The prime minister hopes Obama will endorse his deficit-cutting strategy during his two-day state visit David Cameron is hopeful Barack Obama’s two-day state visit to the UK, formally starting on Tuesday, will end with the two leaders asserting they are aligned on tackling financial deficits. Any implicit endorsement of the government’s deficit reduction plan by the Democrat president would be a massive political prize for the Conservatives, helping to immunise the prime minister from some Labour attacks that the cuts go too fast and too deep. Obama was expected to fly into London from Ireland last night ahead of schedule as a precaution to avoid being trapped by volcanic ash, throwing a protocol-conscious Buckingham Palace into turmoil. The bulk of the political talks will focus on foreign affairs including Afghanistan, Libya and the Arab Spring, but the two men will also discuss the world economy, an area in which Obama has shifted recently closer to the UK position. Conservatives are hoping on the basis of talks with the White House that Obama will say he is aligned with Britain on the economy. In a joint article published last night, Obama and Cameron said: “When the United States and Britain stand together, our people and people around the world can become more secure and more prosperous. “And that is the key to our relationship. Yes, it is founded on a deep emotional connection, by sentiment and ties of people and culture. But the reason it thrives, the reason why this is such a natural partnership, is because it advances our common interests and shared values. “It is a perfect alignment of what we both need and what we both believe. And the reason it remains strong is because it delivers time and again. Ours is not just a special relationship, it is an essential relationship – for us and for the world.” The joint article also refers to the need to tackle deficits. Privately, Conservative sources are increasingly confident that the Treasury and its American counterpart are now seeing eye to eye on deficit reduction after being at odds for some months. They believe the US treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, has formed a close relationship with the chancellor, George Osborne. In April, Obama laid out plans to cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, a pace of deficit reduction that the Conservatives claim is similar to the UK’s deficit goals. The British plan aims to cut the deficit from 11.1% of gross domestic product in 2009-2010 to 1.5% of GDP in 2015-2016. Under the US president’s plan, public-sector borrowing will fall from 10.9% of GDP this year to 3.3% in 2016. The US plan starts later, but aims to achieve the same pace of reduction, using the same proportionate mix of tax rises and spending cuts. During a triumphant visit to Ireland, Obama gave a shot in the arm to the morale of a country buffeted by economic troubles. Obama visited the village of Moneygall, from where one of his ancestors, Falmouth Kearney, emigrated to the US in 1850, and hailed the Northern Ireland peace process. The Queen’s visit to Ireland last week had sent, he said, “a ‘ripple of hope’ that may manifest itself in a whole range of ways”. Barack Obama David Cameron Public finance Public sector cuts Public services policy Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Facing widespread protests amid 21.3% unemployment, Spain’s ruling Socialist party suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of conservatives yesterday—reportedly the party’s worst-ever performance in local and regional elections. The conservative People’s Party took 38% of the vote at the municipal level, compared with 28% for the Socialists,…
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Joplin’s former mayor describes disaster scene as a ‘war zone’ which has destroyed entire neighbourhoods and left 90 dead Rescue workers struggled through strong winds and hail today to locate survivors of the worst tornado in half a century, after 90 people were killed in a small Missouri town. After a night of terror, Joplin awoke to unimaginable destruction: a vast expanse of splintered trees where entire neighbourhoods once stood, cars flung about like toys. Sunday’s tornado cut a six-mile swath through the centre of town, wrecking churches, schools, businesses and homes. The town fire department estimated up to a third of buildings were damaged or destroyed. The former mayor, Gary Shaw, described the scene as a war zone. “The trees,” he told National Public Radio, “they’re like somebody’s taken a knife and cut all the bark off of them. We’ve lost tonnes and tonnes of homes, and we have people out trying to uncover the dead right now.” Some of the worst destruction was at a hospital, which took a direct hit, blowing the roof off the nine-storey building. At least four people were confirmed dead at St John’s Regional Medical Centre. Witnesses said the tornado hovered over the hospital for about a minute, stripping off roofs and blowing in windows. It is thought 183 patients were in the hospital when the storm warning sirens went off, Miranda Lewis, a hospital spokeswoman, told CBS television. At least four were confirmed dead on Monday . Nurses told of desperate attempts to move patients away from windows and into enclosed hallways before the funnel cloud descended. Some patients were evacuated on pick-up trucks. But rescue workers told reporters that many of the patients had been cut by glass after the windows were blown out. The ceiling of the emergency room caved in. Trolleys were tossed more than five city blocks away, and