Month: November 2020

Pressure is growing on President Emmanuel Macron’s government to abandon a provision in a draft bill curtailing the ability to publish photos or video of police, after big protests across France on Saturday. Demonstrators came out en masse in cities from Paris to Lyon, despite a month-old Covid-19 lockdown, in opposition to the government’s “general security” law that they said impinged on press freedom. The minister of the interior estimated crowds of 133,000 nationally, while organisers claimed 500,000. In Paris, there were 46,000 demonstrators, according to officials. The protests rivalled the size of the gilets jaunes movement’s early protests in... Read More

Cuban artists and activists staged a rare public protest in front of the culture ministry in Havana, demanding the release of a dissident rapper and an end to censorship and political repression in the country. The 200-strong demonstration started on Friday and continued into the night after police broke up an opposition hunger strike. It drew support from well-known cultural figures, including singer Carlos Varela, who called on the authorities for dialogue, while film-maker Fernando Perez quipped “it is time for a new language” before entering the ministry. The protest begged the question of whether Cuban cultural policy, based on... Read More

Global stocks were on track for their best month on record on Friday, propelled by a series of Covid-19 vaccine breakthroughs and optimism over Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election. MSCI’s index of developed and emerging markets has risen 13.3 per cent so far in November, with a gain of 0.5 per cent on Friday lifting the benchmark to an all-time record. At the start of a truncated session on Wall Street, in which US markets are open just half a day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9 per cent to a fresh intraday high. The rally reflects... Read More