Tuesday, December 17, 2019
‘Call Me by Your Name’ | Anatomy of a Scene
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Der Brexit mag hart sein, aber er setzt einer grossen Lüge ein Ende
Die Entscheidung ist gefallen. Grossbritannien wird am 31. Januar nach fast 50 Jahren Mitgliedschaft aus der EU austreten. Boris Johnsons überwältigender Sieg bei den Parlamentswahlen lässt keinen anderen Schluss zu.
Der Traum vieler Brexit-Gegner, noch einmal über den Austritt abstimmen zu können und alles ungeschehen zu machen, ist zerplatzt. Sie können jetzt nur noch so tun, als wäre es um ein Haar anders gekommen: wenn Premierminister David Cameron das Referendum nicht so unprofessionell in die Wege geleitet hätte, wenn Jeremy Corbyn nicht ein so unfähiger Oppositionsführer gewesen wäre, wenn Boris Johnson damals doch der Kampagne der Brexit-Gegner beigetreten wäre.
Wenn, wenn, wenn. Dann hätte der Flügelschlag eines Schmetterlings vielleicht alles ändern können. Doch vielleicht wäre es ehrlich, aufzuzeigen, dass der Brexit unausweichlich – und die EU-Mitgliedschaft der Briten von Anfang an eine Lüge war. » | Gordana Mijuk | Samstag 14. Dezember 2019
«Wer sich als englisch identifiziert, hat sehr wahrscheinlich für den Brexit gestimmt. Wer sich als britisch versteht, war eher dagegen» : Der Brexit sei das Produkt des englischen Nationalismus, sagt der irische Autor Fintan O’Toole. Dieser verbreite sich im Land und treibe den Zerfall des Königreichs voran. »
Labels:
Brexit
Friday, December 13, 2019
“Dark Day for Everyone Who Believes in Justice”: UK Tories Defeat Labour in Landslide Election
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Exit Poll Predicts 86-seat Majority for Boris Johnson and Conservatives
Boris Johnson appears on course to secure a crushing majority of 86, and take Britain out of the EU in January, after a shock exit poll showed his party would win 368 seats in Thursday’s general election.
That would be the biggest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher’s third general election in 1987; and mark a dramatic repudiation of Jeremy Corbyn’s offer of “real change” for Britain.
If the poll is vindicated as real results come in, the Conservatives will have smashed through the “red wall” of Labour-held seats across Wales and the Midlands, many of which voted leave in the 2016 EU referendum.
The exit poll, which is compiled on the basis of a large-scale survey of 20,000 voters as they leave polling stations, put the Tories on 368 seats seats, and Labour on just 191.
That would allow Johnson to pass his Brexit deal early in the new year, so that Britain would formally leave the EU in January. » | Heather Stewart, Political editor | Thursday, December 12, 2019
'Brutal, Packed with Untruths, Uninspiring': European Press on UK Election
France
France’s media have been following the UK election campaign closely and did not take long to draw their conclusions. “Boris Johnson: the liar weakening Europe,” was the splash in Le Parisien, a popular tabloid, last month.
The paper called the prime minister “Europe’s bogeyman”, a politician for whom “pretty much everything is either an empty promise, economical with the truth or a downright lie.” » | Jon Henley, Philip Oltermann, Sam Jones, Andrew Roth and Angela Giuffrida | Thursday, December 12, 2019
"I'm Angry and Worried": Hugh Grant's Concern If Tories Win Election
Speaking to James O'Brien, he said he's never really got involved in elections before, but he is extremely concerned about a Tory win. He said: "I feel like a Coke can that's been rolling around the bottom of the car for too long and someone needs to pull the ring. "I'm just angry. I'm angry and worried."
Can Boris Johnson Lie His Way Back Into Office?
LONDON — This is the dejection election. Not in my lifetime has Britain faced such a miserable choice. Two vain, incompetent, mediocre charlatans are competing to become prime minister. For the Conservatives, we have the blustering, lying, oafish puffball Boris Johnson. In the Labour corner is the querulous, wooden, sanctimonious Jeremy Corbyn.
The two candidates are so alarming that, in an unprecedented intervention, former prime ministers from each of their parties have pleaded with voters to block them. Tony Blair and John Major have urged tactical votes against Mr. Corbyn and Mr. Johnson. Everywhere, exhausted, disillusioned, skeptical voters debate who is worse. British politics has never known anything like it.
These very different men share remarkable, unflattering similarities. Each is ill briefed, hazy on the facts and implications of his policy proposals, uneasy under scrutiny and belligerent when challenged. » | Jenni Russell, Contributing Opinion Writer | Wednesday, December 11, 2019
’Politically We Don’t Count’: EU Citizens Fear for Future in UK
In a threadbare youth centre in Bradford, Vie Clerc, who got off a Eurostar from Paris 19 years ago with £50 in her pocket and never left, laments the irony. “It’s the first one I’ll actually be able to vote in,” she said. “Shame I’ve never felt less British.”