medical records and s-rays were scattered for 60 miles. Cars were flung out of the car park into a heap. A helicopter was hurled out of the landing pad, and flipped on its side, its rotors a twisted wreck. This morning, the hospital looked as if it had been bombed. “Every window in that building is now broken,” Melodee Colbert-Kean, a city council woman, told National Public Radio. “Cars are tumbled all over the parking lot.” Officials said the hospital was now unusable. The seriously ill were transported out of town to other hospitals. Those able to walk were taken to a makeshift ward at a community centre. Across the southern end of town, an estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged, street signs and other landmarks vanished rendering Joplin unrecognisable to residents who had spent their lives there. “You see pictures of world war two, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That’s really what it looked like,” Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin high school, told reporters. “I couldn’t even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn’t believe what I saw.” But the scale of damage in Joplin did not begin to emerge until early morning when the city manager, Mark Rohr, held a press conference outside the ruin of the hospital. And there was more to come. Thunderstorms, 60mph winds and in some instances hail stones, slowed the search for survivors. Meanwhile, the national weather centre forecast violent weather, including tornadoes, all week in Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Missouri’s governor, Jay Nixon, said he feared the death toll would rise as rescue workers began searching the rubble for survivors and bodies. “I don’t think we are done counting,” he told reporters. But he said he remained hopeful of finding survivors in the rubble. “I still believe that because of the size of the debris and the number of people involved that there are lives to be saved.” As rescue workers moved out to look for survivors in the rubble, fires from gas leaks burned across the city. Downed power lines blocked roads. Nixon said he had reports of 15 missing elderly residents from a care home. The website of the local paper, the Joplin Globe, carried messages from people searching for loved ones. And with phone services down, dazed survivors tried to make their way through streets blocked by debris to look for relatives. Outside a mound of debris that was once a shopping mall, Justin Gibson pointed to a black pickup truck tossed into the ruins of a hardware store that he said had belonged to his room mate’s brother. “He was last seen here with his two little girls,”, Gibson told reporters. “We’ve been trying to get hold of him since the tornado happened.” But there were also triumphs. Search crews pulled people from the rubble of a local Wal-Mart and a hardware chain. Sunday’s twister was the second deadly tornado event in less than a month. About 350 people were killed after an estimated 200 tornadoes ripped across Alabama and five other southern states. The storms set a record for the deadliest single tornado event, but even that has been eclipsed by the devastation in Joplin, a town of around 50,000. It was the town’s misfortune to take a direct hit from the tornado. “If the Joplin tornado had struck 10 miles north, we wouldn’t be hearing about it, but it went right through the centre of town,” said Robert Henson, a spokesman for the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research. Still, said Josh Wurman of the Centre for Severe Weather Research, the tornadoes could have inflicted even greater casualties and damage. “What if this had gone through St Louis or Oklahoma City or Chicago instead of Joplin,” he said. “The potential consequences would have been much worse. It would kill many more people and destroy many more structures.” United States Natural disasters and extreme weather Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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Privacy laws left in chaos after Man Utd star identified in parliament, prompting calls for review of rules on social media A complete recasting of social media and internet regulation was signalled by the government as an MP used parliamentary privilege to name Ryan Giggs as the footballer identified on Twitter as having brought an injunction to prevent publication of allegations he had an affair with a former reality TV star. David Cameron, facing an increasingly aggressive tabloid campaign to stop the high court granting injunctions protecting the privacy of celebrities, announced a joint parliamentary committee to examine the complex related issues of privacy, injunctions, the regulation of the internet and the role of the press complaints commission. He said the current position was not sustainable. During Commons questions on the government’s move, the Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming named the Manchester United player , wrongfooting the Speaker, John Bercow, and instantly opening the floodgates to reporting by the mainstream media. Hemming said he had a right to do so because the footballer had already been named by 75,000 people on Twitter, but many MPs and peers accused him of being a self publicist who had abused parliamentary privilege. Just as the footballer’s name began to circulate widely across the media after Hemming’s intervention, a high court judge ruled against the Sun newspaper and insisted that the injunction preventing him being named should still be upheld, in a decision that media organisations had not expected. Mr Justice Tugendhat, delivering his ruling on Monday night, acknowledged “it is obvious that if the purpose [of the injunction] was to protect a secret then it would have now failed”, but argued that its purpose was to protect the footballer from “harassment”. In March, the Ministry of Justice published proposals for a draft defamation bill intended to address all the key issues of defamation and privacy on the internet including the responsibility of internet service providers to police material published on their sites. Calling for “a time out” to re-examine the issue of privacy, Cameron said: “It’s not fair on the newspapers if all the social media can report this and the newspapers can’t and so the law and the practice has got to catch up with how people consume media today. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this.” The formal announcement of the joint committee was hastily made by Dominic Grieve, the attorney general. The joint committee, due to be report this autumn, was a deliberate effort by a nervous government to turn the future of press freedom and privacy into a cross-party issue, so reducing pressure on Cameron personally to reach potentially controversial conclusions. Its conclusions could nonetheless have far-reaching ramifications for tabloid newspapers too if the government attempts to reframe privacy laws. The government’s efforts to contain the controversy fell apart when Hemming used Grieve’s Commons statement on the joint committee to declare: “Mr Speaker, With about 75,000 people having named Ryan Giggs on Twitter it is impractical to imprison them all …” His defiance led to gasps and a shout of “disgrace” before a startled Speaker quickly interrupted. “Let me just say to the honourable gentleman, I know he’s already done it, but occasions such as this are occasions for raising the issues of principle involved, not seeking to flout for whatever purpose,” Bercow said. Within minutes of Hemming naming Giggs, mainstream newspapers and broadcasters used the protection of privilege to identify the footballer. Hemming later said he was trying to stop lawyers for Giggs using the courts to oppress and imprison individuals in secret just for retelling gossip on Twitter. He said: “The first steps had been taken to identity people who had started the gossip. There are people who are jailed in secret in this country.” Hemming had already tested judicial authority last week by revealing the banker Sir Fred Goodwin had been granted a superinjunction. Hemming’s move was condemned by MPs and peers. John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the culture select committee said: “If MPs think the law is wrong then we should change the law rather than flout the law.” Lady Kennedy, the Labour peer, said: “The reason most of the tabloid press want to write about footballers lives is to make a profit. Newspapers are in a parlous state at the moment … we need a more grown up debate than this.” Last week, it emerged that the high court had granted its initial ruling on the basis of a belief that the footballer may well have been blackmailed by Imogen Thomas. She had been accused in evidence submitted by the player of asking him for £50,000 and then £100,000 for her silence – a claim she denies. However, Mr Justice Eady indicated that he was inclined to believed the player’s account, concluding there was “ample reason not to trust Thomas”. Mr Justice Tugendhat’s ruling was the third time in on Monday the injunction had been upheld, with verdicts from two different judges, underlining the strength of judicial feeling on the controversy. Mr Justice Eady said in a written judgment: “Should the court buckle every time one of its orders meets widespread disobedience or defiance? In a democratic society, if a law is deemed to be unenforceable or unpopular, it is for the legislature to make such changes as it decides are appropriate”. However, the Sun chose to come back to the high court after a Scottish newspaper, the Sunday Herald, printed a barely concealed photograph of the footballer on its front page and Cameron said in an interview on ITV’s Daybreak programme that he was aware of the footballer’s identity “like everybody else”. Representing the Sun in the second hearing, Richard Spearman QC told the court that keeping the privacy injunction in place was futile. He said that “today this has moved on very dramatically” and that the footballer had conceded “an own goal” by allowing his legal team to threaten legal action against Twitter and its users. Privacy & the media Ryan Giggs Newspapers & magazines Twitter Internet Blogging House of Commons Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …President Obama arrived in Ireland today, and said the nation shares a “blood link” with his country because of the millions of Irish-Americans who live in the US. The president, of course, has his own blood link with Ireland, and is planning a visit to the home of his great-great-great…
