A gunman has opened fire inside a tram and at several other locations in the Dutch city of Utrecht, authorities say.
Dutch anti-terrorism co-ordinator Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said all efforts were now focused on catching the gunman. He also said there could be more than one perpetrator.
The threat level has been temporarily raised to its highest point in the province of Utrecht.
Heavily armed police are reportedly gathered outside a house on a street near the 24 Oktoberplein junction, where the tram attack took place, with reports they are preparing to launch a raid.
Nasrin Sotoudeh defended political prisoners and worked to abolish Iran's death penalty. Human rights groups are worried her sentence could signal increased repression of peace activism in Iran under a judiciary with a history of human rights violations
Back before most of us were born, President Harry Truman called out the GOP for lying to the American people, saying they were using “the best propaganda money can buy.” Today the GOP is using the exact same tactics. Meet the New GOP Scam, same as the old GOP scam.
THE GUARDIAN: Series of Mohammed bin Salman no-shows at high-profile meetings fed claims of rift with king
The heir to the Saudi throne has not attended a series of high-profile ministerial and diplomatic meetings in Saudi Arabia over the last fortnight and is alleged to have been stripped of some of his financial and economic authority, the Guardian has been told.
The move to restrict, if only temporarily, the responsibilities of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is understood to have been revealed to a group of senior ministers earlier last week by his father, King Salman.
The king is said to have asked Bin Salman to be at this cabinet meeting, but he failed to attend.
While the move has not been declared publicly, the Guardian has been told that one of the king’s trusted advisers, Musaed al-Aiban, who was educated at Harvard and recently named as national security adviser, will informally oversee investment decisions on the king’s behalf.
The Saudi embassy in Washington has declined multiple requests for comment since the Guardian approached it on Tuesday. » | Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington, and Nick Hopkins in London | Monday, March 18, 2019
Across the United States, there has been a growth in organizations that portray Islam as a threat.
Over two years, the number of groups that make up what’s become known as the Islamophobia industry has more than tripled.
This investigation reveals the tactics these groups use to instigate a fear of Islam, including how they manipulate social media to create a false narrative that Muslims are trying to take over the country.
Anti-Muslim messages proliferate social media with bought-in followers, fake accounts and robotic amplifiers.
The investigation also shows how these organizations try to suppress the rise of a Muslim political voice in America. It uncovers the “dark money” that has fuelled the rapid growth of Islamophobia Inc. - tens of millions of dollars which is funnelled through secretive, anonymous donor funds.
We unveil the donors of the dark money and ask; what do they ultimately hope to achieve?
Since Friday's attacks at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, social media platforms have been criticised for failing to stop the suspect's shooting video, and hate-filled manifesto, from going viral. Why was it so difficult for the social media giants, with all their resources and latest technology, to contain the spread of videos of New Zealand mosque attacks? Al Jazeera's Mereana Hond reports.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calls it a ‘terrorist attack.’ She was sent a 74-page so-called "manifesto" against Muslims and immigrants by a suspected gunman just minutes before he began firing indiscriminately at the first of two mosques in Christchurch.
In the "manifesto" the suspect describes U.S. President Donald Trump as a symbol of renewed white identity.
When Trump asked Ardern what he could do to help, she told him to show "sympathy and love for all Muslim communities."
So what's driving the hatred and prejudice against Muslims in Western countries? And is it linked to white supremacy?
Presenter: Hazem Sika | Guests: Tasneem Chopra, chair of the Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights; Rodger Shanahan, research fellow at the Lowy Institute; Matthew Goodwin, professor at the University of Kent and former member of the UK government's Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group.
THE INDEPENDENT: Interior minister condemns 'ultra violent' group as city is ransacked
Yellow vest protesters hurled stones at police officers, ransacked shops along the Champs-Elysees and set fire to a bank, as Paris saw its 18th consecutive weekend of protests.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons at the anti-government demonstrators after the protests turned violent.
Firefighters rescued two people from a burning bank, with 11 people suffering minor injuries in the blaze.
Two news stands on the avenue also caught fire, as bonfires burned in the streets. By late afternoon police officers had arrested around 120 protesters.
A number of demonstrators ransacked the high-end Fouquet's restaurant and clashed with riot police in front of the Arc de Triomphe. » | Zamira Rahim | Sunday, March 17, 2019
THE NEW YORK TIMES: I've traveled England trying to understand what drives the Brexit psyche.
