French police clash with protesters during rallies over pension reform
Police have clashed with protesters in the French capital, Paris, amid a new round of rallies and strikes over President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial planned pension reform. A series of violent clashes erupted as protesters marched along a boulevard in Paris against the French government’s pension reform bill on March 7. Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters. Workers from different sectors have walked out...
France under fire at UN for racism, police violence against protesters
France has come under fire by several states at the United Nations over racism and police violence, including against demonstrators during mass rallies over a controversial pension reform bill that finally became law. On May 1, the French government was accused of conducting attacks on migrants, racial profiling and religious intolerance during the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR),...
Amazon Indigenous people are leaving the rainforest for cities, and finding urban poverty
ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil—In 1976, Binan Tuku ventured to meet a Brazilian government’s expedition on the banks of the Itui River in a remote area of the western Amazon rainforest. After some initial suspicion, he and his father accepted machetes and soap in what was the beginning of the Matis tribe’s contact with the non-Indigenous world. Nearly 50 years later,...
300+ economists, millionaires, and elected officials to G20: ‘tax extreme wealth’
by Jake Johnson Hundreds of economists, wealthy individuals, and elected officials from around the world called on the leaders of G20 nations to help tackle runaway inequality by collectively raising taxes on the global rich, who saw their fortunes explode during the deadly coronavirus pandemic. In an open letter to G20 leaders as they prepared to convene in New Delhi, India, for their...
19 suspects go on trial in Paris in deaths of 39 migrants who suffocated in a truck in 2019
PARIS—A trial opened in Paris on October 17 of 19 people suspected of playing critical roles in a smuggling operation that went awry and sent 39 Vietnamese migrants to their deaths four years ago when they were locked inside a stifling hot truck trailer. Courts in Britain, where the truck was found on Oct. 23, 2019, and in Belgium, where...
Congolese Nobel Peace Prize laureate kicks off presidential campaign with a promise to end violence, corruption
GOMA, Congo—Congolese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege kicked off his campaign Nov. 25 for president in next month’s election, promising to tackle corruption and the violent conflict ravaging communities in the country’s east. The 68-year-old renowned medical doctor told a crowd of supporters in Bukavu city in the eastern South Kivu province that he would also end famine in Congo, a...
‘Inhumane’: UK Home Office refuses visas to children of migrant mothers
The UK Home Office is denying visas to the children of migrant single mothers in the health sector saying there are “no compelling reasons” to grant them, according to an investigation. An Observer investigation revealed on January 20 that the Home Office is systematically barring young children from joining their mothers in Britain despite extensive proof that the women working in the...
Book of drawings reflect regular violence shaping childrens’ lives in a Rio de Janeiro favela
RIO DE JANEIRO—Dozens of young children and teenagers from Rio de Janeiro’s Mare neighborhood gathered for the launch of a book in which they show, with their own words and pictures, how violence in their poor, bayside community weighs on their young lives. The book, titled “I Was Supposed to be at School,” features drawings and testimonies collected from youngsters...
Namibia eyes White farms for land redistribution
GINNEWS WINDHOEK (GIN)–frustrated over the slow pace of land transfers from Whites to landless Blacks, a Namibian government minister warned that the country may move to expropriate White-owned farms if White farmers continue to resist land reform. “There is a (provision) in our constitution that private assets can be expropriated in the public interest. Fair and just compensation must be provided...
Congo Brazzaville president elected African Union Chairman
President Denis Sassou Nguesso succeeds Obasanjo as AU chairman African Union opens with plea for peace, economic development (FCN, 01-23-2006) Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - African leaders Tuesday elected President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville as the next African Union (AU) chairman, to succeed Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who led the Union for 18 months. Nguesso's election on the second day of...