Several dictators are significantly overstating economic growth, according to research which looks at satellite images of countries at night. As Henry Ridgwell reports, economists have long questioned the reliability of data from autocratic regimes – including China.
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Влада Кіпру зазначила, що таке рішення ухвалене через призупинення угоди між ЄС та Росією про спрощений візовий режим
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Зокрема, він наказував приховати документи від техніки та розкомплектувати її
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Анатолій Карпов був чемпіоном світу з 1975 до 1985 року, коли програв Гаррі Каспарову. Як політик він підтримує дії російської влади, є членом фракції «Єдина Росія»
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30 жовтня фінське видання Yle оприлюднило інформацію про те, що нібито поставлена партнерами в Україну зброя опинилася у злочинців у Фінляндії і що про відповідні маршрути поставок відомо фінським правоохоронцям
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Two environmental activists glued themselves to a dinosaur display at Berlin’s Natural History Museum on Sunday to protest what they said was the German government’s failure to properly address the threat of climate change.
The women used superglue to attach themselves to poles holding up the skeleton of a large four-legged dinosaur that lived tens of millions of years ago.
“Unlike the dinosaurs, we hold our fate in our own hands,” protester Caris Connell, 34, said as museum visitors milled around the display. “Do we want to go extinct like the dinosaurs, or do we want to survive?”
Fellow activist Solvig Schinkoethe, 42, said that as a mother of four she feared the consequences of the climate crisis.
“This peaceful resistance is the means we have chosen to protect our children from the government’s deadly ignorance,” she said.
The museum didn’t immediately comment on the protest.
The activists were part of the group Uprising of the Last Generation, which has staged numerous demonstrations in recent months, including blocking streets and throwing mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting.
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The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Turkey’s bid to shut down lawsuits in U.S. courts stemming from a violent brawl outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington more than five years ago that left anti-government protesters badly beaten.
The justices did not comment in turning away Turkey’s arguments that American law shields foreign countries from most lawsuits. Lower courts ruled that those protections did not extend to the events of May 16, 2017, when during a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “Turkish security forces violently clashed with a crowd of protesters,” as one judge described the situation.
The Supreme Court’s action allows the lawsuits to proceed. In the lawsuits, protesters claim they were brutally punched and kicked, cursed at and greeted with slurs and throat-slashing gestures. One woman slipped in and out of consciousness and has suffered seizures, and others reported post-traumatic stress, depression, concussions and nightmares, according to the complaints.
The high court had put off a decision about whether to intervene for months, asking for the Biden administration’s views on the legal issues presented.
Turkey can be sued in these circumstances, the Justice Department said in its high court filing, concluding that lower courts were correct in finding that the U.S. ally does not have legal immunity.
Lawyers for the Turkish government had told the court that Erdogan’s security detail had discretion to use physical force because it was protecting its head of state in a potentially dangerous situation.
They described some protesters as “supporters of a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that poses a genuine national security threat to Turkey.”
The altercation was caught on camera and led to criminal charges against some of Erdogan’s security officers and civilian supporters, two of whom pleaded guilty. Most other charges were dropped. The violence occurred as Erdogan was returning to the ambassador’s residence after a White House visit, where he and then-President Donald Trump pledged cooperation in fighting the Islamic State group.
Erdogan remained in his car after it arrived at the ambassador’s residence while an initial skirmish took place. The lawsuits claim that he ordered a second, more violent attack. Turkey says he did no such thing.
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«У нас буде низка переговорів з українськими друзями. Вірю, що вони дадуть конкретні результати»
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«Постраждалих наразі немає, але у кількох будинках у Наславчі вибиті вікна»
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354,5 тис. тонн агропродукції прямують до країн Африки, Азії та Європи
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Germany and the European Union are considering adding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to the list of terrorist organizations, German Foreign Minister Annalina Baerbock said on Sunday.
Last week, Germany announced that it would impose tougher sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran outside of the EU sanctions package.
In an interview Sunday with a German news agency, Baerbock added, “We are also examining how we can list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.”
Baerbock’s comments come a day after Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, warned protesters that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets, signaling that security forces might intensify their crackdown on nationwide protests.
