure as MPs continue to quit

Publié par nsharma le 21/03/2019

Celina Caesar-Chavannes quits Liberal caucus, will sit as independent MP

The Canadian Press (The Globe and Mail, 20/03/2019)

Celina Caesar-Chavannes has informed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that she’s leaving the federal Liberal caucus and will sit as an independent MP.

The Whitby, Ont., MP has been a vocal supporter of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, two cabinet ministers who resigned over the SNC-Lavalin affair.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail last week, she also accused Trudeau of yelling at her angrily when she informed him that she would not be seeking re-election this fall – an accusation the Prime Minister’s Office has denied.

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Trudeau Wasn't 'Hostile' Towards Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, PMO Says

The Canadian Press (The Huffington Post, 09/03/2019)

A spokesman for the prime minister's office says Justin Trudeau had "emotional" conversations with Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, but denies her claims the encounters were "hostile" or that Trudeau yelled at her.

Caesar-Chavannes told the Globe and Mail in an interview Trudeau was angry when she told him on Feb. 12 of her plans to announce she was not reoffering in the October federal election.

She alleges he yelled at her in that conversation and that she responded by shouting back at him, and says the prime minister later apologized.

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LILLEY: Trudeau continues to have problems with women, and the truth

Brian Lilley (Toronto Sun, 20/03/2019)

Justin Trudeau continues to have problems with women in his Liberal caucus.

On Wednesday, Trudeau lost another prominent woman as Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes announced that she would leave the Liberal caucus and sit as an independent until she leaves Parliament come the election in October.

Caesar-Chavannes had previously announced that she would not run in the next election.

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Canada's Trudeau under pressure as MP quits, budget criticized

David Ljunggren and Fergal Smith, Reuters (Euronews, 21/03/2019)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remained under pressure over a corruption scandal on Wednesday as a legislator quit his party's caucus and a pre-election budget aimed at swaying key voters appeared to offer too little to stem the tide of negative news.

The budget - the last before federal elections in October - lavished new spending on middle-class voters but ignored corporations. It also provided a little for key groups such as millennial voters who backed Trudeau in droves in Canada's 2015 election.

The decision by a legislator, who had defended a former minister at the centre of a political scandal, to quit the ruling Liberal Party and sit as an independent dealt a fresh blow to Trudeau's embattled government.

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22 March 2019 - Descendant of slave sues Harvard for profiting from photos of ancestor

Publié par nsharma le 22/03/2019

Harvard sued by 'descendant of slave for profiting from photos'

(BBC, 21/03/2019)

The pictures, commissioned in 1850 by a professor seeking to prove that blacks were an inferior species, is believed to among the first photos of US slaves.

Tamara Lanier's lawsuit says the school is "perpetuating the systematic subversion of black property rights".

It comes as several US universities grapple with their racist histories.

Harvard spokesman Jonathan Swain told the Associated Press the university "has not yet been served, and with that is in no position to comment on this complaint".

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Who is Renty? The story of the slave whose photos have triggered a lawsuit against Harvard

Joey Garrison (USA TODAY, 22/03/2019)

Tamara Lanier looked at the photo for the first time, finally putting a face to the man she knew as "Papa Renty."

For years, she heard the stories that her late mother told about their slave ancestor. Lanier promised she would one day write them down and create a family tree.

And here he was – gray-haired and bare-chested, staring defiantly straight ahead in a photo known as a daguerreotype.

"It was almost like we made eye contact," Lanier said. "It was an immediate feeling of kinship."

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Harvard profited from slave photos that belong to descendants, lawsuit says

Associated Press in Boston (The Guardian, 20/03/2019)

Harvard University “shamelessly” turned a profit from photos of two 19th-century slaves while ignoring requests to turn the photos over to the slaves’ descendants, a lawsuit alleges.

Tamara Lanier, of Norwich, Connecticut, is suing the Ivy League school for “wrongful seizure, possession and expropriation” of images she said depict two of her ancestors. Her suit, filed in Massachusetts state court, demands Harvard immediately turn over the photos, acknowledge her ancestry and pay an unspecified sum in damages.

“These photographs make it clear that Harvard benefited from slavery then and continues to benefit now,” said the civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, one of Lanier’s lawyers. “By my calculation, Renty is 169 years a slave. When will Harvard finally set him free?”

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Reparations for slavery necessary, and long overdue

Joyce Ferriabough Bolling (Boston Herald, 22/03/2019) 

I am a die-hard fan of “Finding Your Roots,” the Emmy and Peabody award winning PBS show by my friend and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. For most of the African-American celebrities featured on the show, unless their ancestors were born “free” or they had some white lineage on one side of the family tree, the heritage trail abruptly ends. Ship manifests and census tracts often did not count slaves, who were not seen as human beings but as little more than chattel and property.

I am always elated, along with the guest celebrity, when a slave ancestor defies expectations by overcoming obstacles — like being the first to own land or a business or helping to build whole communities that prospered.

I applaud Tamara Lanier for her effort to reclaim her family’s dignity by suing Harvard University for using pictures of her slave ancestors in studies conducted under their auspices to prove blacks were inferior to whites and profiting from their use. I am sure the Lanier family’s victory will be part redemption, part personal reparation.

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25 March 2019 - Mueller report clears Trump of conspiring with Russia

Publié par nsharma le 25/03/2019

Mueller report: Trump cleared of conspiring with Russia

(BBC, 25/03/2019)

US President Donald Trump's campaign did not conspire with Russia during the 2016 election, a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report says.

However, the summary submitted to Congress by Attorney General William Barr is inconclusive as to whether Mr Trump illegally obstructed justice.

On Sunday, Mr Trump responded: "No collusion, No obstruction. Complete and total exoneration."

Opposition Democrats are demanding full access to the Mueller report.

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No, Mueller’s report is not a ‘total exoneration’ for Trump

The Times Editorial Board (Los Angeles Times, 24/03/2019)

President Trump and his defenders are understandably exulting now that the Justice Department has released a summary of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s principal conclusions about his investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election. But, all too characteristically, the president is portraying Mueller’s findings as a “total exoneration.” It’s no such thing.

The summary of Mueller’s conclusions came in a letter Atty. Gen. William Barr sent to Congress Sunday. According to Barr, Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign “conspired or coordinated with” the Russian government or a Russian “troll farm” in two notorious operations: the social-media disinformation campaign launched by the Internet Research Agency and the hacking of Democratic email accounts and the release of embarrassing emails via WikiLeaks.

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We should all be celebrating the collapse of Hillary’s big lie

Michael Goodwin (New York Post, 24/03/2019)

Stick a fork in impeachment. It’s dead.

Victory doesn’t get any sweeter for the winners. Or more important for our country.

The results of the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller are a tremendous vindication for President Trump and the many millions of Americans who never doubted his innocence. The findings prove, once and for all time, that he won the 2016 election fair and square.

Let me repeat the point: It is now a fact beyond any doubt whatsoever that Donald Trump is the legitimate 45th president of the United States.

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Explainer: Why an obstruction case against Trump was so difficult

Jan Wolfe (Reuters, 25/03/2019)

Barr sent a four-page letter to congressional leaders summarizing a report by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller handed in on Friday, which remains confidential.

Mueller was appointed to investigate whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election and to probe whether the president later unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe.

Mueller vindicated Trump on the core question of Russian collusion, writing in his report that “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” according to Barr’s letter.

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Mueller probe: A timeline from beginning to end

Olivia Beavers, Jacqueline Thomsen and Brett Samuels (The Hill, 24/03/2019)

Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin has come to an end after 22 months.

The special counsel's investigation implicated six former Trump associates and more than two dozen Russian nationals and entities. It ultimately did not explicitly allege the president committed a crime, and did not uncover evidence of collusion.

Here's a full timeline of Mueller's investigation, which captivated the nation's capital for nearly two years and promises to influence the months to come.

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26 March 2019 - Two Parkland survivors and a Sandy Hook victim’s father commit suicide within a week

Publié par nsharma le 26/03/2019

2 Parkland students and a Sandy Hook father died in a week from apparent suicides

Madison Park (CNN, 26/03/2019)

In a span of a week, there have been three suicides that shared a connection.

Two were young survivors of the massacre at the school in Parkland, Florida, and one was a parent of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. The two communities are facing a new facet of grief after three people connected to the shootings took their own lives in a matter of days.

Here's a look at their stories.

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Pain never ended for two school massacre survivors and a victim's dad

(The Sydney Morning Herald, 26/03/2019)

Tragedies such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and Sandy Hook Elementary school massacres eventually fade from view, blunted by other mass shootings and the passage of time. But for the survivors, the pain can never end.

The father of a Sandy Hook victim killed himself Monday, just days after two Stoneman Douglas students also took their lives. The Florida deaths have officials in Parkland and nearby Coral Springs renewing their communities' focus on the suicide prevention and mental health resources that remain available 13 months after a gunman killed 17 people at the high school.

In Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 first-graders died along with six staff members six years ago, the body of 49-year-old Jeremy Richman was found outside his office Monday morning.

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The Psychological Aftermath of Surviving School Shootings

Jared Keller (Pacific Standard, 25/03/2019)

Both were students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during the February 14th, 2018, shooting that left 17 people dead. Both survived the school shooting—the deadliest since the Columbine High School massacre. Now, both are dead of suicide within a single week.

Sydney Aiello, a 19-year-old Parkland graduate, killed herself with a gunshot wound to the head last weekend, the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office told NBC News. Her family told CBS Miami that Aiello had struggled with college because classrooms scared her and she had survivor's guilt following the death of her friend in the shooting.

A week later, on March 23rd, the Coral Springs Police Department announced that a current Stoneman Douglas sophomore (whose name remains unreleased at this time) had died in an "apparent suicide."

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Two Parkland Suicides Highlight the Lasting Impact of Trauma. Here's How Parents and Teachers Can Help Teens Who Are Struggling

Jamie Ducharme and Katie Reilly (Time, 25/03/2019)

A pair of recent suicide deaths in Parkland, Fla., serve as a stark reminder of the lingering effects of trauma — and underscore the importance of providing long-term support to those who are living with its consequences.

Just days after 19-year-old Sydney Aiello, who survived the mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year, died by suicide, police confirmed that an unnamed current student at the high school had also died by “apparent suicide.” Police did not release details about the second Parkland student’s death or say whether they were enrolled at the school during last year’s rampage, but Aiello’s family has spoken openly about the survivor’s guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) they say she suffered after the tragedy — highlighting the lasting consequences of mass traumas that have become all too common.

