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Monday, 30 September 2019

The Guardian view on the People’s Republic of China at 70: whose history? | Editorial

Seven decades of Communist rule have seen notable advances but at horrific cost

The 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, which will be marked on Tuesday by a mass military parade in the heart of Beijing, is less a historical commemoration than a political event. The Communist party of China (CPC) has understood the power of history ever since it seized the reins in 1949: in its earliest days, it encouraged citizens to “recall past bitterness”, to make the New China all the sweeter. Xi Jinping understands history’s importance better than any leader since Mao Zedong. Not long after taking power, he warned his colleagues that “historical nihilism” was an existential threat to the party’s rule on a par with western democracy.

The tanks, planes, troops and missiles tell a story: in 1949, the republic’s 17 aircraft were ordered to fly over twice, to make the display look more impressive. This time the west will watch closely as the People’s Liberation Army unveils new missile, stealth and unmanned vehicle capabilities. The PRC has outlived its big brother, the Soviet Union, and outgrown western economies. Yet it now faces new challenges.

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Stepping Up When Big Deal Things Happen

Happy Monday! Happy Fall! Happy Quiet, Rainy, Overcast, Snuggly Day.   How are you?   I’ve been cooking a few things over in my mind that I’ve wanted to talk about, but just kept putting it off. I have work to get done, laundry to finish, jewelry orders to catch up on, people to care […]

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Richard Thompson at 70: on love, loss and being a Muslim in Trump's US

The master of British folk music has weathered a second divorce and lives in the US where ‘Trump has ramped up bigotry considerably’. At least ex-wife Linda has forgiven him

Richard Thompson is drinking mint tea in a Hampstead coffee shop – he doesn’t touch coffee or alcohol – and between Islam and cricket, he’s discussing the remarkable guest list for his upcoming 70th birthday celebration at the Royal Albert Hall in London. “I don’t like being the centre of attention, strange as it sounds,” he insists. “I just want to have a few friends over.”

The man the LA Times once hailed as “the finest rock songwriter after Dylan” and “the best electric guitarist since Hendrix” will switch between electric and acoustic guitars, and hopes that “most guests will have time to do a couple of songs”. The 15 guests will include Pink Floyd hero David Gilmour, who has featured alongside Richard in a Rolling Stone magazine best ever guitarist list, and who, as a soloist, covered Richard’s 1975 song Dimming of the Day. “He’ll do that,” says Richard. “And then do something of his … or Floyd’s. He has always been a nice guy and we share a love of all things Fender.”

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Wednesday, 25 September 2019

French education minister reignites row over Muslim headscarf

Minister says he wants to avoid having mothers in hijab as volunteers on school trips

A fresh political row has erupted over the Muslim headscarf in France after the education minister said he wanted to avoid having mothers in hijab as volunteers on school outings.

Jean-Michel Blanquer criticised the country’s largest parents association for using a picture of a mother in a headscarf on a pamphlet under the words: “Yes I go on school trips, so what? Secularism is about welcoming all parents without exception.”

Une plainte justifiée. Plein soutien à la @FCPE_nationale qui elle connait la réalité de terrain et agit vraiment pour nos enfants. Cette stigmatisation ne peut plus être tolérée. https://t.co/X9lecOziO3

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Tuesday, 24 September 2019

Amazon refuses to stop selling Tommy Robinson merchandise

Online retailer continues to sell merchandise including T-shirts with #freeTommy logo

Amazon has refused to pull merchandise in support of Tommy Robinson after it and other online companies were accused of profiting from products promoting far-right extremism.

Items including T-shirts bearing the image of Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – were removed by eBay after the Guardian approached the company about the listings. The former English Defence League (EDL) leader was released this month after serving nine weeks of a nine-month sentence for contempt of court.

Related: Tommy Robinson banned from Facebook and Instagram

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Friday, 20 September 2019

Indonesia: hundreds of thousands protest at plan to outlaw extramarital sex

Apparent climbdown follows wave of anger and criticism over draconian draft laws

Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has ordered his government to postpone the ratification of a deeply controversial criminal code that would outlaw living together outside marriage, extramarital sex and insulting the president.

The apparent climbdown came in a surprise address at the state palace on Friday afternoon, and follows an outpouring of anger and criticism about the draconian draft laws.

Related: Outcry at Indonesia draft criminal code that could see unmarried couples jailed

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Ministers accused of 'radio silence' over LGBT school protests

Louise Casey says Birmingham demonstrations have been put in ‘all-too-difficult box’

The former integration tsar, Dame Louise Casey, has accused ministers of “radio silence” over protests against the teaching of LGBT equality at a Birmingham school.

Casey said the government had failed to act on what she described as homophobic demonstrations because it was in the “all-too-difficult box”.