The Revolutionary Guards are a part of Iran’s military charged with protecting the country’s Islamic political system. It also controls a huge business empire active in almost all sectors of Iran’s economy.
Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Iran has accused countries that have expressed support for the protests of meddling in its internal affairs.
In her interview Sunday, Baerbok also said there are currently no negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Western countries and Iran.
The U.S. State Department designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in April, 2019.
Some material for this article came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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«Тому вкрай бережливе споживання електрики і стабілізаційні обмеження мають тривати»
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Several thousand black-clad fascist sympathizers chanted and sang in praise of the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on Sunday as they marched to his crypt, 100 years after Mussolini entered Rome and completed a bloodless coup that gave rise to two decades of fascist rule.
The crowd of 2,000 to 4,000 marchers, many sporting fascist symbols and singing hymns from Italy’s colonial era, was larger than in the recent past, as the fascist nostalgics celebrated the centenary of the March on Rome.
On October 28, 1922, black-shirted fascists entered the Italian capital, launching a putsch that culminated two days later when Italy’s king handed Mussolini the mandate to start a new government.
The crowd in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace and final resting place in the northern Emilia-Romagna region, also was apparently emboldened by the fact that a party with neo-fascist roots is heading an Italian government for the first time since World War II.
Organizers warned participants, who arrived from as far away as Rome, Belgium and the United States, not to flash the Roman salute used by the Fascists, or they would risk prosecution. Still, some couldn’t resist as the crowd stopped outside the cemetery where Mussolini is buried to listen to prayers and greetings from Mussolini’s great-granddaughter, Orsola.
“After 100 years, we are still here to pay homage to the man this state wanted, and who we will never stop admiring,” Orsola Mussolini said, to cheers.
She listed her great-grandfather’s accomplishments, citing an infrastructure boom that built schools, hospitals and public buildings, reclaimed malaria-infested swamps for cities, and the extension of a pension system to nongovernment workers. She was joined by her sister Vittoria, who led the crowd in a prayer.
The crowd gave a final shout of “Duce, Duce, Duce!” Mussolini’s honorific as Italy’s dictator.
Anti-fascist campaigners held a march in Predappio on Friday to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the town — and to prevent the fascists from marching on the exact anniversary of the March on Rome.
Inside the cemetery on Sunday, admirers lined up a handful at a time to enter his crypt, tucked away in a back corner. Each was given a memory card signed by his great-grandaughters with a photo of a smiling Mussolini holding his gloved hand high in a Roman salute. “History will prove me right,” the card reads.
Italy’s failure to fully come to terms with its fascist past has never been more stark than now, as Italy’s new premier, Giorgia Meloni, seeks to distance her far-right Brothers of Italy party from its neo-fascist roots.
This week, she decried fascism’s anti-democratic nature and called its racial laws, which sent thousands of Italian Jews to Nazi death camps, “a low point.” Historians would also add Mussolini’s alliance with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II and his disastrous colonial campaign in Africa to fascism’s devastating legacies.
Now in power, Meloni is seeking a moderate course for a new center-right government that includes Matteo Salvini’s League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. But her victory gives far-right activists a sense of vindication.
“I would have voted for Lucifer if he could beat the left,” said organizer Mirko Santarelli, who heads the Ravenna chapter of the Arditi, an organization that began as a World War I veterans group and has evolved to include caretaking Mussolini’s memory. “I am happy there is a Meloni government, because there is nothing worse than the Italian left. It is not the government that reflects my ideas, but it is better than nothing.”
He said he would like to see the new Italian government do away with laws that prosecute incitement to hatred and violence motivated by race, ethnicity, religion and nationality. It includes use of emblems and symbols — many of which were present in Sunday’s march.
Santarelli said the law punishes “the crime of opinion.”
“It is used as castor oil by the left to make us keep quiet. When I am asked my opinion of Mussolini, and it is clear I speak well of him, I risk being denounced,” Santarelli said.
Lawyer Francesco Minutillo, a far-right activist who represents the organizers, said Italy’s high court established that manifestations are permissible as long as they are commemorative “and don’t meet the criteria that risks the reconstitution of the fascist party.”
