Supermac strips US food giant of trademark across Europe after landmark EU ruling
Pat McDonagh earned the nickname Supermac as an Irish teenager after a barnstorming performance in a Gaelic football match in the late 1960s.
The centre half-back guided his school, Carmelite college of Moate, County Westmeath, to victory over St Gerald’s, a more fancied team.
Continue reading...Thousands of people have gathered in cities across Poland after the fatal stabbing of the Gdańsk mayor, Paweł Adamowicz. In Gdańsk they were addressed by the European council president, Donald Tusk, a Gdańsk native, friend and longtime ally of Adamowicz
Continue reading...#Jagärhär (#Iamhere) aims to battle abuse in online threads and jumps to defend those on receiving end
When a young woman with rainbow hair and a reputation for hostility towards sexual predators won a Swedish lawyer of the year award late last year, the online reaction came in two waves.
The first was unpleasant, a torrent of bile from people who objected to Linnéa Claeson’s looks, her feminist politics, her gender, her youth and her instagram account @assholesonline.
Continue reading...More than 100 firefighters, police officers and rescuers are trying to reach a two-year-old boy who fell down a deep borehole in Málaga province on Sunday afternoon. Yulen was out on a walk with his family when he fell down the hole, which is 110 metres deep and 25cm wide
Continue reading...If you live in Ireland, tell us about the assembly and its findings – did it help resolve a complex issue, might it help with Brexit?
In 2018, Ireland voted in a referendum to legalise abortion. Irish politics had been debating this divisive and emotive issue for decades, however the Irish citizens’ assembly, which deliberated on the matter prior to the referendum, was cited as a successful process in helping people understand the complex issues.
The citizens’ assembly was established in 2016 by parliament and its purpose was to deliberate on a number of issues, including the eighth amendment that outlawed abortion. The 99 citizen members of the assembly were selected to be electorally representative and included those in favour of the change, those against and those undecideds. Over the course of five weekends, between the end of 2016 and early 2017, the assembly listened to people on all sides of the abortion debate, including experts and those sharing their personal experiences.
Continue reading...PM speech comes after letter from Tusk and Juncker says EU will consider technological alternatives to backstop
In an article for the Guardian, Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, says that historical precedent dictates that, if Theresa May loses the Brexit vote tomorrow, she should call a general election.
Here is an extract.
In this week in 1910, the British electorate went to the polls. They did so because Herbert Asquith’s Liberal government had been unable to get Lloyd George’s famous People’s Budget through the House of Lords. Liberal posters defined the election as a choice between the peers and the people. They finally got their way after a second election that December.
So twice that year, and a number of other times, governments who could not get their flagship legislation through parliament, or who otherwise found their authority in the House of Commons exhausted, have been obliged to go to the country to seek a new mandate.
Conservative MPs have been told that Theresa May will address the party’s backbench 1922 committee at 7pm, after her statement to the Commons. And Jeremy Corbyn will be addressing the parliamentary Labour party meeting tonight too.
Continue reading...Hong Kong-based carrier says it will honour tickets after second error in a fortnight
Cathay Pacific has accidentally given passengers first-class airline tickets at economy prices – for the second time in a fortnight.
The Hong Kong-based carrier sold first-class tickets from Portugal to Hong Kong, which normally cost about £12,500, for only £1,175 because of an error on its website.
Continue reading...Police called after 16th-century painting disappears days before expert due to visit
It is a storyline worthy of a Hercule Poirot whodunnit. After confiding in just 20 trusted people of his suspicion that a painting in his church was a lost masterpiece, a priest in the small Flemish town of Zele, 45 miles north of Brussels, has had to call in the local police over its sudden disappearance.
Pastor Jan Van Raemdonck, 61, turned to the detectives after two women laying flowers in the nave of the Sint-Ludgerus church last Friday morning discovered that the 16th-century painting, known as the Holy Family, had gone missing from its usual position by the altar.
Continue reading...Donald Tusk remembers friend Paweł Adamowicz as debate turns to rise of hate speech
Thousands of people have gathered in cities across Poland after the fatal stabbing of Gdańsk mayor PawełAdamowicz in protest at what some say is a creeping pervasiveness of hate speech in Poland’s national discourse.
In Gdańsk, thousands gathered for a minute’s silence at the statue of Neptune in the city’s Long Market, which also hosts the city hall, where Adamowicz served as mayor for more than 20 years. Adamowicz died after he was stabbed in the chest on stage at a charity concert on Sunday evening.
Continue reading...Some people are stockpiling food, medicine and even pet treats in anticipation of mass shortages after a no-deal Brexit. Are they overreacting, or should we be following their example?
