A country known for welcoming newcomers has reversed policy as immigration becomes increasingly a partisan issue
Standing in Canada’s House of Commons in 2023, the then-prime minister, Justin Trudeau, gave an impassioned speech on the value of welcoming newcomers.
“Canadians know that immigration is one of our greatest assets. It helps us compete,” he said. “If we want to boost our economic success significantly, we need to boost immigration.”
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© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
White elephant parties – in which people are invited to steal each other’s gifts – are the last thing we need right now
Happy forced frivolity season! We have once again arrived at the eye of the storm for the holidays, where cheerfulness is mandatory and lack of goodwill towards people is punishable by stoning in the town square. Surely, I don’t have to tell you that such quaint human emotions as “happiness” and “hope” are in short supply these days. This year, of all years, no one should be blamed for plugging their ears any time Mariah Carey comes on in the lobby of the unemployment office. And yet, we carry on with the rituals of joy that seem more and more incongruous, when life feels like some never-ending episode of MTV’s Ridiculousness, where God comments on clips of the human race getting hit in the face with a plastic baseball bat.
I’m certainly making an effort to put on a pleasant facade. I’ve cobbled together some nice gifts for my friends and family. I say hello to strangers, even the ones that look like they might want to deny me my basic rights as outlined in the US constitution. And I say yes to just about every holiday party invite – save for one massive exception.
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
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© Photograph: NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
© Photograph: NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
© Photograph: NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
Streams of soil turn sand and surrounding water red, creating sharp contrast with blue waters of Persian Gulf
Rainfall on Iran’s Hormuz Island briefly transformed the coastline of its Red Beach into a striking natural scene this week, as red soil flowed into the sea and turned the water shades of deep red.
The beach is known for its vivid red sand and cliffs, created by high concentrations of iron oxide.
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© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
Sainsbury’s, Barclays and University College London have all drawn on themes created by IWD site run by London business with no link to UN
Nobody owns International Women’s Day, but if you asked the 193 countries, countless businesses and NGOs that mark it each year, they would probably agree it has been popularised, defined and formalised by the United Nations.
The owner of the website “internationalwomensday.com”, a London-based marketing firm, disagrees. By selling merchandise, promoting a £160 lunch to awaken attenders’ “inner goddess” and creating a series of corporate partnerships, it has also seeded its annual themes with British brands and institutions that appear to have mistaken the site for the UN, the Guardian can reveal.
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© Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
© Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
Justice department must release most documents by Friday, and failure to do so would provoke a firestorm
In less than 48 hours, Donald Trump’s justice department must release most of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein in its possession. Last month, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of those materials by 19 December, except in narrow cases where they would jeopardize current investigations, harm national security or foreign policy goals, or reveal information about Epstein’s victims.
Since Trump signed the legislation, his administration has been silent on its progress. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked Pam Bondi, the attorney general, for a briefing on the department of justice’s progress, but she did not provide one. Two Democratic senators among that group subsequently pledged to block some civilian nominees, because they were concerned the administration “is gearing up to disregard the law we led the fight in the Senate to pass, which overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress”.
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© Illustration: Guardian Design/Photo by Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
© Illustration: Guardian Design/Photo by Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
© Illustration: Guardian Design/Photo by Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
The US host city’s resolve in maintaining its ‘Pride Match’ should be commended as exactly the sort of thing this tournament is for
There are two World Cups. The product, marketed and monetized for all it will yield, and the experience.
Only one of those is the real thing. And in one case, it’s holding strong. In Seattle, the local organizing committee long ago designated the 26 June game slated for Lumen Field as the “Pride Match” to mark the city’s LGBTQ+ pride weekend celebration.
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© Photograph: Steph Chambers/Getty Images
© Photograph: Steph Chambers/Getty Images
© Photograph: Steph Chambers/Getty Images
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