Still, he said, magistrates in recent years have opened investigations into similar manifestations in Predappio and elsewhere to make sure they don’t violate the law. One such case was closed without charges last week.
To avoid having their message misrepresented, Santarelli asked the rank and file present not to speak to journalists. Most complied.
A young American man wearing a T-shirt with a hand-drawn swastika inside a heart and the words “Brand New Dream,” plus a fascist fez, said he had timed his European vacation to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome so he could participate in the march in Predappio. He declined to identify himself, other than to say he was from New Jersey, and lamented there was no fascist group back home to join.
Rachele Massimi traveled with a group four hours from Rome on Sunday to participate in the event, bringing her 3-year-old who watched from a stroller.
“It’s historic,” Massimi said. “It’s a memory.”
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Three men were injured early Sunday when a pro-democracy vigil outside the Iranian Embassy in Berlin was attacked, German police said.
An officer guarding the property saw several men, whose faces were covered with scarves, tearing down flags and banners from a trailer parked outside.
They then sought to rip open the door of the trailer, and a scuffle and argument erupted between four men who were inside and the attackers.
The men from the trailer chased the other group — and were then attacked by them, police said. Three of the men from the vehicle were injured, with two needing hospital treatment.
The attackers fled by car.
The trailer had posters on it with slogans such as “Women, Life, Freedom,” which has been commonly used in anti-government protests in Iran, German media reported.
There have been large protests in Germany and other European countries in solidarity with women-led demonstrations in Iran sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
The Iranian protests, now in their sixth week, are the biggest seen in the Islamic Republic for years.
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Російські військові облаштували навіть щось на кшталт табору для підготовки мобілізованих, повідомив Олександр Стрюк
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На прикладі одного постачання видання показує, як зерно з України потрапляє на світовий ринок
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Гаслом сьогоднішньої акції, організатором якої виступила група «Мільйон моментів за демократію», стало: «Чехія проти страху» і «Ми впораємося»
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King Charles III announced Sunday he would hold a reception ahead of next month’s COP27 climate summit after being advised not to attend by the government.
Buckingham Palace said the event on November 4 would gather over 200 “international business leaders, decision makers and NGOs” two days before the summit begins in Egypt.
The Palace said the event was to mark the end of the UK’s hosting of COP26.
Charles has long backed environmental causes and spoke at the COP26 event in Glasgow in 2021.
But Downing Street said Friday that the monarch will not go to COP27 after the previous UK government led by Liz Truss advised him it was not the “right occasion” for him to attend.
British PM Rishi Sunak has also decided not to go, instead focusing on domestic issues.
The UK’s COP26 Minister Alok Sharma told The Sunday Times that he was “pretty disappointed that the prime minister is not going”, saying attendance would send a signal about the UK’s “renewed commitment on this issue.”
The Sunday Times reported earlier that Charles was expected to host an event with Sunak set to make a speech.
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For web: PRAGUE (AP) — Tens of thousands of Czechs gathered in the capital on Sunday to demonstrate their solidarity with Ukraine and their support for democratic values.
The rally took place in reaction to three recent anti-government demonstrations where other protesters demanded the resignation of the pro-Western coalition government of conservative Prime Minister Petr Fiala for its support for Ukraine. Those earlier rallies also protested soaring energy prices and opposed the country’s membership in the European Union and NATO.
The organizers of the earlier rallies are known for spreading Russian propaganda and opposing COVID-19 vaccinations.
The people who turned out Sunday in Prague waved the Czech, Ukrainian and EU flags while displaying slogans that read “Czech Republic against fear” and “We will manage it.”
Sunday’s rally at central Wenceslas Square was organized by a group called Million Moments for Democracy, which was behind several rallies in support of Ukraine following the Feb 24 Russian invasion. The group also previously held massive rallies against the former prime minister, populist billionaire Andrej Babis, calling him a threat for democracy.
The group said the anti-government protests, which united the far right with the far left. exploited the people’s fear of inflation and the war in Ukraine and were trying to undermine democracy.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, thanked those at the rally in a video message. She said her country has been facing “the darkest moment in its history” but added hope that Russia’s aggression won’t succeed.
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