The June 2016 Brexit referendum left Britain a divided nation. That much we know. But the referendum didn’t create division. It exposed something that was already there, latent. This was hard to see if you attended to people’s conventional political views about taxation or public spending; even the issue of immigration, by itself, wasn’t “it.” Nor was it to be found in something as vague as “feelings” or “emotions.” It lay elsewhere, in the realm of the individual political psyche, that blending of personal, family and nonacademic history, casually informed reasoning, clan prejudice, tribal loyalty and ancestor worship that forms the imaginative framework in which, as we represent it to ourselves, our lives relate to events in the wider world. Read on and comment » | James Meek | Mr. Meek is the author, most recently, of “Dreams of Leaving and Remaining.” | Friday, March 15, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: The far right seeks to divide. Responsible politicians ought, especially in times of grief and anger, to bring people together
New Zealand is best known for its breathtaking wilderness, found in distant but secure islands at the edge of the world. On Friday that changed. Forty-nine people were killed in shootings at two mosques in central Christchurch in a suspected terrorist attack during the congregational prayer. The horrific events have left the country in mourning and shock. Muslims make up less than 1% of New Zealand’s population and the faith’s most prominent adherent is a rugby player. This was a stupefying amount of lethal force in a country that saw only 35 homicides in all of 2017. New Zealand as a nation will collectively have to deal with a trauma that no parent, no relative, no friend should ever endure. » | Editorial | Friday, March 15, 2019
'Brexit means Brexit' - or maybe it doesn't after all.
Britain's Prime Minister has repeated her slogan many times, insisting that Britain will leave the European Union on March the 29th. But with just two weeks to go, MPs have voted to delay the divorce until June.
The leaders of ALL EU countries now need to decide whether that can happen. And despite the biggest vote defeat in British parliamentary history, Theresa May says she'll try one more time next week to persuade MPs to back her withdrawal deal.
Will the European Union delay Brexit?
Presenter: Hazem Sika | Guests: Catherine McBride - Senior Economist, International Trade and Competition Unit at the Institute of Economic Affairs, London; Donnacha O'Beachain - Associate Professor, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University; Jon Worth - European Union Affairs blogger and visiting lecturer, College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium
THE NEW YORK TIMES: North Korea threatened on Friday to suspend negotiations with the Trump administration over the North’s nuclear arms program and said its leader, Kim Jong-un, would soon decide whether to resume nuclear and missile tests.
Addressing diplomats and foreign correspondents at a news conference in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said that personal relations between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump were “still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.”
But she said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, had created an “atmosphere of hostility and mistrust” that thwarted the top leaders’ negotiations in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month.
After the Hanoi meeting ended without a deal, the North Korean leader had serious doubts about the merits of continuing negotiations with Mr. Trump, Ms. Choe said. » | Choe Sang-Hun | Friday, March 15, 2019
This testimony from Jewish Survivor Frank Shurman is from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute and is also featured in Echoes & Reflections: A Multimedia Curriculum on the Holocaust.
THE GUARDIAN: Leo Varadkar spoke on the changes for Ireland and called out various forms of discrimination
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, who is gay, brought his partner to a meeting on Thursday with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, a conservative Christian once dubbed “the face of anti-LGBTQ hate in America”.
Varadkar, who is in Washington this week to reaffirm the longstanding shared history between the two countries, brought his partner, Matt Barrett, to a St Patrick’s Day breakfast at the vice-presidential residence at the Naval Observatory.
Varadkar tweeted that he and Barrett had received a “warm reception” at Pence’s home, but in pointed remarks to Pence and gathered media, he also called out various forms of discrimination.
“I lived in a country where if I’d tried to be myself at the time, it would have ended up breaking laws,” he said. “But today, that is all changed. I stand here, leader of my country, flawed and human, but judged by my political actions, and not by my sexual orientation, my skin tone, gender or religious beliefs.” » | Luke O’Neil | Thursday, March 14, 2019
New Zealand's prime minister has issued 'the strongest possible condemnation of the ideology of the people who did this' after mass shootings at two mosques. The country's terrorism threat level has been raised and flights in and out of Christchurch were cancelled as intelligence agencies worked to secure the city. Mass shooting at two Christchurch mosques – video report.
The Trump Administration has put us back into a new Cold War, thanks to his incompetent, war-hungry advisors. By pulling the US out of the INF treaty with Russia, this administration has launched a new arms race that could dwarf what we saw during the decades of the Cold War. The only people who come out on top of this are the defense contractors. Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss this issue.
THE GUARDIAN: Labour, Tory, SNP, Lib Dem and Plaid Cymru MPs also sign amendment to give Commons indicative votes
MPs will vote on a second referendum amendment for the first time as well as on a cross-party motion that would allow the Commons to take control of the Brexit process.
The Speaker unexpectedly selected a second referendum amendment from Sarah Wollaston for voting on Thursday night. Wollaston, who recently defected from the Conservatives to the Independent Group, has won support from the Lib Dems for her amendment.
It says that the UK’s exit from the European Union should be delayed for the purpose of “legislating for and conducting a public vote” in which staying in the EU is an option. » | Dan Sabbagh | Thursday, March 14, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: Brexit delay possible after MPs vote against leaving European Union without a deal
MPs have inflicted a fresh defeat on Theresa May, rejecting the idea of Britain leaving the EU without a deal and clearing the way for Brexit to be delayed.
After the prime minister’s deal was heavily voted down for a second time on Tuesday, she announced a government motion ruling out a no-deal Brexit on 29 March – overturning her longstanding policy of refusing to rule it out.
