French observers fear Britain?€?s PM is setting up France to take blame over no-deal departure
Emmanuel Macron will hold a friendly but ?€?frank?€? working lunch with Boris Johnson on Thursday after dismissing his request to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement and scrap the Irish backstop as ?€?not an option?€?.
The French president told reporters on Wednesday night that there was a ?€?British democratic crisis?€? over Brexit and he was seeking ?€?clarification?€? from Johnson on his proposals as the 31 October exit date approaches.
Norwegian review of 36,000 cases links more activity overall, light or intensive, with lower risk of death
Even a small increase in light activity, such as washing dishes, a little gentle gardening, or shuffling around the house, might help stave off an early death among older adults, researchers say.
Jakarta cuts online access to Papua ?€?and surrounding areas?€? until the atmosphere ?€?returns to being conducive and normal?€?
Indonesia has deployed more than 1,000 security personnel to West Papua and cut internet access, amid days of violent demonstrations in what activists say are the largest protests to occur in the region in years.
On Wednesday, violent unrest occurred in Fakfak, where a market was set ablaze and street battles erupted between police and protesters.
Experts find no proof minuscule particles are a threat to health but say more research is needed
Microplastics are increasingly found in drinking water, but there is no evidence so far that this poses a risk to humans, according to a new assessment by the World Health Organization.
However, the United Nations body warned against complacency because more research is needed to fully understand how plastic spreads into the environment and works its way through human bodies.
Petition with more than 25,000 signatures delivered, calling on New Zealand PM to visit sacred Ihum?tao site
Several hundred protesters have marched on Jacinda Ardern?€?s Auckland office, demanding she visit Ihum?tao, the site of a major indigenous land dispute that has broadened into wider anger at government inaction in tackling M?ori disadvantage.
The protesters delivered a petition, signed by more than 26,000 people, to the prime minister?€?s office urging her to travel to the site that has been occupied for the past month as part of a housing dispute.
Brazilian president claims green groups behind rise in blazes, but offers nothing to support his assertion
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has accused environmental groups of setting fires in the Amazon as he tries to deflect growing international criticism of his failure to protect the world?€?s biggest rainforest.
A surge of fires in several Amazonian states this month followed reports that farmers were feeling emboldened to clear land for crop fields and cattle ranches because the new Brazilian government was keen to open up the region to economic activity.
Videos appear to show students marching with German flag and wrapping themselves in Confederate flag
School officials in southern California are reportedly reopening an investigation into a group of high school students seen giving Nazi salutes on video, after more racist video and images surfaced on Wednesday.
The initial video obtained by the Daily Beast shows members of the boys?€? water polo team at Pacifica high school in Orange County in an empty room that administrative officials say was later used for an athletic banquet. The video, which according to the Daily Beast was taken before an awards ceremony late last year, showed about 10 boys in a stiff-arm salute while singing a Nazi marching song.
US president attacks comments as ?€?nasty?€? after calling off trip because Greenland not for sale
The Danish prime minister has said she is surprised and disappointed that Donald Trump has called off his planned visit to the country over Copenhagen?€?s refusal to sell Greenland to the US.
At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Mette Frederiksen reaffirmed that Greenland was not for sale. ?€?A discussion about a potential sale of Greenland has been put forward. It has been rejected by Greenland premier Kim Kielsen, and I fully stand behind that rejection,?€? she said.
Peter Comensoli says he accepts victim was abused but wonders whether he was wrong in naming cardinal as abuser
Catholic archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli says he believes convicted paedophile Cardinal George Pell when he protests his innocence, and has speculated if the sole living victim got the name of his abuser wrong.
A day after Victoria?€?s court of appeal upheld Pell?€?s conviction for the rape of a 13-year-old choirboy and sexual assault of another at Melbourne?€?s St Patrick?€?s Cathedral in 1996, Comensoli said while he respected the courts, he also believed his friend and would continue to visit him in prison.
