Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s Husband Hits Out at Government Handling of Case

THE OBSERVER: Richard Ratcliffe criticises failure to ‘deal with problems until they become crises’ after wife loses appeal

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter, Gabriella, during a temporary release from prison in 2018.Photograph: Free Nazanin campaign/AFP/Getty Images
The husband of jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe last night criticised the government’s handling of his wife’s case after it was revealed she had lost her appeal against a second jail sentence in Iran.

Richard Ratcliffe accused the government of failing to deal with problems “until they become crises”.

His wife was jailed for five years in 2016 after being accused of plotting against the regime. After her release earlier this year, she was charged and sentenced to another year allegedly for spreading propaganda.

Following the failure of her appeal in the propaganda case, Zaghari-Ratcliffe can be sent back to prison at any time.

Her husband said his wife was “traumatised at the thought of having to go back to jail”. » | David Connett | Saturday, October 16, 2021

Die letzten Tabus - was keiner wissen darf | SWR Nachtcafé

Oct 6, 2018 • Es gibt auch heute noch vieles, worüber der Mantel des Schweigens gelegt wird anstatt es anzusprechen. Ein Familiengeheimnis oder etwas Peinliches. Das Thema im Nachtcafé: "Die letzten Tabus - was keiner wissen darf".

Pete Buttigieg Hits Back at Fox News Host’s Criticism of His Paternity Leave

THE GUARDIAN: The US transportation secretary and his husband recently adopted newborn twins and praised ‘an administration that’s actually pro-family’

Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, recently adopted newborn twins. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP
US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been on paternity leave since mid-August with newborn twins, called right-wing attacks on his paternity leave “strange” and from “a side of the aisle that used to claim the mantle of being pro-family”.

Buttigieg – who is gay – was the subject of criticism from Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, who belittled the secretary’s paternity leave while making homophobic comments and criticizing the administration for supply chain woes.

“In his case, I guess he just doesn’t understand the concept of bottle feeding let alone the concept of paternity lave,” Buttigieg said about Carlson on MSNBC. “What we have right now is an administration that’s actually pro-family,” said Buttigieg, who adopted newborn twins with his husband Chasten.

“I’m blessed to experience that as an employee, being able to have the flexibility to take care of our newborn children, which is by the way, work, it’s joyful work, it’s wonderful work, but it’s definitely work,” Buttigieg added. » | Jessica Glenza | Saturday, October 16, 2021

Tucker Carlson's snide dismissal of paternity leave is in stark contrast to his colleagues' fervent support »

Love and Sex in the Internet Age | DW Documentary

Nov 18, 2020 • The singles market is big and online dating businesses are booming. Digitalization seems to make finding the perfect mate simple. All it takes is a pair of clicks and you're in the "dating zone."

More than 20 million people live as singles in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Millions of them today use dating platforms, particularly apps. "That we kicked off a revolution - we certainly didn't expect that. Everything we do is aimed at directly linking people to each other. Today, no one has to be in a certain place in order to get acquainted," says Whitney Wolfe, about the most successful international dating app, Tinder. Wolfe is now the CEO of the dating app Bumble. The intuitive selection of a photo on a smartphone and access to others with similar interests (the famous "match") is a popular matchmaking principle today.

The big online dating services, on the other hand, use tests and algorithms to allegedly decide who's right for whom. The process is painstaking and mysterious. The formula that underpins German dating site Parship was developed by psychologist Hugo Schmale, who's now 87. Yet even he doesn't believe in love for life: "The boys and girls of tomorrow are all going to live to be 90. If they first meet each other at fifteen, then that's a strange idea, that they would remain in the same relationship from fifteen to 90. It's normal that people change and you need the chance to be able to split up again, too." Historian Moira Weigel says dating has long shared much with the world of work, and not just in the Internet age. Self-promotion and self-improvement aren't exclusive to the smartphone era. Sociologist Eva Illouz, however, warns that capitalism has appropriated love itself. This documentary takes the viewer into the world of online dating and tries to discover how courtship has changed in the digital age.

