Brazil comes to a halt as the World Cup party begins
Dressed in yellow and green bikinis, Neymar shirts and sparkling carnival tops, Brazilians dropped everything on Thursday to watch the national team celebrate their much-anticipated World Cup debut and celebrate their opening win. Packed in front of a giant screen on Rio de Janeiro’s famous Copacabana beach, in the middle of a normal working day, […]
Iran arrests ex-international who supported protests
Iran on Thursday arrested a former international soccer player of Kurdish origin who has strongly supported protests that have rocked the country since September, news outlets said. Voria Ghafouri, an outspoken figure who made 28 appearances for Iran as of 2019, was arrested after a club training session over allegations that he had spread “propaganda” […]
Extreme poverty rising in Latin America: UN
Extreme poverty is expected to affect 82 million people in Latin America in 2022, a rise driven by a slow recovery in the pandemic and high inflation, the UN Economic Commission for the region said on Thursday. “It has not been possible to reverse the impact of the pandemic on poverty and extreme poverty,” said […]
Libya expels more than 200 migrants across land borders
Libya turned back more than 200 illegal migrants across its land borders on Thursday, in a rare sign of cooperation from the country’s divided political institutions. The migrants, who wore different tracksuits to identify their nationality, were given biscuits, milk and bottles of water by police in Tripoli before being taken on buses to the […]
Congolese cautiously welcome dealings with rebel violence
Congolese and security experts on Thursday reacted cautiously to the announcement of an imminent ceasefire in an escalating conflict in eastern DRC. A militia called M23 has been gaining ground since the start of an offensive in North Kivu province earlier this year and is located just a few tens of kilometers from Goma, a […]
Iran arrests ex-international who supported protests
Iran on Thursday arrested a former international soccer player of Kurdish origin who has strongly supported protests that have rocked the country since September, news outlets said. Voria Ghafouri, an outspoken figure who made 28 appearances for Iran as of 2019, was arrested after a club training session over allegations that he had spread “propaganda” […]
Germany’s Scholz dims the lights on the Christmas tree amid energy shortages
The Christmas tree in front of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s office in Berlin will not be lit as long this year, a government spokesman said on Thursday, as Germany wants to save energy over the winter. The lights on the tree will only be on for four hours every night from four to eight instead of […]
Winter stings on the Donbass front in Ukraine
Soldiers battle trenches while rain and snow have turned the streets to mud and prolonged power outages have left many wondering how they will endure the coming cold weather as winter descends on the front lines in eastern Ukraine. But despite the cold and miserable conditions in the Donbass to the east, the Russians are […]
Troubled Ghana plans tax hikes and debt swaps to secure IMF help
Ghana’s Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta presented the 2023 budget to parliament on Thursday, raising taxes and planning a debt swap while the country negotiates a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ofori-Atta is facing calls for his sacking as the West African state grapples with an economic crisis, with inflation at more than 40 […]
The Spanish Prime Minister is aiming for an international role
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will become president of an international socialist group on Sunday, a potential stepping stone to a major post on the world stage. A year away from a general election in Spain that polls say will be difficult to win, Sanchez is the sole candidate to lead the Socialist International (SI) […]
For political activists, Twitter packs a punch
From the Arab Spring uprisings to the MeToo movement, in which women spoke out about sexual assault, Twitter has proven to be a formidable ally for political activists and opposition groups, whose reach and influence would be hard to replace. Other social media platforms may have more users, but the network, now owned by billionaire […]
Russian lawmakers approve bill banning LGBTQ ‘propaganda’
Russian lawmakers on Thursday unanimously approved a bill in a final reading that would ban all forms of LGBTQ “propaganda” as Moscow presses ahead with its conservative course at home while its troops fight in Ukraine. The law, passed by the lower house of parliament, the Duma, bans any mention of what the authorities consider […]