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Suicide Contagion Or “Copycat Suicides” Are A Public Health Issue, & Approaching The Issue With Nuance Is Important

Melanie Mignucci (Bustle, 25/03/2019)

Following the news that two survivors of the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, died by suicide within a week of each other, it was reported that the father of a victim of the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, died by suicide on March 25. Jeremy Richman, the father of Avielle Richman, had founded a nonprofit with his wife, Jennifer Hensel, that supported research on the neurological foundations of violent behavior, the New York Times reported, after their daughter’s death by gun violence. The news of these three deaths of people affected by mass violence has many concerned about suicide contagion, or the idea that news about suicide could “inspire” others to attempt suicide themselves. But suicidologists say that it’s important to understand these issues in the context of public health.

“The public needs to understand that we don't have much research about suicide,” April Foreman, a psychologist and board member of American Association of Suicidology, tells Bustle. “We have even less research about suicide clusters and contagion. There's just so little that we know.”

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29 March 2019 - Pete Buttigieg: the promising new presidential candidate of Democrats?

Publié par nsharma le 29/03/2019

Pete Buttigieg just got his best national poll so far

Harry Enten (CNN, 28/09/2019)

The Mayor Pete Buttigieg mini-boomlet has officially arrived.

Buttigieg just scored his highest Democratic primary national poll number to date at 4% of Democrats and Democratic leaning registered voters, according to Quinnipiac University. That easily beats his old high of 1% in a live interview national poll. A jump of 3 points may not seem like a lot, but, because the margin of error shrinks significantly the closer you get to 0, the move from 1% to 4% is likely statistically significant.

Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to lead the Democratic field in the Quinnipiac poll at 29%, with Sen. Bernie Sanders at 19%, former US Rep. Beto O'Rourke at 12% and Sen. Kamala Harris in fourth at 8%.

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Pete Buttigieg: Everything you need to know about the 2020 candidate

Shannon Vavra (Axios, 27/03/2019)

If elected, Pete Buttigieg (boot-a-judge, also known as “Mayor Pete”), the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would be the youngest U.S. president ever. He also would be the first openly gay president in the nation's history. Buttigieg came out publicly in an essay in the South Bend Tribune during his re-election campaign in 2015.

Key facts about Buttigieg
 
Age: 37
Born: South Bend, Indiana
Undergraduate: Harvard University

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An abortion clinic is suing to open in Pete Buttigieg’s city. It could test his skills on a national stage.

Anna North (Vox, 27/03/2019)

Whole Woman’s Health Alliance has been trying to open an abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana, for more than a year.

The nonprofit applied for a license from the Indiana State Department of Health in August 2017, but officials denied the request. Since then, Whole Woman’s Health Alliance has been battling opposition from the department that it says is motivated by anti-abortion politics, not concern for the health of patients in Indiana, where state legislators have passed increasingly restrictive abortion laws in recent years.

Now the group is suing, and the controversy could put a spotlight on the abortion views of South Bend mayor and buzzy presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

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How Pete Buttigieg could use Chick-fil-A to bring America together

Madeline Fry (Washington Examiner, 26/03/2019)

Pete Buttigieg isn’t a middle child, but he kind of seems like one. The South Bend, Ind., mayor and presidential hopeful is soft-spoken, underrated, and conciliatory. If there’s anyone who knows how to bridge the gap between two sides, it may be him.

He’s a long shot for the Democratic presidential nomination, but his time in the public eye has already been good for America.

One example of this comes from an unlikely source: a conversation about chicken. During a radio interview on Tuesday, Buttigieg said he could make peace with Chick-fil-A.

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02 April 2019 - New bill may introduce ban on religious symbols in Quebec

Publié par nsharma le 02/04/2019

Quebec's religious symbol ban targets minorities in the name of secularism

Martin Patriquin (The Guardian, 31/03/2019)

The government of Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province, wishes to assure everyone that its newly proposed religious symbol ban doesn’t target hijabs, kippa, kirpans and the like. Rather, by outlawing the wearing of such accoutrements by certain government workers, it is ensuring that those who police streets, judge defendants, guard prisoners and teach children do not betray even a modicum of faith to those in their care – “a concrete affirmation that the Quebec state is secular”, as Quebec’s immigration minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, put it recently.

It is an almost laughable conceit. In reality, the proposed law, which the government tacitly admits contravenes Quebec’s own charter of rights and freedoms, is the fruit of over a decade of institutionalized animus directed towards Quebec’s religious minorities on the part of its political class. As such, it will disproportionately affect these religious minorities, who already face discrimination and outsized unemployment rates compared to their white, largely lapsed Catholic brethren.

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CAQ's secularism bill elicits mixed responses in multicultural Montreal

René Bruemmer (Montreal Gazette, 29/03/2019)

On the multicultural streets of Park Extension, where turbans and hijabs have abounded for decades, the Legault government’s proposed law was met with derision, and the fear that it would stoke violence where before there has always been acceptance.

“I am brown and you are white, and we are all God’s creations, we are all human beings,” said Qurban Ali, a Pakistani Muslim who has lived in the neighbourhood for 34 years. “We are all the same, and we should just let people be. Why do you need to bother with people’s religion?”

Canada’s template of allowing people to exhibit their beliefs in a respectful manner works, Ali said. In Pakistan, there are the few who grow long beards and spout religious dogma and cause dissension. “We don’t like them. They are fanatics. And what this government is trying to do speaks of fanaticism.”

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Ban on wearing religious symbols is 'moderate', says Quebec premier

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press (National Post, 31/03/2019)

The Quebec government is taking a moderate approach to secularism that does not violate freedom of religion, Premier Francois Legault said Sunday as he defended his government’s controversial bill to ban the wearing of religious symbols for some public sector employees.

Legault also defended his government’s use of the notwithstanding clause to block court challenges, calling it a “legitimate tool” that has been used by other Quebec premiers.

In a three-minute video released to his social media channels, Legault said Bill 21 provides a much-needed framework around an ongoing social debate.

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McGill philosopher adds voice to chorus of criticism against Quebec’s secularism bill

Ingrid Peritz (The Globe and Mail, 29/03/2019)

The co-author of a seminal report on religious accommodations in Quebec says the government’s new secularism bill is an “awful, deplorable” piece of legislation that will “poison the atmosphere” in the province.

Charles Taylor, a philosopher at McGill University in Montreal, joined his voice to a chorus of criticism against the proposed law, which would bar authority figures from wearing hijabs, skullcaps, turbans and other displays of faith.

While the legislation appears to have popular support, opposition is already fierce. Among those staking positions against it are Amnesty International, women’s groups, teachers’ unions, Muslim organizations, the mayor of Montreal, civil liberties associations and interfaith coalitions.

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04 April 2019 - Chicago elects its first openly gay black mayor

Publié par nsharma le 04/04/2019

Chicago makes history by electing black woman as mayor

The Associated Press (CBC, 02/04/2019)

Political newcomer Lori Lightfoot has been elected mayor of  Chicago, becoming the first black female — and openly gay — leader of the city.

Lightfoot easily defeated Toni Preckwinkle, a former school teacher who served in the City Council for 19 years before becoming Cook County Board president in 2011.

The 56-year-old Lightfoot is a former federal prosecutor who campaigned on ridding Chicago's government of corruption. She also said she wanted to help low-income and working-class people she believes have been "left behind and ignored" by Chicago's political ruling class.

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Lightfoot’s win stirs hope for change in a divided Chicago

Sara Burnett And Corey Williams, The Associated Press (The Star, 03/04/2019)

Lori Lightfoot’s victory in the Chicago mayor’s race signalled hope among voters that the nation’s third-largest city may someday move beyond long-entrenched divides, racial and otherwise, that have left large parts of the metropolis feeling ignored by people in power.

Lightfoot became the city’s first black female and first openly gay mayor when she defeated another black woman, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, in Tuesday’s election. She joins Chicago’s top prosecutor and police chief as black leaders in a city that continues to struggle with race relations.

But the significance of her win also transcended race or gender. Lightfoot was the outsider, a little-known former federal prosecutor who grew up in Ohio and had never been elected to public office, much less climbed through the ranks of Chicago’s Democratic machine.

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GOP commentator says Lightfoot's victory as Chicago mayor means 'absolutely nothing'

Tess Bonn (The Hill, 04/04/2019)

Conservative commentator Paris Dennard told Hill.TV Wednesday that Lori Lightfoot's (D) election as Chicago’s first black woman mayor means “absolutely nothing" for the city.

“Absolutely nothing — kudos, congratulations to Lightfoot,” Dennard, who is on President Trump’s 2020 reelection advisory board, said during a panel discussion.

Lightfoot will also be the city's first openly gay mayor.

“Chicago is run by Democrats and have been run by liberals for many, many years and they are suffering because of that,” Dennard said, pointing to the city’s struggles with crime and violence. “I think the Chicago residents would benefit from having the ideas and debate and conservative principles … when you look at education and crime across the board."

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Lori Lightfoot Promised Change as Chicago Mayor. Now Comes the Hard Part.

Mitch Smith, Julie Bosman and Monica Davey (The New York Times, 03/04/2019)

Lori Lightfoot, a political novice, swept into Chicago’s City Hall in staggering style, winning 73 percent of the vote and sending a deafening message to the political veteran she had defeated. She pronounced the results a “broad mandate for change.” She promised to break the city’s endless cycle of corruption. She pledged to remake Chicago.

“Thriving, prosperous, better, stronger, fairer — for everyone,” Ms. Lightfoot said, beaming from a microphone in the hours after the votes were cast.

But this is Chicago, a city that is vast, complex, set in its ways and full of problems that are now Ms. Lightfoot’s to solve.

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05 April 2019 - Is Brexit affecting mental health in the UK?

Publié par nsharma le 05/04/2019

How Brexit is affecting mental health

(The Week, 13/03/2019)

The limbo of an uncertain Brexit is damaging not only the nation’s economy but also the mental well-being of its people, according to health experts. 

Uncertainty over the future of businesses in Britain and the rights and status of EU nationals following the UK’s scheduled departure from the bloc have contributed to the malaise. And the situation has become even more chaotic following the defeat of Theresa May’s Brexit deal in a Commons vote this week.

The founder of the In Limbo project, which seeks to represent EU nationals in Britain, told The Independent that there had been an increase in the number of people expressing suicidal thoughts on the group’s Facebook page.

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Brexit STRAIN: Dragged out EU exit is a ‘BREEDING GROUND’ for mental health issues

Alice Scarsi (Express, 23/03/2019)

Brexit is putting strain on the mental health of many in Great Britain, as well as British expats living in the European Union. The prolonged uncertainty surrounding the future relationship between Brussels and London, as well as the lack of control voters have over such a disruptive process, are triggers for mental health issues, according to expert Noel McDermott.

And it comes as the EU exit faces being dragged out for weeks, or maybe even years, more.

The mental health expert explained fear, uncertainty, stress and conflict can destabilise an individual’s mental wellbeing - and the three-year-long Brexit process evokes in many some or all of these feelings.