David Amess: MP’s Killing Declared a Terrorist Incident

THE GUARDIAN: Man, 25, in custody as police investigate ‘potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism’

The killing of the Conservative MP David Amess, who died after being stabbed several times at an open advice surgery for his constituents in Essex, has been declared as a terrorist incident.

The death of the 69-year-old veteran backbencher brought heartfelt tributes from all parties. Just five years after the murder of Jo Cox, it also prompted renewed worries about the security risks for MPs in an increasingly rancorous and polarised political era.

A 25-year-old man, believed to be a Briton with Somali heritage, is in custody and has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Sources have told the Guardian he has the same details as someone who had previously been referred to the Prevent scheme, the official programme for those thought at risk of radicalisation. » | Peter Walker, Vikram Dodd, Matthew Weaver and Dan Sabbagh | Saturday, October 16, 2021

Le meurtre du député britannique David Amess qualifié d'attaque terroriste »

OBITUARY: Sir David Amess »

Marie-Antoinette, ils ont jugé la reine | ARTE

Oct 14, 2021 • Disponible jusqu'au 14/01/2022 Dévoilant les arcanes d’un procès truqué, cette ambitieuse fiction historique livre la chronique rigoureusement documentée des derniers jours de Marie-Antoinette et du basculement de la Révolution dans la Terreur.

21 janvier 1793. Louis XVI est guillotiné en place publique, sous les clameurs de la foule. Pour les chefs révolutionnaires se pose, dès lors, la question du sort de Marie-Antoinette, enfermée au Temple avec ses enfants et sa belle-sœur. Alors que la jeune République est menacée en son sein par l’insurrection de la Vendée royaliste, et à ses frontières par une coalition de monarchies européennes, la Convention nationale vote, en avril, la création du Comité de salut public, principal et bientôt tout-puissant organe du gouvernement révolutionnaire. Le 2 août, la souveraine déchue, désormais privée des siens et de ses derniers biens, est transférée à la Conciergerie, dans l’attente de son jugement. Antoine Fouquier-Tinville, l’accusateur public du Tribunal révolutionnaire, et le pamphlétaire Jacques-René Hébert, qui déverse sa haine de "l’Autrichienne" dans les pages de son très populaire journal, Le père Duchesne, pressent Robespierre de fixer une date. Dans la nuit du 2 au 3 septembre, alors même que la dernière tentative d’évasion de la reine échoue, les membres du Comité de salut public, réunis en secret, scellent son destin funeste. En offrant au peuple la tête de "la veuve Capet", Robespierre a trouvé un moyen de faire tomber celles de ses opposants politiques (les Girondins, modérés), emportés par les débordements sanglants de la Terreur qui s’instaure. Témoignages contradictoires, absence de preuves, jury de sans-culottes recrutés par les hommes forts du régime, avocats de la défense arrêtés à l’issue de leurs plaidoiries : le 16 octobre, au terme d’un simulacre de procès qui aura duré seulement deux jours et deux nuits, Marie-Antoinette est condamnée à mort, puis conduite à l’échafaud quelques heures plus tard.

Julio Iglesias, Stevie Wonder: My Love

Seong-Jin Cho – Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L.75: III. Clair de lune

Oct 13, 2017 • Listen to Debussy’s 3rd Movement Clair de lune on his Suite bergamasque played by Seong-Jin Cho. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Claude Debussy’s death, 2015, Chopin Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho explores the great French composer’s piano music.

A Year Later, a Schoolteacher’s Beheading Still Haunts France

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The killing of Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee intensified debate over security and immigration, and prompted intense scrutiny of the French secular model.

Students at a high school in Paris on Friday participating in a minute of silence to honor Samuel Paty, a teacher who was beheaded last year by an Islamist fanatic. | Ian Langsdon/EPA, via Shutterstock
PARIS — Most schools throughout France observed a minute of silence on Friday in remembrance of Samuel Paty, a teacher whose attempt to illustrate free speech to his students led to his beheading a year ago by an Islamist fanatic.