In a bright mezzanine office in Bristol, Denny Pencheva, who landed in 2013 from Bulgaria via Copenhagen and now teaches at the university, bemoans politicians “who use us to score their political points, but don’t actually have to consider us – because politically, we don’t count”. » | Jon Henley, Europe correspondent | Thursday, December 12, 2019
This Is a Brexit Election. But Boris Johnson Will Not Get Brexit Done
There is only one reason why today’s election is happening: Brexit. Six weeks on, the 2019 election is still a Brexit election. You may want it to be about other things. You may be fed up and distressed with the whole Brexit argument. All this, though, is escapism. What is primarily at stake today is whether Britain leaves the EU on the Conservatives’ terms, or whether it doesn’t. Today, the nation’s votes will decide which it shall be.
The leitmotif of Boris Johnson’s campaign has been Brexit. For someone who loves to speechify as much as he does, Johnson’s message discipline has been awesome. “Get Brexit done” has been the “strong and stable” of the 2019 campaign. The slogan is brilliantly succinct and well chosen. But it is a fraud.
Johnson did not call the election because he lacked a parliamentary majority for Brexit. A Commons vote on 22 October showed that there was such a majority. But there was no majority for the unconditional departure from Europe that Johnson stands for, and which the rightwing of his party demands. This election is intended to create that majority and to weaponise the Conservatives as the leave party, on Johnson’s terms. All Tory MPs who are elected today will be bound to a manifesto that asserts “we will get Brexit done in January”, and “we will not extend the implementation period beyond December 2020”. » | Martin Kettle | Thursday, December 12, 2019
Labels:
Brexit,
general election
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
How the US Obstructs the World Trade Organisation | DW News
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Royaume-Uni : des élections inquiétantes pour l’Europe
Editorial du « Monde ». Qui aurait cru, au moment du référendum de juin 2016 sur le Brexit, qu’à l’orée de 2020 les Britanniques seraient encore occupés à chercher le moyen de mettre en œuvre leur décision de quitter l’Union européenne ? Tel est pourtant, l’enjeu des élections législatives de jeudi 12 décembre, les troisièmes organisées en quatre ans dans ce pays divisé plus que jamais sur la question de l’Europe et dont les gouvernements successifs, paralysés, ne font plus grand-chose d’autre que de tenter de sortir du bourbier du Brexit. » | Éditorial | lundi 09 décembre 1919
Impeachment by Christmas: Democrats Limits Charges to Ensure Swift Vote
Former Saudi Consul-General Accused in Khashoggi Murder Case
Luca Guadagnino on the Power of First Love in ‘Call Me By Your Name’
House Democrats Unveil Articles of Impeachment Against Trump
WASHINGTON — House Democrats announced on Tuesday that they would move ahead this week with two articles of impeachment charging President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, as they accused him of violating the Constitution by pressuring Ukraine for help in the 2020 election.
Speaking from a wood-paneled reception room just off the floor of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and leaders of six key committees said that Mr. Trump’s actions toward Ukraine, and his efforts to block Congress’s attempt to investigate, had left them no choice but to pursue one of the Constitution’s gravest remedies. The move will bring a sitting president to the brink of impeachment for only the fourth time in American history.
“Today, in service to our duty to the Constitution, and to our country, the House Committee on Judiciary is introducing two articles of impeachment charging the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, with committing high crimes and misdemeanors,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the panel’s chairman. He stood before four American flags and a portrait of George Washington. » | Nicholas Fandos | Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Labels:
Donald Trump,
impeachment
Monday, December 09, 2019
Republicans Heckle and Disrupt as Bitter Impeachment Divide Laid Bare
Having heard all the witness testimony in the impeachment case against Donald Trump, Congress began arguments on Monday on what that testimony meant. It did not go smoothly.
Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chair of the House judiciary committee, had barely begun introducing the session when a bearded young man got up from the public seats at the back of the chamber and started yelling.
“Americans are sick of your impeachment scam! Trump is innocent!” he shouted. “You’re the one committing treason. America is done with this!”
As uniformed Capitol policeman began ushering him from the chamber, he declared: “You can kick me out, but he’s the one committing crimes.” » | Julian Borger in Washington | Monday, December 9, 2019
André Aciman: The Meaning and Message of 'Call Me By Your Name'
Sunday, December 08, 2019
The Observer View on Who to Vote For in the General Election
THE OBSERVER: After a tawdry campaign of lies and racism, the choice is clear – anyone but Johnson
This is a historic election, the most important choice voters have faced in decades. The result will determine whether Britain as we know it exists in a generation or whether the union will have splintered beyond repair. It will shape the nation’s economic wellbeing: whether we make countless lives harder by cutting ourselves off from our biggest trading partner or maintain our close relationship with the EU. It will influence the type of society we are: whether the number of children who grow up in abject poverty and the number of people sleeping rough – stains on our collective conscience– will continue to rise. It will decide the sustainability of the world we bequeath to our children and grandchildren.
