4 h. ago Trump says he will award Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Former NYC mayor was sanctioned by courts and disbarred for amplifying false claims about the 2020 electionDonald Trump said Monday he will award Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, two days after his longtime political ally was seriously injured in a car crash.The decision places the award on a man once lauded for leading New York after the September 11, 2001, attacks and later sanctioned by courts and disbarred for amplifying false claims about the 2020 US presidential election. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, was also criminally charged in two states; he has denied wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago Rayo Vallecano take Barcelona to the edge as fans rebel against their president | Sid Lowe

The small, proud Madrid club are back in Europe this season but playing against a backdrop of a civil warThe drunk, the brainless and the idle enjoyed this. They had said they wouldn’t sing, but the best nights aren’t planned they just happen, and in the end it was their kind of night. Chaotic, wild, a lot wrong but alright, like a picture of who they are, sticking it to the man up here and down there. Packed into crumbling, filthy stands, Rayo Vallecano’s fans didn’t see their team get a deserved victory against Barcelona on Sunday but on a torn-up, dried-out pitch with not much grass, in a ground where VAR became the latest thing to fail, they did watch them fight and do it their way too, flying into the team with a budget 18 times bigger as if they weren’t big at all. “Fantastic,” Hansi Flick called them.It started as a protest and never stopped being one but it became something else too, something fun; they had been infuriated, worn down over years, and then they had been insult...

Politics

27 h. ago Indonesia protests: president scraps lawmakers’ perks in bid to calm tensions

Six people have now died in nationwide protests, forcing Prabowo Subianto to remove perks include a housing allowance worth 10 times the minimum wageIndonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto has pledged to revoke lawmakers’ perks and privileges, including a controversial $3,000 housing allowance, in a bid to ease public fury after nationwide protests in which six people have died.Flanked by leaders of eight Indonesian political parties, Prabowo told a televised news conference in the capital, Jakarta, that they had agreed to cut the housing allowance and suspend overseas trips for members of parliament. It was a rare concession in response to mounting public anger. Continue reading...

Events

63 h. ago Guyana’s Irfaan Ali looks to ride oil boom to second presidential term

Fossil fuel wealth has helped transform the South American country into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies – which could be good news for the incumbent in the electionJubilation was in the air as thousands of horn-tooting, flag-waving, red-shirt-clad supporters of Guyana’s president, Irfaan Ali, made their way to a recent rally.Their party is predicted to easily win Monday’s general election on the back of an oil boom, which has helped transform the country into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Continue reading...

Politics

67 h. ago Mallorca president Andy Kohlberg: ‘We’ve made it about the club belonging to the island’

Mallorca’s owner talks America, the appeal of La Liga’s ‘unique market’ and Saturday’s visit to the Bernabéu“Most of the other owners and presidents I talk to say it’s the worst two hours of the week,” Andy Kohlberg says. And is it? “Probably, yeah.” And with that, the former professional tennis player, minority owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball franchise and president of Real Mallorca starts laughing. On Saturday, the New York born 66-year-old travels to see his football team at the Santiago Bernabéu, where they last won in 2009, since when they have been down to the third tier and back, and even if they do secure a first victory there in his decade at the club he won’t be able to celebrate.It’s the little differences. “It’s certainly unusual for Americans: I tell them I have lunch with the Madrid president and they can’t wrap their heads around it,” Kohlberg says, sitting under the Son Moix stand, rain falling on the pitch outside. “In the NBA you might say hello, shake hands, ...

Politics

3 d. ago JD Vance says he’s prepared to become president ‘If God forbid, a terrible tragedy happens’

The vice president said he ‘couldn’t think of better on-the-job training’ than his time in office

Politics

4 d. ago 'If there's a terrible tragedy': JD Vance says he's ready for presidency ... in 2025

Vice President JD Vance said he's ready to be president should the worst happen to President Donald Trump, but reassured the public that the president was in good health.

Events

4 d. ago Putin and Kim to join Xi at Chinese military parade in show of defiance to the west

The Victory Day parade in Beijing on 3 September will mark the formal surrender of Japan during the second world war. No western leaders will attendVladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are among the world leaders who will attend a military parade with President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week, in a show of collective defiance amid western pressure.No western leaders will be among the 26 foreign heads of state and government attending the parade next week – with the exception of Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, a member of the European Union – according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago In Prabowo’s Indonesia, the military is quietly creeping back into civilian life

The retired general who is now president has established 100 new army battalions and plans more – and critics say the move has echoes of the country’s authoritarian past“A big nation like us,” Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto told the rank and file before him, “needs a strong military. No nation can be independent without having a strong military.”In a speech before inaugurating military troops in West Java this month, Prabowo – the former special forces commandant – proclaimed that Indonesia must strengthen its defences to protect the nation’s sovereignty and resources. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Botswana’s president declares health emergency over supply shortages

Duma Boko announces urgent funding package for medicines to be distributed with military oversightBotswana’s president has declared a public health emergency due to shortages of essential medicines and equipment, as a downturn in the global diamond market and US aid cuts take a toll on the country’s finances.The announcement came after the Ministry of Health suspended non-urgent surgeries on 4 August, stating that the country was short of medicines to treat hypertension, diabetes, cancer, asthma and eye conditions, as well as supplies including bandages and sutures and those for sexual and reproductive health. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Poland’s president vetoes legislation to prolong benefits for Ukrainian refugees

