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First published on By Chris Ogden, University of Auckland associate professor in Global Studies* Trump's victory thus marks the amplification of a deeply autocratic era in global politics, says an Auckland University professor. Photo: AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV Comment - The election of Donald Trump for his second presidential term has led to widespread fears of an imminent authoritarian descent in the United States. Quite how that might play out remains speculative, for now at least. But evidence from Trump's first term, as well as his campaign policies and cabinet nominations since the election, suggest those fears are not without foundation. Another way of looking at this, however, is that Trump's return simply echoes realities within the internati...

By Marc Leras for Reuters Gisele Pelicot, 71, could have demanded the trial be kept behind closed doors, but instead asked for it be held in public. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP French prosecutors asked for the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who organised the repeated mass rape of his then-wife by knocking her unconscious with drugs and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her in the family home. Pelicot, 71, has admitted the charges in a trial that attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence in France and beyond. Fifty other men also stand trial for participating in the sex acts. The prosecutors, who will over the next two days say what sentences they seek against the co-accused, rejected the arguments ...

File photo. A section of the Red Sea coastline. Photo: 123RF Egyptian authorities rescued 28 people after a tourist boat sank off its Red Sea coast, the Red Sea Governorate said in a statement on Monday, as a search continued for the 17 remaining passengers and crew. The boat, Sea Story, was carrying 45 people, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 14 crew, on a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam, according to a separate statement by the governorate. Egyptian armed forces frigates and aircraft swept the area to try to locate the missing, but by 5pm (1500 GMT) the search had been paused for the night, a government source said. The governorate said a distress call was received at 5.30am and that the boat had departed from Porto Ghalib ...

File photo. Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Nevada in September 2024. Photo: AFP US special counsel Jack Smith is dropping the federal election subversion and the mishandling of classified documents cases against President-elect Donald Trump, seeking the cases' dismissal in court filings Monday. Trump has said he would fire Smith once he retook the office, shattering previous norms around special counsel investigations. "The (Justice) Department's position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated," Smith wrote in a six-page filing with the US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, regarding the election subversion case. "This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant." Smit...

By Maayan Lubell and Laila Bassam for Reuters Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike struck the southern suburbs of Beirut on November 9 2024. Photo: Nael Chahine A senior Israeli official said on Monday Israel's cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, and a Lebanese official said Beirut had been told by Washington that an accord could be announced "within hours". Israeli officials had said earlier that a deal to end the war was getting closer though some issues remained, while two senior Lebanese officials voiced guarded optimism even as Israeli strikes pounded Lebanon anew. US news website Axios, citing an unnamed senior US official, said Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the terms of a deal, and a senior Israeli official told Reuters Tuesday's meet...