Yet there is no disguising that this is an election of last resort, the product of an unedifying journey through months of parliamentary gridlock. None of the options inspires enthusiasm; the campaign has been underwhelming and uninspiring. But the gloomy sense it leaves – that our politics is unequal to the tests that lie ahead – must not obscure the momentous nature of the decision voters must make on Thursday. » | Observer editorial | Sunday, December 8, 2019
Saturday, December 07, 2019
German Chancellor Merkel Pays Tribute to Holocaust Victims at Auschwitz Death Camp | DW News
Friday, December 06, 2019
Angela Merkel Speaks of 'Deep Shame' on First Visit to Auschwitz
Angela Merkel has expressed “deep shame” during her first visit as German chancellor to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust memorial and vowed to fight rising racism and antisemitism in Germany and Europe.
Dressed in black, Merkel said the crimes committed at the site in southern Poland where the Nazis ran their largest death camp would always be part of German history.
“This site obliges us to keep the memory alive. We must remember the crimes that were committed here and name them clearly,” Merkel said during a ceremony also attended by the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
“I feel deep shame given the barbaric crimes that were committed here by Germans,” she added. » | Kate Connolly and agencies | Friday, December 6, 2019
Thursday, December 05, 2019
Edward Snowden: If I Came Back to the US, I Would Likely Die in Prison for Telling the Truth
Brexit Is One of Most Spectacular Mistakes in EU History, Says Tusk
Brexit has been “one of the most spectacular mistakes” in the history of the EU and followed a campaign marked by “an unprecedented readiness to lie”, Donald Tusk has said.
In his first interview since standing down as European council president last week, Tusk said Brexit was “the most painful and saddest experience” of his five years in office, a tumultuous period marked by the Greek eurozone crisis, bitter rows over migration and the election of Donald Trump.
He also criticised the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for branding Nato “brain-dead” and refusing to open EU membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels | Thursday, December 5, 2019
Labels:
Brexit,
Donald Tusk
'It Is Not Too Late': Andrew Neil Challenges Johnson to Commit to Interview
BBC's Andrew Neil lays down gauntlet to Boris Johnson over interview »
'No Choice but to Act': Pelosi Asks Congress to Proceed with Trump Impeachment
Pelosi asks committee to proceed with articles of impeachment against Trump »
Mocked Abroad and Assailed at Home, Trump Returns to Face Impeachment
WASHINGTON — When times turn tough, presidents can hop on Air Force One to escape the country for a while and stride purposefully across the world stage. But the world stage was not so friendly this week for President Trump, who landed back in Washington on Wednesday night to confront a grim couple of weeks ahead.
Mocked by peers behind his back at a NATO meeting in London, Mr. Trump abruptly canceled a news conference and bolted early, only to fly home to a capital in the throes of judging whether he is fit for office. After hobnobbing with the queen, the president now faces the daunting likelihood that by Christmas he will become the third president impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. » | Peter Baker | Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Labels:
Donald Trump
The Guardian View on Trump and Johnson: A Toxic Alliance
AUS president’s low-key exit from a Nato summit, skipping the traditional press conference, would once have been perceived as a snub to the host government. But Donald Trump’s departure from London will come as a relief to Boris Johnson. Mr Trump is a fan of Brexit and praises the prime minister as the man to deliver it, but his presence in the country was an electoral hazard for the Conservatives.
Some British voters admire Mr Trump, or find him entertaining, but more do not. It is no recommendation for the Tory leader to be liked by a man notorious for dishonesty, ignorance, narcissism and chauvinism.
The US president did one favour for his British counterpart. He claimed no interest in the NHS as a subject of post-Brexit trade talks. That helped rebut a Labour campaign attack, although the veracity of the denial is as doubtful as everything else Mr Trump says. » | Editorial | Wednesday, December 4, 2019
BoJo, Billy Bunter's posh brother, is going to turn this country into a vassal state of Trump's America. Voters should avoid him like the plague. – Mark
Labels:
Boris Johnson
He May Be a Clown, But the Threat Boris Johnson Poses Is Deadly Serious
Constantly inconstant, Boris Johnson is faithful in at least one area: generating outrage. That he does as naturally as a dog cocks its leg at a lamppost.
