More than 300,000 took to the streets of Barcelona on Sunday to demand that the Spanish government in Madrid release the Catalan independence movement leaders that are being held in detention ahead of the trial.
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Australia’s Least Likely Tourist Spot: a Test Site for Atom Bombs
MARALINGA, Australia — Maralinga, a barren stretch of land in South Australia’s remote western desert, is the country’s only former nuclear test site open to tourists. And Robin Matthews is Australia’s only nuclear tour guide.
Visitors to Maralinga, a deserted military installation the size of Manhattan, who expect to find their tour guide dressed in a yellow jumpsuit and ventilator mask are bound to be disappointed.
Instead, Mr. Matthews, 65, can be found wearing a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes and a cigarette hanging from chapped lips. His skin, deeply tanned, is covered with a narrative of faded tattoos inked long before they were fashionable.
“Yes, there is still radiation here,” Mr. Matthews said as he drove a minibus to the sites where the Australian and British governments dropped seven bombs between 1956 and 1963, which dotted the earth with huge craters and poisoned scores of indigenous people and their..
Russia has never supplied Syria with dual-purpose technologies that can be used in chemical weapons production, a top Russian senator said, calling claims by US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley “yet another fake.”
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Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists Prepare for an I.P.O. Wave SAN FRANCISCO — Jason Pressman spent Thursday morning cheering from the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange as shares of the software firm Zuora, which he backed in 2008, began trading.
By the market’s close, Zuora’s stock had soared 43 percent, making his venture capital firm’s $17 million investment in the company worth roughly $150 million.
“Not bad at all,” Mr. Pressman said by phone on Thursday night, before heading to a celebratory dinner with about 60 people at a pricey Italian restaurant in Chelsea. Mr. Pressman, a venture capitalist at Shasta Ventures, said he had been up much of the night before but still expected to raise a few glasses. “I’m running a little bit on adrenaline.”
Mr. Pressman and many other Silicon Valley venture capitalists expect the windfalls to continue. Many of these investors, who back tiny start-ups with the hope that they will someday go public or be sold for nine- or 10-figure sums, have..
‘I Am Gay, Not a Pervert’: Furor Erupts in China as Sina Weibo Bans Gay Content BEIJING — With hashtags like #Iamgaynotapervert and images of hearts and rainbows, tens of thousands of Chinese residents took to social media over the weekend to protest efforts to censor gay-themed images, videos and cartoons.
The uproar was in response to a vow on Friday by Sina Weibo, one of China’s most popular social media sites, to delete posts relating to gay culture, part of a three-month “cleanup” effort.
Sina Weibo, a Twitterlike site, said in its announcement that it was trying to limit the spread of sexually suggestive and violent content and that it would target cartoons, pictures, texts, short videos and romantic fiction. The site said its aim was to promote a “clear and harmonious” environment and to comply with stricter cybersecurity laws put in place by President Xi Jinping.
But many users were incensed, saying the campaign was another sign of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual ..
Hamas Sees Gaza Protests as Peaceful — and as a ‘Deadly Weapon’ Photo The political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya, likened Palestinians’ struggle to those for India’s independence, against racial segregation in the United States and against apartheid in South Africa. Credit Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images GAZA CITY — It was a striking tableau: Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has tried suicide bombs, rockets and attack tunnels in its long struggle with Israel, standing before portraits of the giants of nonviolent resistance — Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
Urging on Palestinians who have staged a new campaign of protests along the fence separating Gaza from Israel, Mr. Haniya likened their struggle to those for India’s independence, against racial segregation and discrimination in the United States, and against apartheid in South Africa.
“This blessed protest is national, peaceful, popular and civ..
The world’s third-wealthiest person, Warren Buffett, was not impressed by US President Donald Trump’s investing strategy in his Q&A session with students in 1991. He predicted the failure of Trump’s casino business.
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UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has challenged the British government’s legal basis for carrying out missile strikes on Syria, labelling the “humanitarian” justification “legally debatable.”
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The WPP boss has always been willing to stick his head above the parapet
There will be plenty of people taking great delight in the resignation of Sir Martin Sorrell from WPP.
The 73-year-old built WPP into the world’s largest advertising and marketing group. Now, after allegations of financial impropriety, which he denies, and pressure in the boardroom, he is quitting.
We love nothing more in the UK than cutting folk down to size, particularly someone who is paid so much and is so high-profile. It’s almost like a national sport, of everyone piling in to give them a good kicking.
No matter that they built up a hugely successful enterprise employing thousands, and when they spoke or wrote or posed for a picture they were also promoting their corporate brand. Somehow, the collective view prevails: they got above themselves and therefore deserve bringing down.
Read more Sir Martin Sorrell quits as WPP boss after misconduct allegations WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell is under investigati..
In Moscow, a Sense of Relief After a Limited Syria Attack Photo President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia meeting with the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, on Saturday. Mr. Putin issued an unusually rapid condemnation of the airstrikes against Syria. Credit Michael Klimentyev/Sputnik, via Reuters MOSCOW — Moscow met the limited American-led airstrikes against Syria before dawn on Saturday with plenty of bluster and heated rhetoric, starting with an uncharacteristically quick response from President Vladimir V. Putin condemning the attack and accusing the United States of aggravating the humanitarian situation.
But there was also a palpable sense of relief.
The sun was barely up before the Defense Ministry, not famous for speedy reactions, pumped out a statement underscoring that none of the thousands of Russian troops garrisoned in Syria had been threatened by the American, British and French attack and that none of its air defense systems had been mobilized.
“It looks like both sides wer..