KINSHASA The death on Wednesday of Congo’s opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi leaves opponents of President Joseph Kabila seriously weakened in their bid to force Kabila to quit power after he defied constitutional term limits to stay on last year. Democratic Republic of Congo has never experienced a peaceful transition of power and Kabila’s refusal to stand down when his final term expired in December has raised fears […]
The Cohort is Poynter’s bi-monthly newsletter about women kicking ass in digital media. Earlier this week, I wrote a piece about whether journalists should participate in political demonstrations and online conversations. While the guidance has always been fairly straightforward (simply put: no), the events of the past few weeks and number of political protests have reignited the debate in newsrooms. More often than not, the answer is […]
PARIS French investigators have widened a probe into allegations that presidential candidate Francois Fillon paid large sums of money to members of his family for work they may not have done, to include two of his children, sources said on Thursday. The sources, who are close to the inquiry, said the investigation was being extended to look at work carried out by Marie and Charles Fillon for […]
Boston Dynamics is showing off its latest creation: a “nightmare-inducing” robot equipped with two wheels called Handle. At the Abundance360 event in Los Angeles, company founder Marc Raibert took the stage to unveil the machine via a video, and he had this to say as an introduction: “This is the debut presentation of what I think will be a nightmare-inducing robot, if you’re anything like me.” Looking […]
Targeting the weak The us-versus-them dynamic is “easy for many people to rally around,” said Jonathan D. Weiler, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina. Targeting feared or unpopular minorities is a way of “setting a boundary,” said Sheri E. Berman, a political scientist at Barnard College — a way to distinguish between “us” deserving of protection, and “them” who are a threat. Continue reading […]
PARIS Pressure on French presidential candidate Francois Fillon to pull out of the election race grew on Thursday as some lawmakers in his own camp urged him to abandon his bid in the face of a fake work scandal to save the conservatives from defeat. The scandal, which surfaced a week ago when a newspaper said the wife of the 62-year-old ex-prime minister, Penelope, had been paid […]
MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday he intended to write an executive order that would allow the military to help in his fight against illicit drugs, which he said was a national security threat. Duterte reiterated he had no need to declare martial law, as he has threatened to do on numerous occasions. The Philippines on Monday suspended all police operations in the drug crackdown, […]
This worldview borrows from the “clash of civilizations” thesis of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, and combines straightforward warnings about extremist violence with broad-brush critiques of Islam. It sometimes conflates terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State with largely nonviolent groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and, at times, with the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world. In its more extreme […]
By Alex Dobuzinskis and Mica Rosenberg | LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled President Donald Trump’s administration must allow immigrants with initial clearance for legal residency to enter the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations, despite an executive order ban. Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr follows decisions by federal judges in at least four other […]
Image: Rick Rycroft/AP/REX/Shutterstock/@JohnJohnsonson By Ariel Bogle2017-02-02 06:27:02 UTC Telstra probably hoped the hashtag #TelstraOutage would be left behind in 2016. Sorry honey, no such luck. On Thursday afternoon, Australia’s largest phone network went down for some users following a fire at a Chatswood exchange, which impacted mobile and fixed services. While the outage was genuinely disruptive, many could not resist making the joke of the day. And […]
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, President Trump says he wants the US to have better relations with Russia and to halt military operations against Muslim countries. But he is being undermined by the Pentagon. The commander of US forces in Europe, General Ben Hodges, has lined up tanks on Poland’s border with Russia and fired salvos that the general says are a message to Russia, not a […]
The banking caucus Economic stability and improved bank safety haven’t stopped supporters of the Choice Act from moving forward with tearing down Dodd-Frank. The bill was introduced in September by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who is a deregulation crusader and friend of Vice President Mike Pence; Pence represented Indiana in the House from 2001 to 2013 and was a critic of Dodd-Frank when the law […]
ABU DHABI: The UAE’s top diplomat on Wednesday came out in defense of President Donald Trump’s order temporarily barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, UAE foreign minister, said the US was within its rights to take what he said was a “sovereign decision” concerning immigration.Sheikh Abdullah also voiced faith in the American administration’s assurances that the move was not […]
SYDNEY U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will review a “dumb deal” to take hundreds of Australian asylum seekers after the Washington Post reported he had angrily berated Australia’s prime minister and abruptly ended a tense telephone call. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters the call on Saturday had been frank and candid but refused to provide further details on a “private” conversation that […]
The Turkish government is trying to shut down two journalists who left the country to publish their work. But they’re not giving up without a fight. Last week, journalists Can Dündar and Hayko Bağdat launched a website called Özgürüz that aims to publish independent journalism about Turkey from the relative safety of Germany. It’s a kind of pirate radio for Turkish journalists, informing the public amid a […]
By Ayesha Rascoe | DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. The U.S. military said on Wednesday it was looking into whether more civilians were killed in a raid on al Qaeda in Yemen on the weekend, in the first operation authorized by President Donald Trump as commander in chief. U.S. Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens died in the raid on a branch of […]
TOKYO Asian shares inched up to four-month highs while the dollar was finding its feet on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve stuck to its mildly upbeat economic view but gave no hint of accelerating rate hikes. While strong economic data from the United States and elsewhere have underpinned risk assets, uncertainty and concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies have markets on edge. “With many of […]
The death of Chief Petty Officer William Owens came after a chain of mishaps and misjudgments that plunged the elite commandos into a ferocious 50-minute firefight that also left three troops wounded and a $75 million aircraft deliberately destroyed. There are allegations — which the Pentagon acknowledged on Wednesday night are most likely correct — that the mission also killed several civilians, including some children. The dead […]
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white […]
A law clerk from Toronto and a paralegal in Montreal commanded a prolific corporate empire of nearly 200 companies over the past 25 years — while knowing nothing about the businesses or the multimillion-dollar deals bearing their names, they say. Karen McIntyre of Toronto and Annette Laroche of the Montreal area both say they filed company tax returns without any idea if the numbers were accurate, signed […]
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – February 2nd 2017: In an official announcement, Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) has confirmed the launch of the UAE Public Policy Forum next month, to be hosted under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Taking place on March 12th and 13th 2017 under the theme of […]
By Shihar Aneez | HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka China signed a deal with Sri Lanka late last year to further develop the strategic port of Hambantota and build a huge industrial zone nearby, a key part of Beijing’s ambitions to create a modern-day “Silk Road” across Asia. The agreement was welcome relief for the island nation of 20 million people. As they try to reduce […]
WASHINGTON The White House said on Wednesday it has issued updated guidance on President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration clarifying that legal permanent residents, or green card holders, do not require a waiver to enter the United States. “They no longer need a waiver because if they are a legal permanent resident they won’t need it anymore,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news […]
According to a transcript obtained by AP of the phone call which took place on Friday morning between President Trump and his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto, and which was intended to patch things up between the new president and his Mexican peer a day after Pena Nieto called off his visit to the US, Trump threatened to send U.S. troops to stop “bad hombres down there” […]