This week, he has used the bodies of those murdered at London Bridge as props for his election campaign. Last week the 55-year-old dodged a Channel 4 debate on climate change, sending instead his dad and his wingman, Michael Gove. And then there are his many columns, spitting at gay men (“tank-topped bumboys”), single mums (“uppity and irresponsible”) and black people (“smiling piccaninnies”).
I would go on, but equally so might you – and we both know what typically comes next. The performative pearl-clutching, the saucer-eyed wailing: “How could he?” The sound and rote fury on social media and rolling news, followed by a satisfied, full-bellied silence as grateful journalists wait for their next steaming dollop of Boris buffoonery. » | Aditya Chakrabortty | Thursday, December 5, 2019
Labels:
Boris Johnson
Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Trump Calls Trudeau ‘Two-faced’ after NATO ‘Gossiping’ Video
What's the joke? Mugged off Trump sulks his way through Nato summit »
Labels:
Nato summit
The Guardian View on Boris Johnson’s Poverty Plan: Spread It Widely?
Did Boris Johnson watch Channel 4’s documentary Growing Up Poor? He should have. The film is a seminal moment in television which has made people talk about the crisis of destitution that is hiding in plain sight in the UK, and how dreadful it is. In the programme, childhood dreams of being an actor or a solicitor jarred with tales of chronic poverty. There were bleak scenes of Dickensian hardship, as families living in squalor or with hungry children at a food bank explained how these situations had been precipitated by everyday catastrophes of bereavement, domestic violence and mental breakdown. The damaging trade-offs being made – of whether to eat or heat – are a shameful indictment of a country as wealthy as ours. » | Editorial | Tuesday, November 3, 2019
Monday, December 02, 2019
Author André Aciman: 'I Wrote about Gay Love, Not Realising I Was Taking On the Taboo'
Labels:
André Aciman
UK Election: Halt US Trade Talks until NHS Off Table, Corbyn Tells Johnson
Jeremy Corbyn has urged the prime minister to break off trade talks with Donald Trump until any reference to pharmaceuticals is struck out of Washington’s negotiating objectives.
As the US president prepared to fly in on Monday evening to attend the Nato summit alongside other world leaders, Corbyn wrote to Boris Johnson to urge him to give fresh reassurances about NHS privatisation.
The Labour leader has repeatedly accused the prime minister of preparing to sell off the NHS, and Labour activists at recent rallies have taken up a chorus of “Not for sale! Not for sale!” » | Heather Stewart, Political editor | Monday, December 2, 2019
Sunday, December 01, 2019
Allowing Predatory Private Insurance to Exist Is Insanity
Labels:
NHS,
Thom Hartmann,
US healthcare
Can Angela Merkel Save Her Grand Coalition? | Inside Story
Germany's Social Democrats, or SPD, have chosen two leaders who want to leave Angela Merkel's grand coalition. Many of their party members say they want to focus on rebuilding support in the opposition.
The coalition between Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and the SPD was formed last year. The SPD's new leaders ran on a joint ticket with a promise to re-negotiate the partnership deal on issues of spending and climate policies. Its party congress is expected to decide by next week - on whether it will continue to support Merkel. But should the SPD decide to leave, the Chancellor has the option of leading a minority government or forming a new coalition with smaller opposition parties. A snap election is also in the cards.
So, where does this leave Germany and Europe?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan | Guests: Thorsten Benner - Director of Global Public Policy Institute;. Julien Hoez - Managing Director of Vocal Europe; Matt Kvortrup - Author, 'Angela Merkel: Europe's Most Influential Leader'
Labels:
Angela Merkel,
Germany,
Inside Story,
SPD
America Is Not the Land of the Free But One of Monopolies So Predatory They Imperil the Nation
Tomorrow, President Trump arrives in London for the annual Nato summit. Despite the boasting and the trappings of superpower status, he is an emissary from a country whose economy and society are in increasing difficulty, and whose global leadership is under challenge not just from the usual suspect, China, but from Europe. With the unerring capacity to be wrong that defines the Brexit right, Britain is about to decouple itself from a continental economy beginning to get things right, and hook up with one that is palpably beginning to fail.
This is not the conventional wisdom. The EU is sclerotic, undynamic, stifled by quasi-socialist red tape, and hostile to insurgent startups. It is so degenerate it cannot even defend itself – as Trump will undoubtedly remind its leaders over the next two days. The US is the mirror opposite. A free trade agreement post 31 January with the US is the number one strategic policy aim for Brexit Britain – unshackling the UK from the declining old, and embracing the English-speaking, dynamic new. Best be nice to “the Donald”.
