13 Nov
News and Analyses, A Foreign Perspective
News and Analyses, A Foreign Perspective
English Online International Newspapers
Nearly all of these are English-edition daily newspapers. These sites have interesting editorials and essays, and many have links to other good news sources. We try to limit this list to those sites which are regularly updated, reliable, with a high percentage of “up” time.
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Geldof returns Dublin honour in protest over Aung San Suu Kyi
The McGlynn: Up The Rebel!
Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof said he is “shamed” to share the honour with Suu Kyi
Bob Geldof has said he will return his Freedom of the City of Dublin in protest against the Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who also holds the award.
Mr Geldof said “her association with our city shames us all”.
Ms Suu Kyi has faced heavy criticism over her failure to address allegations of ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims.
More than half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh following recent violence.
Mr Geldof, the musician and founder of Band Aid, said in a statement: “Her association with our city shames us all and we should have no truck with it, even by default. We honoured her, now she appalls and shames us.”
He said he would hand back the award at City Hall in the Irish capital on Monday morning.
What you need to know about the crisis>>
What sparked latest violence in Rakhine?>>
Who are the Rohingya group behind attacks?>>
Ms Suu Kyi has been condemned by international leaders and human rights groups over her reluctance to acknowledge the military violence, which the UN has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Fellow Irish musicians U2 also criticised Burma’s civilian leader, urging her on Saturday to take a stronger stance against the reported violence by security forces.
In a statement on the band’s website, they said her failure to address the crisis was “starting to look a lot like assent”.
Over 180 dead as thousands of Rohingya refugees flee Myanmar for Bangladesh
“So we say to you now what we would have said to her: the violence and terror being visited on the Rohingya people are appalling atrocities and must stop.”
Last month, Oxford City Council stripped Ms Suu Kyi of the freedom of the city, which she was awarded in 1997.
Oxford City Council leader Bob Price acknowledged that it was an “unprecedented step” for the local authority.
People are “absolutely appalled” by the situation in Myanmar, he said, adding it was “extraordinary” she had not spoken out about reported atrocities in the country.
St Hugh’s College at Oxford University, where Ms Suu Kyi read politics, has removed a portrait of her from display.
The violence in Rakhine erupted on 25 August when Rohingya militants attacked security posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, triggering a military crackdown.
Scores of people have been killed in the crackdown and there are widespread allegations of villages being burned and Rohingya being driven out.
Myanmar’s military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians.
About 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since 25 August.
World Politics
United States
Trump environment nominee struggles to answer basic climate questions – video
Ekaterina Ochagavia
Kathleen Hartnett White struggles to answer basic questions posed by the Senate committee on environment and public works on Thursday. Hartnett White, Trump’s nominee for the environmental quality council chair, had difficulty answering questions from Senators Ben Cardin and Sheldon Whitehouse on green house emissions and climate science
President performs surprise turn at a summit dinner in Manila, explaining it was ordered by the US leader
Reuters
Duterte sings for Trump: ‘You are the light’ – video
President Rodrigo Duterte crooned a hit Filipino love song at a dinner in Manila for leaders from across Asia, explaining later that it was “on the orders of Donald Trump”.
The US president and Duterte were among 19 leaders at a gala in the Philippines capital on Sunday ahead of the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit. At one point Duterte took the microphone to sing “Ikaw” (You), in a duet with local pop diva Pilita Corrales.
One of the song’s verses, translated from Filipino, begins: “You are the light in my world, a half of this heart of mine.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I sang uninvited, upon the orders of the commander-in-chief of the United States,” Duterte said later, according to the ABS-CBN news channel.
Duterte, who is sometimes described as the “Trump of the East” because of his brash style, was due to meet the US president on the sidelines of the summit on Monday.
The United States and its former colony, the Philippines, have been strategic allies since the second world war. But their relations have been strained by anti-US outbursts from Duterte and his enthusiasm for better ties with Russia and China.
More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in a war on drugs that Duterte declared when he took office last year. His government says the police act in self defence, but critics say executions are taking place with no accountability.
Duterte said last week he would tell the US president to “lay off” if he raised the issue of human rights when they met.
But Trump, who has been criticised at home for neglecting rights issues in dealings abroad, praised Duterte in May for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”.
Trump and leaders of the 10-member Asean, plus China, Russia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, were entertained by singers and dancers at the dinner.
Each sported a cream-coloured barong, a traditional Philippines shirt made of fibre from the pineapple plant, hand-embroidered and worn untucked.
