Just like Italy in 1994, the US has elected a brash, attention-seeking, entrepreneur-turned-savior of the nation as head of its government. The uncanny similarities between Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi have prompted multiple parallelisms during the campaign—and now that the election is over, Italy’s experience continues to offer an important perspective.
Nikki Haley, Republican governor of South Carolina, has been nominated by Donald Trump as ambassador to the UN. She would replace Samantha Power as the only woman among the UN security council’s 15 members.
While president-elect Donald Trump promises to restrict abortion rights for American women, another leader with a worldwide stage has made an important step in the opposite direction: Pope Francis has announced that regular priests will now be able to forgive women for having abortions.
The term “mansplaining” has gained widespread currency in recent years, but there’s little to do about people who patronizingly lecture you in public or personal life—unless you’re Swedish. This week, Unionen, Sweden’s largest union, counting over 600,000 members, launched a new temporary service: a hotline that women and men can call to discuss patronizing remarks in the workplace.
Having won 51 seats in the US Senate, the Republican party’s control of that chamber is not in doubt. But the election isn’t over just yet. There’s still Louisiana, where one of the seats will be assigned in a runoff on Dec. 10.
At the New Yorker hotel in Manhattan on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton gave the speech no politician wants to give, conceding the 2016 presidential race to Donald Trump.
For a minute there, it did really look like history was in the making. The polls and the mood seemed aligned. The election night party Hillary Clinton had planned at the glass-ceilinged Jacob K. Javits convention center in New York City was filled with women—mothers and grandmothers and little girls wearing campaign logo pins.
With Hillary Clinton still the favorite to win the 2016 elections, the possibility that a woman will become president of the US seems closer than ever. But over the last month, the historic importance of having a woman hold the most powerful office in the world has been overshadowed by Donald Trump’s sexism. The conversation moved from empowerment and feminism to having to explain why it is not OK to objectify and assault women. Even so, Hillary Clinton remains, as she likes to say, the biggest crack in the glass ceiling, no matter the outcome of the race.
I always hated running.
Beyoncé came out to campaign for Hillary Clinton, who she hasn’t officially endorsed, at a campaign event tonight (Nov. 4).
In a US political climate filled with conspiracy theories—whether about Hillary Clinton’s body double running her campaign or Donald Trump’s supposed desire to drop out of the election at the eleventh hour—there’s another secret storyline staring us right in the face, and comedian Samantha Bee is on it: Trump can’t read.
The American football player Colin Kaepernick has gotten both criticism and praise for his refusal to stand while the national anthem is being played before NFL games. His protest, against racism and the oppression of people of color in the US, has sparked debate and become an example to other athletes, including student players.
For months, Native Americans and environmental activists have been protesting the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The protest at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation (which encompasses parts of North and South Dakota) is centered around two concerns with the pipeline’s proposed construction: its environmental impact of (some say it will threaten the safety of drinking water in the area) its desecration of native culture (some members of the Standing Rock Sioux say would deface a sacred burial ground.)
After all this time on air, it was to be expected that this season of America would be somewhat disappointing. But this is getting out of hand.
In the span of about a month between early October and early November, about 14 million people around the world will have applied for a “diversity immigrant visa” to the US. Only 0.3% of them will be successful.
With over two months to go till the end of the year, 2016 is already the deadliest year on record for the number of deaths among migrants in the Mediterranean. As of Oct. 27, 3,930 migrants and refugees died while crossing the Mediterranean, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. That is 160 more deaths than in all of 2015.
These days, the director of The Avengers is after a new kind of hero: voters. Since mid-September, Joss Whedan has been releasing a series of ads reminding Americans of the importance of participating in the democratic process, and asking them to “Save the Day”—i.e. get to their polling place on election day.
Since 2007, the percentage of Italians living in poverty has more than doubled from 3.1% to 7.6%. Now over 7.5 million Italians live in poverty, and it’s the younger generations that are suffering most.
This morning (Oct. 24) French authorities began evacuating the so-called “Jungle,” one of Europe’s largest migrant camps, which until today had been the temporary home to about 8,000.
During the final US presidential debate, thanks to focused moderating by Chris Wallace, the country finally had a chance to hear Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump explain some of their positions on important policy matters. However, in all three debates, despite efforts by the moderators to get the candidates to actually answer hard questions, both Clinton and Trump routinely managed to dodge the more uncomfortable ones.
Towards the end of the final presidential debate, the candidates were asked questions about foreign policy. Specifically, the moderator Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump to clarify a few statements he had made about the siege of Aleppo, in Syria, during the second presidential debate. Wallace asked Trump:
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both came into the 2016 US presidential debates with a good amount of personal baggage—namely Clinton’s emails and Wall Street speeches, and Trump’s tax records and comments about women. Just how much attention did these topics siphon away from the discussion about matters of public policy?
As the US presidential campaign of 2016 draws closer to an end, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump faced off at their third and final debate, moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.
Some of Donald Trump’s supporters, confronted with evidence of his misogyny and abusive behavior towards women, have tried to argue that these types of “private” comments wouldn’t affect his decision-making once elected.