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Manal al-Sherif, who filmed herself at the wheel to highlight restrictions against female drivers, is remanded in custody Saudi authorities have re-arrested an activist who defied a ban on female drivers in the conservative kingdom. Manal al-Sherif was accused of “violating public order” and remanded in custody for five days while the case is investigated, a security official said. Sherif launched a campaign against the ban last week by posting a video on the internet of herself behind the wheel in the eastern city of Khobar. A Facebook page called “Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself” urged all Saudi women to drive on 17 June, and drew 12,000 supporters before it was removed. The campaign’s Twitter account also was deactivated. Sherif was detained for hours on Saturday by the country’s religious police and released after she signed a pledge agreeing not to drive. A security official said Sherif was re-arrested on Sunday at dawn. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The Khobar prison chief Ayoub ben Nahit was quoted in al-Watan newspaper as saying Sherif faced accusations of “violating the rules and the system by driving her car, roaming the streets of the province”. He also accused her of “inciting public opinion” by posting the video. Sherif is an IT expert at the state-run oil firm Saudi Aramco. Her brother, Mohammed al-Sherif, who was in the car with her, also was detained on Sunday. Hundreds of activists set up Facebook groups calling for Sherif’s release and an end to the ban on women driving. “Let Manal al-Sherif and all other women drive their own cars, take their kids to the hospital, buy their stuff from the supermarket, go to work without a driver,” columnist Khalf al-Harbi wrote in al-Watan. Activist Walid Abou el-Kheir posted on his Twitter account a petition signed by 300 Saudi activists appealing to the Saudi king to free Sherif and make a clear commitment to ending the driving ban. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women – both Saudi and foreign –from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford between $300 and $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, the shops or the doctor. Women are also barred from voting, except for chamber of commerce elections in two cities in recent years, and no woman can sit in the kingdom’s cabinet. Women also cannot travel without permission from a male guardian or mingle with males who are not their husbands or brothers. The hardline cleric Abdel Rahman al-Barak said in a fatwa, or religious edict, on his website that women who violate the driving ban are “plain sinful and are opening (the doors) of evil”. There is no written Saudi law banning women from driving, only fatwas by senior clerics that are enforced by police. No major Islamic clerics outside the country call for such a ban. Hardline clerics like Barak believe that women at the wheel create situations for sinful temptation. They argue that female drivers would be free to leave home alone and interact with male strangers, such as traffic police and mechanics. Saudi Arabia Women Gender Road transport Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Roger Helmer condemned by other Conservatives for suggesting some victims ‘share a part of the responsibility’ A Tory MEP has reignited the controversy about degrees of severity in rape, suggesting that some rape victims shared responsibility for the crime. Writing on his blog, Roger Helmer weighed in behind the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, who last week suggested some forms of rape were more serious than others. Helmer’s comments were criticised by a party spokesman and by Tory MP Louise Bagshawe, who said his remarks were “appalling”. Helmer described a “classic stranger rape” scenario, where a “masked individual emerges from the bushes, hits his victim over the head with a blunt instrument, drags her into the undergrowth and rapes her, and then leaves her unconscious, careless whether she lives or dies”. He then described “date rape” as being when a woman “voluntarily goes to her boyfriend’s apartment, voluntarily goes into the bedroom, voluntarily undresses and gets into bed, perhaps anticipating sex, or naively expecting merely a cuddle. “But at the last minute she gets cold feet and says ‘Stop!’ The young man, in the heat of the moment, is unable to restrain himself and carries on. “In both cases an offence has been committed, and the perpetrators deserve to be convicted and punished. “But whereas in the first case, I’d again be quite happy to hang the guy, I think that most right-thinking people would expect a much lighter sentence in the second case. Rape is always wrong, but not always equally culpable.” The East Midlands MEP admitted he would be vilified for adding: “While in the first case, the blame is squarely on the perpetrator and does not attach to the victim; in the second case, the victim surely shares a part of the responsibility, if only for establishing reasonable expectations in her boyfriend’s mind.” A Conservative spokesman said: “This is clearly not the view of the Conservative party or the UK delegation in the European parliament, and does not reflect the comments made by Ken Clarke.” On Twitter, Bagshawe wrote: “He speaks for himself alone. A woman (or man) always has the right to change their mind. What if their partner insults them (one example).” Labour frontbencher Caroline Flint branded the comments “outrageous”. “To suggest that the victims of date rape can ‘share responsibility’ for the crime is outrageous. Roger Helmer should apologise immediately,” she wrote. Rape Crime Conservatives Kenneth Clarke Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Barack Obama cuts short Ireland visit after concerns over volcanic ash cloud
May 23, 2011 No Comment
