Iran

Donald Trump has warned he will make "some major decisions" on Syria in the next 48 hours as the US and UK refused to rule out military action. The US President led global fury at a suspected chemical attack that reportedly killed at least 60 and left children foaming at the mouth in the town of Douma. Today British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the "barbaric" attack as the UK, US and France vowed to keep close contact over next steps. Mrs May warned Syria is "attacking its own people" and if responsible for the latest attack, both Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian backers "must be held to account". President Trump told reporters: "We are meeting with our military and everybody else. "We'll be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours." Asked if US military action was a possibility Trump said: "Nothing is off the table." He added: "We'll be making that decision very quickly probably by the end of the day. But we cannot allow atrocities like that." … [Read more...] about Donald Trump warns he’ll make ‘major’ Syria decision within 48 hours as US and UK refuse to rule out military action

Ministers will seek ways to raise concerns with Thailand about the use of slaves to produce prawns supplied to UK supermarkets following an investigation by the Guardian, Baroness Warsi, a Foreign Office minister, has said. The senior Conservative said the government expected the Thai authorities to investigate and would seek opportunities to discuss the issue in diplomatic discussions. In the first response from a minister to the Guardian's investigation, Warsi admitted the UK's influence was "limited" given the acute political uncertainty in Thailand. However, she added: "We take the allegations very seriously and will look for opportunities to raise our concerns. At a minimum, we will continue to press for an improvement in labour rights in Thailand through ongoing negotiations towards an EU-Thailand free trade agreement." Warsi said the government had been aware of labour rights issues in the Thai fishing industry, but it was unaware of the "very serious" allegations about global … [Read more...] about UK to raise slavery concerns with Thailand after prawn exposé

While Chinese export figures were up for January, they fell sharply in February, according to official data. They increased 9.1 percent in January, but fell 20.7 percent in February, compared with the same period in 2018. Exports from China to its biggest trading partner, the United States, fell 14.1 percent to $52.3 billion (€46.6 billion) in the first two months of 2019, customs data showed on Friday. Exports to the world dropped 4.6 percent overall to $353.2 billion for the two-month period. The two months are taken together for analysis because of the Lunar New Year holiday, when factories close for up to two weeks. Markets eye a recession Asian stock markets fell on the unexpected news.  The Shanghai Composite tumbled 4.4 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 1.9 percent. Imports into China in January and February were down 3.1 percent from a year earlier at $309.5 billion, reflecting slowing domestic economic activity. "Today's trade figures reinforce our view that … [Read more...] about Chinese exports fall amid weak demand, US tariffs

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return Marjane Satrapi's comic-strip autobiographies are in black and white, but the stories she tells are ambiguous and grey. Her first volume ended with her parents sending her away at 14, fearing that her outspokenness would get her into trouble. This sequel starts in Vienna in 1984, in a hostel run by nuns. Her stark, faux-naïf drawing points up the irony; she has left one group of black-clad religious women for another. The nuns eventually throw her out for being, yes, outspoken. She drifts from one temporary home to another, worrying that smoking joints with her existentialist friends will turn her into a vegetable (specifically, a fat, lolling aubergine). Racked with guilt, she stops watching the news about the Iran-Iraq war and even pretends to be French until xenophobes goad her into national pride. It is not cultural dislocation that drives her into homelessness and illness, but, as she says, 'a banal story of love'. When all else fails, she … [Read more...] about Less of your lipgloss

The graphic novel has proved itself again and again. It already has its canon: Art Spiegelman on the Holocaust, Marjane Satrapi on girlhood in Islamist Iran, and, perhaps most accomplished of all, Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza, a work of detailed and self-reflexive history. Edging towards this company comes Riad Sattouf’s childhood memoir of tyranny. Little Riad’s mother, Clémentine, is French. His father, Abdel-Razak, is Syrian. They meet at the Sorbonne, where Abdel-Razak is studying a doctorate in history. Those with Arab fathers will recognise the prestige value of the title “doctor”. But Abdel-Razak is more ambitious. He really wants to be a president. Studying abroad at least allows him to avoid military service: “I want to give orders, not take them,” he says. When humiliated, he sniffs and rubs his nose. Abdel-Razak is a pan-Arabist who believes the people (“stupid filthy Arab retards!”) must be educated out of … [Read more...] about The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf review – an emotionally honest graphic memoir