Month: April 2019

The knives are out for the improbable early star of the 2020 Democrat presidential contest. Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor from Indiana, has stunned his fellow candidates by surging into third place in some polls, having been unheard of only weeks ago. His meteoric rise has left flat-footed the shadowy political dirt-diggers who operate on…

Bangladesh’s marginalised transgender community has finally been granted the right to use their correct identity to register as a voter. Government officials have given full recognition to the hijras cultural status by creating a specialist "third gender" category on Bangladesh’s national voters list. Previously, the hijra community could only sign up to vote as men or women – but many avoided doing…

The US military sent two navy warships through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday in a move that risks adding to tensions between China and the international community over access to the strategic waterway.  The increasing frequency of US navy voyages through the 112-mile sea passage that separates Taiwan from China has raised objections from Beijing but…

Joe Biden pledged to restore dignity and respect to American workers as he used his first 2020 campaign stop to outline a pitch for winning back wavering Donald Trump voters.  Leaning into his "Middle Class Joe" nickname, the former US vice president spoke of a “broken” economy built by blue collar employees but only benefiting the rich. …

Perhaps unsurprisingly for the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy, the abdication of Emperor Akihito and the ascension of his son Crown Prince Naruhito will be shrouded in a series of ancient rituals and ceremonies as complex as they are mysterious. Forget fairytale crowns. A sword, a mirror and a jewel will instead play the most symbolic…

It was morning when fighters entered the halls of Tajoura detention centre, where Alec had been living more than five months, and ordered him to come with them.  Crammed in and locked up with hundreds of others, and only one meal a day, many of the other migrants and refugees lay listless and weak. He…

Spain’s political future was on a knife edge on Sunday night as polls closed and counting began in a general election marked by the emotive issue of Catalan separatism and the emergence of hard-Right party Vox. According to provisional results from the count after Sunday’s general election in Spain, it appeared that Spain’s conservative forces…

Europe’s biggest aquarium faces legal action over the deaths of 30 hammerhead sharks, which a marine conservation group alleges were mistreated. Sea Shepherd France announced at the weekend that it would file a lawsuit on Monday against the Nausicaá aquarium in the French port of Boulogne, near Calais. The last of the 30 sharks, which…

The teenage gunman who attacked a synagogue in San Diego, killing a woman and injuring three others, was the apparent author of an online manifesto in which he described himself as a martyr with a hatred for anyone seeking the ‘destruction" of the white race. On Sunday, as Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, described the attack…

Terror masterminds have been freed up to carry out further Sri Lanka-style attacks on tourists because they are no longer preoccupied with running the Islamic State, intelligence officials have told the Sunday Telegraph. Agencies are concerned that further holiday destinations are now vulnerable to so-called ‘terrorist spectaculars’ as a result of the collapse of the…