Month: September 2023

The French government said Monday it was preparing a new decree against meaty terms like “steak” or “grill” being used to describe plant-based products. Its latest decree is “an issue of transparency and honesty responding to the legitimate expectations of consumers and producers,” Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said in a statement. Farmers and firms in France’s meat supply chain have long militated against terms like “plant-based burger” or “vegan sausage,” claiming that they confuse consumers. But a 2022 decree protecting such words was suspended by the country’s top administrative court. While that court, the Council of State, has asked for …

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Spain’s acting deputy prime minister went to Brussels on Monday to meet exiled Catalan politician Carles Puigdemont, seeking support from a separatist fugitive from Spanish justice to keep Pedro Sanchez’s left-leaning coalition in power. An inconclusive election on July 23 resulted in a hung parliament, making Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since leading Catalonia’s failed push for secession from Spain in 2017, the unlikely kingmaker. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, whose conservative People’s Party won the most votes in the election, will take the first stab at an investiture vote on Sept. 27, although his chances of …

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About 5,000 people gathered in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki Sunday to protest a new type of identity card to be introduced later this month, police said. Carrying Greek flags and banners, the protesters rallied at the city’s iconic White Tower, a waterfront former fortification, chanting slogans and the national anthem. They played a speech by the late former head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens, who had warned of the enemies of the Greek people. Later, they marched through the city center before dispersing without incident. The machine-readable cards will replace the type of ID …

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The first production co-directed by Iranian and Israeli filmmakers had to be shot in secret to prevent possible interference by Tehran, directors Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv told Reuters Sunday. “Tatami,” a tense thriller centered on a world judo championship, got its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival at the weekend, receiving a standing ovation. The film takes place over the course of the single day of competition as an Iranian judoka champion, played by Farsi-speaking U.S. actress Arienne Mandi, is ordered to fake an injury to avoid a possible match-up with an Israeli competitor. Amir Ebrahimi and …

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Israel’s prime minister floated the idea Sunday of building infrastructure projects such as a fiber optic cable linking countries in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula with Europe through Israel and Cyprus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s “quite confident” such an infrastructure “corridor” linking Asia to Europe through Israel and Cyprus is feasible. He said such projects could happen if Israel normalizes relations with other countries in the region. The 2020 U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and the Biden administration is trying to establish official ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. …

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Swedish police on Sunday arrested two people and detained around 10 people after a violent riot broke out at a protest involving a burning of the Quran, police said. The protest was organized by Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, whose protests — which have included public desecrations of the Muslim holy book — have sparked outrage across the Middle East. Sunday’s protest was held in a square in the southern city of Malmo, which has a large immigrant population, and according to public broadcaster SVT around 200 people had showed up to watch. “Some onlookers have shown upset feelings, after the …

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The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace may draw tourists from far and wide, but Sunday visitors to the landmark were treated to a different sort of spectacle: a parade of corgis dressed up in crowns, tiaras and royal outfits. Around 20 royal fans and their pet corgis gathered to walk their dogs outside the palace in central London to remember Queen Elizabeth II a year since her death. Corgis were the late queen’s constant companions since she was a child, and Elizabeth owned around 30 throughout her life. Generations of the dogs descended from Susan, a corgi that …

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In October 1943, after the Nazis began a brutal occupation of their former ally, German troops hanged six Italian civilians on a hillside in southern Italy as collective punishment for the killing of a soldier, who had been foraging for food. Eighty years later, some of the relatives of the men put to death in Fornelli are finally set to receive a share of 12 million euros ($13 million) awarded by an Italian court as compensation for their families’ trauma. “We still mark the event every year. It hasn’t been forgotten,” said Mauro Petrarca, the great-grandson of one of those …

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