Karol Nawrocki says only Ukrainians in work should receive child benefit payments in PolandPoland’s president has vetoed legislation to prolong benefits received by Ukrainian refugees in Poland, following up on a campaign promise to tighten welfare payments amid a steady growth in anti-Ukrainian sentiment among Poles.Karol Nawrocki, who took office earlier this month after winning an election in spring, said only Ukrainians in work should receive child benefit payments. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago General, envoy future Ukraine president? Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s London waiting game

Refusal to take calls from JD Vance after Zelenskyy-Trump showdown reflects political tightrope ‘war hero’ has walked since being fired as army chiefOne afternoon in early March, three days after the disastrous showdown between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, there was a flurry of telephone activity at the Ukrainian embassy in London.JD Vance’s team was on the line and wanted to set up a call with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK and formerly the commander in chief of the army. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Former Sri Lankan president admitted to hospital after arrest

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who faces charges of using public funds for private travel, treated for acute dehydrationSri Lanka’s former president was admitted to hospital on Saturday, a day after he was charged with using public funds to finance private international travel, as the government intensified its crackdown on corruption.Ranil Wickremesinghe, 76, was remanded in custody on Friday after being accused of using taxpayers’ money to pay for a two-day visit to the UK in September 2023 to attend a ceremony at the University of Wolverhampton granting an honorary professorship to his wife. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago How towering dominance of Bolivia’s socialist party came tumbling down

In strongholds such as El Alto, support for the Mas party that once made Evo Morales Bolivia’s first Indigenous president has ebbed away – leaving it on the brink of extinctionAmid the almost monochrome landscape of bare-brick buildings in the high-altitude Bolivian city of El Alto, taller structures painted in garish colours and mirrored glass stand out, topped with giant statues of pop culture figures such as Batman and Iron Man.The extravagant structures are known as “cholets”, a blend of chalet and cholo, the term used for people of Indigenous roots who moved to urban areas while retaining their cultural traits. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Zambian president’s feud with late rival continues over funeral plans

Family of Edgar Lungu trying to prevent repatriation of his body for state funeral presided over by his successorA furious row is raging over whether the Zambian president, Hakainde Hichilema, will preside over the funeral of his predecessor, Edgar Lungu, as the former president’s family wage a legal battle in South Africa to try to prevent his body from being repatriated.The legal fight marks the latest twist in a feud between the two men that goes back at least a decade and has now outlasted the former president, who died in South Africa in June aged 68 while being treated for an undisclosed illness. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Two decades of leftwing dominance end in Bolivia as rightwingers head to election runoff

Movimiento al Socialismo’s time runs out as economic crisis grips countryBolivia’s presidential election will go to a runoff for the first time, with two rightwing candidates competing for the presidency – marking the end of nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).The candidate with the most votes, however, turned out to be a surprise: centre-right senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, 57, who had started the campaign with just 3% support in opinion polls. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Bolivia presidential election: preliminary results put two rightwing candidates in run

First-round result marks the end of nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo as economic crisis grips the countryBolivia’s presidential election will go to a run-off for the first time, with two rightwing candidates competing for the presidency – marking the end of nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).The candidate with the most votes, however, turned out to be a surprise: centre-right senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, 57, who had started the campaign with just 3% support in opinion polls. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump news at a glance: DC crackdown expands with national guard to be deployed by three more states

The states of West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio will deploy hundreds of national guard troops to DC in the coming days – key US politics stories from Sunday 17 August at a glanceAfter deploying the national guard to the streets of Washington DC, Donald Trump’s federal crackdown is moving into a new phase.Three more states – West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio – have said they will deploy hundreds of national guard troops to DC in the coming days. But crime prevention workers say the move will do little to prevent crime, and address systemic cycles of violence and property crime. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump’s DC takeover is a move of staggering hypocrisy | Rebecca Solnit

Donald Trump is concocting a drama in DC because he would like us to really stop talking about the Epstein filesThe most violent day in the history of Washington DC, leaving aside the War of 1812, was 6 January 2021, and the instigator was Donald J Trump, who this week has endeavored to seize control of the nation’s capital, after reports that a former employee of the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) was assaulted in the city.In a sense the new event echoes the old; both are illegitimate power grabs made on the basis of lies. In 2021 it was a lie about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election; in the summer of 2025 it’s lies about crime levels. Reliable sources – including the Biden Department of Justice in January – have noted that violent crime there is at a 30-year low. Five people died as a result of that 2021 attack on Congress, and dozens of law enforcement officers were injured, some gravely, by the mob Trump incited. On his first day in office in 2025 he par...

Politics

2 w. ago Of course Mark Zuckerberg is still doing good works – he’s just switched up the definition of ‘good’ | Emma Brockes

Who has the time to help underprivileged children when you have a pickleball court and a president to attend to?If you put it in a novel – a ham-fisted satire of tech overlord hypocrisy, say – it would look too contrived to fly. But here we are, absorbing a story from the New York Times this week in which Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are discovered to have been running a private school out of their compound in Palo Alto, California, in violation of city zoning laws. More pertinently, the school of 14 kids, which includes two of the couple’s three daughters, is less than a mile from the school for low-income families that the couple founded in 2016. Guess which school the world’s second-richest man and his wife are shutting down?Say the word “zoning infraction” to a certain stripe of American and the effect is equal to using “queue jumper” on a Briton, but of course the broader point here isn’t one about permits. (A spokesperson for Zuckerberg and Chan told the newsp...

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