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Six in 10 Britons say Brexit uncertainty bad for mental health

Peter Walker (The Guardian, 02/04/2019)

The depth of British anxiety over Brexit has been revealed by research showing that more than six in 10 people believe the ongoing uncertainty is bad for mental health.

A poll of 2,004 people carried out late last week by the research company Britain Thinks found that a significant majority of the public are bored and confused by the Brexit process and have very little trust in politicians to sort it out.

It found that 83% of people were sick of seeing Brexit on the news every day, 64% believed the attendant anxiety was bad for people’s mental health, and more than two-thirds felt Brexit became more confusing the more they heard about it.

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Civil servants offered counselling for no-deal Brexit stress

Joe Miller (BBC, 04/04/2019)

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spent £40,000 on counselling services in London, York and Bristol.

The surgeries were primarily for those working on "emergency preparedness in case of a no deal scenario".

The government said the well-being of its staff was "always a priority".

The three-month contract, which was awarded to Gloucester-based employee assistance firm Care First, was brought to the BBC's attention by the data firm Tussell.

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Brexit stress has caused one MP to lose 4inches from his waist

Claire Gilbody-Dickerson (Metro, 03/04/2019)

Huw Merriman, who represents Bexhill and Battle, said he has lost four inches from his waistline and has started seeing a therapist to deal with the volley of abuse directed at him from Brexiteers. Merriman, who is Chancellor Philip Hammond’s parliamentary private secretary, told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘I’ve lost a lot of weight. I’ve gone from over a 34 to almost under a 30 now, and that’s purely down to what’s going on.’

The MP, who backed a confirmatory referendum on any final Brexit deal during indicative votes on Monday night, said: ‘Today I’m getting a heck of a lot of abuse because of the way I voted yesterday, even though I tried to explain the way I voted.

Mr Merriman made the remarks this morning after yet another parliamentary attempt to agree an alternative to Theresa May’s Brexit deal failed.

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08 April 2019 - Secretary of Homeland Security Resigns from Trump’s administration

Publié par nsharma le 08/04/2019

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigns

Diane Bartz and Patricia Zengerle (The Globe and Mail, 07/04/2019)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw President Donald Trump’s bitterly contested immigration policies during her tumultuous 16-month tenure, resigned on Sunday amid a surge in the number of migrants at the border with Mexico.

A senior administration official said Trump asked for Nielsen’s resignation and she gave it.

Trump, who has recently expressed growing anger about the situation at the border, said on Twitter: “Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service.”

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Democrats Sound Off On Kirstjen Nielsen’s Resignation: ‘About Time’ She Left

Amy Russo (The Huffington Post, 07/04/2019)

Immediately following President Donald Trump’s announcement that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was resigning, Democrats doubled down on their criticism of the official, recalling her past defense of the administration’s policy of separating migrant families seeking asylum at the southern U.S. border.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would replace Nielsen as acting secretary.

While certain lawmakers said it was time for her to go, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) identified her departure as a sign that Trump’s own staffers “aren’t radical enough” to suit his positions.

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Kirstjen Nielsen Enforced Cruelty at the Border. Her Replacement Could Be Worse.

The Editorial Board (New York Times, 07/04/2019)

Time finally ran out for Kirstjen Nielsen, President Trump’s beleaguered secretary of homeland security.

The terms of Ms. Nielsen’s departure were unclear. She met with the president on Sunday evening to discuss continuing problems at the southern border. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Ms. Nielsen “will be leaving her position” and thanked her for her service, implying he had asked her to step down. Ms. Nielsen issued a formal letter of resignation, saying it was the “right time for me to step aside.” Considering the long-simmering tensions between the president and Ms. Nielsen, the most surprising thing about her departure may be that it didn’t happen months ago.

She was said to have become increasingly insecure in her job in recent weeks, as Mr. Trump repeatedly railed about the chaos at the border and vowed to move in a “tougher” direction. The president grew impatient with Ms. Nielsen’s insistence that federal law and international obligations limited her actions.

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Kirstjen Nielsen: Walking a tightrope working for Trump

Tara McKelvey (BBC, 18/03/2019)

During a House homeland security hearing on 6 March, Ms Nielsen said that border agents do not put children in cages in detention facilities. She explained: "If you mean a cage like this." She raised her hands above her head and drew an outline of a small, rectangular-shaped dog kennel.

Democrats disagreed. Regardless of the size of the wire-enclosed areas where children were held, the contraptions were still cages, said Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey.

Ms Nielsen acted as an unwavering advocate for the president's "zero tolerance" border policy and for other measures during the hearing. She expressed staunch support for his national emergency and his wall and said she was working to ensure that the nation's borders were fully secure.

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These are people who've been fired or resigned from Trump's White House

Thomson Reuters (CBC, 08/12/2018)

U.S. President Donald Trump's White House has had the highest turnover of senior-level staff of the past five presidents, according to figures compiled by the Brookings Institution think-tank.

And the number of those leaving the West Wing may still grow.

Here are some senior figures who have been fired or quit the administration since Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.

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09 April 2019 - Queerbaiting: Ariana Grande’s song accused of manipulating the gay community

Publié par nsharma le 09/04/2019

Queerbaiting - exploitation or a sign of progress?

Holly Honderich (BBC News, 08/04/2019)

Grande's new song, a collaboration with friend Victoria Monét dubbed Monopoly, claimed the number one spot on the iTunes chart 24 hours after its release.

But a particular lyric, in which Grande sings of liking "women and men" has added scrutiny to the customary buzz that now follows the American singer.

Some fans have celebrated it as an expression of bisexuality. Others, however, have levelled charges of queerbaiting, which is the practice of using hints of sexual ambiguity to tease an audience.

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Ariana Grande’s ‘MONOPOLY’: Queer-baiting or Self-affirming?

Tadhg Larabee (The Crimson, 09/04/2019)

Ariana Grande and Victoria Monét’s new single “MONOPOLY” is the kind of song you can play over and over again and never get sick of. This infectiousness is the strength of Grande’s sparkling and swaggering pop-rap anthem — the latest iteration of the formula that produced smash hits “7 rings” and “thank u, next.”

“MONOPOLY” is a piece of polished pop machinery that’s easy on the ears. Unlike many mainstream rap songs, its dominant sounds are not thumping bass or gaudy samples; instead, the track rests on a soft bed of compressed drums, wispy organs, and an occasional playful glockenspiel. This sparse and unsurprising beat gives “MONOPOLY” a subtle scent of the prepackaged cheerfulness concocted in a boardroom. Despite this, its music video gives the track an air of authentic celebration in which Grande and Monét joke around in front of a vintage camcorder and make surprisingly un-forced references to online culture.

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Ariana Grande has been exploiting minority identities for years

Liyanga de Silva (The Diamondback, 09/04/2019)

Ariana Grande, known for her catchy music and iconic high ponytail, has quickly become one of the most famous musical artists in the world today. Despite her enduring popularity, there are plenty of reasons to say “thank u, next” to the pop star.

Let’s start with Grande’s willingness to use queerbaiting — the teasing of a queer romance or identity without actually showing it to draw in LGBTQ audiences. This is perhaps most prominent in the music video for Grande’s song “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored,” where she comes very close to kissing another woman.

There was plenty of backlash against this, most of which I agree with. This is queerbaiting in every sense of the word — instead of committing to any kind of queer identity, Grande capitalizes off the hypersexualization of queer women. She also recklessly draws on the stereotype of bisexual people being more likely to cheat in relationships.

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Why Everyone Is Obsessed With Ariana Grande's Bicurious Songs

Gabrielle Alexa (Broadly., 05/04/2019)

I didn’t believe Ariana Grande was coming out, and that’s OK. On the pop star’s latest song, “Monopoly,” some speculated that the singer subtly came out as bisexual with the lyrics, “I like women and men (yeah)” after months of discussion about who and when she would start dating, following a very public breakup. The song also dropped on April 1, amidst doctored pregnancy announcements and marketing gags on April Fool’s Day, so who wouldn’t be a little skeptical?

Now that the smoke has cleared and we can trust the internet slightly more than on the first of April, fans are still questioning Grande’s truthfulness. Many responding to “Monopoly” believe she’s guilty of queerbaiting, hinting at queerness to appeal to the LGBT community but not actually presenting it so that her heterosexual audience remains intact. The same critique was made when she dropped the “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” music video a month ago. Grande teases us with a queer storyline, flirting with a strikingly similar-looking woman only to repackage it as a metaphor for self love later. Understandably, people were pissed.

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11 April 2019 - Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange arrested from Ecuador embassy in London

Publié par nsharma le 11/04/2019

Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder arrested in London

(BBC News, 11/04/2019)

Mr Assange took refuge in the embassy seven years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.

The Met Police said he was arrested for failing to surrender to the court and following a US extradition request.

Ecuador's president said it withdrew his asylum after repeated violations of international conventions.

But Wikileaks tweeted that Ecuador had acted illegally in terminating Mr Assange's political asylum "in violation of international law".

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Julian Assange's arrest a 'dark moment for press freedom', says fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden

George Martin, Mailonline (Daily Mail, 11/04/2019)

US whistleblower Edward Snowden has warned the arrest of Julian Assange is a 'dark moment for press freedom'. 

WikiLeaks founder Assange, 47, was arrested by police in London this morning after Ecuador dramatically withdrew his political asylum seven years after he first entered the embassy.

Soon after his arrest, Snowden tweeted: 'Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the UK's secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of-like it or not-award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books.

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Julian Assange arrest: Ecuadorian embassy guest caused an unexpected rift between countries

Catherine Philp, Diplomatic correspondent (The Times, 11/04/2019)

Little had ever troubled relations between Britain and Ecuador until Julian Assange took up residence in the Ecuadorian embassy.

His decision to seek political asylum there in 2012, and Ecuador’s decision to grant it, plunged diplomatic relations to an unexpected low.

Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president at the time, welcomed Mr Assange as an anti-establishment hero to burnish his left-wing populist credentials, inviting him to live in his country.

Ricardo Patiño, the foreign minister at the time, praised Mr Assange’s “dedicated defence of freedom of expression”. He said that the Wikileaks founder was right to fear persecution by the United States.

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How the Trump Administration Stepped Up Pursuit of WikiLeaks’s Assange

Please note: this article was published in 2018
Julian E. Barnes, Adam Goldman and Charlie Savage (The New York Times, 16/11/2018)

Soon after he took over as C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo privately told lawmakers about a new target for American spies: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.

Intent on finding out more about Mr. Assange’s dealings with Russian intelligence, the C.I.A. began last year to conduct traditional espionage against the organization, according to American officials. At the same time, federal law enforcement officials were reconsidering Mr. Assange’s designation as a journalist and debating whether to charge him with a crime.