Jo Elgarf doesn’t look like you would imagine a prepper to look. She’s not a swivel-eyed libertarian, camouflaged and armed to the eyeballs, crawling around the woods in Montana, skinning a squirrel for breakfast and fuelling up for the apocalypse. She lives with her husband and three young children in a sleepy suburb of south-west London.
Elgarf is happy to call herself a prepper, though; she is a member – and a moderator – of one of a growing number of prepper groups on social media. Hers – an anti-Brexit Facebook group called 48% Preppers – gets between 100 and 200 requests a day to join. Everyone wants to be ready for a no-deal Brexit.
Continue reading...Accounts echo those from 2017, when hundreds of men were rounded up and beaten
Two people have been killed and nearly 40 detained in a new crackdown on LGBT people in Russia’s Chechnya region, activists have said. The deaths were reportedly caused by the use of torture by police.
The reports on Monday echo those from 2017, when hundreds of gay men were rounded up by police in Chechnya and subjected to beatings and electric shocks in secret prisons, provoking international condemnation and sanctions.
Continue reading...Firefighters, police officers and rescuers search for boy who fell down borehole on Sunday
More than 100 Spanish firefighters, police officers and rescuers are searching for a two-year-old boy who fell down a deep borehole in Málaga province on Sunday afternoon.
The boy, named Yulen, was out walking with his family when he fell down the hole, which is 110 metres deep and 25cm wide.
Continue reading...Archbishop of Canterbury says he prays every day for Theresa May and other politicians
The archbishop of Canterbury has said a no-deal Brexit would hit the poorest and most vulnerable people in the UK.
Justin Welby also said he was praying for Theresa May and other politicians at the start of what is expected to be one of the most tumultuous weeks in recent parliamentary history.
Continue reading...Matteo Salvini celebrates likely extradition of leftwing militant by Jair Bolsonaro
Cesare Battisti, a former leftwing guerrilla fighter wanted by the Italian authorities over four murders in the late 1970s, has been arrested in Bolivia and has been extradited to Italy.
The prime minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, said a government aircraft was on its way to bring Battisti, 63, back to Rome and Brazilian officials later confirmed his extradition. Conte praised the Bolivian and Brazilian authorities for the overnight capture of Battisti, who has been on the run for almost four decades, in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and said he would begin his life sentences as soon as he lands on Italian soil.
Continue reading...Paweł Adamowicz in serious condition after thousands of people witness apparent assassination attempt
The mayor of the northern Polish city of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, was stabbed on Sunday evening in an apparent assassination attempt in front of thousands of people during a charity concert.
Continue reading...French president wants 2,300-word missive to spark national debate about policy reform
Emmanuel Macron has launched a two-month “great national debate” in France with a 2,330-word open letter to the country.
The French president hopes the nationwide public consultation will take the sting out of the widespread public anger behind the rise of the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement and the civil unrest across France.
Continue reading...In France and Britain, gilets jaunes have mutated into symbols of anger against anything from austerity to Islam
What is not in dispute is who came first. On the French side of the channel lie the original gilets jaunes (yellow vests), a grassroots, social media-based citizens’ movement with no formal structure, recognised leader or party or union backing, named after the hi-visibility jackets that French drivers are required by law to carry in their vehicles.
As French yellow vests kicked off their ninth straight weekend of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, a battle for ownership of what has become an symbol of anti-government agitation across Europe has broken out in Britain as leftwing anti-austerity activists donned yellow in a bid to wrestle it from the far-right.
Continue reading...Far-right nationalists decide for first time to seek ‘Dexit’ if bloc does not meet demands
The German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has voted to campaign for the country’s exit from the European Union if its demand for reforms within the bloc are not met.
The decision on Sunday marks the first time any party has called for “Dexit” – a German departure from the EU in the mould of Brexit.
Continue reading...Marches across France take place on the ninth weekend of gilets jaunes demonstrations
Gilets jaunes protesters engaged in a ninth weekend of protests all over France on Saturday as the president, Emmanuel Macron, prepared to stake his political future on an open letter to the French people and a national debate.
Officials said that at least 84,000 demonstrators turned out across France, thousands more than last weekend, with about 8,000 of those in Paris where protests passed “without serious incident”. Gilets jaunes – named after the hi-vis yellow vests French motorists must carry in their vehicles – said the number was higher but did not give a figure.
Continue reading...Wang Weijing was arrested on allegations of espionage by Polish authorities
The Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei said it had terminated the employment of a Chinese worker arrested on spying allegations in Poland.
Polish authorities arrested Wang Weijing and a former Polish security official on Friday , a move that could fuel western security concerns about the telecoms equipment maker.
Continue reading...