Namibia elects its first female president in disputed elections

Vice-president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah avoids runoff vote, as win extends Swapo party’s 34-year hold on power

Namibia has elected its first female leader, with Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah declared the winner of last week’s presidential election in a result that will extend the ruling Swapo party’s 34-year hold on power.

Nandi-Ndaitwah, the current vice-president, won with 57% of the vote, according to official results, defying predictions that she might be forced into a runoff. Swapo has ruled the country since its independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

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Putin’s planes took Ukrainian kids into ‘coerced’ Russian adoption, a Yale report says – NPR

  1. Putin's planes took Ukrainian kids into 'coerced' Russian adoption, a Yale report says  NPR
  2. Investigation Into Forced Adoptions From Ukraine Points Finger at Putin  The New York Times
  3. Stolen Ukrainian children put up for adoption on websites funded by Putin  The Telegraph
  4. Yale researchers hacked a Russian adoption database and found 148 stolen Ukrainian orphans  Scripps News
  5. Russia's Putin implicated in forced removals of Ukrainian children: Report  Yahoo! Voices
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It’s the best of times for Notre Dame, but the worst of times for the French PM

It seems Michel Barnier’s experience of negotiating Brexit with the British was no match for the bitter rivalry of French politics

When Emmanuel Macron welcomes world leaders to the reopening of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral this weekend, after fire damaged it five years ago, he might have hoped it would serve as a metaphor for people from all backgrounds coming together to prevent a hallowed edifice collapsing.

Instead, it is likely the French government itself will have fallen by Wednesday evening, with voters’ trust of politicians and the political process in charred ruins.

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Trudeau meets rivals as he seeks united front in face of Trump tariff threat

Canadian government scrambles to ward off tariffs as prime minister briefs politicians on meeting with Trump

Canada’s federal government has redoubled its efforts to ward off potentially disastrous tariffs from its closest ally, but provincial leaders have hinted at divergent strategies in response to the protectionist threat from president-elect Donald Trump.

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, convened a rare, in-person meeting with his political rivals on Tuesday to brief them on a surprise meeting with Trump at his Florida resort over the weekend.

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