White House press secretary becomes emotional in podcast discussion of wave of legislation sweeping Republican statesThe White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, broke down in tears during an interview in which she condemned the “cruelty” of a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation sweeping Republican states.Known for her toughness at the briefing room podium, Psaki showed a more emotional side during the discussion with Jessica Yellin, host of the News Not Noise podcast, in an interview released on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Lyoya, a 26-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was killed by police at the end of a traffic stop in MichiganLawyers for the family of Patrick Lyoya, a Black man killed by police in western Michigan, have released results from an independent autopsy.Video from a bystander showed that Lyoya, who was not armed, was on the ground when he was shot in the head during a struggle with a white Grand Rapids officer on 4 April. Continue reading...
Majority of court sides with Pentagon over challenge by lieutenant colonel who cited religious grounds for refusal to get vaccineThe supreme court has allowed the US Department of Defense to take disciplinary action against an air force lieutenant colonel who refuses to get a Covid-19 vaccine.In a brief, two-sentence ruling on Monday, a majority of the court sided with the Pentagon. Three justices in the conservative majority – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – dissented. Continue reading...
Federal judge cites ‘whirlpool of colliding constitutional interests’ in allowing 14th-amendment challenge to far-right RepublicanAn attempt to bar the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress over her support for the January 6 attack can proceed, a federal judge said.Citing “a whirlpool of colliding constitutional interests of public import”, Amy Totenberg of the northern district of Georgia sent the case on to a state hearing on Friday. Continue reading...
President ‘thinks he’s the only one who can beat Trump’, source tells the Hill, as Trump is readying his own third runJoe Biden has told Barack Obama he will run for re-election in 2024, according to a Washington website, the Hill.The site cited two anonymous sources. One was quoted as saying Biden “wants to run and he’s clearly letting everyone know”. Continue reading...
While CEOs earn multimillion-dollar salaries, most workers make significantly less than a living wageSome of the largest, most profitable companies in retail and food services are still paying most of their workers less than $15 an hour, and many still make less than $10 an hour, according to a new company wage tracker developed by the Economic Policy Institute and the Shift Project.The tracker, which covers 66 large retail and food service corporations, found:Dollar General pays 92% of workers less than $15 an hour and 22% are paid less than $10 an hour.McDonald’s pays 89% of its workers less than $15 an hour and 23% are paid less than $10 an hour.Wendy’s pays 87% of workers less than $15 an hour and 17% are paid less than $10 an hour.At Sonic, 85% of workers are paid less than $15 an hour and 22% less than $10 an hour. Continue reading...
The threat of Omicron in no way justifies this draconian response. The state’s priority is its image, not people’s livesWhen cases grew in Shanghai, I was hopeful. I thought there would be no way Shanghai would be like Jilin and Changshun, smaller cities that had recently locked down millions of people to contain Covid outbreaks. I assumed that the government would finally have to relax its kneejerk “zero Covid” approach. I could not have been more wrong. Restrictions throughout China have become more draconian.We call this the Shanghai effect. After 24 million people became locked down here, everything was amped up elsewhere too. I live in a smaller city near Shanghai, and life has changed significantly in the last few months, our movements increasingly restricted. Some factories in Shanghai are beginning to reopen, but it seems that other restrictions will remain until cases fall further. Continue reading...
Try as you might to be perfect, there’s no grace for Black people who mess upFor as long as I can remember, Will Smith has been the “nice guy”. The 53-year-old actor has spent the last three decades crafting himself into the perfect image of the ever-pleasant, non-threatening Black man.From curse-free rap lyrics to his tender, nuanced portrayals of complicated characters, Smith has been a darling of mainstream Hollywood for a very long time. And prior to the last few years, he was one of a few celebrities who had made it to the peak of their careers virtually scandal-free. In him, white Hollywood found a Black man who was equal parts insanely talented and widely marketable, according to their standards of propriety and respectability.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...
Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, Ukrainian president says in video addressGood morning.Russia has begun its long-expected large-scale military action to seize the east of Ukraine, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said.Why is Donbas so important to Vladimir Putin? The Russian president has declared his intention to seize Donbas, which is already partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Control of Donbas would allow Moscow to create a southern corridor to the occupied Crimean peninsula.What is Biden doing? The US president will hold a call today with allies to discuss the Ukraine crisis, including on how to coordinate on holding Russia accountable, the White House said.What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 55 of the invasion.What did the judge say? In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group who objected to it in the lawsuit. Continue reading...