Mr. Pompeo and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions unleashed an aggressive campaign against Mr. Assange, reversing an Obama-era view of WikiLeaks as a journalistic entity. 

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Assange is a scapegoat, distraction for scandal-ridden Ecuadorian government

Pablo Vivanco (RT, 11/04/2019)

As he faces a major corruption probe, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno is preparing to meet another demand from Washington by booting WikiLeaks journalist Julian Assange out of Ecuador’s embassy in London.

Times were different when the WikiLeaks founder walked into Ecuador’s London embassy seeking asylum in 2012.

Fearing that his native Australia wouldn’t protect him from extradition to the United States, where he faces imprisonment or even execution, Assange appealed to Ecuador’s then-president Rafael Correa to grant him refuge from “political persecution.”

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12 April 2019 - Brexit deadline extended (yet again) to 31st October

Publié par nsharma le 12/04/2019

EU agrees to delay Brexit deadline until end of October: officials

Elizabeth Piper, Gabriela Baczynska, Alastair Macdonald (Global News, 10/04/2019)

European Union leaders gave Britain six more months to leave the bloc, more than Prime Minister Theresa May says she needs but less than many in the bloc wanted, thanks to fierce resistance from France.

The summit deal in Brussels in the early hours of Thursday meant Britain will not crash out on Friday without a treaty to smooth its passage. But it offers little clarity on when, how or even if Brexit will happen, as May struggles to build support in parliament for withdrawal terms agreed with the EU last year.

With German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisting that Britain would not be forced out and that a chaotic no-deal departure must be avoided if at all possible, there was never any real doubt that May would get an extension.

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Brexit: What will six-month extension mean? Short and long story

Rob Watson, UK political correspondent (BBC, 11/04/2019)

By extending the Brexit deadline to 31 October, they have prompted headlines of "Halloween Brexit" and fuelled controversy over UK participation in next month's European elections.

So what will happen next? I've boiled it down to a short summary - and a longer analysis.

With the clock ticking again, Theresa May wants Parliament to finally agree on the UK's withdrawal from the EU preferably before 23 May, to avoid the UK taking part in elections to the European Parliament.

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'It's a Halloween Brexit': European media's verdict on latest delay

John Henley (The Guardian, 11/04/2019)

Halloween might look like a fitting date for the end of the Brexit horror story, European media said, but Britain was by no means certain to leave the EU even then – and in any case, the damage had already been done.

“‘Brexit means Brexit’, as Theresa May repeated for so long?” said France’s Libération. “Not really. You have to ask whether the UK will ever leave. The prime minister won a new delay from her EU partners: to 31 October. The date is not a very good omen … ”

But whether Britain leaves in the autumn, or before, or not at all, the paper said, the “increasingly incomprehensible waltz of exit dates shows it has already succeeded in exporting its byzantine internal battles to Brussels … This summit shattered the united front that the Europeans had maintained for so long.”

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What happens after October 31? Some in EU already imagine another Brexit delay

Gabriela Baczynska (Reuters, 11/04/2019)

The ink was not yet dry on EU leaders’ deal to give Britain a hard-fought, second delay to Brexit until November when some diplomats and officials in the bloc grudgingly conceded: This may well not be the last extension.

The Wednesday evening European Union summit ran into the wee hours of Thursday after staunch opposition from French President Emmanuel Macron to a longer postponement of Brexit swung the balance in favor of the Oct. 31 compromise.

European Commission Secretary General Martin Selmayr coined a new Twitter tag: #29MarchMeans12AprilMeans31Oct - a quip on how Britain had been due to leave the EU last month, then got a reprieve recess until Friday and now a new delay, months longer than London had sought.

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29 April 2019 - Virus is Coming: Game of Thrones downloads top threat list

Publié par nsharma le 29/04/2019

Illegally downloaded Game of Thrones episodes expose you to VIRUSES that hijack your computer

Harry Pettit (The Sun, 10/04/2019)

GAME OF THRONES fans are being targeted by cyber criminals in a vicious campaign to hijack people's computers.

Hackers are disguising viruses as illegal downloads ahead of the show's hotly anticipated final season, which airs this week.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to pirate the episodes so they don't have to shell out for pricey TV packages.

And it seems cyber criminals are jumping on the chance to scam viewers as they scour the web for downloads.

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Here's Why That Game Of Thrones Illegal Download Probably Contains Malware

Kate O'Flaherty (Forbes, 02/04/2019)

Game of Thrones season 8 is set to hit screens on 14 April and lots of people are excited. But not all Game of Thrones fans are prepared to pay the price to watch the HBO drama. So much so that the show is the world’s most torrented, according to download monitoring website TorrentFreak.

Even the Guinness Book of Records includes stats on the show, saying that one episode – the finale of season 7, aired on 27 August 2017 – was being shared across more than 400,000 torrents simultaneously.

And researchers at Kaspersky Lab have just released new information that concurs: In 2017 and 2018, Game of Thrones led the list of TV shows targeted by cyber criminals to use as a disguise for malware. 

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Game of Threats: how cybercriminals use popular TV shows to spread malware

 Kaspersky Lab (Techbizweb, 01/04/2019)

While the way we consume TV content is rapidly changing, the content itself remains in high demand, and users resort to any means available to get at it – including illegal and non-ethical ones like the use of pirated stuff. The world is embracing the idea of paying for entertainment more and more with the development of paid subscription networks like Netflix or Apple Music. Yet many countries are still fighting the battle against illegally distributed content. In December 2018, Australia’s Federal Court issued an injunctionrequiring local internet providers to block 181 pirate domains linked to 78 websites full of files infringing copyright regulations. At the beginning of 2019, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice brought on board the Federal Police of Brazil (Polícia Federal) to launch an anti-piracy operation targeting the illegal distribution of music, movies and TV shows. These are just two of the many initiatives introduced both by governments and the private sector all over the world to combat the problem.

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Is downloading really stealing? The ethics of digital piracy

(The Conversation, 29/04/2019)

Many millions of people throughout the world will illegally download the fifth season of Game of Thrones, released today by HBO. Legally speaking, what they will be doing is a violation of intellectual property rights, or “piracy”. But will they be doing anything morally wrong?

It might seem obvious that what they will do is wrong. After all, it is illegal. But there are many things that have been illegal that people don’t think are morally wrong. Same-sex relationships, divorce and many other practices that are now widely accepted as morally acceptable were once outlawed and criminally sanctioned.

Few people think they were wrong just before they were legalised. Rather, they tend to think the laws governing these behaviours were unjust. So appeal only to the illegality of downloading doesn’t settle whether it is okay, morally speaking.

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30 April 2019 - Trump withdraws from UN Arms Treaty, evoking the Second Amendment

Publié par nsharma le 30/04/2019

Donald Trump to withdraw US from Arms Trade Treaty

(BBC News, 27/04/2019)

The agreement, signed by Barack Obama in 2013, aims to regulate the sale of weapons between countries.

The US National Rifle Association says the treaty amounts to international gun control, and is a threat to America's second amendment right to bear arms.

Speaking at the lobbying group's annual meeting, Mr Trump said he would ask the US Senate not to ratify the pact.

The US is the world's top arms exporter. Its weapons sales are 58% higher than those of Russia, the world's second largest exporter.

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Trump withdraws from UN arms treaty as NRA crowd cheers

(Irish Times, 27/04/2019)

US president Donald Trump told the National Rifle Association he was pulling the United States out of an international arms treaty signed in 2013.

Mr Trump said he intends to revoke the status of the United States as a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, which was never ratified by the US Senate.

“We’re taking our signature back,” Mr Trump said to thousands of cheering attendees at a convention on Friday.

In reversing the US position on the pact, he wrote on Twitter, “We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedoms.”

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Trump’s decision to leave a global arms treaty was built on an NRA lie

Rachel Stohl, ex-consultant in Arms Trade Treaty process (The Washington Post, 29/04/2019)

President Trump announced on Friday — during a speech that pandered to special-interest groups and was symbolic of his administration’s disdain for multilateral agreements — that the United States would “unsign” the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a landmark agreement that regulates the international trade in conventional arms.

It took more than five years of negotiations to develop the ATT, and I spent those years as a consultant in the treaty process, working with diplomats to draft the text. Each word was hard-fought by U.S negotiators to ensure that it aligned with U.S. national security priorities, foreign policy goals, economic interests and long-standing American values and principles.

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Most Americans Reject Trump’s “America First” Policy

Lawrence Wittner (Counterpunch.org, 29/04/2019)

As president, Donald Trump has leaned heavily upon what he has called an “America First” policy. This nationalist approach involves walking away from cooperative agreements with other nations and relying, instead, upon a dominant role for the United States, undergirded by military might, in world affairs.

Nevertheless, as numerous recent opinion polls reveal, most Americans don’t support this policy.

The reaction of the American public to Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from key international agreements has been hostile. According to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted in early May 2018, shortly before Trump announced a pullout from the Iran nuclear agreement, 54 percent of respondents backed the agreement. Only 29 percent favored a pullout.

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EU Condemns Trump’s Withdrawal From UN Arms Trade Treaty

Abel Ogwu (Signal, 28/04/2019)

The European Union warned Saturday that US President Donald Trump’s rejection of a UN treaty designed to regulate the global arms trade would hamper the global fight against illicit weapons trafficking.

“A decision by the US to revoke its signature would not contribute to the ongoing efforts to encourage transparency in the international arms trade, to prevent illicit trafficking and to combat the diversion of conventional arms,” said the EU’s chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini.

“The EU will continue to call on all states, and in particular the major arms exporters and importers, to join the Arms Trade Treaty without delay,” she said.

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02 May 2019 - Ireland plans to increase paid paternity leave by 2 weeks

Publié par nsharma le 02/05/2019

Laois TD and Minister co-announces new parental leave scheme

(Leinster Express, 27/04/2019)

Laois TD and Minister Charlie Flanagan has co-announced a new parental leave scheme which it is claimed will allow some 60,000 parents new paid parental leave and benefit from this November.

Under the plan parents of new babies will have access to two weeks leave each – expected to rise to seven weeks each over the next three years. New legislation also aims to enable male same-sex couples to receive adoptive leave and benefit.

Parents in employment or self-employment will be able to avail of the new parental leave scheme. Ultimately, it is hoped that parents will be able to benefit from seven weeks leave each under the scheme as it develops incrementally over the next three years.

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'Dads must take paternity leave or lose new benefit,' minister warns

Kevin Doyle (Herald, 23/04/2019)

In proposals published today up to parents 60,000 will be eligible from next autumn for two weeks' paid time off.

However, Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty warned that Ireland needs "a proper conversation about the value of staying at home".

Figures show that about 60pc of men do not take the existing handouts.

Despite this she insisted the extra leave will be non-transferable - so each parent must "use it or lose it".