May promised MPs a free vote, but the motion was carefully worded, with the final sentence stating that, “leaving without a deal remains the default in UK and EU law unless this house and the EU ratify an agreement”.
Donald Trump toured disaster areas in Alabama last Friday after a monster tornado destroyed a town and left more than 20 people dead. But the President didn’t waste too much time mourning those we had lost, as he then headed to a church where he signed bibles for phony religious Republicans. This is exactly the kind of thing that the bible warned us about, and this fake evangelicals don’t even realize it. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Chris Hedges, author and host of RT America’s “On Contact” joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the skyrocketing problem of suicide and self-destructive behavior and why we should only expect it to get worse.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., shares here thoughts on being a capitalist, why she isn't afraid of the president in a race, breaking up 'big tech' and why she believes in markets with rules and a 'cop on the beat'.
With friends like these, who needs enemies? Saudi Arabia is out of control. After the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, most likely on direct orders from the Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed Bin Salman, it’s time for the West to sever ties with this regime of criminal despots. The House of Saud assassinates journalists and imprisons dissidents. Its military indiscriminately bombs civilians in the cruel war against Yemen, which has led to a massive humanitarian catastrophe with an estimated 85,000 children dying of starvation. And that’s not to mention the Saudi regime’s oppression of women and religious minorities, or its troubling support for Islamist fundamentalism around the world. Saudi Arabia has long been accused of backing terrorist organisations and funding the extremist schools that provide them with recruits and influence. Saudi Arabia is a menace, and the West should end its alliance with this pernicious regime.
That’s the high-minded reasoning of the Saudi-bashers. But no matter how much we abhor the behaviour of the Saudi government, shouldn’t we consider our own interests before ending a hugely beneficial decades-old partnership? After all, as more pragmatically-minded people point out, Saudi Arabia is a crucial bulwark against the dangerous influence of Iran, which threatens the region with its expansionist ambitions. Saudi Arabia also provides the West with vital intelligence in the fight against groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS. And while we may not like the conservative form of Islam practised in the Kingdom, is that any of our business? If it is, shouldn’t we support its reform-minded Crown Prince? After all, he has lifted the ban on Saudi women driving, allowed cinemas to reopen for the first time in 35 years, and has promised to introduce a more moderate form of Islam to the Kingdom. Shouldn’t the West give him a chance?
The BBC’s star international correspondent Lyse Doucet chaired a line-up of Middle East experts. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Hear the arguments and decide for yourself.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Nächste große Pleite für Theresa May: Auch das nachgebesserte Austrittsabkommen mit der EU wird vom britischen Parlament mit großer Mehrheit abgelehnt. Wie geht es nun weiter?
Bei der Abstimmung über das Brexit-Abkommen mit der Europäischen Union am Dienstagabend im britischen Parlament hat Premierministerin Theresa Mayabermals eine Niederlage erlitten. Auch den mit Brüssel nachgebesserten Deal unterstützt die große Mehrheit der Abgeordneten nicht. Insgesamt stimmten 391 Parlamentarier gegen das Abkommen – und nur 242 dafür. Es ist bereits die zweite schwere Niederlage für den Deal, den May im vergangenen Jahr mit der EU vereinbart hatte. » | Quelle: sreu./dpa | Dienstag, 12. März 2019
LE FIGARO: Les députés britanniques ont rejeté mardi soir l’accord de Brexit négocié entre Londres et Bruxelles, par 391 voix contre 242, plongeant le Royaume-Uni dans l’incertitude à 17 jour de la date prévue du divorce. Le texte avait déjà été massivement rejeté en janvier. Après le vote de ce mardi, la première ministre Theresa May a répété que cet accord était «le seul et meilleur accord possible». En revanche, pour le chef de l'opposition travailliste, Jeremy Corbyn, cet accord "est mort". » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | Mardi 12 Mars 2019
THE GUARDIAN: Despite late concessions in Strasbourg, PM’s plan voted down for second time
Theresa May has suffered a second humiliating defeat on her Brexit deal, as MPs rejected the last-minute reassurances she won from the EU27 on Monday, and voted it down by a majority of 149.
With just 17 days to go until the UK is due to leave the EU, MPs ignored the prime minister’s pleas to “get the deal done”, after the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) said it could not support the agreement.
With her voice cracked and fading, the prime minister had earlier pleaded with the House of Commons: “This is the moment and this is the time – time for us to come together, back this motion and get the deal done. Because only then can we can get on with what we need to do, what we were sent here to do.” » | Heather Stewart, Political editor | Tuesday, March 12, 2019
This testimony from Jewish Holocaust Survivor Brian Bergman i is from USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive®, an online portal that allows users to search through and view more than 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide.
