Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon speaking loudly and often after party win over Coalition Avenir Québec
Quebec separation is back among the living.
Years after many considered it dead, the prospect of removing Canada’s second-most populous province from the federation has re-entered the political debate. And though Quebecers aren’t exactly marching in the streets in its support as they once did, they are certainly taking another look at the Parti Québécois.
Continue reading...Chinese leader using meeting with Ma Ying-jeou to promote peaceful ‘reunion’ as only alternative to annexation, say analysts
Xi Jinping has met the former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou, in what analysts said was an attempt to promote peaceful unification as the only alternative to military annexation of Taiwan.
Ma, who was leading a student delegation to China, met Xi in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People, a venue typically reserved for foreign leaders meeting with senior Chinese officials. Xi used the meeting to emphasise his belief that Taiwan and China were destined for what he terms “reunification”.
Continue reading...Al-Zahra University in Bushehr will pursue legal action, says its president, in a move labelled ‘absurd’ by human rights lawyers
A group of Iranian students have been threatened with prosecution after a video of them dancing after their graduation emerged on social media this week.
In the now viral video, a group of about 11 female students from Al-Zahra University in the coastal city of Bushehr, in south-west Iran, were seen dancing and riding a motorcycle.
Continue reading...Fitch cut to negative comes as country moves away from reliance on growth from property sector
Fitch has downgraded the outlook on China’s debt as it warned of increased risks to the economy while the country moves away from its reliance on growth from the property sector.
On Wednesday the US-based agency said it had revised China’s sovereign credit rating from stable to negative, saying this reflected the “increasing risks to China’s public finance outlook” as the country “contends with more uncertain economic prospects”.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Despite protests and the fact that almost three-quarters of Israelis want the PM to quit, huge obstacles stand in the way of his exit
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Good morning. Almost three-quarters of the Israeli public want Benjamin Netanyahu to resign as prime minister. More than two-thirds say he is handling the war in Gaza badly. And more than half think his government is not doing enough to bring the Israeli hostages held by Hamas home.
Now the ultranationalists he relies on to prop up his fragile coalition are warning that they will bring the government down if he does not go ahead with a major assault on Rafah – and the opposition leaders who joined his war cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, are coming under increasing pressure to step down. With tens of thousands of people joining renewed protests calling for Netanyahu’s removal, his political prospects would appear to be dire.
Gender identity | Thousands of vulnerable children questioning their gender identity have been let down by the NHS providing unproven treatments and by the “toxicity” of the trans debate, a landmark report has found. Read the key findings, an interview with author Dr Hilary Cass, and views from young trans people and their families.
Israel-Gaza latest | David Cameron has confirmed the UK government will not suspend arms exports to Israel after the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on Gaza last week. The foreign secretary said that he had reviewed the most recent legal advice about the situation on the ground, but this left the UK’s position on export licences “unchanged”.
Politics | William Wragg has resigned the Conservative party whip days after admitting to giving out colleagues’ personal phone numbers to someone he had met on a dating app. Wragg, who represents Hazel Grove, will now sit as an independent MP.
Museums | A staff member who put his own art on display at Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne has been fired. The 51-year-old man had smuggled his work “in the hope of achieving his artistic breakthrough”.
Peter Higgs | Nobel prize-winning physicist, Peter Higgs, who proposed a new particle known as the Higgs boson, has died. Higgs was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2013 for his work in 1964 showing how the boson helped bind the universe together by giving particles their mass.
Continue reading...More than 350 jobs to go after Warner Bros. Discovery closes all its Newshub news operations and TVNZ cuts programs and bulletins
New Zealand’s news media has been dealt a major blow after two of its primary news outlets announced programme closures and hundreds of job losses between them on the same day, leaving the country with just one state-owned news television service and many senior journalists out of work.
On Wednesday morning, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed it would close all its Newshub news operations, including the news website, the morning television show and the 6pm television bulletin, resulting in roughly 300 job losses.
Continue reading...Fumio and Yuko Kishida honoured with state dinner to recognise ‘flourishing’ relationship between US and Japan, says Jill Biden
Dry-aged rib eye steak, cherry blossoms and Paul Simon playing a selection of his songs will be the centerpieces of a state dinner the White House is hosting for Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and his wife, Yuko. More than 200 guests are expected to attend.
A lavish state dinner is a tool of US diplomacy, and a high honour that is used sparingly and only to America’s closest allies. In the case of Japan, Joe Biden has chosen to celebrate an ally that he sees as a cornerstone of his policy toward the Indo-Pacific region.
Continue reading...Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years ago
The remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.
Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700–900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to the hunter-gatherers it lived with.
Continue reading...Switch could also cut prevalence of disability linked to diet-related disease and help tackle the climate crisis, researchers found
Swapping red meat for forage fish such as herring, sardines and anchovies could save 750,000 lives a year and help tackle the climate crisis, a study suggests.