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Paid parental leave will help end ‘taboo’ of dads at home

Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, Political Correspondent (Irish Examiner, 23/04/2019)

Government plans to give new parents two weeks’ paid parental leave are needed to help end the “taboo” of fathers staying at home to mind their child, it has been claimed.

Regina Doherty, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, said the changes will have broad benefits for Irish society, but at the weekend, business groups claimed the time off will put financial pressure on businesses already struggling to stay afloat.

Under plans to be confirmed today, all new parents working for companies or for themselves will, from November, be given two weeks’ paid parental leave to spend with their babies in the 12 months after they are born.

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New fathers must stop making excuses and take time off to be with children, says minister

Kevin Doyle (The Independent, 23/04/2019)

New fathers need to stop making excuses for not taking time off work to spend with their children, Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty has said.

The Government will today publish legislation which will give up to 60,000 parents the opportunity to take two weeks parental leave from November.

But Ms Doherty has warned Ireland needs to have "a proper conversation about the value of staying at home".

Figures already show around 60pc of men do not avail of existing paternity benefits.

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Just making fathers take parental leave won’t solve much

Maeve McElwee (Irish Times, 02/05/2019)

Achieving greater gender balance and equality in the workforce has been a long-standing policy and economic priority. The proposed Parental Leave and Benefit Bill announced last week is a small step in the right direction in this regard.

The measure, which would introduce two additional weeks of parental leave benefit for both parents within the first 52 weeks, seeks to begin a rebalancing of the share of responsibility placed on women for the provision of childcare in our society.

The Bill, however, has not met with universal support including discordant reactions in terms of wages forgone by men taking the leave and of the costs to businesses associated with administration and absence of key employees.

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03 May 2019 - Florida passes Bill Allowing Armed Teachers in the wake of mass shootings

Publié par nsharma le 03/05/2019

Florida Lawmakers just approved a bill allowing more teachers to carry guns in schools

Curt Anderson (Time, 01/05/2019)

More Florida classroom teachers could carry guns in school under a bill passed Wednesday by state lawmakers, the latest response to last year’s mass shooting at a Parkland high school.

The Republican-led House voted 65-47 on Wednesday to send the bill to GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it. The measure expands an existing school “guardian” program to allow any teacher to volunteer to carry a weapon if their local school district approves.

“It allows the good guys to stop the bad. The bad guys will never know when the good guys are there to shoot back,” said Republican Rep. Chuck Brannan of Lake City, a retired law enforcement officer.

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Despite school boards' refusals, bill arming teachers goes to governor for signature

Briona Arradondo (FOX 13 News,01/05/2019)

Florida legislators made a bold move Wednesday, sending the School Safety Act, with a controversial component, to Governor Ron DeSantis for a signature.

The bill expands the voluntary “school guardian” program, which currently allows school staff, including teachers, to be trained and armed. The program was one of the recommendations from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, a group that met in the months following the Parkland school's massacre in 2018.

“This legislation gives us the option. It is consistent with the recommendations in the report and this will provide more, not less, protection to our children in the state of Florida,” said State Rep. Spencer Roach, (R-North Fort Myers).

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Florida to Let Teachers Carry Guns. Will Black Students Pay the Price?

Patricia Mazzei (The New York Times, 02/05/2019)

The outcome of the vote in the Florida State House this week was a foregone conclusion: A proposal to allow teachers to carry firearms in school would easily win approval.

But that did not mean the debate would not be long and emotional, as Democrats implored Republicans in the majority to consider the possible risks — one of them being teachers with guns who might represent yet another source of risk for black and Latino students.

The tension peaked when Representative Shevrin D. Jones, a Democrat who is African-American, tried unsuccessfully to pass a pair of amendments on the House floor on Tuesday aimed at protecting children from the possibility that an armed teacher in a chaotic situation could assume that a black student was a threat.

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John Lott: Armed teachers can save student lives – Don’t leave children defenseless against school shooters

John Lott (Fox News, 27/05/2019)

Twenty years after Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, in which 12 students and one teacher were killed by two students who then committed suicide, Americans are still looking for what actions to take to stop mass public shootings.

The rest of the world, where mass public shootings are actually much more common, is also looking for solutions. Russia, France, Finland and Norway are among the European countries that have experienced far more deaths per capita than the U.S. from mass public shooting attacks.

Change is slowly coming across America. For example, a growing number of states and school districts are coming to the commonsense conclusion that we should not leave our children unprotected and defenseless in their schools.

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Editorial: Teachers and school staff should be not be armed

Stampede Editorial Board (Metea Media, 01/05/2019)

The Florida Senate passed a bill that would allow administrators, teachers, and support staff to carry guns on school grounds with approval from their local school boards. Staff would be required to undertake a psychological test and a minimum of 144 hours of training, but the bill has bitterly split the state and the country.

In the wake of devastating school shootings around the country, gun rights activists have recommended allowing teachers to be armed to potentially protect themselves and their students against threats. However, more guns in school could add fuel to an already burning fire of school violence and has created a national conversation on how to best protect students.

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06 May 2019 - Australian DJ Adam Sky dies in an accident

Publié par nsharma le 06/05/2019

Australian DJ Adam Neat dies in Bali 'after crashing through glass'

Australian Associated Press (The Guardian, 06/05/2019)

An Australian DJ, Adam Neat, has died in Bali after reportedly crashing through a glass door while trying to help a stricken friend.

The 42-year-old, known professionally as Adam Sky, died while trying to help a friend who had suffered several broken bones on the Indonesian island on Saturday, his management has confirmed.

“Relatives and friends of Adam are travelling to Bali and handling all arrangements,” a statement to the producer’s Facebook page said. It asked for privacy for the family while they came to terms with the “tragic loss”.

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Adam Sky, top Australian DJ, dies in accident in Bali

(BBC News, 06/05/2019)

Australian DJ Adam Sky has died in an accident while on holiday on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The 42-year-old is said to have been badly hurt trying to help a friend who had suffered multiple injuries.

While rushing to aid her, he smashed through a glass door, causing him to suffer severe cuts and blood loss, Nine News reported.

According to the site the female friend had fallen several metres from their private terrace.

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Australian DJ's death not suspicious as family declines autopsy

James Massola and Amilia Rosa (The Sydney Morning Herald, 06/06/2019)

The family of dead Australian DJ Adam Gary Neat have declined an autopsy request from Indonesian authorities, according to South Kuta police chief Doddy Monza.

And police are not treating the death, which took place Saturday morning, as suspicious.

The 42-year-old, who is originally from Melbourne but was based in Singapore and performed under the name DJ Adam Sky, died while attempting to help his personal assistant Zoia Lukiantceva.

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Tributes flow for 'humble' Australian DJ found dead in Bali resort

(SBS News, 06/05/2019)

Australian DJ Adam Neat has died while trying to help a stricken friend after reportedly crashing through a glass door.

The 42-year-old artist, known professionally as Adam Sky, died while trying to help a friend who had suffered several broken bones on the Indonesian island on Saturday, his management has confirmed.

"Relatives and friends of Adam are travelling to Bali (on Sunday) and handling all arrangements," a statement to the producer's Facebook page said.

Read on... 

07 May 2019 - Royal Baby: Duchess Meghan Markle gives birth to a boy

Publié par nsharma le 07/05/2019

Royal baby: Congratulations pour in for Meghan and Harry

(BBC News, 07/05/2019)

The newborn was delivered at 05:26 BST on Monday, with Prince Harry saying the baby boy was "absolutely to die for".

The Palace said the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales were all "delighted with the news".

Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, was said to be "overjoyed", while former US First Lady Michelle Obama said she and Barack were "thrilled".

The baby, who has not been named yet, is seventh in line to the throne, behind the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and his children - Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis - and Prince Harry.

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Harry and Meghan’s baby will be an earl, not a prince. Here are the complicated, sexist, and historical reasons why

Joseph Brean (National Post, 06/05/2019)

The son of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was a healthy 7lb, 3oz, when he was born at 5:26 a.m. Monday. His birth does little to disrupt the line of succession to the throne, other than tucking in a new person at number seven. But it highlights some unusual aspects of royal titles and their inheritance. In front of him in line to the monarchy are five princes (Charles, William, George, Louis and Harry) and one princess (Charlotte). Unlike his cousins, however, Harry and Meghan’s newborn is merely an earl. So far. The National Post’s Joseph Brean runs through the reasons, and the future possibilities.

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Will Meghan Markle and Prince Harry raise their baby to be black?

Carla Hall (Los Angeles Times, 06/05/2019)

So, Meghan Markle, the American biracial wife of Prince Harry, did it. She managed to have their baby (a boy) on her own terms. Which is to say, at an undisclosed location — although we all know the young British royal couple has been holed up at their Windsor home with the fairy tale name of Frogmore Cottage, we don’t know where she actually gave birth — and on an undisclosed timetable. We all found out about the birth when Harry and Meghan announced it on Instagram. (Buckingham Palace announced it too.)

Nor did Meghan submit to the postpartum photo call. There will be no pictures of her making a red carpet departure from a hospital, looking preternaturally polished in full makeup and hair while wearing a dress and high heels and carrying a newborn (as her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, the wife of Prince William, did with all three of her children’s births), but who could blame her for nixing such a ridiculous ritual just hours after a grueling delivery? 

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Royal baby: Political leaders and others rush to pay tribute

Lucy Fisher (The Times, 07/05/2019)

Michelle Obama led the flood of congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The former first lady referred to them informally as Meghan and Harry, and added: “Barack and I are so thrilled for both of you and can’t wait to meet him.”

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall said they were “so pleased” at the news, as he quipped: “It is a great joy to have another grandchild; the only trouble is I don’t know how I am going to keep up with them.”

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Royal Babies, Ranked from 'Worst' to 'We Renounce Democracy; Be Our King'

River Donaghey (Vice, 06/05/2019)

Back in the late 70s—the 1770s—a group of brilliant and pretty disgusting men fought and died and eventually won the right to our nation's independence. They shook off the shackles of the British Empire, gave the finger to the tyranny of kings and queens, and collectively dreamed up the greatest democratic society the modern world had ever seen. But apparently, you can take the people out of the monarchy but you can't, uh, take the monarchy out of the people, because here we are, nearly 250 years later, watching family members fight over the Iron Throne and obsessing over the Prince of England's new royal spawn.

On Monday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first baby boy, a seven-pound, three-ounce little bundle of joy and genetics that somehow make it suitable for rule according to some archaic concepts of power, and everyone is extremely excited for the thing. 

Read on...

09 May 2019 - UN report warns that 1 million species face extinction

Publié par nsharma le 09/05/2019

One million species facing extinction, posing a risk to human well-being: UN report

Ivan Semeniuk, Science Reporter (The Globe and Mail, 06/05/2019)

Around the world, nature and the benefits it provides are in unprecedented decline – a trend that can be reversed, but only with a co-ordinated international effort and “transformative change” to the way humans draw food, water, energy and resources from the planet, a sweeping new report has found.

