News from WN Network

Melinda French Gates steps down as Gates Foundation co-chair 2024-05-14
Al Jazeera

Melinda French Gates has said she will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded more than 20 years ago. “This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on X on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the...

photo: European Community / Claudio Centonze

The far-right threatens the migration policy of the EU 2024-05-14
Philenews

It took three years of negotiations between member states for the smoke to clear on the most thorny issue of European policy, that of immigration. The new Migration and Asylum Pact attempted to bridge the differences among member states, emphasizing solidarity and a more equitable distribution of...

photo: AP / Gregorio Borgia

New Caledonia closes its airport, imposes curfew amid violence 2024-05-14
LBC International

New Caledonia mobilized security forces, closed its international airport, and imposed a curfew in the capital after protests turned violent and police were attacked, the French High Commission said on Tuesday. New Caledonia's government called for calm and condemned the destruction of property....

photo: GFDL / Pilettes

Yet another UN resolution for the state of Palestine 2024-05-14
Madhyamam

The United Nations General Assembly passed the resolution moved by the UAE last Friday to recognise a Palestinian state. However, if a country is to be recognized by the UN, the Security Council has to take a decision on the matter, for which this resolution will serve as the prime mover. But the...

photo: UN / Manuel Elías

Australian war crimes whistleblower David McBride jailed for six years 2024-05-14
Al Jazeera

Former Australian Army lawyer David McBride has been sentenced to five years and eight months for revealing information about alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. Supporters of McBride have long expressed his concern that the Australian government was more interested in punishing him for...

photo: AP / Rod McGuirk

‘We give birth only to lose them’: Injured Palestinian mothers grieve for babies killed in Gaza 2024-05-14
CNN

Raneem Hijazi remembers how tightly she held her one-year-old son Azzouz before the Israeli airstrike hit. The drone flying over their building in Gaza was getting louder and she had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. “Whatever happens to me, happens to him,” she says of her reasoning...

photo: AP / Mohammed Dahman

Lawrence Wong set to take centre stage as Singapore’s new prime minister 2024-05-14
Al Jazeera

Singapore – For the first time in 20 years, Singapore will inaugurate a new prime minister, Minister for Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who will take the reins of power in a ceremony on Wednesday, May 15. The 51-year-old will replace Lee Hsien Loong – the eldest son of the...

photo: AP / Sonny Tumbelaka/Pool Photo

No such thing as female solidarity and men to blame, says Giorgia Meloni 2024-05-14
The Times/The Sunday Times

Women have no sense of solidarity with each other, preferring to compete instead of teaming up, and men are to blame, Giorgia Meloni has said. However, the Italian prime minister argued that when women have children, they become keenly supportive of other...

photo: AP / Carl Court

What's behind Rishi Sunak's new election pitch? 2024-05-13
The Spectator

Rishi Sunak has this morning given a speech aimed at framing the choice at the next election: security with the Tories or risk with Labour. Speaking at Policy Exchange, the Prime Minister gave a wide-ranging 30-minute address centred on the idea that ‘the next few years will be some of the most...

photo: AP / Kin Cheung

German court finds AfD pursues goals ‘against democracy’ 2024-05-13
Philenews

A German high court on Monday ruled that domestic security services could continue to treat the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a potentially extremist party, meaning they retain the right to keep it under surveillance. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV),...

photo: AP / Michael Sohn