Except the latest research demonstrates the reverse is true. Britain is about to make a vast mistake. In the recently published The Great Reversal, leading economist Thomas Philippon of New York University and member of the advisory panel of the New York Federal Reserve, mounts a devastating attackon the conventional wisdom, so perfectly embodied by the witless Boris Johnson. The news is that over the last 20 years per capita EU incomes have grown by 25% while the US’s have grown 21%, with the US growth rate decelerating while Europe’s has held steady – indeed accelerating in parts of Europe. What is going on? » | Will Hutton | Sunday, December 1, 2019
Labels:
Brexit
How Princess Alice Saved an Entire Family from the Nazis
At the foot of the Mount of Olives, opposite the eastern wall of the old city of Jerusalem, lies the grave of one of the most eccentric – if sometimes overlooked – British royals.
Princess Alice, Prince Philip’s mother, and also a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, is remembered for many things. Born deaf at Windsor Castle, she lived a life of regal glamour – married to a Greek prince – but also extreme frugality, and spent two years at a Swiss asylum after a schizophrenia diagnosis. Later in her life, the “Princess of Battenberg” established an order of nuns, giving away all her possessions before dying on 5 December 1969.
The 50th anniversary of that date will come on Thursday amid a resurgence in interest thanks to Netflix’s The Crown. In the third series, the royal is seen during her final years as a chain-smoking nun seeking funds for the poor. But a key episode of her life, for which she is lovingly remembered in Israel and among many Jewish people, is overlooked by the TV drama. During the second world war, Princess Alice sheltered the persecuted Cohen family from the Nazis and their sympathisers, including some of her own children. » | Oliver Holmes | Sunday, December 1, 2019
Labels:
monarchy,
Princess Alice
Dominic Raab in Danger of Losing Seat to Lib Dems, Poll Suggests
Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, is in danger of providing this election’s “Portillo moment”, after a poll in his constituency suggested that he was at risk of losing his seat.
The Deltapoll survey of Raab’s Esher and Walton constituency indicates he now only holds a five-point lead over the Liberal Democrats with less than two weeks before voting. Yet Raab had a massive 23,298 majority at the last election. The fact the foreign secretary faces a close race shows there could be big swings in some seats, and means Raab is vulnerable to a so-called “Portillo moment” – a reference to the shock defeat suffered by Michael Portillo in the Labour landslide of 1997. » | Michael Savage, Political editor | Saturday, November 30, 2019
Brexit: Johnson ‘Will Have to Call Second Referendum If He Fails to Win Majority’
Boris Johnson could be forced into holding a second referendum on Brexit next summer if he fails to win a majority in the House of Commons but remains as prime minister, according to a new report by academics at University College London.
The detailed analysis of how a referendum could be triggered, how long it would take, and how it would work concludes that a second public vote – in which the options would most likely be Johnson’s deal versus remaining in the EU – would be very much on the cards if the Conservatives are denied a majority, or are returned with only a very slender one, on 12 December. » | Toby Helm and Michael Savage | Sunday, December 1, 2019
Donald Trump: Is There Anything Sadder Than a Chump Who Thinks He’s a Champ?
Oh dear. Was President Trump’s tweet of his head digitally added on to the body of Rocky Balboa/Sylvester Stallone rather too psychologically revealing? The image seemed to say everything you needed to know about Trump’s delusional self-image. Well, I say “needed”. How much does anyone need to know about any man – world leader or regular Joe – who mistakes male heft and musculature for true power?
Before we begin, a minor quibble: the tan of Rocky’s body isn’t an exact match for Trump’s face. The former says “Italian-American”; the latter whispers: “Overzealously applied mortuary makeup that does little to dispel the question marks over Trump’s health sparked by his recent unscheduled ‘medical check’.” But I digress – it’s the internal monologue that counts. The Trump/Rocky hybrid is saying: “Behold my might! This is the real Trump – not that old guy, so flaccid and orange he’s starting to resemble a morally corrupted Winnie the Pooh. NO, A THOUSAND TIMES NO! This toned boxing-gloved Adonis is the true Trump: buff, invincible and intriguingly homoerotic.” » | Barbara Ellen | Saturday, November 30, 2019
Labels:
Donald Trump
Saturday, November 30, 2019
The Changing Face of the USA Today: Young People Gravitate to Socialism as Capitalism Keeps Failing Them
Suisse : les fumeurs discriminés à l'embauche
La fumée n'est plus vraiment en odeur de sainteté de l'autre côté du lac Léman. Les entreprises suisses n'hésitent pas à pratiquer une discrimination à l'embauche entre les fumeurs et les non-fumeurs. Un critère de recrutement qui s'affiche dès les annonces d'embauche, explique LCI.
En 2017, 27,1 % des Suisses de plus de 15 ans fumaient, selon l'office fédéral de la santé publique, soit près d'un quart de la population helvète qui pourrait avoir des difficultés à trouver un emploi. … » |Par LePoint.fr | vendredi 29 novembre 2019
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s Lighter Moments
North Korea Threatens Japan with 'Real Ballistic Missile'
Mr Abe condemned the North for "repeated launches of ballistic missiles" after two projectiles were fired on Thursday.