As a history teacher, Mr. Paty was responsible for teaching civics. To illustrate the right to blasphemy, free speech and freedom of conscience, he showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, setting in motion a swirl of lies and rumor that ended in his beheading.

The police investigation, it emerged in March, revealed that the girl who told her father, Brahim Chnina, a false version of what had taken place in the class and prompted the online frenzy that led to the killing had not been in the class at all.

The girl told the police that Mr. Paty had questioned all students on their religious allegiance, let Muslims know that they could leave because “they would be shocked” and then ordered her out of the class for causing a ruckus while images of a naked Prophet were shown. But the story was made-up; she was never there. » | Roger Cohen | Friday, October 15, 2021

The Rise of Gay Churches in Brazil (2013)

Der Versorgungskollaps im «Winter der Unzufriedenheit» veränderte Grossbritannien für immer – holt Boris Johnson die Geschichte ein?

NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG: Die Pandemie und der Brexit sorgen für Engpässe, die Erinnerungen an den Winter 1979 wecken. Damals brach Grossbritannien unter einer Streikwelle zusammen, bevor ein politisches Erdbeben Premierminister Callaghan aus dem Amt katapultierte. Doch droht sich die Geschichte wirklich zu wiederholen?

Nein, Grossbritannien werde im Winter der Strom nicht ausgehen. Und ja, die Ängste vor einer Dreitagewoche zum Energiesparen seien «alarmistisch, wenig hilfreich und völlig deplatziert». Schon nur der Umstand, dass der Wirtschaftsminister Kwasi Kwarteng jüngst solche Fragen beantworten musste, sagt einiges über die Stimmungslage in Grossbritannien aus. » | Niklaus Nuspliger, London | Freitag, 15. Oktober 2021

Deadly Clashes in Beirut Escalate Fears over Lebanon’s Dysfunction

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The fighting further traumatized the small Mediterranean country, a patchwork of sects that has tumbled into an abyss of devastating political and economic crises.


Protests led by Shiite political parties, including Hezbollah, turned violent as the groups pushed for the removal of the judge investigating the August 2020 Beirut Port explosion.Credit | Anwar Amro/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Armed clashes between sectarian militias transformed Beirut neighborhoods into a deadly war zone on Thursday, raising fears that violence could fill the void left by the near-collapse of the Lebanese state.

Rival gunmen, chanting in support of their leaders, hid behind cars and dumpsters to fire automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at their rivals. At least six people were killed and 30 wounded. Residents cowered in their homes, and teachers herded children into the hallways and basements of schools to protect them from the shooting.

It was some of the worst violence in years to convulse Beirut, aggravating the sense of instability in a small country already buffeted by devastating political and economic crises and inviting recollections of its civil war that ended more than three decades ago.

Since the fall of 2019, Lebanon’s currency has plummeted more than 90 percent in value, battering the economy and reducing Lebanese who were comfortably middle class to poverty. The World Bank has said Lebanon’s economic collapse could rank among the three worst in the world since the mid-1800s. » | Ben Hubbard and Marc Santora | Published: Thursday, October 14, 2021; Updated: Friday, October 15, 2021

Le Liban à nouveau face au spectre de la guerre civile : RÉCIT - Des échanges de tirs ont fait au moins six morts en marge d’une manifestation organisée par les mouvements chiites Hezbollah et Amal contre le juge en charge de l’enquête sur l’explosion du port de Beyrouth. »

MP David Amess Dies after Being Stabbed at Constituency Surgery

THE GUARDIAN: Man arrested on suspicion of murder after Conservative MP attacked at church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex

David Amess pictured in May. He is the second MP to be killed in just over five years, following the murder of Jo Cox. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock
The Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after he was stabbed several times during a surgery at his constituency in Essex.

Amess, 69, an MP since 1983 and who represented Southend West in Essex since 1997, was stabbed several times at a church in Leigh-on-Sea. He is the second MP to be killed in just over five years, following the murder of Jo Cox.

Essex police said a 25-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder. Officers were called to the scene at about 12.05pm on Friday, a statement said, adding: “We attended and found a man injured. He was treated by emergency services but, sadly, died at the scene.”