After the subway shooting last week, New York City mayor Eric Adams declared he will deploy more police to the subway. But that’s the last thing that will helpLast week, as I sat at a desk in a hotel room in lower Manhattan where I was traveling for work, my phone buzzed. A friend who knew I was in New York had texted to ask if I was all right. Bewildered, I sent a question mark back in response, and turned to Twitter for real-time answers as to what was going on. And there was the news: a man had opened fire inside a subway car as it pulled into a station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, shooting what we’d eventually learn to be 10 people, and injuring more than a dozen others either with bullet grazes or smoke inhalation from smoke grenades he’d thrown. (Mercifully, no one was killed, and reports are that no one still hospitalized has life-threatening injuries.)In the aftermath, the shooter vanished as if a ghost. Continue reading...
Henrika McCoy, an expert on victimization, says timeworn stereotypes prevent real understanding of violent crime in the USIn the first year of the pandemic, homicides throughout the US increased by 30%, the most dramatic one-year rise since the FBI began keeping crime data.The increase was driven by a significant rise in gun violence, with shootings ticking up in cities big and small, in states led by Republicans and Democrats alike. Since then, curbing the rise in shootings has become a central topic among candidates vying for midterm election success. It has also prompted policy shifts from mayors across the country and recall challenges for progressive prosecutors in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Continue reading...
For Black women in Congress, maternal mortality hits close to home. The Black Maternal Health Caucus seeks changeWhen Alma Adams’s daughter complained of abdominal pain during a difficult pregnancy, her doctor overlooked her cries for help. The North Carolina congresswoman’s daughter had to undergo a last-minute caesarean section. She and her baby daughter, now 16, survived.“It could have gone another way. I could have been a mother who was grieving her daughter and granddaughter,” Adams told the Guardian, following a week in which the White House highlighted the crisis of pregnancy-related deaths among Black women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black women die at three times the rate of white women. Continue reading...
Since the first winning drive in Buffalo, 18 US locations have unionized – including at the chichi New York ‘reserve’When Starbucks opened it flagship reserve roastery in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan in late 2018, the “sleek, inspiring, coffee extravaganza” was supposed to show the world a new, more sophisticated side of the coffee chain.A 10ft, 2,000lb copper sculpture of the Starbucks siren logo presides over the space, which includes a coffee roasting manufacturing plant, a terrarium based on Starbucks’ coffee farm in Costa Rica, a mixology bar that offers cocktails, an on-site bakery, a coffee roastery scoop bar, and full dine-in service. Continue reading...
The NBA named its All-Time European Teams last week. And three current players could easily surpass the German in the next decadeBasketball has distinctly North American origins: it was invented by Canadian Dr James Naismith while he was teaching at a Massachusetts YMCA. However, since the first basketball game was played back in 1892, the sport has grown into an international concern. Last week, the NBA celebrated its 75th anniversary by naming its All-Time European Teams, voted on by fans and European basketball experts.The first team was filled with familiar names. Along with two current superstars in Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Slovenia’s Luka Dončić, of the Dallas Mavericks, the roster was completed with three retired players who had a huge impact on the NBA: Spain’s Pau Gasol, Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki and France’s Tony Parker. Continue reading...
Billowing black smoke during wildfire disasters has caused atmospheric carbon monoxide levels to increase, scientists findThe billowing black smoke that has cloaked the US Pacific north-west during wildfire disasters in past years has caused atmospheric carbon monoxide levels to spike, with the contaminants offsetting recent reductions in emissions, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research have found.As the American west faces increasing threats from big blazes that are fueled by a climate that’s growing warmer and drier, researchers have documented the impact of smoke on public health. But scientists are increasingly finding that the fires may be part of a feedback loop that could accelerate the change in conditions and that health impacts officials have long warned would worsen with climate crisis, may in fact already be here. Continue reading...
