Mexico City, Mexico | AFP | President Donald Trump offered Tuesday to help Mexico hunt the killers of nine Mormon women and children shot dead in a lawless border area — and said the United States stood ready to back its southern neighbor in a “war” on the drug cartels. Gunmen …
Read More »Troubles, what troubles? Trump basks in populist love
Lexington, United States | AFP | Taking the stage in a packed Kentucky arena to the strains of America’s unofficial patriotic anthem, “God Bless the USA,” Donald Trump didn’t look like a man in trouble. Harried by impeachment proceedings, yes. Beset by foreign policy worries, yes. Accused of everything from sexual …
Read More »Disinformation, surveillance seen as growing threats to democracy: watchdog
Washington, United States | AFP | Governments around the world are increasingly using social media to manipulate elections and monitor their citizens, in a worrisome trend for democracy, a human rights watchdog said Tuesday. An annual report on online freedom by the nonprofit group Freedom House found evidence of “advanced social …
Read More »Xi pledges wider market access, free-trade deals
Shanghai, China | AFP | President Xi Jinping on Tuesday pledged to further open China’s economy, declaring the world must “knock down walls” as he opened an annual trade fair against the backdrop of the US tariffs war. Xi addressed an audience including French President Emmanuel Macron at the import exhibition …
Read More »India’s top court orders halt to stubble burning as Delhi chokes
New Delhi, India | AFP | India’s top court has ordered a complete halt to stubble burning around Delhi, a major contributor to lethal smog that on Tuesday kept the metropolis of 20 million people choking in air rated “very poor”. The Supreme Court said the capital’s residents were “losing precious …
Read More »Turkish court frees two journalists after three years in prison
Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | A Turkish court on Monday ordered the release under supervision of two prominent journalists jailed over alleged links to the failed 2016 coup in the country. Ahmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak walked out of prison on Monday evening where they had been serving a sentence of …
Read More »EU foe Farage takes Brexit poll challenge to Johnson
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Anti-EU populist leader Nigel Farage said Monday he will field hardline Brexit candidates across Britain despite fears he could deny Prime Minister Boris Johnson a majority in next month’s election. Farage wants to sever all ties with the European Union and calls Johnson’s divorce deal …
Read More »Impeachment transcript shows envoy felt threatened by Trump
Washington, United States | AFP | The former US ambassador to Kiev told investigators she felt threatened by Donald Trump’s words in his call to Ukraine’s leader, in the first transcripts released Monday in the impeachment investigation against the president. As Democrats unveil a new, public phase of the probe, they …
Read More »US writer sues Trump for defamation after alleged rape
New York, United States | AFP | A respected US writer who says Donald Trump raped her over two decades ago sued the president for defamation on Monday after he ridiculed her as “not my type.” Jean Carroll, a magazine advice columnist, filed the lawsuit in a New York court, claiming …
Read More »Amazon fires in Brazil fall to record low in October: official
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | The number of fires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil fell to a record low in October, even as blazes ripped across the Pantanal tropical wetlands, official data show. Satellite images from the INPE space institute recorded 7,855 fires in the Amazon last …
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