The 157-acre lot in the Hollywood Hills has been the subject of complex litigation over who actually owns the property
A billion dollars for an empty tract of land always sounded like a Hollywood fairytale. This week reality came crashing down on the investors, real estate agents and feuding litigants who - all too briefly - became embroiled in the greatest property story on earth.
The land in question is a 157-acre parcel perched high in the Hollywood Hills that overlooks the mansion-studded hills of Bel-Air and Los Angeles. Down the years, it has interested an eclectic mix of would-be buyers including the sister of the Shah of Iran, Merv Griffin, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
From power cuts to infrastructure failure, the impact of climate change on US cities will be huge - but many are already innovating to adapt
Between record heat and rain, this summer?€?s weather patterns have indicated, once again, that the climate is changing.
US cities, where more than 80% of the nation?€?s population lives, are disproportionately hit by these changes, not only because of their huge populations but because of their existing - often inadequate - infrastructure.
In the Netherlands, where there are more bikes than people, serious money is being spent encouraging even more people to get on their bikes
In a nation with more bikes than people, finding a space to park can be a problem. The Dutch city of Utrecht is unveiling an answer at its railway station on Monday morning: the world?€?s largest multistorey parking area for bicycles.
The concrete-and-glass structure holds three floors of gleaming double-decker racks with space for 12,500 bikes, from cargo bikes that hold a family to public transport bikes for rent.
To protect itself from destructive flooding, the city has built a park designed to store and recycle rainwater
In Alicante it never rains but it pours. The city in southeast Spain goes without rain for months on end, but when it comes it?€?s torrential, bringing destructive and sometimes fatal flooding.
Or at least, it used to. In San Juan, a low-lying area of the city, authorities have built a new park with a twist. Called La Marjal, it serves as a typical recreation area and a nature reserve - but its primary purpose is to store, and then recycle, rainwater.
Was it murder? Suicide? Or just an accident? Almost 30 years before Jeffrey Epstein?€?s demise, Ghislaine Maxwell was caught up in another shocking and scandal-ridden mystery
At one time, everyone knew where to find Ghislaine Maxwell. The former aide-de-camp of the disgraced, now deceased, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was a fixture in Manhattan?€?s most fashionable salons. With an impressive list of contacts, including Prince Andrew and Chelsea Clinton, she was a regular at fundraisers, book launches and society weddings.
The last place anyone would have expected to see her was a Los Angeles shopping mall, where the 57-year-old was photographed in a burger joint last week, just days after Epstein?€?s suicide in a New York jail, where he was being held on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
Oluwaleke Yisa, 30, accused of brandishing weapons near immigration office in London
A man accused of brandishing a knife and hammer near a Home Office building has been charged by police.
Oluwaleke Yisa, 30, of Harton Street in Deptford, south-east London, appeared at Camberwell Green magistrates court on Wednesday. He faces one count of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place and one of possession of a knife in a public place.
?€?The light was soft ?€? They were so graceful. They are the last peasants, the last of their kind?€?
In 2012, I travelled to Transylvania to document what is effectively the last remaining bucolic landscape of Europe. England, for example, has lost most of its hay meadows because of large-scale agriculture, but in Romania this kind of small-scale sustainable way of farming persists. It survived the Ceau?escu regime. It survived the EU. Today, however, it is a vanishing way of life as young people increasingly choose to migrate to western Europe in search of work and faster money.
I spent three weeks in Maramure? in the northern Carpathian mountains, exploring life in six tiny hamlets, each with no more than 500 inhabitants. It was August, the height of the haymaking season. Families worked in the fields from dawn to dusk. These women were from a village called Breb. I saw their haystacks from the road as my translator and I drove past. I shouted ?€?stop!?€? and ran out of the car towards them. They smiled at me, but we didn?€?t talk, they just carried on with what they were doing. It was late in the day, and they were getting ready to go home. The women wear trousers to make hay because the wind blows their skirts up. Here, they were putting their headscarves and their traditional skirts back on. Then they gathered their baskets, in which they?€?d brought their lunch, and walked back to the village. I followed. The light was very soft, and the shadows long.
