Trade tariffs: Chorus of condemnation intensifies
Massive US tariffs have come into force as condemnation of the Trump administration's move intensifies.
Criticism of the import tax on steel and aluminium from the EU, Canada and Mexico was joined by top Republicans.
Leaders from affected nations reacted furiously, setting out tit-for-tat tariffs on the US, ranging from steel to sleeping bags and ballpoint pens.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Mr Trump by phone that the US move was "illegal".
Mr Macron told him the EU would respond in a "firm and proportionate manner", the Elysee Palace says.
The French president normally enjoys a good relationship with his US counterpart.
Kim Jong-un complains to Russia over 'US hegemonism'
Comments come at sensitive moment as Washington and Pyongyang try to ensure Trump-Kim summit goes ahead
Kim Jong-un has complained of “US hegemonism” to Russia’s visiting foreign minister as one of his top lieutenants visited New York trying to ensure that a summit with President Donald Trump goes ahead.
The North Korean ruler told Sergey Lavrov that he hoped to boost cooperation with Russia, which has remained largely on the sidelines in recent months as Kim has reached out diplomatically to the United States, South Korea and China.
“As we move to adjust to the political situation in the face of US hegemonism, I am willing to exchange detailed and in-depth opinions with your leadership and hope to do so moving forward,” Kim told Lavrov.
Syria's new housing law is a veiled attempt to displace tens of thousands of refugees – but even that won't help the regime win the war
There are painful parallels here to the plight of the 1947-48 Palestinians refugees and their families, who are deprived of their homes under Israel’s 1950 Absentee Property law
When wars end, the winners redraw the maps. That’s what the British and French did to the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. It’s what Hitler did in Eastern Europe when he thought he was winning. And what the Allies did after the Second World War. It’s what the Israelis did during the Palestinian Nakba (disaster). And what Saddam did to Kuwait after he invaded the UAE. But now a subtle twist. Even before it’s won back all of Syria, the Assad regime is doing a little redrawing of its own. Not of its national frontiers. But within its cities.
For the new Law No 10 calls for what looks like mass property expulsion in those areas of the country which rebelled against the Syrian government after 2011. Even inside their borders, many Syrians claim that it will strip tens of thousands of citizens of their homes – especially in those pulverised districts of the country’s big cities which have been turned into miniature Stalingrads and Dresdens by years of fighting.
Populist Italian parties reach deal on new government
By Stefano Pitrelli and Griff Witte
Italy appeared on Thursday to step back from the brink of a continent-rattling political crisis, with officials agreeing to a deal that averts the threat of fresh elections and puts two populist parties in charge of the euro zone's third-largest economy.
The agreement was the latest twist in a topsy-turvy week for Italian politics, one that on Tuesday had sent global markets tumbling amid jitters that the country was careening toward a new vote and a possible euro exit. Investors feared an even greater populist surge if a new election were held.
But negotiations on Wednesday and Thursday yielded an unexpected breakthrough, culminating in a presidential announcement late Thursday that the country's new government will be sworn in Friday.
Mosul's body collectors
A group of 30 volunteers has collected more than 1,200 dead bodies from beneath of the rubble of the destroyed city.
More than nine months after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) was defeated in Mosul, the city's residents continue to deal with the aftermath of the battle.
Thousands of dead bodies belonging to civilians and ISIL fighters are still beneath the rubble in Mosul's Old City.
While Iraq's civil defence initially refused to pick up the bodies of ISIL fighters, a group of young volunteers started to recover the bodies.
The al-Midan neighbourhood, which was the last bastion of ISIL fighters during the final stages of the battle over control of the city, is the epicentre of the destruction.
THE CASE FOR OBSTRUCTION
There’s Plenty of Evidence That Trump Sought to Block the Russia Probe, but It Will Take More Than That to Bring Him Down
ONE OF THE most important things to understand about Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating the Trump-Russia case, is that he helped nail New York mob boss John Gotti, the gangster known as the “Teflon Don.”
One of the most important things to understand about Donald Trump, the con man and hustler who happens to be president, is that he comes from the mob-tinged New York real estate industry and knows exactly what happened to Gotti and other mob bosses felled by racketeering prosecutions waged by the likes of Mueller.
Trump knows that Mueller is now conducting the same kind of racketeering investigation in the Trump-Russia case, and it frightens him.
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