Mounting evidence links red meat consumption with a higher risk of disease in humans as well as significant harm to the environment. In contrast, forage fish are highly nutritious, environmentally friendly and the most abundant fish species in the world’s oceans.
Continue reading...Tareck El Aissami latest in purge of politicians, human rights advocates and critics by government of Nicolás Maduro
Venezuela’s former oil minister Tareck El Aissami – once one of President Nicolás Maduro’s closest allies – has been arrested for allegedly participating in an international scheme that syphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars from the country’s state oil company.
The charges against El Aissami are part of a wider government purge that has so far led to charges being brought against more than 50 people, including some of Venezuela’s most important political and business figures.
Continue reading...Released detainees include some jailed for political reasons and is UK ally’s biggest amnesty since Arab spring
Bahrain has unconditionally released more than 1,500 prisoners, including political detainees, in the biggest royal pardon since the 2011 Arab spring uprising.
The amnesty followed years of campaigning inside the country and by international human rights groups but came as a complete surprise to activists.
Continue reading...The UK foreign secretary’s Trump dinner appeared to fail to bring support for Ukraine, and his Washington meetings don’t look any more promising
Whatever happened at Mar-a-Lago between David Cameron and Donald Trump on Monday night, was clearly going to stay in Mar-a-Lago.
Dinner at the Trump Florida residence was always going to be a stiff test of the UK foreign secretary’s influence over the former president, presidential candidate, and the man he had previously referred to variously as protectionist, xenophobic, and misogynistic.
Continue reading...Paper dates 82 pottery pieces found in single dig site at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old
Groundbreaking archaeological research may have upended the longstanding belief that Aboriginal Australians did not make pottery.
A paper published in the Quaternary Science Reviews on Wednesday details the finding of 82 pottery pieces from a single dig site on a Great Barrier Reef island, dates them at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old and determines that the pots were most likely made by Aboriginal people using locally sourced clay and temper.
Continue reading...Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemns assault by Ecuadorian officers, who dragged out ex-vice-president sheltering in mission
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has condemned what he described as a “despicable authoritarian” assault on his country’s embassy in Quito and released dramatic images showing Ecuadorian security forces dragging the country’s former vice-president from the building.
Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s vice-president from 2013 until 2018, sought shelter at the Mexican mission in December claiming he was suffering political persecution. But the 54-year-old politician was arrested there on Friday after Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, took the extraordinary step of ordering a raid on the embassy.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says Britain’s position on export licences is ‘unchanged’ after reviewing latest legal advice
David Cameron has confirmed the UK government will not suspend arms exports to Israel after the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on Gaza last week, as he insisted the UK would continue to act within international law.
The foreign secretary said that he had reviewed the most recent legal advice about the situation on the ground but this left the UK’s position on export licences “unchanged”.
Continue reading...Nicaragua asks UN’s highest court to halt German weapons sales to Israel, alleging it is breaching obligation to prevent genocide
Germany has said Israel’s security is at “the core” of its foreign policy because of the history of the Holocaust, but denied accusations at the UN’s highest court that is aiding genocide in Gaza by arming Israel.
Nicaragua has brought a case against Germany at the international court of justice (ICJ) urging judges to order a halt to German weapons sales to Israel, alleging it is in breach of its obligation to prevent genocide and ensure respect of international humanitarian law.
Continue reading...Law firm’s founders among those to face money laundering charges after leak of 11.5m files in 2016
A criminal trial of 27 employees working for the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers on money laundering charges has commenced in a Panamanian court.
Eight years ago, leaked financial records from the law firm Mossack Fonseca sparked international outrage at the use of offshore companies by wealthy individuals to commit tax fraud and hide assets.
Continue reading...Staff member put work on display at Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne ‘in hope of achieving his breakthrough’
According to a quote commonly – if wrongly – attributed to the artist Andy Warhol, everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. At Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne museum earlier this year, one technician and aspiring artist got to bask in the limelight for a whole eight hours.
The museum in southern Germany on Tuesday confirmed that it had fired a member of its technical services team after he was found to have hung one of his own paintings in a part of the gallery dedicated to modern and contemporary art, allowing him to share a space with works by pop art pioneer Warhol for an entire day.
Continue reading...Leader receives seal of office, marking low-key end of Varadkar era and start of unofficial countdown to election
Simon Harris has pledged to invigorate Ireland’s ruling coalition after being elected the country’s youngest taoiseach.
The Dáil voted 88 to 69 on Tuesday to anoint Harris, 37, as successor to Leo Varadkar, who unexpectedly announced his resignation last month.
Continue reading...Viewers’ association accuses Amica Chips of resorting to blasphemy in order to increase sales
An Italian TV advert that depicts nuns eating crisps instead of altar bread while receiving holy communion has been accused of blasphemy by an outraged association of Catholic TV viewers.
The 30-second advert for Amica Chips – one of Italy’s top crisps brands – takes place in a monastery and opens with nuns preparing to receive holy communion. Their mother superior realises that the tabernacle is empty of hosts, and so fills it with crisps.
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