Presidential entourage leaves Dublin sooner than expected after fears Airforce One could be grounded Barack Obama has been forced to leave Ireland early due to fears Airforce One could be grounded by a new volcanic ash cloud blowing down from Iceland. The US president flew to London on Monday evening just hours after he received a rapturous reception in central Dublin from more than 25,000 people during a speech in which he pledged that America would continue to stand by peace-makers in Northern Ireland. A White House spokesman confirmed that concerns over the ash cloud from the Grimsvötn volcano forced the presidential entourage to make a swifter than expected exit from the Republic. He had been expected to stop off Tuesday morning at Glasnevin cemetery en route to the airport to pay homage at the crypt of Daniel O’Connell, in an acknowledgement of the 19th century Irish nationalist leader’s role in opposing the slave trade. It was not the first time in the daythat the president’s travel arrangements had to be changed somewhat hastily. Earlier, the presidential Cadillac, nicknamed “the Beast” for its bomb-proof features, failed to make it out of the US embassy in Dublin after getting stuck on a ramp. The Obamas had to abandon the car in front of waving crowds and switch to another vehicle to drive them to the Marine One helicopter that took them to visit his ancestral home in Moneygall, County Offaly. Back in Dublin at the end of a packed day, Obama told thousands gathered in Dublin’s College Green that “America will stand by you always in your pursuit of peace”. Earlier the president had described the peace process in Northern Ireland as a “ripple of hope” to people trapped in other conflicts across the world. In a show of solidarity with some of the key players in the peace process before his speech, Obama met briefly with Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, and the deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness. Addressing the crowds gathered near Ireland’s first parliament and close to Trinity College, Obama said: “Ireland, you need to understand that you have already passed the world’s highest hopes. A dream has turned to a reality because of the work of this nation.” To the delight of thousands who continually chanted “Obama, Obama” even before he took to the podium at teatime, the president said: “This little country that inspired the biggest things – your best days are still ahead of you.” Obama also praised the work of the late taoiseach Dr Garret Fitzgerald, who died last week, for pioneering the peace process in Northern Ireland. At the start of a week when he seeks European help to resurrect the Middle East peace process, the president emphasised “how inspired we have been by the progress that has been made in Northern Ireland. Because it speaks to the possibilities of peace and people in long-standing struggles being able to re-imagine their relationships.” Referring to the pint of Guinness he drank earlier in a pub in Moneygall, Obama told his outdoor audience in Dublin: “I feel even more at home after that pint that I had. I feel even warmer.” While the crowds were kept off the route that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh travelled on through Dublin last week, Obama drew large numbers of adoring admirers. Thousands had queued patiently in the streets of central Dublin for a chance to see the president in the flesh from early Mondaymorning. They had to pass through security cordons controlled by sharply dressed US secret service officers in sunglasses who were standing at airport-style checkin centres. In one part of Dublin the crowds snaked past the city’s Olympia Theatre all the way back to Christchurch Cathedral and then back on to Dame Street. Among those waiting to pass through the security checks was Dubliner Aaron Heffernan who not only bore an uncanny resemblance to Obama but even dressed like the president in a long, black Crombie coat, black gloves with an American flag pinned to his lapel. Even his hair cut was the same. “I came here to get some inspiration as I want to stand for the presidency of Ireland this October,” the 21-year-old drama student said. Putting on his best Obama voice, Heffernan added: “Don’t say a 21-year-old can’t be president of Ireland. As the man would say himself – Yes we can!” The majority of those filing up towards the tented security area were children, young people and families, including a group of secondary school pupils from St.MacDarat’s school in south-west Dublin who admitted they had bunked off their lessons to see the president. On Dame Street, Yasmine Leonard, 16, said she had been waiting since 9am to get a chance to see Obama. “I think he is amazing and it’s educational for me to be here as I am learning something. It’s like a history lesson so I haven’t missed my studies,” she added. Her friend Phillipa Allen from the Greenhills district said she would rather see the president than Irish singing superstars Jedward, who were on the bill to entertain the waiting crowds before Obama took to the stage. “The president is far, far cooler than the Jeds,” she said. Barack Obama Ireland Europe Iceland volcano 2011 (Grimsvotn) Natural disasters and extreme weather Iceland United States Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Some 30,000 people—and climbing—have tweeted the identity of a soccer player in Britain who, looking to hush up rumors that he had an affair, got a gag order to prevent the media from revealing his name—meaning those Twitterers may now be in breach. It’s an increasingly…
Continue reading …A record 8,300 people in 13 states are on waiting lists for HIV and AIDS medications—and the true number could be much higher, advocates say. As states struggle with budget shortfalls, many are scaling back efforts to provide antiretrovirals and other drugs by eliminating waiting lists, reducing eligibility,…
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