World news

Say what you like about Bilderberg, but they’ve got a sense of humour. The agenda for this year’s secretive summit of the global elite is full of in-jokes. They get big laughs straight off the bat by describing themselves as “a diverse group of political leaders and experts”. They’re trumpeting the diversity of a conference where less than 25% of the participants are female. Which would be a huge step forward, if it were currently 1963. And as for racial diversity, there are more senior executives of Goldman Sachs at this year’s Bilderberg than there are people of colour. Perhaps by “diverse” they mean that some of the participants own hedge funds, whereas others own vast industrial conglomerates. Some are on the board of HSBC, others are on the board of BP. Some are lobbyists, others are being lobbied. That sort of thing. Dafter still is the agenda item: “Can globalisation be slowed down?” You think that the assembled heads … [Read more...] about Bilderberg: the world’s most secretive conference is as out of touch as ever

Britain’s “outright defiance” of a UN deadline to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius by Friday, in a final act of African “decolonisation”, has been condemned by Mauritius and the globally-scattered communities of exiled islanders. The Labour party’s election manifesto, published on Thursday, pledges to allow Chagossians to resettle in their homeland. Earlier this year, the UN general assembly voted by an overwhelming majority of 116 to six countries in favour of a motion condemning Britain’s occupation of the remote islands and demanding what the Foreign Office terms British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) be reunified with Mauritius. An advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in The Hague, found the islands had been illegally severed from Mauritius in the 1960s. The president of the ICJ, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, urged the UK and other member states to “complete the decolonisation of Mauritius”. The UK regards … [Read more...] about UK set to defy UN deadline to return Chagos Islands

Britain was presented with a profound and urgent wake-up call this week about its standing in the 21st-century world. But the problem, in a political debate consumed by Brexit and Tory leadership speculation, is whether Britain will take any notice at all. The wake-up call was not the UK’s abject last place in the Eurovision song contest, humbling though that was. The far more serious lesson was the one delivered in the United Nations general assembly over the issue of Britain’s continuing occupation of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, of which by far the most important is the enormous US military base and hub of Diego Garcia. Britain is adamant about its sovereignty over the islands, which dates from Napoleonic times. Its attitude is an unbending insistence that what we have we hold, even in the post-colonial world. It has fought a rearguard action against domestic courts, which found in favour of the islanders who were deported from the Chagos half a century ago, … [Read more...] about The Guardian view on Britain and the Chagos Islands: a wake-up call from the world

Italian opposition politicians have demanded an urgent explanation from the government after allegations surfaced accusing Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party of links to the Kremlin. According to claims made in L’Espresso magazine, an arrangement was struck to sell 3m tonnes of diesel fuel to an Italian oil company by Russian representatives close to the government of Vladmir Putin, diverting profits to the League. The claims, based on a forthcoming book, The Black Book of the League, by two of the magazine’s journalists, raises questions about the relationship between the Kremlin and the anti-immigrant party, which is in a coalition government with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement. A group of opposition senators described the claims as worrying. “Russia is financing the League? The worrying report by L’Espresso needs to be immediately clarified by the government,” the centre-left Democratic Party said in a statement. “It is … [Read more...] about Italian MPs demand answers over claims Salvini’s League sought Kremlin funding

Sri Lanka’s new president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has begun concentrating power within his own powerful family, appointing one brother Mahinda as both prime minister and finance minister and another brother as minister of agriculture. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the candidate for the SLPP, the Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalist party, won an overwhelming victory in Sri Lanka’s presidential polls last weekend. His win marked a return to power for the Rajapaksa family, which has been one of the most dominant political dynasties in Sri Lanka for over a decade. Their previous time in power was marked by human rights abuses, disappearances and a stranglehold over the judiciary and police. His brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president from 2005 to 2015, with Gotabaya serving as his secretary of defence. Due to a law introduced by the previous government, Mahinda could not run for another term as president, so Gotabaya was put forward as the candidate. However, suggestions that Mahinda, the more … [Read more...] about Sri Lanka’s president Rajapaksa cements family power as brothers join cabinet