The report encompasses the first global assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the international body tasked with pulling together the current state of knowledge on environmental degradation and the risk it poses to humanity.

The portrait it paints is a stark one, including an estimated one million species of plants and animals facing extinction, many within a matter of decades, under a business-as-usual scenario.

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Nature is in its worst shape in human history, UN report says

The Associated Press (CBC, 06/05/2019)

Nature is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over one million species of plants and animals, scientists said Monday in the UN's first comprehensive report on biodiversity.

It's all because of humans, but it's not too late to fix the problem, the report by the United Nations says.

Species loss is accelerating to a rate tens or hundreds of times faster than in the past, the report said. More than half a million species on land "have insufficient habitat for long-term survival" and are likely to go extinct, many within decades, unless their habitats are restored. The oceans are not any better off.

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Scientists say it's not too late to save biodiversity after release of report

(Global News, 06/05/2019)

International scientists said Monday that it was not too late to save biodiversity after the release of a report that says one million animal and plant species are at imminent risk of extinction.

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Biodiversity threat won’t be tackled by alarmist biologist hype and dismantling capitalism

Matt Ridley (Reaction, 07/05/2019)

Driven perhaps by envy at the attention that climate change is getting, and ambition to set up a great new intergovernmental body that can fly scientists to mega-conferences, biologists have gone into overdrive on the subject of biodiversity this week.

They are right that there is a lot wrong with the world’s wildlife, that we can do much more to conserve, enhance and recover it, but much of the coverage in the media, and many of the pronouncements of Sir Bob Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), are frankly weird.

The threat to biodiversity is not new, not necessarily accelerating, mostly not caused by economic growth or prosperity, nor by climate change, and won’t be reversed by retreating into organic self-sufficiency. Here’s a few gentle correctives.

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We are full of bright ideas to solve ecological problems. So let’s act on them

Chris Packham (The Guardian, 06/05/2019)

A new UN report is set to reveal that up to 1m species face extinction because of human actions. The loss of pollinating insects and other ecological disasters – from the destruction of flood-saving mangroves to air pollution – poses no less of a threat than climate change, according to the report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) 

We are triggering a mass extinction event, and critically we cannot separate one environmental crisis from another. Biodiversity loss cannot be partitioned from climate change, or from human population growth or pollution or plastics in our oceans. These challenges are all interconnected. We face an ecology of environmental concerns, and if we continue to consider these problems in partitioned isolation, solutions will continue to emerge far too slowly.

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13 May 2019 - Georgia to ban most abortions, miscarriage could lead to 30 years in prison

Publié par nsharma le 13/05/2019

Georgia state abortion law fuels Hollywood boycott call

(BBC News, 12/05/2019)

Actors signed an open letter in March pledging not to work should the law - which bans most abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy - pass.

Georgia is the latest state to enact legislation restricting abortion.

Actress and #MeToo advocate Alyssa Milano also urged women on Saturday to join her in a sex strike in protest.

Ms Milano's tweet divided opinion on social media, sparking a debate that led to the #SexStrike hashtag trending on Twitter in the US.

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Women could get up to 30 years in prison for having a miscarriage under Georgia's harsh new abortion law

Grace Panetta (Business Insider, 10/05/2019)

On Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed HB 481, a bill banning abortion after five to six weeks of pregnancy.
It's set to take effect January 1, but at least two reproductive-rights organizations are challenging it on the grounds that it violates Roe v. Wade.

In addition to banning abortion after a heartbeat can be detected, the law's personhood provisions would seem to allow for women who perform their own abortions, travel out of state for an abortion, or are found to be responsible for a miscarriage to be charged with murder.

While many states have recently approved six- or 15-week abortion bans in an effort to bring a case to the Supreme Court for the purposes of overturning Roe v. Wade, Georgia's law goes further than others in holding women criminally responsible.

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Can Georgia’s powerhouse entertainment industry knock some sense into lawmakers pushing draconian abortion laws?

Aldous Pennyfarthing, Daily Kos (Alternet, 12/05/2019)

If you spent as much time at imdb.com looking up old Facts of Life episodes as I do, you might know that Georgia has become a popular location for numerous TV and film productions, thanks to generous tax breaks signed into law more than 10 years ago.

In fact, Gov. Brian Kemp (you know, that guy who totally stole the latest gubernatorial election by acting as both ref and competitor) has estimated that the entertainment industry employs 200,000 in the state.

That is, it did, until Georgia decided to try to make abortions almost impossible to obtain as a result of its completely arbitrary determination that a heartbeat automatically confers personhood.

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‘Heartbeat’ Laws Could Ban Most Abortions Across Deep South

Russ Bynum (Huffpost, 05/11/2019)

If a new Mississippi law survives a court challenge, it will be nearly impossible for most pregnant women to get an abortion there.

Or, potentially, in neighboring Louisiana. Or Alabama. Or Georgia.

The Louisiana legislature is halfway toward passing a law — like the ones enacted in Mississippi and Georgia — that will ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant. Alabama is on the cusp of approving an even more restrictive bill.

State governments are on a course to virtually eliminate abortion access in large chunks of the Deep South and Midwest. Ohio and Kentucky also have passed heartbeat laws; Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature is considering one.

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Hi. My name is Rebecca and this is my abortion story

Rebecca Thomas For Star Halifax (The Star, 12/05/2019)

The state of Georgia just signed House Bill 481 which would make abortion illegal after six weeks into pregnancy, or once a fetal heartbeat is detected; a time frame in which many women have to yet to find out they are pregnant.

This kind of bill is otherwise known as a “Heartbeat Bill.”

As a woman who has always been vehemently pro-choice, this kind of bill meant to single-handedly control and regulate women’s bodies makes me so angry, I have a hard time finding the words to describe it.

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14 May 2019 - British society victim of extreme inequalities, study reveals

Publié par nsharma le 14/05/2019

Britain risks heading to US levels of inequality, warns top economist

Richard Partington, Economics correspondent (The Guardian, 14/05/2019)

Rising inequality in Britain risks putting the country on the same path as the US to become one of the most unequal nations on earth, according to a Nobel-prize winning economist.

Sir Angus Deaton is leading a landmark review of inequality in the UK amid fears that the country is at a tipping point due to a decade of stagnant pay growth for British workers. The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, which is working with Deaton on the study, said the British-born economist would “point to the risk of the UK following the US” which has extreme inequality levels in pay, wealth and health.

Speaking to the Guardian at the launch of the study, he said: “There’s a real question about whether democratic capitalism is working, when it’s only working for part of the population.

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'Growing inequality threatens democracy'

Sean Coughlan and David Brown (BBC News, 14/05/2019)

The think tank warns of runaway incomes for high earners but rises in "deaths of despair", such as from addiction and suicide, among the poorest.

It warns of risks to "centre-ground" politics from stagnating pay and divides in health and education.

The report says such widening gaps are "making a mockery of democracy".

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), one of the country's leading research institutes, is launching what it says is the UK's biggest analysis of inequality.

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Britain Risks ‘Crisis of Capitalism’ Due to Rising Inequality

Jill Ward (Bloomberg, 14/05/2019)

Britain risks following the U.S. in terms of declining life expectancy and stagnant wages for the less-educated portion of the population if the causes of inequality go unchecked, according to a report.

The research, published Tuesday, forms the first part of a review into inequality chaired by Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton, which will ultimately provide a set of policy proposals to tackle inequality in Britain.

The findings are bound to fuel the debate over wealth disparities in the U.K., an issue that both Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn have pledged to redress after years of austerity and meager income growth.

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'Deaths of despair' rising among middle-aged Britons, report warns

Victoria Ward (The Telegraph, 14/05/2019)

Deaths from suicide, drug and alcohol overdoses are rising among middle-aged Britons, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned as it launches a major five-year study into social inequality.

The think tank said the increase in such fatalities, dubbed “deaths of despair”, may be linked to a process of "cumulative disadvantage for less-educated people".

Such deaths, which include drink-related liver disease, among 45-54-year-olds in England continued to rise between 1993 and 2017.

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16 May 2019 - Alabama introduces a near total abortion ban, with no exception for rape or incest

Publié par nsharma le 16/05/2019

As States Race to Limit Abortions, Alabama Goes Further, Seeking to Outlaw Most of Them

Timothy Williams and Alan Blinder (The New York Times, 08/05/2019)

Amid a flurry of new limits on abortion being sought in states around the nation, Alabama is weighing a measure that would go further than all of them — outlawing most abortions almost entirely.

The effort in Alabama, where the State Senate could vote as soon as Thursday, is unfolding as Republicans, emboldened by President Trump and the shifting alignment of the Supreme Court, intensify a long-running campaign to curb abortion access.

Yet the Alabama measure is also a departure from the incremental strategy that abortion critics have often pursued: There is nothing gradual about the sweeping ban that the state’s lawmakers are considering.

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These 25 Republicans – all white men – just voted to ban abortion in Alabama

Erin Durkin and Max Benwell (The Guardian, 15/05/2019)

Alabama’s new law mandating an almost blanket ban on abortion, the strictest in the United States, was passed by this group of exclusively white, male politicians.

The Alabama law will disproportionately affect black and poor women, because they are more likely to seek abortions, and less likely to have resources to obtain an abortion out-of-state.

Of the 27 Republicans, all white men, that dominate the 35-seat Alabama senate, 25 voted to pass the bill late on Tuesday.

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Alabama's extreme abortion ban spotlights how the Supreme Court's conservative majority is emboldening Republicans to launch a coordinated attack on Roe v. Wade

Eliza Relman (Business Insider, 15/05/2019)

Abortion rights activists say an Alabama bill effectively banning all abortions is part of a coordinated effort by GOP lawmakers to overturn the Supreme Court's precedent in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973.

"These bans are part of a coordinated national strategy to overturn Roe and take away a woman's ability to make personal decisions," Julie Rikelman of the Center for Reproductive Rights told INSIDER.

Legal experts say that if Alabama's bill becomes law, it will quickly be challenged in court and struck down as unconstitutional.
But many legal experts believe the Supreme Court's conservative majority is willing to accept an abortion case for hearing this year and strike down Roe's key protections.

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Alabama is just the beginning - this republican strategy goes way beyond abortion rights

Max Burns (The Independent, 16/05/2019)

This week, Alabama Republicans lurched the United States closer to a Constitutional crisis with the passage of a bill banning abortion from the moment of conception, and punishing doctors who protect the lives of women with up to 99 years in prison.

A cabal of 25 Republican men drew the curtain on abortion rights in Alabama, where only three women sit in the state Senate. Their monstrosity of an abortion bill provides no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, creating a perverse scenario where a woman’s rapist could be out of jail in as little as two years, while a doctor who provides the same woman an abortion would die in prison.