The California native pleads guilty to scheme that triggered three-week search before she resurfaced on Thanksgiving day in 2016Sherri Papini, the California woman whose disappearance made national headlines and sparked a massive search before she reappeared on Thanksgiving day in 2016, pleaded guilty on Monday to faking her own kidnapping and lying to the FBI.The 39-year-old from Redding, in the state’s far north, did not offer any explanation for the elaborate hoax or why she claimed two “Hispanic women” had kidnapped her at gunpoint and chained her to a pole for three weeks while depriving her of food, beating and branding her. Continue reading...
Civil rights leaders had called for new charges after Jason Van Dyke, convicted of murder in state court, was released in FebruaryFederal authorities on Monday said they would not criminally charge Jason Van Dyke, the former Chicago police officer convicted of murder in the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald.The US attorney’s office in Chicago said in a news release that the decision had been made after consulting with the McDonald family and that the “family was in agreement not to pursue a second prosecution”. Continue reading...
Reducing the problems facing American men to their testosterone levels is too stupid even for CarlsonAre there three words in the English language that can strike quite as much trepidation into the hearts of the sane and rational person as “Tucker Carlson original”? Yes, the documentary strand that brought you such titles as Hungary vs Soros: The Fight for Civilization and Patriot Purge, a BS-laden fantasy about the January 6 riots that contained so many bonkers claims about false-flag operations that it forced a tranche of Fox News veterans to quit the network, has returned.The latest addition to the Carlson oeuvre is called The End of Men and its Magic Mike-style trailer just dropped. Continue reading...
The presidential first-round vote saw political polarisation and a high abstention rate among the youngCompared with the famous événements of May 1968, the flurry of leftwing student demonstrations that took place in Paris last week was small in scale. But the protesters’ message – echoed in other university towns – was enough to make the national media sit up and take notice. One student summed up the mood by telling Le Monde he saw little difference between a vote for Marine Le Pen or Emmanuel Macron at the forthcoming presidential runoff ballot. “Young people are being given a false choice between two options that are equally bad,” said Baptiste, 22. “There’s a growing rebellion and rejection of this.”It is the vital task of a newly galvanised Mr Macron to ensure that this is a minority view come Sunday, when the second round takes place. With some success, he has begun to address the priorities of youthful voters who originally supported Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left platform. In a rally at the weekend, he pledged a new focus on environmental targets to make France “the first leading nation to end oil, gas and coal consumption”. Belatedly, the election spotlight is also turning on to the aggressive xenophobia running through Ms Le Pen’s programme, as her policy on banning headscarves in public spaces comes under critical scrutiny. Continue reading...
Kentucky man says former employer ignored his request not to celebrate his birthday due to his anxiety disorderA Kentucky man was awarded $450,000 in a lawsuit against his former employer, after the company disregarded his wish not to be given a birthday party.In August 2019, Gravity Diagnostics, a medical laboratory, ignored Kevin Berling’s request not to celebrate his birthday due to his anxiety disorder. Continue reading...
Site’s founder, Alex Jones, was found liable for damages in lawsuits related to lies he spread about 2012 Sandy Hook school shootingFacing multiple defamation lawsuits, the far-right website InfoWars on Sunday voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court in Texas.Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures put a hold on all civil litigation faced by companies that file for the protection and allows them to prepare turnaround plans while remaining operational. Continue reading...
Americans paid through digital payment service required to notify IRS of payments amounting to more than $600 a year, down from $20,000It’s tax day in the US, the deadline for most individuals to file and pay tax owed. But while this year’s tax season may be closing for millions of Americans who are paid through a digital payment service such as PayPal, Venmo, Zelle and Cash App, the next tax year could come with even more complications.Under a new law buried in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, digital payment services, or Third-Party Settlement Organizations (TPSOs), will now be required to notify federal tax collectors of payments amounting to more than $600 in total during the course of the year. Continue reading...