THE GUARDIAN: The Fox News host has shown us just how much misogyny continues to be tolerated – and encouraged – by men
Tucker Carlson, the Fox News commentator with a primetime show and a history of vitriolic racist rants, is in the news again after the media watchdog group Media Matters unearthed recordings of him from the mid-aughts, in which Carlson calls into a radio shock jock program to make a series of luridly sexist assertions and racist asides, palling around with a host who goes by the moniker “Bubba the Love Sponge”.
In the recordings, Carlson says women are “like dogs”, claiming: “They’re extremely primitive, they’re basic, they’re not that hard to understand.” He insists that women find misogynist degradation pleasurable and makes sexual, antagonistic comments about women he does and does not like. » | Moira Donegan | Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Niklas Frank ist der Sohn jenes Mannes, der als Hitlers Generalgouverneur im besetzten Polen verantwortlich war für die NS-Vernichtungslager im Land. Niklas Frank hat seine Vergangenheit schonungslos aufgearbeitet - die Deutschen aber hätten es nicht, sagt er im DW-Interview.
A rare honest appraisal of the German People by a son of one its cruelest Nazi murderers. Niklas Frank is the son of Hans Frank, the German Governor-General of occupied Poland during World War II. He spoke about his father and the German nation on the SBS Insight Program broadcast on 4 August 2015.
The son of Shamima Begum - who fled London to join the Islamic State group - has died in a Syrian refugee camp. Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent and friend of the Begum family joins Katie Razzall in the studio, alongside the Daily Mail's Larisa Brown, who met Shamima and her son in the camp last month. The UK Home Office declined to speak to Newsnight.
THE GUARDIAN: Three-week-old infant is the third child the teenager from east London has lost
The newborn son of Shamima Begum has died and been buried in a Syrian refugee camp, three separate sources have confirmed to the Guardian.
The baby boy, named Jarrah, was buried on Friday, three weeks after the east London teenager turned Islamic State devotee gave birth.
The sources include a Kurdish intelligence official who said the infant had been hospitalised in al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria with breathing difficulties several times in the past week. A friend of Begum said that “the baby turned blue and was cold” before being rushed to a clinic inside the camp. Jarrah is understood to have been buried along with two other children who were burned in a fire on Thursday night. » | Martin Chulov in Beirut and Mohammed Rasool | Friday, March 8, 2019
HARDtalk is in rural northern Germany to meet Niklas Frank, a journalist and writer but also the son of Hans Frank, the brutal Nazi Governor of Poland from 1939 to 1945. He was convicted of war crimes and executed after the Nuremberg trials for the major role he played in the deaths of millions of Jews and Poles during the Second World War. Niklas Frank tells Stephen Sackur how he's coped with the crimes of his father and why he will not let his fellow Germans forget the worst aspects of the Nazi era.
Germany could return to authoritarianism if the economic conditions were to seriously worsen in the country, the son of Hans Frank the governor general of Nazi occupied Poland during World War Two, has told BBC Hardtalk. "As long as our economy is great, and as long as we make money everything is very democratic," said Niklas Frank, but "if we have five to 10 years heavy economic problems the swamp is a lake, and is a sea and will swallow again, everything," he added. Niklas Frank said he "despises" his father for the crimes he committed while he was governor-general of Poland from 1939 to 1945, and tours Germany giving speeches about his father and the legacy of the Nazi era. Hans Frank was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and executed in 1946.
THE GUARDIAN: Open letter hits back at demand for more gender-neutral nouns
A group of German authors, comedians and academics have added fuel to the flames of an increasingly bad-tempered culture war over language bias by calling for a fightback against “ridiculous linguistic constructions” designed to make German more gender-neutral.
In an open letter published by the Dortmund-based German Language Association, signatories including the philosopher Rüdiger Safranski, novelist Peter Schneider, comedian Dieter Hallervorden and the former head of the country’s domestic intelligence Hans-Georg Maassen, hit back against calls for more gender-neutral generic nouns.
In German, where nouns have either a male, female or neuter gender, words for mixed groups of people are traditionally based on the masculine form. If you are talking about a group of teachers, for example, you would say die Lehrer, not die Lehrerinnen. » | Philip Oltermann | Friday, March 8, 2019
At an appearance at Duke University on Wednesday, President Trump's former chief of staff and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said he doesn't believe we need a wall along the Mexican border from "sea to shining sea." Bob Cusack, editor-in-chief of The Hill, joined CBSN to discuss the day's political news.
Biographical Documentary on the life of Hitler's Doctor Theodor Morell. A documentary on the life of Dr. Theodor Morell. From his upbringing, to him being appointed the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler's doctor and administering him with powerful combinations of medications.
We look at a number of recent developments in U.S.-Saudi relations, a day after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a confirmation hearing for retired four-star general John Abizaid to become U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. On Monday, the Trump administration gave a private briefing to senators on the investigation into the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October. Senators slammed the briefing for providing no new information. Meanwhile, The New York Times has revealed new details about the jailing and torture of a doctor with U.S. citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Walid Fitaihi is a Harvard-trained doctor who has been jailed without charge since 2017. We speak with Andrew Bacevich, a retired colonel and Vietnam War veteran, author and professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University, and William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.