Cutting hay and stacking it is physically demanding, I tried doing it myself and failed miserably
Every day the mounting horrors are broadcast in real time, but it feels like nobody is watching any more
This is often how the news comes in: ?€?Regime airstrikes on Tuesday killed nine civilians in rebel-held northwest Syria, the target of months of regime and Russian bombardment, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.?€? Working for an international news channel, we follow up these stories with our sources on the ground, the local monitoring group or news agency. Where possible we go to verify for ourselves. Usually, though, I?€?m miles away on the other side of the border in Hatay, Turkey. Safe.
Nigeria marks three years without a wild polio case, meaning Africa could be declared free of the disease in 2020
Africa is on the verge of being declared polio free, after three years without any recorded cases of the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Nigeria marked three years without a wild polio case onWednesday, a ?€?major milestone?€?. If no more incidences emerge in the next few months, Africa could officially be declared polio free in 2020. The last case was recorded in Borno state in August 2016.
The US president said his life would be easier if he had not mounted a trade war with China but went on to say ?€?I am the chosen one?€? to take on Beijing. Trump said the US would probably make a deal with China
We need to dig beneath the scar tissue to find the power that is within all of us
Ngayi, I am Shantelle Thompson, a proud Barkindji-Ngyampaa-European woman of descent.
I am a mother of three (including twins), survivor of severe postnatal depression that almost made me hurt my daughter and take my own life, sexual abuse survivor, second eldest of 17 siblings, raised by my white father as a single parent and separated from my mother and most of my culture.
We members of the G7?€?s Gender Equality Advisory Council are urging countries to ditch archaic and discriminatory laws and promote empowerment
The sheer tenacity of women raising their voices and organising for fundamental change has been, and will continue to be, the driving force for achieving women?€?s rights and a gender-equal world. Yet we cannot ignore the fundamental role that governments can play in either promoting or thwarting change.
That is why the four of us accepted French president Emmanuel Macron?€?s invitation to join 32 colleagues to form a G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council. On Sunday, we will present the culmination of our work; a package of recommended laws focused on ending gender-based violence; ensuring inclusive, equitable, and quality health and education; promoting the economic empowerment of women; and combating discrimination, ensuring full gender equality in policies and public life. In each area we point to laws from around the world that illustrate the type of action countries should take.
Corruption watchdog accused of promoting ?€?toxic?€? workplace culture that silenced critical voices
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International has been accused of promoting a ?€?toxic?€? internal environment of bullying and harassment, making it the latest high-profile charity to come under fire over its workplace culture.
Seven current and former staff members said the organisation had ?€?failed in its duty of care?€? to staff. They accused managing director Patricia Moreira of promoting a culture that enabled ?€?bullying?€?, silenced critical voices, and used ?€?gagging orders?€? - confidentiality clauses in termination agreements. Leaked internal emails and documents including a staff survey corroborate their accounts.
Bombing believed to be linked to Timothy Mtambo?€?s role at forefront of mass protests over alleged rigging of elections
The home of a leading human rights activist in Malawi has been petrol bombed in what is believed to be a targeted move to stop mass demonstrations planned for next week.
Three bombs were thrown at the car and home of Timothy Mtambo, the chairman of Malawi?€?s Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), and the executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRC).
Climate emergency and population growth blamed for deteriorating water quality, with ?€?cocktail of chemicals?€? changing as countries become richer
The planet is facing a mounting and ?€?invisible?€? water pollution crisis, according to a hard-hitting World Bank report, which claims the issue is responsible for a one-third reduction in potential economic growth in the most heavily affected areas.
The study, which assembled the world?€?s largest database of water pollution, assesses how a combination of bacteria, sewage, chemicals and plastics suck oxygen from water supplies and transform water into poison for people and ecosystems.