Justin Welby’s invocation of the Almighty only confuses the forces that need mustering against Boris Johnson’s cruel policyBoris Johnson’s government’s proposal to deport asylum seekers of whatever origin who arrive on unauthorised routes, such as by crossing the Channel, to Rwanda in east Africa is beyond callous. It is understandable that the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, should want to add his voice to the protests. But invoking God’s judgment in the matter leaves him vulnerable to a second question. If the Almighty did offer him such an opinion, what did He suggest be done instead?The government’s argument for deportation is bizarre. It is that people smugglers along the French coast are endangering the lives of refugees – so it is “bold and innovative” to arrest and expel the latter. To Jacob Rees-Mogg this is “almost an Easter story of redemption”. Redemption for whom? What do these people think they are doing? It is like reacting to a spate of burglaries by locking the victims outside their homes.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
CBS News was once the home of legends like Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Why is it now hiring Trump conspirators and enablers?CBS News has hired Mick Mulvaney as an on-air contributor.You may recall that Mulvaney served as acting chief of staff under Trump and led Trump’s Office of Management and Budget. But as I’ll get to in a moment, Mulvaney wasn’t just a high official in the Trump administration. He was an active enabler of Trump’s deceit and attempted coup.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...
Vice-president says she plays as a ‘brain cleanser’ and has never failed to guess the five-letter word of the dayKamala Harris plays Wordle as a “brain cleanser” between official duties and has never failed to guess the five-letter word of the day, but cannot share successes with friends because her official phone does not let her send text messages.The vice-president discussed her love for the online game designed by Welsh-born Josh Wardle in an interview with the Ringer. Continue reading...
The IMF claims to deliver stability, strength, and solidarity. Its record shows the oppositeThis week, the board of governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will gather at its headquarters in Washington DC to reaffirm the Fund’s three-part mandate: financial stability, economic strength, and – as its managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, recently asserted – international solidarity. “I am determined that we will support our members however we can,” Georgieva said of the Fund’s new spirit. “Now is the time to take advantage of this opportunity to build a better world.”Georgieva is right: it is now or never. The “largest spate of debt crises” in a generation hangs over the global south. Two ingredients compose this ticking debt bomb: rapidly rising levels of public debt among the world’s poorest countries, and a rapidly rising percentage of that debt issued at variable interest rates. The combination of these two ingredients mean that even minor rate hikes in rich countries will have explosive consequences across the developing world – just as supply chains seize, food prices soar and the Covid-19 pandemic rampages through the world’s under-vaccinated populations.David Adler is a political economist and general coordinator of the Progressive International Continue reading...
The mayoral candidate tells the Guardian she will treat homelessness as a ‘natural disaster’ but critics are skeptical her plans will solve our vast emergencyHomelessness has become the central issue for every candidate vying to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. The humanitarian disaster in America’s second largest city has reached catastrophic levels in the two years since the start of the pandemic, but that has not stopped the frontrunner in the race, US Congresswoman Karen Bass, from promising to accomplish what has long seemed impossible: solve the crisis.The extraordinary challenge facing LA was what prompted Bass not to seek re-election in Congress, she told the Guardian last week. “It is the number one reason why I decided to come back and run for mayor … It has gotten completely out of hand.” Continue reading...
Politicians and commentators use criminal histories to argue for increased policing – but they are ignoring key conclusions, says law professor John PfaffAfter six people were shot and killed outside a bar in Sacramento, California, earlier this month, stories about the victims and their grieving families initially filled local news.Soon followed reports about two brothers who were arrested in connection with the early morning shootout, with journalists and commentators delving into the brothers’ histories. Both men had several prior convictions, and the coverage of their rap sheets was swiftly seized upon by midterm election hopefuls and conservative commentators to argue for harsher punishments and increased policing. Continue reading...
A new documentary explores how Loyola captured the NCAA title in 1963 with four Black starters. But it was not a typical fairytaleKansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self employed a variety of strategies while securing the Jayhawks’ fourth national title earlier this month. Suffice to say, how many Black players he selected was not a talking point.But six decades ago the composition of the team was a significant call for Loyola’s George Ireland. His decision to start four Black players not only proved the difference in the Ramblers’ 1963 NCAA title run; it became a moment similar to Jackie Robinson signing with the Dodgers 75 years ago – one of those decisions that led to a sport becoming more inclusive, and also helped fuel the civil rights movement across the US. And yet for as watershed an event as the Ramblers’ ’63 title was, it has long tarried in the shadow of a Texas Western team that won the 1966 NCAA title with five Black starters – a David and Goliath matchup memorialized in the Jerry Bruckheimer classic Glory Road. Even recent members of the Ramblers basketball team didn’t know much more than the basics of the ’63 team’s quest – even as the story came roaring back to the fore during the Ramblers’ recent storybook run to the 2018 Final Four. “And we have relationships with those guys,” says Lucas Williamson, a co-captain on the 2021-22 Ramblers team. “Especially pre-Covid, they were always around – at practices, at games. We know them. But we just never really talked about the racial issues they had actually gone through.”The Loyola Project is available to stream now. Continue reading...
