French crisis: Macron’s desperate power play backfires spectacularly
As heavy industry flees and public-sector strikes paralyse the nation, the French leader’s increasingly desperate attempts to rule without a majority reveal the deep crisis at the heart of European liberal democracy, writes KEVIN OVENDEN
The welcome news that Cuba has finally been removed from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list is tempered by the fact that Donald Trump, the man who put it there, is returning to the White House, warns NATASHA HICKMAN
Thanks to impressive progress in Britain with wind and solar generation, clean electricity now costs a fraction of the price of gas — yet the current system keeps bills artificially high to protect fossil fuels, writes TOM HARDY
By spreading race-based conspiracy theories, the billionaire tycoon turned right-wing provocateur has been seriously undermining the case against those who really did let victims of the grooming gangs down, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
Many Western countries are grappling with deep political instability. What are the causes of this, and what could be a possible way forward? asks MARC VANDEPITTE
KEITH BENNETT explains why, despite its present meagre economic outcomes, an honest and fruitful partnership with China is worth pursuing
Nick Wright talks to photographer and author JANINA STRUK
“ARROGANCE made flesh.” Left-wing lawmaker Clemence Guette’s reaction to President Emmanuel Macron’s emergency address to the French nation on Thursday spoke for most of the country.
France this week is plunged into a deeper phase of ongoing, almost existential crisis. To listen to Macron, it is everyone’s fault but his own.
“I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility,” snapped the popinjay whose own authoritarian recklessness has concentrated social and political tensions into the fall of his government, inability to pass a Budget, threatened financial meltdown and a sense of national calamity.
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