The United Kingdom is yet again engulfed in a civil war, and for once the issue causing conflict is not related to Brexit. This time it is a bitter squabble between the Scottish National Party (SNP) government in Edinburgh and the Conservative government in Westminster over a Scottish gender reform bill that is causing tremors across the British Isles. In December, lawmakers in the devolved Scottish Parliament voted to pass the Gender Recognition Bill, by 86 votes to 39, despite valiant opposition from feminists and other human rights campaigners. The bill effectively proposed a system of “self-identification” or “declaration” for…
Author: National Tone
Official slams Chinese balloon in US airspace as ‘unacceptable’ but says top American diplomat still plans to visit China when conditions allow.Washington, DC – Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a visit to China, the United States government has confirmed, calling the presence of an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon in American airspace as an “unacceptable” violation of its sovereignty. A senior Department of State official said on Friday that “conditions are not right” for a visit that was to start on Sunday due to the “irresponsible” balloon flight. China has apologised for the balloon entering US airspace, describing it…
Canada’s Bianca Andreescu advanced to the semifinal of the Thailand Open tennis tournament with a 6-0, 7-6 (3) win over Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk on Friday. Andreescu, the tournament’s top seed, has yet to drop a set at the event. She dominated the first set, winning 73.7 per cent of service points and 72.2 per cent of return points while breaking the fifth-seeded Kostyuk three times on four chances. The native of Mississauga, Ont., seemed poised for another easy set, but Kostyuk rallied form 5-1 down to take a 6-5 second-set lead. Kostyuk was more opportunistic than her opponent in the…
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the government will have to agree to International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout conditions that are “beyond imagination”. Sharif’s comments on Friday came after an IMF delegation landed in Pakistan this week for last-ditch talks to revive vital financial aid which has stalled for months. The government has held out against tax rises and subsidy-slashing demanded by the IMF, fearful of a backlash before elections due in October. “I will not go into the details but will only say that our economic challenge is unimaginable. The conditions we will have to agree to…
Josh Bohannon scored 57 as England Lions batted out the final day to draw with Sri Lanka A in the first unofficial Test in Galle.England were set 333 for victory after Sri Lanka A declared on 662-9 following a collapse of six wickets for eight runs from 654-3. The Lions were wobbling at 71-4 once Tom Abell (11) – named in the senior England team’s white-ball squads for the tour of Bangladesh in March – joined Alex Lees (1), skipper Haseeb Hameed (15) and Tom Haines (20) in being dismissed.Bohannon and Jack Haynes (43) steadied the innings with a fifth-wicket…
Weekend Winners is back and our expert Declan Rix is keen on a runner on either side of the Irish Sea ahead of a jam-packed Saturday of action. Red Rookie – 1:45 Sandown”I think he could be a very well-handicapped horse. I was looking at the Arkle declarations last year and was going ‘what the hell is Emma Lavelle doing running this lad here?!’ “I think he was rated 138 and he could’ve ran in the Grand Annual but he ran a cracker. He was about eight lengths behind Edwardstone before he fell at last, just standing off too far.”He’s…
Officials and witnesses say victims suffered from cold and hunger on board a vessel for refugees and migrants.A pregnant woman and four-month-old baby were among several victims who died on board a refugee and migrant vessel in the central Mediterranean, according to officials and witnesses. The Italian coastguard “recovered eight bodies, five men and three women” late on Thursday and 42 survivors were brought ashore, Filippo Mannino, mayor of the island of Lampedusa, told AFP. The exact toll of the tragedy is unclear. Italy’s ANSA news agency said rescue services intervened in Malta’s Search and Rescue (SAR) region to assist…
Musa Hasahya Kasera has so many children he can’t remember most of their names. The Ugandan villager is struggling to provide for his vast family, which he says includes 12 wives, 102 children and 578 grandchildren and now feels enough is enough. “At first it was a joke, … but now this has its problems,” the 68-year-old said at his homestead in the village of Bugisa in Butaleja district, a remote rural area of eastern Uganda. “With my health failing and merely two acres [0.8 hectares] of land for such a huge family, two of my wives left because I could not…
Years after a widely criticised United States policy known as “family separation” forcibly took refugee and migrant children away from their families at the US southern border, nearly 1,000 have yet to be returned. Officials said on Thursday that a task force created under President Joe Biden has reunited about 689 children with their families. Another 2,176 children were reconnected with their relatives before the task force’s creation, due in part to legal action by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). However, out of an estimated 3,881 children taken from their families between 2017 and 2021, a…
Hong Kong’s largest national security trial gets under way on Monday, with 47 pro-democracy activists and politicians standing trial for “conspiring to commit subversion” by organising an unofficial ballot of the public in 2020, days after a sweeping new security law had been imposed. Sixteen people are expected to plead not guilty, although that number could change by Monday as defendants weigh their options in relation to the potential sentences they might receive. Those charged include prominent activists “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Gordon Ng Ching-hang, who faces potential life imprisonment as one of five people accused of being a…