The inarguable cruelty of Alabama’s abortion ban has the American Civil Liberties Union already preparing a legal challenge in federal court. 

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Alabama Governor Signs Abortion Bill. Here’s What Comes Next

Alan Blinder (The New York Times, 15/05/2019)

Alabama’s governor on Wednesday signed into law a measure to ban most abortions in the state. But the Legislature’s approval and the governor’s signature did not immediately outlaw the procedure, and it is far from clear when, or even if, the measure will ultimately take effect.

Here’s a guide to what happened, and what is likely to happen next.

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Stephen Colbert invokes 'The Handmaid's Tale' in slamming Alabama's abortion ban

Johnny Lieu (Mashable, 16/05/2019)

Alabama's near-total abortion ban has made many of us furious, including Stephen Colbert, who tackled the legislation on The Late Show on Wednesday night. 

"That, is either an overreach by the Alabama GOP, or some pretty intense viral marketing for the new season of The Handmaid's Tale," Colbert quipped. 

"I don't get it. If a TV show has to become reality, why can't it be Star Trek, so they can beam me off this planet?"

The bill threatens doctors with 99-year jail terms if convicted of performing one in-state, and offers no exception for victims of rape or incest. 

Watch the video...

17 May 2019 - NYC passes Green Roof Act to reduce carbon emissions

Publié par nsharma le 17/05/2019

New York City passes a green new deal, requiring 'green roofs' on new buildings

Sophie Hirsh, writer for Green Matters (World Economic Forum, 30/04/2019)

New York City may not have a lot of greenery — but the metropolis is slowly getting greener. Just in time for Earth Day, the New York City Council passed a group of bills, known as both OneNYC2050 and NYC's Green New Deal. The $14 billion act is full of bills all working towards a singular goal: a 40 percent reduction of NYC's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2050.

One of the most interesting bills is one being referred to as the Green Roofs act. As explained by Dwell, the Green Roofs act will require all new buildings in NYC, whether they are residential or commercial, to outfit their roofs with plants, solar panels, and/or mini wind turbines. The legislation would also apply to buildings undergoing significant renovations. Additionally, NYC will eventually require all 50,000 buildings that are 25,000 square feet large or more to lower their emissions and energy use. Buildings that do not comply will be fined. Furthermore, any new building going up in NYC will not be allowed to feature an all-glass facade, because all-glass buildings usually consume more energy, according to Treehugger.

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'A New Day in New York': City Council Passes Visionary Climate Bill

Common Dreams (Ecowatch, 19/04/2019)

The New York City Council passed the world's "largest single carbon reduction effort that any city, anywhere, has ever put forward" on Thursday afternoon, marking a major milestone in the fight against the climate crisis.

The Climate Mobilization Act contains 10 provisions for a greener New York.

"It's a new day," tweeted Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

Chief among the bill's provisions were regulations that directly affect city buildings.

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New York City unveils ambitious plan for local steps to tackle climate change

Erin Durkin (The Guardian, 18/04/2019)

New York City has approved an ambitious plan to combat climate change by forcing thousands of large buildings to slash their greenhouse gas emissions.

The legislation passed on Thursday by the city council puts caps on carbon emissions for buildings over 25,000 sq ft – requiring a 40% overall cut in their emissions by 2030.

The mandates, touted as a local version of the Green New Deal embraced by many progressive Democrats, will apply to 50,000 buildings – from buildings with a few dozen apartments to Trump Tower, the president’s Fifth Avenue skyscraper which advocates have targeted as a major polluter.

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Landlords cry foul as NYC climate bill targets Trump Tower and other skyscrapers

(Japan Times, 19/04/2019)

New York City has passed sweeping legislation to curb energy demand from some of its most iconic skyscrapers, including Trump Tower.

The legislation, approved 45 to 2 in the City Council Thursday, is backed by Mayor Bill de Blasio and will push owners of residential and commercial buildings larger than 25,000 sq. feet (2,300 sq. meters) to install new boilers, air conditioning systems, windows and insulation. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions 40 percent by 2030, moving the city toward a goal of 80 percent by 2050.

The Council also voted to require 5-cent fees on all paper bags distributed by stores, starting in March 2020, and to study the feasibility of replacing gas-fired power plants with battery storage systems powered by renewable energy.

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20 May 2019 - George Clooney's adaptation of WWII novel Catch-22

Publié par Marion Coste le 20/05/2019

From George Clooney and Hulu, ‘Catch-22,’ With a Catch

Mike Hale (The New York Times, 17/05/2019)

An attack on “Catch-22” is the kind of ultrahazardous mission for which no combat bonus could suffice. Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel toys with time, hopscotches among a huge cast of vividly defined characters and oscillates like an excited particle between Marx Brothers-level comedy and airborne battle scenes worthy of Hemingway. Adapting it for the screen is not for the fainthearted.

Mike Nichols took the challenge head-on, and while his epic 1970 film version fell short of the target, it was a brave effort.

The makers of the new Hulu mini-series “Catch-22,” which began streaming on Friday, take a different approach. Like Heller’s protagonist John Yossarian when faced with the insanity of war, they respond to the crazy ambition of Heller’s novel by choosing not to engage.

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'Catch-22' May Not Be By The Book, But It Understands Brutality

Linda Holmes (NPR, 18/05/2019)

If Hulu had announced an original dramatic miniseries that follows a World War II soldier awakening to the horrors of war, executive produced and partly directed (two episodes out of six) by George Clooney, and if the result had been Catch-22, it would have seemed largely successful. But the series, available in full now, is, of course, an adaptation of Joseph Heller's much-chewed-over 1961 novel, a book very unusual in both its tone and its structure. And as an adaptation, it struggles to meet the inevitable expectations.

Some of the basics are retained from the book: Christopher Abbott plays the bombardier Yossarian, who would like to stop flying missions and go home. But every time he approaches the number of missions the military demands, the merciless Colonel Cathcart (Kyle Chandler, playing the mean side of the bureaucratic/governmental operator he has been playing for some years now) raises the number. Also retained is the Catch-22 of the title: the military rule explained by Doc Daneeka (Grant Heslov, also an executive producer). Catch-22 says that a soldier can ask for release on the grounds that he's insane, but also holds that trying to get out of a war is clear evidence of sanity. So all you have to do is ask, but if you ask, you'll be denied.

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The Odd Nostalgia of a New “Catch-22”

Troy Patterson (The New Yorker, 18/05/2019)

“Catch-22,” on Hulu, based on Joseph Heller’s novel, stars Christopher Abbott as John Yossarian, a U.S. Army bombardier whose serial failures to escape the Second World War exemplify the madness of combat, military bureaucracy, and everything else. The fame of the title, of course, has outlived the renown of the book. The catch, as the squadron physician explains to the protagonist, is that, although a flier can be grounded if he is crazy, to announce oneself to be crazy is to demonstrate one’s sanity. The show—which is written by Luke Davies and David Michôd, and has episodes directed by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Ellen Kuras—dramatizes this defining paradox, and many subsidiary ironies, with a warm absurdism.

The six episodes of the series streamline the plot of the novel and straighten out its achronological storyline, with the exception of an early flash-forward to Yossarian’s climactic descent into weirdness. After witnessing the death of an eighteen-year-old making his first sortie, Yossarian emerges naked from his B-25. His blood-streaked body moves down the tarmac as if he has passed through fear and pain into a staggered serenity.

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Hulu's 'Catch-22' is an apt warning for an America poised on the brink of war — again

Ani Bundel (THINK, 17/05/2019)

Everyone agrees that war is a terrible thing. Ask any politician, including the more than two dozen or so currently trying to run for president in 2020, and every last one of them will pay lip service to the bravery of “our young men and women in uniform.” And yet, since 2001, our country has been in a state of perpetual, never-ending war. Children who turn 18 this year have grown up in a world where the country was never not involved in some kind of engagement in Afghanistan or Iraq, or a vague hand wave to the Middle East. In such a reality, the only surprise about Hulu’s “Catch-22” remake is that it hasn’t come sooner.

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24 May 2019 - Lactose against the Intolerant: Nigel Farage hit with milkshakes by protestors

Publié par nsharma le 24/05/2019

Nigel Farage 'trapped on bus' surrounded by protesters holding milkshakes

Chiara Giordano (Independent, 24/05/2019)

Nigel Farage reportedly got stuck on his Brexit Party campaign bus after people armed with milkshakes surrounded him.

The politician is said to have refused to leave the vehicle just days after he was covered in banana and salted caramel milkshake in Newcastle.

Three young men dressed in black with their hoods up were reportedly spotted in the crowd when the bus arrived in Rochester, Kent, on Wednesday, Kent Live reports.

Someone suggested they were carrying milkshakes and Mr Farage was told not to get off the bus, according to the newspaper.

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Why protesters are throwing milkshakes at Nigel Farage

Jen Kirby (Vox, 22/05/2019)

“We will not be selling milkshakes or ice cream tonight,” the sign in the window of a McDonald’s near Edinburgh, Scotland, read. “This is due to police request given recent events.”

Those “recent events” are the scourge of milkshakes being flung at European parliamentary candidates across the United Kingdom, specifically those of a certain persuasion: right-wing, populist, and, somewhat ironically, skeptical of the European Union.

The police near Edinburgh were mainly concerned about protecting Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and a prominent champion of Brexit, from a potential milkshake attack. Farage, who now leads the new Brexit Party, was holding a campaign rally in the area last Friday ahead of the European parliamentary elections, which start May 23.

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BBC QT audience member SAVAGES Farage milkshake attacker - ‘You’re making him STRONGER’

Clive Hammond (Express, 24/05/2019)

On Monday, the Brexit Party leader was struck by the milky drink as he walked around Newcastle. The action sparked widespread criticism from all sides of the political spectrum. The topic was debated on the BBC One programme on Thursday night.

Host Fiona Bruce noted the sharp rise in incidents like these, citing Tommy Robinson as another example.

But in a powerful message to those launching items such as milkshakes at leaders, the audience member called for them to debate and discuss ideas instead.

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McDonald’s bans milkshakes near Farage rally- Burger King responds

Jack Peat (The London Economic, 24/05/2019)

Burger King has been credited for “joining the anti-fascist resistance” after tweeting that it would still be selling milkshakes in Scotland despite a police-enforced McDonald’s ban on them near a Nigel Farage rally.

The firm’s main UK Twitter account – which posted the most ‘liked’ branded tweet of all-time last year when it took down Kanye West – posted to the “people of Scotland” that they would be selling milkshakes all weekend following news that police had ordered a McD’s to stop selling them.