They were served a four-course Filipino-Asian fusion meal curated and prepared by Jessie Sincioco, the chef who also designed the menu for Pope Francis when he visited the Philippines in 2015.
Meet the progressives elected after Trump: America’s new political coalition
A year after Trump’s victory, Montana elected its first black mayor, New Jersey elected its first Sikh mayor and Charlotte elected its first black female mayor
by Jamiles Lartey
Last Tuesday, voters seemed to reject much of the anger and polarisation that Donald Trump has brought in to US politics. Instead, voters elected a diverse range of candidates from progressive backgrounds. The elections, a year after Trump’s victory, saw Montana elect its first black mayor, New Jersey elected its first Sikh mayor and Charlotte elected its first black female mayor.
Here are some of the faces of America’s new political coalition.
Braxton Winston: city council at-large in Charlotte, North Carolina
Winston, 34, hadn’t been to a protest before the fatal police shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina in September 2016. That day, Winston, a videographer by trade, stopped by the apartment complex where the incident occured and started livestreaming what he was seeing as a crowd of police and upset citizens swelled.
Hours later, as residents began clashing with police in the streets, Winston was near the frontlines, continuing to livestream. Shirtless and facing a phalanx of armor-clad police, Winton balled his left hand in a raised fist. A photograph of his defiant gesture went viral not long after and became one of the defining images of the Black Lives Matter era.
It was his engagement with those issues that drove his candidacy for an at-large city council seat in Charlotte, a seat he won on Tuesday running as a Democrat.
“We’re excited. We feel like we ran the campaign that we set out to do,” Winston said after the win, according to Raw Story. “We were very intentional about it from day one. We wanted to go to every part of Charlotte with a clear and consistent message of a more accessible, equitable and interconnected city.”
Winston ran on a progressive platform of raising the city’s minimum wage, the creation of 50,000 affordable housing units and “comprehensive criminal justice reform”.
Ravi Bhalla: mayor in Hoboken, New Jersey
A practicing Sikh who wears a long beard and his hair in a traditional turban, Bhalla was hardly surprised when a leaflet began circulating in his town that put the word TERRORISM in block red letters just above his face.
“Of course this is troubling, but we won’t let hate win,” Bhalla said about the leaflets on Twitter. “At time w/ President…seeking to divide us, it is critical we come together as a community and stand up for American values.”
Bhalla won his bid for mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey Tuesday on a broad progressive platform that includes infrastructure upgrades, creating affordable housing and developing open spaces for the city, which lies just to the west of Manhattan.
As a two-term city council member for Hoboken, Bhalla suffered similar racist abuse. In 2016, when he was serving as president of the council, Bhalla publically forgave a man for calling him a terrorist and said he “shouldn’t even be allowed in the US” in response to an unassuming Twitter post about a city running and bike path. “Sir, I am born & raised in America. You clearly don’t know what it means to be an American,” he fired back.
Bhalla, who grew up in New Jersey Sikh, says the teasing and bullying from other students is a large part of what shaped his worldview and politics. “That always gave me a sense of standing up for the underdog, standing up for minorities… whether it’s immigrants, African Americans, women, the LGBTQ community, Asian Americans,” Bhalla, who is also a civil rights attorney said to NBC News earlier this summer. “Anyone who’s underrepresented, in any sphere of our society, deserves to have their voices heard, deserves to have a seat at the table.”………………………
Other notable wins (thumbnails)
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Democrat Wilmot Collins became the first black mayor in the history of Montana, which has an African American population of less than 1%. He won his race for the mayorship of Helena, the state capital, running on the “progressive ticket” with two other candidates who also won.
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Democrats Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala became the first two Latina state representatives in the history of Virginia.
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Democrat Vi Lyles became the first black female mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. She ran on a progressive platform aimed at promoting social and economic justice and increasing the city’s minimum wage.
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In Virginia, Democrat Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person to ever be elected to a US state legislature, and the first who was “out” at the time of their election. Roem defeated Republican Bob Marshall, the architect of several pieces of anti-trans legislation during his time in the statehouse.
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Democrat Justin Fairfax became the second African American elected to statewide office in Virginia, elected on the same ticket as Ralph Northam who won the Virginia governor’s race.
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Democrat Jenny Durkan was elected mayor of Seattle, making her the city’s first out lesbian mayor, and its first female mayor in nearly a century.
Read Full Article>>
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