Author: National Tone

The US city of Richmond, Virginia, once the capital of the Confederacy during the United States Civil War, has removed its last public statue commemorating a Confederate general. The statue of Confederate General AP Hill was removed on Monday, with a crane hoisting it off a monument and into a truck. The city has removed other statues memorialising members of the Confederacy, which fought a war to maintain the enslavement of Black people in the US. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney ordered the statues removed in 2020 as protests for racial justice swept the country following the murder of George Floyd,…

Read More

The French president delays the announcement of his divisive pension reform plans from this week to January.French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing back his presentation of a significant pensions overhaul denounced by labour unions, citing recent leadership changes at two opposition parties. The Greens and the right-wing Republicans have elected new chiefs, and Macron said on Monday he would consult them before unveiling details of the significant reform on January 10, instead of Thursday as planned. France’s Les Republicains, who could be a crucial partner in the reforms, elected Eric Ciotti, a staunch law-and-order conservative, as their new leader on…

Read More

Yan Bingtao, who won The Masters in 2021, becomes sixth Chinese player suspended by World Snooker this week amid ongoing match-fixing investigation; 22-year-old was due to play at English Open this week but has been withdrawn Last Updated: 12/12/22 1:21pm Former Masters champion Yan Bingtao has been suspended from the World Snooker Tour amid an ongoing investigation into match-fixing Former Masters champion Yan Bingtao has been suspended from the World Snooker Tour amid an ongoing investigation into match-fixing. World No 16 Bingato, who won the Masters at Alexandra Palace in January 2021, is the sixth Chinese player suspended in the…

Read More

England snatch a 26-run victory against Pakistan in the second Test in Multan to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead.Islamabad, Pakistan – England have beaten hosts Pakistan by 26 runs in their second cricket Test match to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. The English team won the five-day match by 26 runs on the fourth day on Monday, with its fast bowler Mark Wood taking four wickets in the second innings. England’s batsman Harry Brook was declared the player of the match for scoring 108 runs on Day 3, which ensured a formidable target of 355 runs…

Read More

Controversial armed group emerged from being a murky guns-for-hire enterprise to a public extension of the Russian military.The controversial private military company Wagner Group is in the news again as Ukrainian authorities say a number of its fighters were killed in an attack on a hotel in the city of Kadiivka, in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region. But who are Wagner Group? The private military company emerged publicly for the first time during Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014. There, Wagner fighters were reportedly among the so-called “little green men” – unidentified special forces – who occupied the region.…

Read More

Bali Governor Wayan Koster says authorities will not check the marital status of those checking in at tourist accommodations.Bali’s governor has insisted visitors should not worry about a controversial ban on sex outside of marriage, dismissing concerns Indonesia’s revised criminal code will throttle the recovery of the resort island’s lucrative tourism industry. Bali Governor Wayan Koster said in a statement on Sunday that people can only be prosecuted for sex outside of marriage following a complaint by a parent, spouse or child, a provision added to a stricter draft of the legislation to ensure “everyone’s privacy and comfortableness”. Wayan said…

Read More

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stepped up diplomacy over Russia’s invasion of his country, holding talks with the leaders of the United States, Turkey and France amid protracted fighting on the eastern front of the nine-month-old war. While Zelenskyy has held frequent talks with US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since Russian forces invaded in late February, it is unusual for him to hold such discussions over a single day. “We are constantly working with partners,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, adding that he expects some “important results” in the…

Read More

Croatia has already ended the World Cup dream of Brazil’s Neymar; now they hope to do the same to Argentina’s Lionel Messi. But, the Croat side will not attempt to stop the Argentina superstar by man-marking him, instead they will focus on immobilising the entire team in their World Cup semifinal on Tuesday, members of the team said. “We don’t have a specific plan yet for stopping Messi and usually we don’t concentrate on stopping one player but the entire team,” Croatia’s striker Bruno Petkovic told a news conference on Sunday. “We will try to stop them as a team…

Read More

Pioneering Black-American feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a community activist who toured the United States speaking with Gloria Steinem in the 1970s and who appears with her in one of the most iconic photos of the second-wave feminist movement, has died. She was 84. Hughes, also a child welfare advocate, died on December 1 in Tampa, Florida, at the home of her daughter, Delethia Ridley Malmsten, who said the cause was old age. Hughes and Steinem, a journalist and political activist, forged a powerful speaking partnership in the early 1970s, touring the country at a time when feminism was seen as…

Read More

Toronto Raptors wing O.G. Anunoby has been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Orlando Magic due to hip soreness. Anunoby was listed as questionable on the Raptors injury report on Saturday but was moved to out two hours before tip off. This is will be the first game that he has missed so far this season. The sixth-year wing is in the midst of the best season of his career, averaging 19.0 points and 5.8 rebounds, both career highs. He is also averaging a league-leading 2.4 steals per contest, pitting him in the midst of a potential DPOY candidacy.…

Read More