A new ESPN documentary reassesses the career of the Australian, with particular attention paid to his famous meltdown at the 1996 MastersIn recent years it’s become fashionable for sport documentaries to include a self-referential element in which the protagonist reviews footage of their own triumphs and disasters. The facial reactions in these segments often say more than hours of talking head analysis ever could: the vision of Michael Jordan, tablet in lap, choking up with laughter as Gary Payton’s account of the 1996 NBA finals series is played back to him remains the defining image of 2020’s The Last Dance. For Shark, premiering in the US on Tuesday night, directors Jason Hehir (who also directed The Last Dance) and Thomas Odelfelt replace the tablet with a laptop kept open on a small side table next to the seated Greg Norman.The Australian has never rewatched the infamous final round of the 1996 Masters, in which he relinquished a six-shot lead to surrender the green jacket to arch-rival Nick Faldo: “There’s no need to,” he says curtly in the opening minutes of Shark. And when the footage of that fabled choke – still the biggest final-day lead ever blown in a PGA tour tournament – starts rolling on the laptop, you soon begin to understand why. The pain of every slice, hook, undercooked putt and moment of self-doubt is still very much with him, 25 years later. Continue reading...
The Conservative Partnership Institute’s meetings promote poll watching and ‘clean’ voter rolls, sparking fears of vote suppressionAn influential conservative group that includes two Trump allies who helped push lies about voter fraud in 2020 is spearheading “election integrity” summits in battleground states, advocating for expanded poll watching, “clean” voter rolls and other measures watchdogs say could curb voting rights to help Republican candidates.The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) “election integrity network” is run by the veteran GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who helped to spread misinformation about supposed election fraud in 2020. Continue reading...
Move follows a series of hardline measures by Republicans in the state to alter teaching in schools as governor welcomes newsFlorida’s education department has rejected 54 mathematics textbooks from next year’s school curriculum, citing alleged references to critical race theory among a range of reasoning for some of the rejections, officials announced.The department said in a news release Friday that some of the books had been rejected for failure to comply with the state’s content standards, Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking [Best], but that 21% of the books were disallowed “because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT”. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New York and agencies on (#5Y91X)
Two teenage boys killed in Pittsburgh in one of at least three shootings over the weekend, including two in South CarolinaTwo teenage boys were killed and eight other people were wounded after gunfire erupted at a party in a short-term rental home in Pittsburgh early Sunday, one of at least three mass shootings across the US on Easter weekend.The other two shootings – both in South Carolina – left a total of 18 people with bullet wounds, once again reigniting calls among advocates for meaningful gun control legislation. Continue reading...
Ship freed from muddy bottom of the Chesapeake Bay at third attempt is owned by same company as ship stuck in Suez canal last yearA container ship called the Ever Forward was finally pried free on Sunday from the muddy bottom of the Chesapeake Bay more than a month after it ran aground.The Ever Forward is owned by the Evergreen Marine Corporation, the same company that owns the Ever Given, which famously ran aground and blocked the Suez canal for a week, disrupting the global supply chain.The Associated Press contributed to this report Continue reading...
Baby clothing and maternity wear retailer grew from kitchen table startupThe baby clothing and maternity wear retailer JoJo Maman Bébé – whose high-profile customers include the Duchess of Cambridge – has been snapped up by the high street company Next and a group of investment firms.Laura Tenison, who started the business in 1993 from her flatshare kitchen table and turned it into one of the UK’s leading mother and baby retailers, said the new owners had “exciting plans to expand and grow the brand much faster than we ever could, giving us the opportunity to open in new markets”. Continue reading...