President outdoes himself in new press conference as he attacks the Danish prime minister, Jewish Democrats and the press
Donald Trump started off precisely on-message.
Strolling to the end of a White House driveway on Wednesday ahead of his departure for a veterans event in Kentucky, the president began speaking while still walking toward a crowd of waiting reporters. ?€?So the economy is doing very, very well,?€? he said.
Family of New York man insists ?€?we?€?re not finished?€? after dismissal of Daniel Pantaleo, who put Garner in a banned chokehold
One thousand, eight hundred and sixty days after Eric Garner was killed on the streets of Staten Island, New York, his family finally received a sliver of justice.
On Monday, the New York police department (NYPD) commissioner, James O?€?Neill, announced the NYPD would fire Daniel Pantaleo, who, on that hot summer?€?s day in July 2014, placed the unarmed 43-year-old in a banned chokehold that contributed to Garner?€?s death.
By cancelling his state visit to Denmark, the US president has again showed his thin skin
Donald Trump?€?s abrupt decision to cancel his state visit to Denmark after it rejected his unsolicited offer to buy Greenland at a knockdown price took most people by surprise, not least his own ambassador.
?€?Denmark is ready ?€? Partner, ally, friend?€?, tweeted Carla Sands, the neophyte US envoy to Copenhagen who was previously an actor and chiropractor. Hours later, it was off.
President could call snap election, seek new coalition or install caretaker government
?€?This government ends here,?€? said Giuseppe Conte, as he announced his resignation as Italy?€?s prime minister on Tuesday. After almost two weeks of twists and turns, what happens next is far from clear.
The president, Sergio Mattarella, is now calling the shots in a crisis triggered when Matteo Salvini pulled the plug on the League?€?s tenuous relationship with the Five Star Movement (M5S) in an attempt to capitalise on his popularity and become PM.
Large demonstrations and violent protests have taken place across the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. On Wednesday, Jakarta said it was sending a further 1,000 security personnel to tackle the unrest, sparked by the arrest of Papuan students in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. Indonesia?€?s communications ministry cut the internet to its most eastern province on Wednesday ?€?until the atmosphere of Papua returns to being conducive and normal?€?. Jakarta has battled an independence insurgency in the region since it was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a widely discredited UN-sponsored ballot
The US president has renewed his attack on four Democratic congresswomen who have been critical of Israel, and reiterated a longstanding antisemitic trope implying that American Jews had divided loyalty to America and to Israel. Over almost 24 hours he has repeatedly described Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats as showing ?€?either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty?€?
The US president has said his administration is looking at ending the right of citizenship for US-born children of non-citizens and people who entered the country illegally. ?€?We?€?re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land, you walk over the border, have a baby - congratulations, the baby is now a US citizen ... It?€?s frankly ridiculous,?€? Donald Trump told reporters
The Brazilian president has said NGOs could be burning down the Amazon rainforest to embarrass his government after he cut their funding. Bolsonaro had no evidence but said 'everything indicates' that NGOs are going to the Amazon to set fire to the forest
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, says she is 'disappointed and surprised' by the US president's decision to cancel his state visit after she dismissed suggestions of selling Greenland as 'absurd'. Here's a look back at what drew the US president to want to make the ?€?large real estate deal?€? and the strong reaction to his suggestion
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, told journalists she was surprised and disappointed to learn that Donald Trump had cancelled his visit to Denmark after she rejected suggestions of selling Greenland to the US. The US president tweeted his decision after Frederiksen dismissed the notion as absurd
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Informed Comment - Juan Cole Juan Cole er professor i historie og leder for Global Americana Institute. Han kommenterer hendelsene i Midt-Østen i sin blogg, som har blitt et vanningshull for newsjunkies over hele verden.
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Juan Cole er professor i historie og leder for Global Americana Institute.
Hun driver nyhetsstedet 