Under-pressure Putin 'doubles down' with security decree
Vladimir Putin is under growing pressure.
His "special military operation" has not gone according to plan. As a result of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russia has been losing territory it had occupied.
Meanwhile, Russian regions bordering Ukraine have been coming under sustained shelling.
What's more, the Kremlin's announcement last month of "partial mobilisation" sparked widespread alarm in Russian society.
Iranian climber who competed without hijab met by jubilant crowds in Tehran
Elnaz Rekabi says she did not intend to compete without headscarf amid fears among public over how regime will react
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
The Iranian competitive climber Elnaz Rekabi has received a hero’s welcome on her return to Tehran after competing in South Korea without wearing a headscarf as required of female athletes from the Islamic Republic.
Video shared online showed large crowds at Imam Khomeini international airport terminal outside Tehran despite the 4am arrival time of Rekabi’s flight. People clapped and chanted the 33-year-old’s name and handed her flowers inside the terminal.
The furore over Rekabi competing on Sunday without a hijab came as protests prompted by the death in custody on 16 September of a 22-year-old woman entered a fifth week. Mahsa Amini was detained by the country’s morality police over her clothing and her death has led to women removing their mandatory hijabs in public.
Indian party picks first non-Gandhi leader in decades
The Congress party has long been lead by the Nehru-Gandhi family. New chief Mallikarjun Kharge is a veteran of the party and loyal to his predecessor Sonia Gandhi.
The Indian National Congress on Wednesday elected veteran party member Mallikarjun Kharge would be its new chief. Kharge's ascension marks the first time in 24 years that someone outside of the influential Nehru-Gandhi family holds the post.
Kharge is, however, seen as a Gandhi loyalist within the party.
"The most important issues facing the country right now is inflation, unemployment, a widening divide between the rich and poor and a growing environment of hatred spread by the ruling government," Kharge, 80, told reporters after his win to replace Sonia Gandhi.
Macron’s ‘en même temps’ on Putin leaves France’s reputation hanging in the mix
French President Emmanuel Macron’s frequent use of “en même temps” (at the same time) to argue for and then against a case is a standing joke in France. But when the leader of the EU’s mightiest military power talks tough and then soft on Russia’s Vladimir Putin, France’s allies are not amused.
Roses twirl, chocolates swirl as the Paris skyline unfurls to a seductive French song in a Ukrainian defence ministry video clip released on Twitter last week to thank France for its weapons deliveries.
“Romantic gestures take many forms,” declares the video as singers Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin breathlessly croon their 1960s hit tune, “Je t’aime...moi non plus” (I Love You…Me Neither). Footage of French Howitzers on the Ukrainian frontline then fill the screen as the video ends with a final plea: “Please send us more”.
Kishida speeds up bills to help Unification Church victims
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
October 19, 2022 at 15:03 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to quickly push legislation to help victims of the Unification Church’s dubious sales and donation practices.
At the Oct. 18 Lower House Budget Committee session, Kishida said his administration would submit bills during the current Diet session to revise the Consumer Contract Law and make it easier for individuals to rescind contracts related to so-called spiritual sales of the church.
The opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) on Oct. 17 submitted their own legislation to provide support for victims of the church, which is now formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
Opinion: Liz Truss is on track to become Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister
“The Prime Minister is not under a desk.”
It says much about the current state of Liz Truss’s troubled premiership that this statement by fellow Conservative minister Penny Mordaunt on Monday afternoon was made, ostensibly at least, as a show of support.
A little over a month after being crowned leader, just about the best that can be said for the embattled Truss is that she is not cowering beneath the furniture inside 10 Downing Street.
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