Frank James, who allegedly shot 10 people on a subway train, openly talked about struggling with mental illnessDays after a man who openly talked about struggling with mental illness allegedly shot up a subway train in Brooklyn, the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, called for his state to continue prioritizing an increase in the number of available psychiatric hospital beds.Adams on Sunday said he understood the medical community’s shifting its focus to fighting the deadly coronavirus during the last two years, but at this point in the pandemic, it needed to pivot to addressing shortages in psychiatric services. Continue reading...
by Dani Anguiano in Fresno with photographs by Andri on (#5Y8QQ)
Fresno considered itself a success story in the fight against homelessness. By 2019, things had changed drasticallyJesus Ramirez has spent years searching for housing he can afford in Fresno, California. He jokes that he’ll remain on the streets until he’s old enough for a retirement home.For the last two years, the 47-year-old spent most nights sleeping in front of closed businesses in the heart of California’s Central Valley. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he receives $950 a month in government assistance, but he hasn’t been able to find a place in his budget in Fresno, which had the greatest rent increases of any US city last year. Continue reading...
Indigenous women are underrepresented in the US Congress and other elected offices. The Native Action Network wants to change thatOn a picturesque island just a 30-minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle, Juanita Perez described losing a recent race for a delegate seat for the Tlingit and Haida tribes:“I didn’t have all the tools to do it the right way,” she said. Continue reading...
The government’s catalogue of embarrassments found a perfect symbol last week in a 500-tonne mountain of rotting beetrootLike a bald man masturbating alone into an open pedal bin, Boris Johnson’s Brexit Britain disgusts itself. And yet, despite being observed on the gents’ toilet’s security camera that is the modern world stage, it continues its abasement unabashed. After the second world war, the German volk were described as experiencing kollektivschuld, a national shame. But the capacity for shame has been surgically removed from our leaders. And it pulses only weakly, like some underactive perineal muscle, in the electorate that endorses them. Could it be possible instead for the physical mass of a nation, rather than the citizens it comprises, to display the attributes of shame?Brexiter culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, who didn’t know what the customs union was, has called publicly for the removal of public funding for a TV channel that isn’t publicly funded; Brexiter Dominic Raab, who had not appreciated the importance of Calais, went paddleboarding in Crete while Kabul rescue cats fought to get on British planes; and Brexiter Rishi Sunak, who has all his different breads in all his different houses, took lucrative advantage of tax loopholes that the EU he sought to exit had hoped to close.Rescheduled national 2022 dates of Stewart’s 2020 tour, Snowflake Tornado, Edinburgh fringe shows, and dates for the 2022-23 show, Basic Lee, are all on sale now. A DVD and soundtrack of the hit rockumentary King Rocker are available here Continue reading...
UK attitudes to migration and asylum are mixed but, in the round, they are softening. The left should not join the Tories in thinking the worst of votersIt is 50 years since the most principled decision about refugees in postwar Britain was taken. The then prime minister Ted Heath’s insistence on upholding Britain’s duty to protect the 28,000 Ugandan Asians expelled by Idi Amin showed political courage. Doing the right thing by them was broadly unpopular in 1972. Indeed, Whitehall panic in the face of Enoch Powell’s pressure saw the Foreign Office ask Bermuda and then the Falklands if they might provide an “island asylum” to limit the numbers who may come to Britain.Ugandan Asian migrants have contributed much to Britain. Their British-born children have enjoyed opportunities in professional life beyond their parents’ hopes. It could even be an indicator of integration that it is Priti Patel, the first British Asian woman to occupy a great office of state, who leads this government’s search for an asylum island for our times. On Thursday, the home secretary proudly unveiled her plan to send asylum seekers who reach Britain to Africa instead. Continue reading...
The president remains favourite to carry the election, but his task will become no easierAlthough Emmanuel Macron did a little better than expected in the first round of the French presidential election last Sunday, the results were not a huge surprise. The second round next Sunday will be between Macron and the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, exactly as it was five years ago. But the results confirmed two worrying trends in French politics that were already apparent – and which are also evident to some extent across much of the rest of continental Europe.The first is the realignment of politics away from a fault line between left and right, to one between “radical” centrism and populism. The centre-left Socialist and centre-right Les Républicains candidates both received less than 5% of the vote, a lower share of the vote than either of these parties had ever received before. Both Macron and Le Pen see themselves as being “beyond left and right” – that is, though they both want us to think of them as being opposites, they actually mirror each other. From a democratic point of view, this realignment is disastrous. Continue reading...
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