Month: March 2019

Paris cleaned up one of the world’s most glamorous avenues Saturday after resurgent rioting by yellow vest protesters angry at President Emmanuel Macron stunned the nation.   Luxury stores, restaurants and banks on the Champs-Elysees assessed damage Sunday after they were ransacked or blackened by life-threatening fires. Tourists took pictures as shop owners tried to repair broken windows and city workers scrubbed away graffiti, much of it targeting Macron.   The renewed violence by a movement that had been fizzling in recent weeks was a wakeup call to a president seen as favoring the elite.   Macron promised a crackdown …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Crimea on Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine, condemned by the West but celebrated by most Russians. A Kremlin statement on Sunday said Putin would visit the peninsula and its largest city Sevastopol to attend celebrations marking five years since Crimea “rejoined” Russia. The Russian leader will take part in a ceremony opening a new power station and meet representatives of civil society during the visit, it said. On March 18, 2014, Putin signed a treaty with representatives from Crimea to make it …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May warned Sunday that it would be “a potent symbol of Parliament’s collective political failure” if a Brexit delay meant that the U.K. has to take part in May’s European elections — almost three years after Britons voted to leave the bloc. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, May also cautioned that if lawmakers failed to back her deal before Thursday’s European Council summit, “we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever.”   “If the proposal were to go back to square one and negotiate a new deal, that would mean a much longer …

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As rising nationalism and the crisis surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union intensify divisions on the continent, a new exhibit in the French capital looks instead at a powerful unifier: Music. The music the came with the postwar colonial migrations helped turn two of Europe’s most important hubs, London and Paris, into multicultural melting pots. Rhythm and blues, reggae, rai and rock ’n’ roll — Europe and other Western regions got world music long before the term was invented. Even the Beatles were much more than a British brand — borrowing from Asia and sometimes West Africa. How it …

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The Northern Irish party that props up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s minority government is demanding a seat at post-Brexit trade talks as its price for supporting her twice-defeated divorce deal, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported. The Democratic Unionist Party also wants a guarantee that Northern Ireland will be treated no differently from the rest of the United Kingdom, the newspaper said. “We are determined that Brexit should happen in accordance with the referendum result, but the only way it can happen which is acceptable to us is if the United Kingdom is treated as one,” DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds told The Sunday Telegraph. “The government is now focused on this key issue, but political …

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Thousands of supporters of Catalan independence marched through central Madrid on Saturday to protest the trial of 12 separatist leaders who face years in prison for their role in organizing a failed independence bid from Spain in 2017. Demonstrators, many who made the journey from the northwestern Catalonia region for the protest, waved Catalan flags and carried signs reading “Self-determination is not a crime.” Protest organizers put the turnout at 120,000 while police gave a figure of 18,000.  Tensions between Madrid and Barcelona have thawed since the political crisis triggered by Catalonia’s independence declaration in late 2017, but the trial of 12 separatist leaders for their role in the secession bid and …

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Protesters demonstrating against the autocratic rule of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic burst into state-run TV headquarters in Belgrade on Saturday to criticize a broadcaster whose reporting they consider highly biased.  Riot police arrived at the scene in the Serbian capital and were trying to evict dozens of people, including some opposition leaders, who had entered the downtown building. Some protest leaders said they wouldn’t leave the building until they were given time on the main evening news broadcast. This was the first major incident after months of peaceful protests against populist leader Vucic. The demonstrators are demanding his resignation, free elections and …

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Large plumes of smoke rose above Paris’ landmark Champs-Elysees avenue as French yellow vest protesters set fires, smashed up luxury stores and clashed with police Saturday in a 18th straight weekend of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron. Police tried to contain the demonstrators with tear gas and water cannons. Fire trucks rushed to extinguish two burning newspaper kiosks that were set ablaze, sending black smoke high into the sky. As demonstrators targeted symbols of the luxury industry, shops including brands Hugo Boss and Lacoste were smashed up and pillaged, and mannequins thrown out of the broken windows. A posh eatery …

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Overwhelmed by tourists Venice will soon start to charge an entrance fee. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro says the money raised will help pay for the upkeep of the historic lagoon city. Venice routinely has more tourists than permanently declared residents. Rising housing costs and the use of properties for tourist accommodation have driven the population down by two thirds since the middle of the 20th century. As a result, Venice for years has been struggling with numerous woes, including high tides that regularly flood the city’s iconic Saint Mark’s Square, and growing numbers of tourists. To deal with the endless …

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