As many as 36 countries, including all the European Union members, have signed a statement criticising Saudi Arabia's human rights record. It calls on the kingdom to cooperate with a United Nations-led investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and to release the detained activists. Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba reports from Brussels.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Paul Manafort, the political consultant and Trump presidential campaign chairman whose lucrative work in Ukraine and ties to well-connected Russians made him a target of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was sentenced on Thursday to nearly four years in prison in the financial fraud case that left his grand lifestyle and power-broker reputation in ruins.
The sentence in the highest-profile criminal case mounted by the special counsel’s office was far lighter than the 19- to 24-year prison term recommended under sentencing guidelines. Judge T. S. Ellis III of the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., said that although Mr. Manafort’s crimes were “very serious,” following the guidelines would have resulted in an unduly harsh punishment. » | Sharon LaFraniere | Thursday, March 7, 2019
As the probe into US President Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Russia in the 2016 election continues to heat up, he faces multiple investigations on several fronts. His aides will have to answer questions over the alleged misuse of campaign funds, taking money from a foreign state and whether he's profited personally while in office, among other matters. Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports from Washington, DC.
President Trump has long acknowledged top-rated Fox News as his favorite media outlet, and the network relishes its role as a conservative voice. But its increasingly close relationship with the administration is drawing criticism. William Brangham talks to the New Yorker's Jane Mayer about an unprecedented “feedback loop” and whether the president has made policy decisions to help Fox succeed.
Michael Cohen appeared before the House Intelligence Committee for a second time. Multiple reports indicate that Cohen showed up with new evidence to back his allegation that the President's lawyers edited his false statement to Congress in 2017.
Lanny Davis, one of Michael Cohen's lawyers, tells Lawrence that the hush money payments made to Michael Cohen are irrefutable evidence that Trump has committed crimes.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., weighs in on a closed-door meeting between Senators and Trump WH officials on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia.
THE GUARDIAN: Soil Association raises concerns over chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef
Chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef are already infecting the debate over a post-Brexit trade deal, with one of the US’s most senior diplomats dismissing the European Union’s “museum of agriculture” approach to food safety.
The US ambassador, Woody Johnson, claimed fears over US food standards leading to lower quality food were “myths” and part of a “smear campaign” to cast American farming in the worst possible light.
The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has pledged that food standards will be the same if not better after the UK leaves the EU, but campaigners are concerned that welfare and environmental protections could be jettisoned in the rush to strike a US trade deal.
On Wednesday, the leading Brexit supporter George Eustice, who resigned from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last week, wrote in the Guardian that the UK should not countenance signing any deal that would reduce food standards as it could “give free trade a bad name”. He called US agriculture “quite backward”. » | Lisa O'Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Wednesday, March 6, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: King Salman said to have been angered by recent moves by Prince Mohammed against him
There are growing signs of a potentially destabilising rift between the king of Saudi Arabia and his heir, the Guardian has been told.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are understood to have disagreed over a number of important policy issues in recent weeks, including the war in Yemen.
The unease is said to have been building since the murder in Turkey of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA has reportedly concluded was ordered by Prince Mohammed. However, these tensions increased dramatically in late February when the king, 83, visited Egypt and was warned by his advisers he was at risk of a potential move against him, according to a detailed account from a source.
His entourage was so alarmed at the possible threat to his authority that a new security team, comprised of more than 30 hand-picked loyalists from the interior ministry, was flown to Egypt to replace the existing team. » | Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Nick Hopkins in London | Tuesday, March 5, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: Leader of liberal MEPs says elections in May are ‘last chance’ to fight populism
The European Union risks a populist-nationalist “nightmare” by the middle of the next decade unless centrists can win greater public backing for the European cause, the liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt has said.
Elections this May could herald a big shake-up of the European parliament. The duopoly of centre-right and centre-left is expected to lose its majority for the first time in 40 years of direct elections although Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche (La REM) is expected to win seats for the first time, boosting liberal forces.
Verhofstadt, the leader of the European parliament’s Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) since 2009, said pro-European centrists had “a last chance” after the vote to wrest back ground from nationalists and populists before the next electoral contest in 2024.
In an interview with the Guardian and five continental papers, the former Belgian prime minister said the EU needed an overhaul – managing the eurozone, migration and common defence – if it was to gain greater public support.
“Nothing is eternal. Nothing. Not all political institutions are eternal. To reform is a duty that we have … and if if we fail, then the tragedy, the nightmare will become reality,” he said. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels | Tuesday, March 5, 2019
“How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” That’s the title of a new book examining a part of the U.S. that is often overlooked: the nation’s overseas territories from Puerto Rico to Guam, former territories like the Philippines, and its hundreds of military bases scattered across the globe. We speak with the book’s author, Daniel Immerwahr, who writes, “At various times, the inhabitants of the U.S. Empire have been shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured and experimented on. What they haven’t been, by and large, is seen.” Immerwahr is an associate professor of history at Northwestern University.
