Taipei, Taiwan | AFP | Images of riot police battling protesters in Hong Kong this week have reverberated in nearby Taiwan where many recoil at what they fear could be their future if Beijing has its way. Taiwan has been a self-ruled de facto nation in charge of its own affairs …
Read More »Sea of purple: Swiss women strike for equal pay
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Several hundred thousand purple-clad protesters blowing whistles, banging pots and pans and brandishing feminist slogans filled the streets of Swiss towns and cities on Friday, as women across the country went on strike for equal pay. “I love badass women” and “Eliminate the patriarchy” figured …
Read More »Boris Johnson rejects ‘white flag’ of Brexit delays
London, United Kingdom | AFP | UK leadership race frontrunner Boris Johnson insisted Friday he would never raise the “white flag” of surrender and plead for a further delay of Brexit if no EU deal was ready by October 31. The former foreign minister also said he would replace the controversial …
Read More »For stomach cancer, aerosol chemotherapy offers breath of hope
Dijon, France | AFP | “Classic chemotherapy was awful… but with this treatment, I feel hope,” says French pensioner Jacques Braud, who is undergoing treatment for stomach cancer with a new form of therapy dispersed by aerosol. Several hours before going into theatre, Braud is waiting in his room, looking surprisingly …
Read More »Far-right AfD eyes control of German town favourite of Hollywood
Görlitz, Germany | AFP | Its cobblestone lanes and Baroque architecture are so quaint that Hollywood directors often come calling, but the German town of Goerlitz may soon have a new claim to notoriety. A run-off election in the small city of around 55,000 people on the Polish border on …
Read More »Boris Johnson wins first round of UK leadership vote
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Boris Johnson overwhelmingly won the first round of voting Thursday in the race to replace outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May, with the field of candidates narrowed to seven from 10. The Brexit-backing former foreign minister picked up 114 of the 313 votes cast …
Read More »The first transatlantic flight 100 years ago
Paris, France | AFP | When two British pilots steered a biplane across the vast Atlantic 100 years ago, battling frozen sleet and thick fog for more than 16 hours, they were making aviation history. With their harrowing 3,000-kilometre (1,860-mile) crossing, Captain John Alcock and navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown completed …
Read More »Candidates face first cull in battle to be British PM
London, United Kingdom | AFP | The 10 candidates running to replace Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May face the first round of voting on Thursday — when at least one will get the chop. Conservative MPs hold their first secret ballot in the governing party’s leadership contest as they begin …
Read More »Let’s tree again: Macron offers Trump replacement ‘friendship’ oak
Paris, France | AFP | French president Emmanuel Macron will send a replacement oak tree to US President Donald Trump after the original was dug up from the White House garden and died. The French leader offered the young oak to Trump during a state visit to Washington in 2018, and …
Read More »Johnson plays down no-deal Brexit as he launches bid to become PM
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Boris Johnson said Wednesday he would only take Britain out of the EU without a deal as a “last resort”, officially launching his campaign to be prime minister with a promise to unify a country still deeply divided over Brexit. The former foreign minister is …
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