Farage was holding an event in Edinburgh on Friday ahead of next week’s European elections, but there were concerns that the pro-Remain voting country could react with anger following a flurry of incidents which have left prominent far-right activists doused in the creamy liquid.

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First Tommy Robinson, now Nigel Farage - when did milkshakes become the weapon of choice for protesters? 

Luke Hurst, video journalist (Telegraph, 20/05/2019)

A number of high-profile candidates in the EU elections have been targeted by protesters with milkshakes in the past month. 

Founder and former leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson was the first to have the beverage thrown at him, he was followed by Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin and then Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.

Watch the video...

27 May 2019 - Theresa May to stand down as UK PM, what’s next?

Publié par nsharma le 27/05/2019

Theresa May quits: UK set for new PM by end of July

(BBC News, 24/05/2019)

In an emotional statement, she said she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of "deep regret" that she had been unable to do so.

Mrs May said she would continue to serve as PM while a Conservative leadership contest took place.

The party said it hoped a new leader could be in place by the end of July.

It means Mrs May will still be prime minister when US President Donald Trump makes his state visit to the UK at the start of June.

Read on...

 

How Should We Feel About Theresa May?

Stephen Paduano (The New Republic, 27/05/2019)

On Friday, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she will be resigning in two weeks. It came as little surprise. After nearly three years in office, the Brexit Prime Minister failed to deliver Brexit and now leaves her country with more division and less direction than when she started. History may not be kind, but hopefully it will be nuanced. While her errors were hers alone, her failures were not. In truth, the prime minister was put in an impossible position which neither she nor, likely, her successor could ever escape.

It’s not hard to come up with examples of where May went wrong. Upon becoming prime minister in 2016, she framed the Brexit debate in a way that ultimately spelled her ruin.

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Very difficult for PM May's successor to pursue a no deal exit - Hammond

Reuters (Investing, 26/05/2019)

Chancellor Philip Hammond said on Sunday it would be very difficult for Prime Minister Theresa May's successor to bypass the will of parliament and seek to take Britain out of the European Union without a deal.

Several of the candidates vying to take over from May have said Britain must leave on Oct. 31, without or without a deal. Parliament has repeatedly voted against a no-deal Brexit and Hammond said he did not believe Britain was likely to be heading towards leaving without an agreement.

Hammond said parliament would be "vehemently opposed" to a strategy of leaving without a deal.

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The Observer view on a post-May Brexit: Labour must show it can offer an alternative

(The Guardian, 27/05/2019)

Decent, moderate and patriotic” was how Theresa May chose to describe her premiership in her valedictory speech on Friday morning. Heartless, hardline and nationalistic is a more apt way to characterise her record in office. She may be leaving Downing Street emphasising her fight against the “burning injustices” she claimed she would tackle when she entered it. But her three-year premiership has left Britain an undoubtedly crueller and harsher place to live, trapped in the most serious political crisis that has engulfed the country in decades.

Read on...

 

Brexit Party, LibDem and SNP wins reveal UK is more divided than ever

Tom Gordon, Scottish Political Editor (The Herald, 27/05/2019)

Early results indicated the Conservatives were headed for a historic defeat, losing most of their seats and sinking towards a single-figure vote share as they were deserted by supporters angry at Theresa May failing to deliver Brexit. 

The results suggested the nation remains deeply divided over the decision to leave the EU.

The Prime Minister’s humiliation was only marginally worse than Jeremy Corbyn’s, as Labour was punished for its ambivalence on the biggest political issue of the day.

Read on...

 

28 May 2019 - The rich getting richer under climate change, study reveals

Publié par nsharma le 28/05/2019

How global warming has made the rich richer

Pablo Uchoa (BBC World Service, 06/05/2019)

Temperatures may be rising globally, but not all of us feel the impact in the same way.

Over the past half century, climate change has increased inequality between countries, dragging down growth in the poorest nations whilst likely boosting prosperity in some of the richest, a new study says.

The gap between the world's poorest and richest countries is about 25% larger today than it would have been without global warming, according to Stanford University researchers in California.

Read on...

 

Global warming is exacerbating global economic inequality: Study

(Mongabay, 10/05/2019)

New research finds that global warming has exacerbated global economic inequality, making already-wealthy nations even richer while slowing economic growth in poorer countries.
According to the study, published in PNAS late last month, between 1961 and 2010 rising temperatures led to a 17 to 30 percent decrease in per-capita wealth in the world’s poorest countries. Meanwhile, the wealthy countries that are the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters have seen their per-capita GDP grow about 10 percent higher today than they would have in a world without warming.

Poor countries that, by and large, have not enjoyed the benefits of fossil fuel energy have been made relatively poorer by the energy consumption of wealthy countries — but renewable energy sources might offer a partial solution to both the climate crisis and global inequality.

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A Green New Deal must deliver global justice

Asad Rehman (Red Pepper, 29/05/2019)

For too long the severity and scale of the climate crisis has been deliberately understated, but October’s release of the IPCC’s Special Report on the Global Warming of 1.5°c finally sent shockwaves into the populations of rich countries. The urgent need for action was clear with the world now in ‘decade zero’, when every decision taken in the coming years will determine the extent to which the critical 1.5°c guardrail is breached triggering run away climate change. Despite these warnings the UN estimates that current emission targets will put the world on a trajectory of at least 3.4°c and possibly up to 7°c warming.

The report was of course not news to people living in the global South, they had long been dealing with the devastating impacts of climate change  – warming of just 1c has been enough to unleash killer floods, droughts and famines.

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Climate change has benefited UK economy, but damaged that of poorer nations

Ruchira Sharma (iNews, 23/05/2019)

Climate change is widening the gap between wealthier and poorer countries, a study has found.

The findings, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that temperature changes triggered by greenhouse gases has increased economic growth in countries such as UK and Norway, while reducing them in India and Nigeria.

US researchers from Stanford University found that between 1961 and 2010, less wealthy countries had the lowest carbon emissions and also suffered the biggest losses, while those with the highest emissions were among the wealthiest and benefited.

Read on...

03 June 2019 - US preparing antitrust investigation against Google

Publié par nsharma le 03/06/2019

U.S. Justice Department prepares Google antitrust probe: sources

Diane Bartz (The Guardian Canada, 03/06/2019)

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing an investigation of Alphabet Inc's Google to determine whether the tech giant broke antitrust law in operating its sprawling online businesses, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Officials from the Justice Department's Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission, which both enforce antitrust law, met in recent weeks to give Justice jurisdiction over Google, said the sources, who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

The potential investigation represents the latest attack on a tech company by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has accused social media companies and Google of suppressing conservative voices on their platforms online.

Read on...

 

Explainer: Why Google has a target on its back in Washington

Jan Wolfe (Reuters, 02/06/2019)

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing an investigation of Alphabet Inc’s Google to determine whether the technology company violated laws to ensure fair competition, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The potential investigation, first reported on Friday, is the latest challenge for Google which already faces a raft of complaints about its business practices from rivals, as well as Democrats and Republicans. EU regulatory actions have already led to multibillion dollar fines and reforms to Google’s business practices.

The U.S. probe would focus on accusations Google gave preference to its own businesses in search results, one source said.

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Google Should Be Afraid. Very Afraid.

Shira Ovide (Washington Post, 02/06/2019)

This is the moment the U.S. technology superpowers surely knew was coming: The U.S. government is preparing to crawl all over Google to figure out whether it is an abusive monopolist. Google parent company Alphabet Inc. and the other tech giants should be quaking in their fleece vests.

Bloomberg News and other news organizations reported late Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to open an investigation into Google’s compliance with antitrust laws. If it goes forward, an investigation will no doubt be broad, lengthy, messy, and impossible for Google and its investors to predict.

That should terrify Google and every other big technology company — because there’s no guarantee that the antitrust Klieg light will turn on one company alone.

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Google and Amazon Are at the Center of a Storm Brewing Over Big Tech

Cecilia Kang, David Streitfeld, Katie Rogers and Stephanie Saul (The New York Times, 03/06/2019)

Google and Amazon have thrived as American regulators largely kept their distance. That may be changing.

Politicians on the right and left are decrying the tech companies’ enormous power. President Trump and other Republicans have taken swipes at Amazon over taxes and at Google over search results they say are biased. Democrats have focused on whether the companies stifle competition.

And now, the two federal agencies that handle antitrust matters have split up oversight of the two companies, with the Justice Department taking Google and the Federal Trade Commission taking Amazon, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

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04 June 2019 - Trump’s UK visit: from 41-gun salute to protests

Publié par nsharma le 04/06/2019

Everything we know about Donald Trump's state visit to Britain

Samantha Herbert (Telegraph, 03/06/2019)

US President Donald Trump has arrived in Britain for a three-day state visit which he said he expected to be  "very important" and "very interesting" as he left the White House on Sunday evening.

Accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, the president arrived aboard Air Force One on Monday morning having already created a considerable degree of political turbulence with comments on the Tory leadership race, Brexit and the Duchess of Sussex.

Ahead of the visit, he called on Britain to leave the European Union without a deal if Brussels refuses to meet its demands and urged the Government to send Nigel Farage into the negotiations.

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An absolute state of a visit: what the Trump and Windsor snapshots tell us

Hannah Jane Parkinson (The Guardian, 03/06/2019)

Roll up, roll up! The freakshow is back in town. Which rather loses its impact when our own freakshow has not left town for the past three years, but never mind. Donald Trump is back in the UK for a full state visit. State is the correct word. If Theresa May was determined to bow out on a low, she’s done herself proud.

The president of the United States was said to be bringing along his entire family this time. But despite reports, there seems to be no visual evidence that Tiffany has been allowed out of the White House basement.

The trip is already very much under way. It will probably become more eventful at the Buckingham Palace banquet tonight, when Prince Harry raises the topic of when Trump said he could have slept with Princess Diana. 

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Trump UK visit: New York mayor Bill de Blasio joins forces with Sadiq Khan to blast 'not normal' president

Peter Stubley (The Independent, 04/06/2019)

New York mayor Bill de Blasio has demanded Donald Trump apologise for his “extreme” personal attack on Mr de Blasio’s London counterpart, Sadiq Khan.

The city leaders joined forces to fire back at the US president, who hurled insults at them both on Twitter as he arrived for his state visit to the UK on Monday.

Mr Trump denigrated Mr Khan for his height and compared the Labour mayor to “our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio”.

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Theresa May criticised over 'patronising' tea set gift for Melania Trump

Kevin Schofield (PoliticsHome, 03/06/2019)

By contrast, Donald Trump will be presented with a framed typescript draft of the Atlantic Charter, which was agreed by President Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during the Second World War.

The historic text, which shows Churchill's handwritten amendments, set out the pair's vision for a post-war world and was one of the first steps towards the formation of the United Nations.

But it is the tea set, designed by Emma Bridgewater, which has raised eyebrows.

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