The New Yorker has published an amazing article by Jane Mayer that lays out the disgusting and potentially illegal relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News. The article is filled with amazing revelations showing just how much influence Fox has over the White House, and Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins lays out some of the most damning pieces from the report.
THE GUARDIAN: European council president echoes Emmanuel Macron’s warning of malign influences
Donald Tusk has claimed external powers meddled in the Brexit vote as he called for EU member states to do more to protect the upcoming European elections.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels with the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the European council president said he agreed with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who used an editorial in the Guardian and other newspapers to call on European countries to be alert to malign influences.
“There are external anti-European forces, which are seeking – openly or secretly – to influence the democratic choices of Europeans, as was the case with Brexit and a number of election campaigns across Europe. And it may again be the case with the European elections in May,” said Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland and vociferous critic of Vladimir Putin.
Tusk’s intervention echoed fears Russia sought to foment anti-EU sentiment during the 2016 EU referendum campaign in the UK. » | Daniel Boffey in Brussels | Tuesday, March 5, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: We can’t let nationalists exploit public anger. I want an ambitious project that lets the people really take back control
Citizens of Europe, if I am taking the liberty of addressing you directly, it is not only in the name of the history and values that unite us, but because time is of the essence. A few weeks from now the European elections will be decisive for the future of our continent.
Never since the second world war has Europe been so essential. Yet never has Europe been in such danger. Brexit stands as the symbol of that. It symbolises the crisis of a Europe that has failed to respond to its peoples’ need for protection from the major shocks of the modern world. It also symbolises the European trap. The trap lies not in being part of the European Union; the trap is in the lie and the irresponsibility that can destroy it. Who told the British people the truth about their post-Brexit future? Who spoke to them about losing access to the EU market? Who mentioned the risks to peace in Ireland of restoring the border? Retreating into nationalism offers nothing; it is rejection without an alternative. And this is the trap that threatens the whole of Europe: the anger mongers, backed by fake news, promise anything and everything. » | Emmanuel Macron | Monday, March 4, 2019
At the CNN town hall, Sanders opposed U.S. intervention in Venezuela, refused to call Maduro a dictator, or recognize Guaidó, but he didn’t call for an end to sanctions - with Jacqueline Luqman, Eugene Puryear, Norman Solomon and host Paul Jay
THE GUARDIAN: Washington says Maduro faces ‘strong and significant response’ if Guaidó is detained or threatened after tour of South America
Washington has warned Nicolás Maduro he faces a “strong and significant response” if his rival, Juan Guaidó, is detained or threatened as he tries to reenter Venezuela on Monday before a day of fresh protests.
Guaidó sneaked out of Venezuela on the eve of a failed bid to force humanitarian aid into the economically ravaged country on 23 February and subsequently set off on a five-nation tour of South America.
The 35-year-old visited Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay despite a travel ban introduced after his decision to challenge Maduro by declaring himself Venezuela’s rightful interim president.
Most western governments now recognise Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president but, beyond widespread popular support, he enjoys little concrete power in Venezuela. » | Tom Phillips, Latin America correspondent | Monday, March 4, 2019
An autopsy expert. A lookalike. A black van. Our video investigation follows the movements of the 15-man Saudi hit team that killed and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Desperate men do desperate things; two leaders facing corruption charges may more aggressively push their Iran regime change agenda - Larry Wilkerson joins Paul Jay
Other proposals include further restrictions on the portrayal of smoking on television and in films, and introducing a levy on tobacco companies that would be used to fund further anti-smoking initiatives.
Simon Clark, director of Forest, said:
“These proposals infantilise young adults. If you’re 18 and old enough to vote, drive a car and join the army you’re old enough to make an informed decision to smoke. » | Sunday, March 3, 2019
THE OBSERVER: Critics say process Woody Johnson called ‘no-brainer’ is ‘harmful’ to nation’s health
The US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, has come under fire from a leading food critic, a farming union and trade justice campaigners over his push to open up the UK to American farmers post-Brexit.
Jay Rayner, the BBC presenter, Observer columnist and MasterChef critic, said the UK should tell Johnson where he can stick chlorinated chicken, the US’s preferred approach for protecting consumers from pathogens such as salmonella and campylobacter.
Writing in the Telegraph on Friday [£], Johnson attacked warnings that a post-Brexit trade deal would result in chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-pumped beef arriving on supermarket shelves.
“You have been presented with a false choice,” he wrote. “Either stick to EU directives, or find yourselves flooded with American food of the lowest quality. Inflammatory and misleading terms like ‘chlorinated chicken’ and ‘hormone beef’ are deployed to cast American farming in the worst possible light. » | Jamie Doward | Saturday, March 2, 2019
From a failed North Korea nuclear summit, Democrats after his tax returns, new questions over Kushner's security clearance, and Michael Cohen's damning testimony, Trump had a very bad week. Michael Steele, Annie Karni, Matthew Miller, and Nelson Cunningham react.
