Tag Archives: WorldNews

The ‘apartheid road’: West Bank highway sparks controversy

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Israelis call it highway 4370, but for Palestinians, it’s the “apartheid road”. A new five-kilometre route in the West Bank has just been completed. It’s separated in the middle by a wall eight metres high, and surrounded by a fence. Israelis are allowed to drive on both sides but Palestinians can only drive on their side. For Jewish settlers, this road means quicker and safer access to Jerusalem, while for Palestinians, it’s yet another step towards their segregation. Our correspondents report.

Nicolás Maduro must be praying for the US to intervene in Venezuela | Simon Jenkins

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The only way the beleaguered Venezuelan president can shore up his position is if Trump blunders in

One thing alone could save the Maduro regime in Venezuela. That is western intervention. Nothing unites a country like a sovereign enemy on its borders. Venezuelans may hate their president, Nicolás Maduro, but they also hate the US. China may be exasperated, but it is Maduro’s ally, and would have to help him if the US attacked. So the US, and everyone else, should leave Venezuela alone. Unintended consequences of outside intervention scream down the ages. Only Donald Trump seems deaf.

Related: Trump must not be allowed to dictate Venezuela’s democratic recovery | Reynaldo Trombetta

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State of the disunion: why Democrats must not give in to Trump’s hateful speech | Robert Reich

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Pelosi’s party must not be distracted by the president – or corporate voices on their side. Inequality is pulling the US apart

Donald Trump says his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening will be about “unification”. But Trump discussing the state of the union is like pyromaniac discussing lighter fluids. His goal is, and has always been, disunion.

Related: Trump: I ‘set the table beautifully’ for next border wall fight with Democrats

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Venezuela: Maduro hits back at ‘gringo plot to overthrow revolution’

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Address comes after EU countries and US throw weight behind challenger Juan Guaidó

Nicolás Maduro has hit back at the “cowardly” and “disastrous” decision of a succession of European countries to recognise his rival, Juan Guaidó, as interim president, as Venezuela enters what many observers believe could be a critical week in its fast-escalating political crisis.

Addressing a military rally in the northern state of Aragua, Maduro said he was the target of a “gringo” plot to overthrow the Bolivarian revolution he had inherited from his political mentor, Hugo Chávez, after his death in 2013.

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Stop the new deportation flights to Jamaica. They shouldn’t be happening | Zita Holbourne

British racism 2019 version

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The government has learned nothing from the Windrush scandal, and must cancel Wednesday’s flight

Given the justified outrage there was when the Windrush scandal was exposed, many Britons may be surprised to know that the government is planning a secret flight to forcibly remove more than 50 people to Jamaica on Wednesday. The last flight took place in 2016. Then, more than 50 people were each shackled and cuffed to two security guards throughout the entire journey. Although for years I and other campaigners have been campaigning against such deportations and other aspects of the government’s hostile environment, it was the reporting on cases that became known as the Windrush scandal that finally drew attention to the gross injustices faced by many of that generation.

In light of the scandal, a planned charter flight to Jamaica last spring was cancelled. Charter flights to Jamaica (but not other countries) were suspended. Until now.

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Trump set a low bar for other deluded billionaires flirting with a 2020 run | Jill Abramson

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Howard Schultz is the latest self-deluded billionaire with no experience in government contemplating a presidential bid

Donald Trump has set a low bar for other billionaires who are contemplating a run for the White House.

Why not me, they ponder? Trump had no experience in government before he won the 2016 Republican nomination. He was just a popular TV reality star who branded his name on every piece of real estate he built. He wasn’t even that successful in business, going bankrupt more than once. He’s a lazy-bones, too, rarely hitting the Oval Office until 11.30am, according to Axios, which obtained his daily schedules. His approval ratings may never again cross 40%. If President Trump runs again, he certainly looks beatable.

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North-east England will pay the price for decades of dishonesty about Nissan | David Conn

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Thatcher’s ministers knew EU membership was vital in attracting the Japanese carmaker. No one told the public

The sprawling site near Sunderland of the giant Japanese car manufacturer Nissan is a fine-tuned product of Britain’s participation in the European Union. The company’s decision to pull the making of its proposed new X-Trail model out of that plant is a disastrous consequence of the failure to explain this to the British people.

The virtual absence of public explanation about the benefits of EU membership was exploited in the 2016 referendum by the leave campaign, and enabled its proponents to dismiss well-informed warnings, then and now, as scaremongering. Even on Sunday, when Nissan itself explained that Brexit uncertainty was a factor in its decision to build the new SUV in Japan, airtime was still given to Brexit campaigners denying this. Prominent among them, predictably, was Jacob Rees-Mogg, a backbench Conservative MP with no discernible car industry expertise or experience, whose Somerset constituency could hardly be further away from the north-east.

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