Exclusive: letter reveals dates for visit that was planned by Tsai Ing-wen before Foreign Office intervened
Taiwan’s former president Tsai Ing-wen had been due to visit the UK between 16 and 18 October before the Foreign Office intervened, the Guardian can disclose.
Tsai was scheduled to visit London for two days as part of her first international tour since leaving office and was in discussions about addressing the UK parliament, according to a leaked letter.
Continue reading...President-elect has become particularly reliant on his Donald Jr for advice, sources tell Reuters
Donald Trump Jr has emerged as the family’s most influential adviser of the moment as his father builds the most controversial cabinet in modern US history, sources close to Donald Trump’s eldest son say.
Trump Jr has in some cases promoted inexperienced loyalists over more qualified candidates for top positions in president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
Continue reading...Former German chancellor’s book tells how she tried to help David Cameron win over Britain’s Eurosceptics
Angela Merkel has said she was “tormented” over the result of the Brexit referendum and viewed it as a “humiliation, a disgrace” for the EU that Britain was leaving.
In her autobiography, Freedom, due to be published on Tuesday, the former German chancellor says she was dismayed by the notion that she might have done more to help the then British prime minister, David Cameron, who was keen for the UK to stay in the EU, but that ultimately, she concluded, he only had himself to blame.
Continue reading...Trump grew his support in nearly all of Philadelphia’s wards – what went wrong for Harris in a key Democratic city?
When Kamala Harris stopped at the west Philadelphia barber shop Philly Cuts just days before the election, its manager, James Browne, said the vice-president came off “almost like a favorite aunt”.
Harris seemed “genuine, kind, nice, very comforting” during the half-hour she spent in the shop while campaigning in the largest city in battleground state Pennsylvania, Browne said. “Meeting her in person was very different than seeing her on TV.”
Continue reading...Meeting comes amid fears Middle East tensions will lead Iran to redouble its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, will meet his European counterparts in Geneva on Friday after the collapse of a deal last week under which Iran would have limited its uranium enrichment to 60% purity, just below the threshold to make nuclear weapons.
The offer was regarded by Iran as a first step to rebuilding confidence between it and the west over what it insists is its civilian nuclear programme. There are growing fears that wider tensions in the Middle East could result in Tehran redoubling efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon and trying to declare it necessary for its national self-defence.
Continue reading...New Queensland premier must tread carefully to avoid ‘culture wars’ that plagued previous LNP government
It’s been just a month since the Liberal National party emerged from Queensland’s political wilderness, and David Crisafulli has already been talking about how it can govern for decades.
And the new premier knows the precise answer to that question.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Two senators sponsor motion calling for a review of rules covering discriminatory language and behaviour
Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi will ask the Senate’s procedure committee to investigate racism and sexism in federal parliament, raising concerns about “white privilege” and how women of colour are treated in politics.
The two senators, former colleagues in the Greens before Thorpe quit the party for the crossbench, have co-sponsored a Senate motion calling for investigation into whether the chamber’s rules should be updated to “eliminate language, behaviour, decision-making, and practices that are sexist, racist or otherwise exclusionary and discriminatory”.
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