France election: Macron party set for big parliamentary win
The centrist party of French President Emmanuel Macron looks on course to win a landslide victory following the first round of parliamentary elections.
Projections show La République en Marche (Republic on the Move) and its MoDem ally set to win up to 445 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
The Socialists, France's former ruling party, are seen losing 200 seats.
Traditional parties are urging voters to back Mr Macron's rivals in a run-off vote to avoid him monopolising power.
Mr Macron's party was established just over a year ago and many candidates have little or no political experience.
Battle for Philippine city rages three weeks after attack by Isis-linked rebels
US forces provide support to clear militants from Marawi, but Manila insists there are no American ‘boots on the ground’
Bomb blasts have rocked Marawi City in the southern Philippines as the national flag was raised to mark independence day, almost three weeks after hundreds of Islamist militants overran the town and hunkered down with civilians as human shields.
Rescue workers, soldiers and firemen sang the national anthem and listened to speeches as three OV-10 attack aircraft darted through the cloudy sky on Monday, taking it in turns to bomb areas where fighters were still holed up.
“To our Muslim brothers there, we want to tell them to stop their meaningless fight because we are all Muslims,” vice-provincial governor Mamintal Adiong told the gathering.I’m a 90-year-old woman who has lived in Israel for 50 years – here is what I think about Israeli settlements
Since I witnessed their beginnings half a century ago, the settlements have only got worse. The size and scale is something I can’t get over
It took decades for the immorality of occupation to sink in.
In 1967, my husband was a military man. We were posted abroad when the war was won and the fabric of the still-infant Israel changed, perhaps irreversibly. When we came home in 1968, the mood was victorious and we thought it was marvellous. We were truly blind to what was happening.
No one spoke of occupation back then. In those early days there was no wall, no checkpoints and no closures. But slowly, the cracks began to form. My children first helped me realise what was happening. I had three sons in the army during the first Lebanon war and then later as reservists in the West Bank.Through their stories I began to see the truth.
How a charity is helping kids in a Bangladeshi slum finally go to school
Child labour remains a reality in slums in Bangladesh. Many families don’t have a choice – they depend on the income earned by their children to keep food on the table. Aware of this situation, a young woman named Tisha decided to bring school directly to the children. Her “School Under the Sky” offers flexible classes, allowing kids to attend before or after work hours. She also helps families understand the importance of education as a way to escape poverty.
An estimated one third of children between the ages of 10 and 14 live in the slums of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and work more than 60 hours a week, according to a report published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in December 2016. This is illegal – in Bangladesh, children under the age of 14 are not allowed to work.
“In extremely poor families, everyone has to earn something – even the children”
The story of prisoner 5770102414
Jacob Baynham
BANGKOK, THAILAND—When she was inmate 5770102414 in a Thai prison, Prontip Mankong had ample opportunity for despair. Each night she slept with 70 to 80 other women, mostly drug offenders, on the linoleum floor of her cell. Her sleeping space was just over a foot wide; not enough room to lie on her back, so she slept on her side. For bedding, she had three sackcloths: one for a pillow, one for a blanket, and one to cover the floor. The fluorescent lights stayed on all night.
Daytime wasn’t much better. The inmates were awakened early and herded into open showers, where they stood under a pipe with holes in it for 30 seconds. Then they ate a rushed breakfast of rice, vegetables, and some tough chicken. “It was like animal food,” Ms. Prontip recalls. After that they worked in sewing factories, earning as little as 8 baht (23 cents) a day. They were punished if they didn’t meet their production quotas.
Naomi Klein
DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL campaign, some imagined that the more overtly racist elements of Donald Trump’s platform were just talk designed to rile up the base, not anything he seriously intended to act on. But in his first week in office, when he imposed a travel ban on seven majority-Muslim countries, that comforting illusion disappeared fast. Fortunately, the response was immediate: the marches and rallies at airports, the impromptu taxi strikes, the lawyers and local politicians intervening, the judges ruling the bans illegal.
The whole episode showed the power of resistance, and of judicial courage, and there was much to celebrate. Some have even concluded that this early slap down chastened Trump, and that he is now committed to a more reasonable, conventional course.
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