THE GUARDIAN: Kingdom acts against Osama bin Laden’s son, who US says has become an al-Qaida leader
Saudi Arabia has revoked the citizenship of Hamza bin Laden, after the US offered a $1m (£755,000) reward for the [the] son of the late al-Qaida leader.
The kingdom announced the news on Friday in an order in its official gazette.
Hamza bin Laden’s father, Osama, masterminded the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and was killed in a US military raid in Pakistan 10 years later.
The US State Department said the $1m reward would be paid for help locating Hamza bin Laden in any country as part its “rewards for justice” programme. » | Associated Press | Friday, March 1, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: Parents of American who died after Pyongyang detention say ‘Kim and his evil regime are responsible – no excuses can change that’
The parents of Otto Warmbier, a young American who was detained by North Korea for more than a year and died soon after his release in 2017, have rebuked Donald Trump’s defense of Kim Jong-un for the death of their son.
“We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier wrote in a statement Friday, the morning after Trump returned from his summit with the North Korean leader in Vietnam, where the pair failed to reach a deal over US sanctions and nuclear weapons.
“Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”
Trump received a fierce backlash, including from fellow Republicans, after he refused to blame Kim for Warmbier’s death, in response to a question during the president’s visit to Hanoi earlier this week, about how it affected his relationship with Kim. » | Lauren Aratani in New York | Friday, March 1, 2019
The family of Otto Warmbier rebuked President Donald Trump for siding with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who denied knowledge of their son's maltreatment during his imprisonment.
He's the first sitting Israeli Prime Minister to be put on official notice of planned prosecution on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. But Benjamin Netanyahu says he's innocent and will stay in his post. Israel's attorney general says he plans to indict Netanyahu on corruption charges.
If convicted he could face up to 10 years in prison. Netanyahu dismisses the allegations as a political “witch-hunt” designed to oust him from power. A hearing to decide if the prosecution goes ahead won't take place until after Israel's general election in April. So what’s likely to happen if, by then, Netanyahu has won a fifth term as prime minister? And what does it mean for his political career?
Presenter: Laura Kyle | Guests Akiva Eldar, Israeli Columnist for Al-Monitor; Yossi Mekelberg, Professor in International Relations at Regent's University in London; Mitchell Barak, speechwriter for former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Israeli President Shimon Peres.
The president overruled concerns of security officials and his own White House counsel and ordered that a top-secret security clearance be given to Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, The New York Times reported Thursday.
As the president and North Korea are at odds over the reason for a breakdown in talks, Trump is receiving criticism from both sides of the aisle for saying he believed Kim Jong Un regarding the death of Otto Warmbier.
Yellow vest protestors have caused havoc on the streets on France for the past 15 weeks, driven by anger over fuel taxes, the cost of living, and a political system they detest. Now, President Macron has promised to listen to people’s frustrations and make changes.
But does he have what it takes to see off the protesters, or is France heading for a civil war? The Nine’s Europe Correspondent Jean Mackenzie has taken a road trip across the country to find out.
Reported by Jean Mackenzie; Produced by Sara Monetta
THE GUARDIAN: US sets out aims for post-Brexit trade deal amid fears about chicken and beef standards
The US has outlined its objectives for a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, demanding greater access to the food markets where products such as chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef are currently banned under EU rules.
The US laid out its aims for a trade deal to cut tariff and non-tariff barriers for US industrial and agricultural goods and reduce regulatory differences.
The Trump administration is seeking to eliminate or reduce barriers for US agricultural products and secure duty-free access for industrial goods. » | Lisa O’Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Friday, March 1, 2019
'Sometimes you have to walk.' This was how US president Donald Trump described the sudden end to his summit with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un.
The pair arrived in Vietnam with hopes of building on last year's historic summit in Singapore. However, less than two days later, they signed no agreement, and it's unclear when they'll talk again.
North Korea's neighbours South Korea and China both said they were disappointed with the outcome. So what went wrong? And where does it leave the nuclear threat from North Korea?
Presenter: Hoda Abdel-Hamid | Guests: Se-Woong Koo - Publisher, Korea Expose; Robert Gutsche - Associate Professor at Lancaster University; Emil Dall - Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and Specialist on Nuclear Proliferation
Hearings reveal deepening systemic corruption, further degeneration of GOP, progressive members standout in questioning - Jacqueline Lukman, Henry Giroux and Carmen Russell-Sluchansky join Paul Jay
THE GUARDIAN: Xavier Bettel says his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some countries
Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has confronted Arab leaders over the repression of gay rights, telling them his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some of their countries.
The conference room at a summit of EU and Arab states fell silent when Bettel made his statement, according to a German TV journalist.
Retweeting this account, Bettel wrote: “Saying nothing was not an option for me.” The tweet was signed with his initials.
Bettel, the first EU leader to be married to a same-sex partner, had planned to make the intervention before arriving at the summit, which was the first gathering between the EU and Arab League.