But the North insisted it was testing a "super-large multiple-rocket launcher".
On Saturday, state media said Japan "may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future".
North Korea is banned from firing ballistic missiles under UN Security Council resolutions. » | Saturday, November 30, 2019
Labels:
Japan,
North Korea
How Poor People Survive in the USA | DW Documentary
Many people in the United States fall through the social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians, it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And those who lose their home often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million, three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. A documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today.
Labels:
DW documentary,
poverty,
USA
Friday, November 29, 2019
Opinion: Britain’s Dirty Election
LONDON — Pity British voters. Not because they face a choice between two historically unpopular candidates for prime minister — Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn — on Dec. 12. Nor that they are being forced to trudge to polling stations for the third general election in five years, this time in the depths of the miserable British winter.
Pity British voters because they are being subjected to a barrage of distortion, dissembling and disinformation without precedent in the country’s history. Long sentimentalized as the home of “fair play,” Britain is now host to the virus of lies, deception and digital skulduggery that afflicts many other countries across the world.
In this as in other respects, Prime Minister Boris Johnson — a serial liar who lost his first job as a journalist for inventing quotes — resembles President Trump. And Britain, whose election is breaking down under the pressure of manipulation, increasingly looks like the United States. Truth and falsehood have become malleable concepts. Anything goes. » | Peter Geoghegan and Mary Fitzgerald | Friday, November 29, 2019
BBC Bars Johnson from Marr Show Unless He Agrees Neil Interview
The BBC has refused to allow Boris Johnson to appear on the Andrew Marr Show this weekend unless he agrees to take part in a one-on-one interview with Andrew Neil, amid ongoing tension between the Conservatives and broadcasters.
The prime minister has failed to set a date for his proposed half-hour primetime interview with Neil, despite every other party leader agreeing to do one.
Labour has accused Johnson of dodging one of the toughest interviewers on television, insisting they were operating in the belief that the prime minister was already signed up when they agreed to let Jeremy Corbyn appear on the programme.
“The reason [Johnson] is doing this is because he thinks, like his Bullingdon friends, that they are above the rest of us, that they don’t need to be held to account, they don’t need to be treated like the rest of us,” said John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor.
The Conservatives had said they would allow Johnson to appear on this Sunday’s Andrew Marr Show. A BBC source said this offer had been declined and suggested the broadcaster would not let Johnson pick which shows he wants appear on. » | Jim Waterson and Heather Stewart | Friday, November 29, 2019
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Jorge Flechas, MD: Boron and Oral Health
He majored in Physics at Southern Missionary College in Tennessee and achieved both his Doctorate in Medicine and his Master’s Degree in Public Health from Loma Linda University in California.
Jorge Flechas – Total Body Iodine Sufficiency – AARM (2012)
Jorge Flechas, MD, MPH, is a researcher, physician and nationally known speaker who specializes in Iodine Therapy for hypothyroidism and fibrocystic breast disease. Dr. Jorge Flechas is the Medical Director of Flechas Family Practice in Hendersonville, NC, specializing in hormonal therapy for treatment of Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) since the late 1980s.
A Short History of The Moors –Trailer
They were known as the Moors and they came to Europe from what is now known as Morocco. For nearly 800 years the Moors ruled in Granada. And for nearly as long in a wider territory of that became known as Moorish Spain or Al-Andalus.
In Granada, where the Moors first came in 711, they built a fortress palace, the Alhambra. It was never conquered by their enemies but in 1492 the Moors surrendered their citadel, by then the last outpost of Moorish Spain, to the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel. It would bring to an end an era and mark the beginnings of the Spanish Inquisition.r
But much of what the Moors built on the Iberian Peninsula and in their North African homelands has survived, and can still be visited today. In this episode of Short History of the World, we explore the rich architectural legacy of the Moors, the dynasties that built an empire, and what they left behind.
Labels:
Al-Andalus,
Spain,
the Moors
Jo Swinson Says 'Sexist and Patronising' Boris Johnson Unfit to Be PM
Jo Swinson has attacked Boris Johnson’s fitness to be prime minister, saying he does not care about people, is dishonest and complacent, and empowers bigots with his use of racist and sexist language.
In a speech in London, the Liberal Democrat leader said Johnson was complicit in encouraging prejudice against Muslims, had written “sexist, patronising crap” about women and faced allegations of groping.
“This man isn’t someone our sons can look up to, that our daughters can have faith in,” she said. “Boris Johnson is not fit to be prime minister.”
Answering questions after the speech, Swinson accepted that her start-of-campaign pledge that she could become prime minister now seemed unlikely, and she urged people to vote tactically to prevent a Conservative majority.