(June 6, 2018) 

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Friday, 13 September 2019

The Guardian view on Modi’s 100 days: trashing lives and the constitution | Editorial

The Indian prime minister is being feted in the west. But he is arbitrarily curbing the human rights and civil liberties of minorities on a vast scale

This week India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, clocked up 100 days in office in his second term. Mr Modi has chosen to govern much as he did his first term – as a rightwing populist on behalf of the majority Hindu population at the expense of the rights of minorities, especially Muslims, in his vast country. He dominates his nation’s politics: in May he became the first prime minister since 1971 to win majorities in parliament in back-to-back elections. He also dominates his Bharatiya Janata party, with a third of voters who supported the ruling coalition saying they would have voted for another party if Mr Modi had not been leader. Yet he has ruled rashly and in his party’s narrow interest, keeping the electorate aroused with nationalist delusions that only he can protect India from its rival, Pakistan, and the majority community from “fifth columnists”.

India risks becoming an ethnic democracy with an implied two-tiered citizenship. It is not one yet. However, in deed Mr Modi gives the impression that this is desirable. This month almost 2 million people living in Assam, a state in north-eastern India, have been left at risk of statelessness because they cannot prove they arrived there before Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan in March 1971 in special courts that, says Amnesty, are “shoddy and lackadaisical”. No one is sure how many Indians who have been declared “foreigners” are Muslims. The evidence suggests many are. Mr Modi’s right-hand man called them “infiltrators” and “termites”, who ought to be thrown “into the Bay of Bengal”.

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Thursday, 12 September 2019

34-year-old man denies attacking five mosques in Birmingham in a day

Arman Rezazadeh pleaded not guilty to charges of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage

A 34-year-old man has denied causing at least £11,500 worth of damage to five mosques which had their doors and windows smashed on the same day.

Arman Rezazadeh appeared at Birmingham magistrates court on Thursday, pleading not guilty to five charges of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage committed on 21 March.

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Monday, 9 September 2019

The Guardian view on Pope Francis: a voice in the wilderness | Editorial

No other spiritual leader is speaking out so clearly for the poor and for the environment in the developing world

Pope Francis has been visiting two of the poorest countries in the world, but on the way he took a moment to attack his enemies in the richest. Handed a book by the French journalist Nicolas Senèze, which recounts the efforts of a rightwing American clique to force him out of office, he described it as “a bomb”, and said that it was “an honour when the Americans attack me”. There was no mistaking the depth of the split within the world’s largest and most important Christian church.

In the developed world, and especially in Europe and North America, organised Christianity is collapsing, particularly among the young. This is as true of the Catholic church as of any other. In this country its numbers are maintained by immigration, and its morale, at least in part, by a policy of avoiding largely empty churches by using only enough to keep them full; in the US, lapsed Catholics are numbered in tens of millions. In all these countries, religious affiliation falls with every generation and there is no end to the process in sight.

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Sunday, 8 September 2019

Say a prayer: the Muslim woman who photographed Bradford's last synagogue

Nudrat Afza, a single mother who can’t afford her own camera, talks us through her new show – of poignant shots capturing the last 45 Jewish worshippers in the city’s only remaining synagogue

The last UK census, which took place in 2011, found that there were just 299 Jews left in Bradford, a tiny number for a city that became home to so many German Jews in the 19th century that the warehouse district they created is still called Little Germany. The Muslim population, meanwhile, hit 129,041 the same year.

The city’s synagogue, a grade II-listed building, almost shut down in 2013, unable to afford roof repairs – until the Muslim community raised funds to cover costs. A £103,000 lottery grant followed, enabling full repairs, but the number of worshippers has stuck stubbornly at just 45 – with occasional newcomers balancing out the deaths of elderly worshippers.

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Thursday, 5 September 2019

Court rejects NHS trust's bid to stop Muslim family representing sick girl

Barts NHS trust had argued woman related to seriously ill Tafida Raqeeb should be removed as her ‘litigation friend’

An NHS trust has been criticised for arguing that the family of a seriously ill five-year-old girl are incapable of acting in her best interests because of their Islamic religious beliefs.

The parents of Tafida Raqeeb, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in February and is on a life-support machine, want to fly her to Italy for treatment against the judgment of doctors at the Royal London hospital.

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Sunday, 1 September 2019

Man considering legal action after Starbucks employee labels drink 'Isis'

Niquel Johnson said when he ordered at a Philadelphia store he gave his Islamic name, Aziz

A Philadelphia man has said he is considering legal action against Starbucks after an employee asked for his name to label his drink but ended up writing the title of the Islamic State.

Niquel Johnson, 40, told the Washington Post that when he ordered his drinks last week he gave his Islamic name, Aziz, as he had done in the same store “countless” times before. This time, the three drinks he ordered all came back labelled “Isis”.

Related: Coffee shop racism: where America's racial divisions are exposed

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