Homosexuality is punishable by death under sharia law in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. Other countries in the region prohibit same-sex acts, including Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Syria, Kuwait and some of the United Arab Emirates. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels | Thursday, February 28, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: President says he believes North Korean leader knew nothing about treatment of US student
Donald Trump has said he took Kim Jong-un “at his word” when he denied any responsibility in the imprisonment and torture of Otto Warmbier that led to the US student’s death in 2017.
“Some really bad things happened to Otto,” Trump said. “But Kim tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”
Although Kim wields tremendous power in one of the world’s last totalitarian regimes, Trump said he believed the North Korean leader was not aware of Warmbier’s imprisonment in January 2016 and torture in jail until it was too late.
“I don’t believe he knew about it. He felt very badly about it, I did speak to him. He knew about it, but he knew about it after,” Trump said. North Korea, he went on, was a “big country” with “a lot of people in those prisons and the camps – there are some bad people”. » | Juliaan Borger in Hanoi | Thursday, February 28, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: Cohen says Trump had prior knowledge of WikiLeaks release and conducted ‘criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws’
In explosive public testimony before Congress, Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen cast the president as a “racist” and a “conman” who engaged in criminal activity after taking office as president to cover up an illegal hush money payment to an adult film actor.
Appearing before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, Cohen became the first Trump associate to allege that Trump had prior knowledge that his longtime adviser, Roger Stone, was communicating with WikiLeaks during the 2016 election regarding the release of hacked Democratic Party emails.
He also said Trump was aware of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between members of his presidential campaign, including his son Donald Trump Jr, and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, which was arranged under the pretense of receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
Cohen’s testimony marked a rare opportunity for millions of Americans to bear witness to the account of a central player in multiple investigations ensnaring the president and his inner circle. Cohen acted for more than a decade as the president’s fixer – a role in which he became intimately familiar with both Trump’s personal and professional affairs. » | Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington and Jon Swaine in New York | Wednesday, February 27, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: Wirral firm says woman who joined Isis in Syria had shown lack of empathy
A shooting range in Wirral has defended its use of targets with an image of Shamima Begum, the teenager who travelled from the UK to Syria to join Islamic State, saying it had received a high number of requests from customers.
Children as young as six can visit the Wallasey site, which also reportedly features targets of high-profile figures, such as Donald Trump and Margaret Thatcher. » | Mattha Busby | Wednesday, February 27, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: Dutch court backs suspension after man told he had to be clean shaven to train as asbestos removal officer
A Dutch court has backed the suspension of a Muslim man’s benefits over his refusal on religious grounds to shave his beard while on training for a job.
The unnamed man had been offered a job as an asbestos removal officer but was subsequently told he would need to be clean shaven in order to undergo the training course.
When he refused on the basis of his religious convictions, Amersfoort city council suspended payments to both him and his wife for a month under the Participatiewet, which provides a minimum income for every legal resident in the Netherlands. » | Daniel Boffey in Brussels | Wednesday, February 27, 2019
THE GUARDIAN: US president flatters North Korean counterpart and offers economic help if he disarms
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have begun their second summit, with the US president calling his North Korean counterpart “a great leader” and offering to help give his country a “tremendous future”.
The two leaders advanced towards each other and shook hands in front of a dozen US and North Korean flags, set up in the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, in a tableau almost identical to the backdrop at their first meeting, eight months ago in Singapore.
In his remarks to the press, Trump addressed criticism that the first summit had not lived up to his claims that it was a breakthrough that would lead to North Korea’s disarmament and end the nuclear threat the country posed.
“It is an honour to be with Chairman Kim. It’s an honour to be together in a country, Vietnam, where they have rolled out the red carpet and they are very honoured to have us,” the US president told reporters as the two men sat alongside each other before brief introductory talks. » | Julian Borger in Hanoi | Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Trump promises “democracy and freedom” to Venezuela, delivered by Elliot Abrams who brought you illegal wars, coups, and support for dictatorships; and Mike Pompeo and VP Pence, both with deep ties to the Koch brothers who need Venezuelan heavy crude to feed their Texas refinery - Col. Larry Wilkerson joins TRNN’s Paul Jay
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — Britain’s opposition Labour Party said on Monday that it was prepared to support a second referendum on withdrawal from the European Union, a shift that could have significant ramifications for the fate of Brexit and for the country’s future.
After the resignations of nine Labour Party members last week, and amid the prospect of more, the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, dropped his longstanding resistance to a second vote on leaving the bloc.
Mr. Corbyn’s support for a new vote is certainly no guarantee a new vote will happen. Still, it will cheer pro-European Britons, who have been fighting to reverse the outcome of the 2016 referendum decision. » | Stephen Castle | Monday, February 25, 2019
On Sunday, Marco Rubio sent out a cryptic warning to Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro that only included a before and after picture of Moammar Gaddafi. One picture was before US intervention and one was right before Gaddafi was brutally murdered. Rubio’s tweet can only be viewed as a threat of what the United States wants to do to Maduro in Venezuela, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.