“Clearly, when you look at the polls during the campaign, that’s pretty unlikely, as we stand here right now,” she said. “But we are in a position to stop Boris Johnson becoming prime minister. And that is hugely important with two weeks to go. We need to get that message out there.” » | Peter Walker, Political correspondent | Thursday, November 28, 2019
Labels:
Jo Swinson,
Lib Dems
'Our Democracy Is Under Threat', Former Cambridge Analytica Employee Tells FRANCE 24
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Michael Heseltine Appears with Lib Dems to Urge Tactical Voting
The Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine has made an impassioned appeal to people to choose “the national interest” and ignore traditional party loyalties to help elect Liberal Democrats through tactical voting.
At a press conference alongside Chuka Umunna and Sam Gyimah, who sat as Lib Dem MPs in the last parliament having begun their careers with Labour and the Conservatives respectively, Lord Heseltine said he was still a Tory party member but planned to “lend my vote to the Lib Dems on this one issue” of stopping Brexit.
Heseltine, whose 25-year ministerial career included a stint as deputy prime minister under John Major, saluted Umunna, Gyimah and those who were planning to vote tactically.
“There are men and women whose commitment to our country, their sense of what matters to Britain, where the future of Britain lies, where the future of the younger generation lies, means that they have torn up their traditional loyalties,” he told the event in London. » | Peter Walker, Political correspondent | Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Dominic Cummings Tells Brexiters: Election Is Tighter Than It Looks
Boris Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings has told Brexit supporters that the general election is “much tighter” than polls might suggest and urged them to persuade their friends to vote Tory.
Cummings has worked closely alongside Johnson from the moment he entered No 10, though he has taken a back seat during the election campaign. With little more than a fortnight to go until polling day, he used his blog to send up what he called a “bat signal” to Vote Leave supporters, warning them Brexit is at risk.
“You will see many polls in the coming days. Some will say Boris will win. Trust me, as someone who has worked on lots of campaigns, things are MUCH tighter than they seem and there is a very real possibility of a hung parliament,” he said. “Without a majority, the nightmare continues. ALL other MPs will gang together to stop Brexit and give EU citizens the vote. It’s that simple.” » | Heather Stewart, Political editor | Wednesdday, November 27, 2019
Britain's Health Service Is For Sale, Leaked Trade Docs Suggest
Johnson has repeatedly stated in clear and absolute terms that the NHS - which offers British citizens free healthcare at the point of access, regardless of illness - was not up for sale, but a 451-page internal government document, revealed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, details a series of secret United States-UK trade negotiations covering a whole range of British public services - from food regulation to healthcare - to which Washington wants "full market access".
One detail suggests the UK would be open to longer patents on US-produced medicines, which Corbyn says would push up the price paid by the NHS for pharmaceuticals - perhaps by as much as 500,000 pounds ($645,000) a week.
Corbyn had challenged Johnson over the privatisation and sell-off during their first televised leaders' debate, waving a sheaf of heavily redacted papers covered in blacked-out text. On Wednesday, he said he had got hold of the unredacted version, which detailed six rounds of talks between US and UK trade representatives.
Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports from central London.
Clive James, Australian author and Daily Telegraph critic, dies aged 80
James, who moved to England in 1961, wrote the weekly television critique page in the "Review" section of the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph until mid 2014.
After being diagnosed with leukaemia, kidney failure and lung disease almost ten years ago, James spent much of his final years writing about his terminal illness.
According to his agents, he died at his home in Cambridge on Sunday 24th November 2019. A private funeral attended by family and close friends took place in the chapel at Pembroke College, Cambridge on Wednesday. » | Verity Bowman | Wednesday, November 27, 2019
A life in pictures »
Clive James, writer, broadcaster and TV critic, dies aged 80 »
Sir Jonathan Miller, writer and director, dies aged 85 »
Sir Jonathan Miller obituary »
Gary Rhodes, TV chef and presenter, dies aged 59 »
Gary Rhodes: the spiky-haired scoundrel who became the first superstar chef »
Gary Rhodes – a life in pictures »
Nicola Sturgeon Vows to Back New Brexit Referendum
Labels:
Brexit,
Nicola Sturgeon,
Scotland,
SNP
Jeremy Corbyn Reveals 451 Pages of Uncensored Pages 'Proving NHS Up for Sale'
Jeremy Corbyn reveals dossier 'proving NHS up for sale' »
Labels:
Boris Johnson,
Jeremy Corbyn,
NHS
Iran Warns U.S. & Allies: "We Will Destroy You" (w/ Jamal Abdi)
The protests and reactions from the government in Iran in recent weeks have become dangerous for Iranians. This is a combustible situation, not helped by rhetoric from Donald Trump.
Sanctions against Iran are creating enemies rather than bringing Iran into some form of democratic governance.