The statement did not name Amess as the victim, but sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the MP had died. » | Peter Walker | Friday, October 15, 2021

Longtime U.K. Lawmaker Stabbed to Death, Stunning Britain »

Meurtre du député britannique David Amess : l'enquête confiée aux services antiterroristes : Cinq ans après celui de la députée travailliste Jo Cox, le meurtre de l'élu conservateur ébranle tout le Royaume-Uni. Un homme de 25 ans a été arrêté. »

Der Mord an einem Abgeordneten ist auch ein Schlag für die politische Kultur Grossbritanniens: Ein Tory-Abgeordneter kommt bei einem Messerangriff ums Leben. Über die Hintergründe der Tat, der ein 25-Jähriger verdächtigt wird, gibt es zunächst keine Informationen, die Ermittler prüfen ein mögliches terroristisches Motiv. Der Fall erinnert an den Mord an der Labour-Abgeordneten Jo Cox im Jahr 2016 vor dem Brexit-Referendum. »

Democracy Now! Top US News & World Headlines — October 15, 2021

Gay in Deutschland: Es läuft übel (oder?)

Aug 19, 2018 • Wie ist es eigentlich heutzutage homosexuell zu sein in Deutschland? Ich werfe einen Blick auf die aktuelle Lage.

5 ans après le 1er mariage gay en France, Vincent Autin-Boileau raconte

Apr 9, 2018 • C'était le premier couple homosexuel marié en France. Cinq ans plus tard, Vincent, le mari de Bruno, raconte.

Australian MP Proposes to Partner during Same-sex Marriage Debate in Parliament

Dec 4, 2017 • Tim Wilson proposes to his partner during his speech on marriage equality in the House of Representatives. The Liberal MP's voice breaks with emotion as he says: 'There's only one thing left to do: Ryan Patrick Bolger, will you marry me?' Bolger, seated in the gallery, beams and says yes and his answer is marked in the Hansard

Xavier Bettel’s Testimony – LGBTI Inclusion in the Workplace

avier Bettel’s testimony (Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) concerning LGBTI inclusion in the professional environment.

The project "LGBTI inclusion in the workplace" aims to raise awareness and provide tools to the company's different audiences to prevent discrimination against LGBTI employees. The testimonies from which this video is taken and multiple actors' contributions were used to construct a good practice guide to collect companies' inclusion ideas. Available on www.imslux.lu.

Project in collaboration with the Lëtzebuerg Diversity Charter, the Ministry of Family, Integration and the Greater Region, and the European Social Fund.

En français :

Témoignage de Xavier Bettel (Premier Ministre du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg) concernant l’inclusion des personnes LGBTI dans le monde professionnel.

Le projet « LGBTI inclusion in the workplace » vise à sensibiliser mais également à outiller les différents publics au sein de l’entreprise pour prévenir toute situation de discrimination à l’encontre des collaborateurs ou collaboratrices LGBTI.

La série de témoignages, dont est issue cette vidéo, et les apports de multiples acteurs ont été utilisés dans la construction d’un guide de bonnes pratiques afin de recueillir des idées inspirantes d’actions inclusives. À retrouver sur www.imslux.lu

Projet en collaboration avec la Charte de la Diversité Lëtzebuerg, le Ministère de la Famille, de l’Intégration et à la Grande Région, et le Fonds Social Européen.


Related

Just a Kiss

Nur ein Kuß / Juste un bisou
Photo: Adobe Stock

Gay Wedding for Luxembourg: PM a First for [a] Serving EU Leader | 2015

May 16, 2015 • It is a marriage that will go down in the history books. The prime minister of Luxembourg has become the first serving leader in the European Union to marry someone of the same sex. Xavier Bettel tied the knot with his Belgian partner, architect Gauthier Destenay. A law allowing gay marriage came into force in Luxembourg in January. "I wish everyone to be as happy as I am," said the prime minister. "Thank you to the people of Luxembourg, thank you, and to everybody, I make no distinctions, … Read more here.