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