Jamal Abdi joined Thom to discuss the latest from Iran.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Bart Ehrman vs. James White Debate
Albania Hit by Most Severe Earthquake in Decades | DW News
Labels:
Albania,
DW News,
earthquake,
Tirana
Monday, November 25, 2019
Spain's Islamic Legacy Source of Controversy | Focus on Europe
Labels:
Al-Andalus,
Moorish Spain,
Spain
In Search of the Spirit of Al-Andalus
Labels:
Al-Andalus,
Moorish Spain,
Spain
Chuka Umunna Attacks PM for 'Following the Trump Playbook'
Chuka Umunna has warned that an election win for Boris Johnson would represent a further victory for populist rightwing nationalists such as Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán, saying the prime minister’s dishonesty and prejudice made him unfit for No 10.
Umunna, who speaks on foreign affairs for the Liberal Democrats, used a speech to liken Johnson to leaders also including Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying they shared “a certain type of politics – rightwing, conservative, nationalist and authoritarian”.
He also further acknowledged the Lib Dems’ position would be at least to prevent a Conservative majority, saying voters should bear in mind “the parliamentary arithmetic” of the next House of Commons over issues such as Brexit. » | Peter Walker, Political correspondent | Monday, November 25, 2019
Prince Charles Set for Angry Showdown with Prince Andrew over Ongoing Epstein Scandal
The Prince, who returns from a 12-day tour to India, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands on Tuesday ), is expected to order the Duke of York to Clarence House to discuss the ongoing furore.
Sources have claimed the Prince of Wales is furious that his important visit to the South Pacific - which had been intended to highlight a number of environmental issues such as climate change and rising ocean levels - has been completely overshadowed by the row over the Duke's relationship with the paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. » | Martin Evans and Victoria Ward | Monday, November 25, 2019
Labels:
Prince Andrew
Tony Blair Says Tories and Labour Engaged in ‘Populism Running Riot'
Tony Blair has said neither Labour nor the Conservatives are seen as fit to win the general election, accusing both parties of peddling “fantasies”.
The former prime minister, one of the architects of New Labour who was speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in London, said Britain’s biggest parties were engaged in “populism running riot” and it would end in tears.
Blair has repeatedly called for Brexit to be reversed and said the right thing would have been to hold a second referendum followed by a general election.
He described the poll on 12 December as “the weirdest of my lifetime”, adding: “The truth is: the public aren’t convinced either main party deserve to win this election outright. They’re peddling two sets of fantasies and both, as majority governments, pose a risk it would be unwise for the country to take.”
Blair, who guided Labour to three election victories, said people “rightly” did not trust Boris Johnson with a “blank cheque”. He said though Labour were promising a revolution, “the problem with revolutions is never how they begin but how they end”. » | Haroon Siddique | Monday, November 25, 2019
Labels:
Brexit,
general election,
Labour,
Tony Blair,
Tories
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Juul Says Its Focus Was Smokers, but It Targeted Young Nonsmokers
SAN FRANCISCO — In the face of mounting investigations, subpoenas and lawsuits, Juul Labs has insisted that it never marketed or knowingly sold its trendy e-cigarettes and flavored nicotine pods to teenagers.
As youth vaping soared and “juuling” became a high school craze, the company’s top executives have stood firm in their assertion that Juul’s mission has always been to give adult smokers a saferalternative to cigarettes, which play a role in the deaths of 480,000 people in the United States each year.
“We never wanted any non-nicotine user and certainly nobody underage to ever use Juul products,” James Monsees, a co-founder of the company, testified at a congressional hearing in July.
But in reality, the company was never just about helping adult smokers, according to interviews with former executives, employees and investors, along with reviews of legal filings and social media archives. » | Julie Creswell and Sheila Kaplan | Saturday, November 23, 2019
Labels:
e-cigarettes,
Juul,
USA,
vaping
Friday, November 22, 2019
The Gospel Truth: Sometimes a Little Hazy
Labels:
Bart Ehrman,
Gospels,
Jesus
Netanyahu Indicted on Corruption Charges, But Won't Step Down
Plaid Cymru Says Wales Can Be Cradle of a Global Green Revolution
The Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price, struck a defiant note at the launch of his party’s manifesto, claiming that an independent Wales could become the cradle of a global green revolution.
Price announced a range of ambitious policies including three power-generating tidal lagoons, a barrage and an offshore wind farm as well as new rail lines and metro networks.
Comparing his dreams to those of John F Kennedy at the time of the space race, Price said the plans were audacious but achievable if the people of Wales pulled together and freed themselves from the control of the Westminster government. » | Steven Morris | Friday, November 22, 2019
Labels:
Adam Price AM,
Brexit,
Plaid Cymru,
Wales
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)