All posts tagged: President

A Restaurant Challenges Venezuela’s President by Selling Empanadas

A Restaurant Challenges Venezuela’s President by Selling Empanadas

Published by Sam

A car pulled up recently outside a modest restaurant in the state of Guárico in Venezuela’s sprawling savanna. The driver shouted from behind the wheel: “Are you the ones whose business was closed by the government? I want a picture with you!” Bounding out of the car, the man pulled close to Corina Hernández, 44, one of the owners of the restaurant. He snapped a selfie. “We are all outraged,” he told her. Corina and her sister Elys Hernández have emerged as unlikely political folk heroes just as Venezuela is heading into its most competitive election in years. Their transgression? Selling 14 breakfasts and a handful of empanadas to the country’s leading opposition figure. The government’s response came just hours later — an order forcing the sisters to temporarily shut down their business. Their case was shared widely on the internet, turning them into symbols of defiance for Venezuelans tired of the country’s authoritarian leaders. (The sisters have since gained a large online following well beyond Venezuela and have rebranded their products as “freedom empanadas.”) …

Former president Hollande makes surprise comeback in French election

Former president Hollande makes surprise comeback in French election

Published by Sam

Former French Socialist president Francois Hollande on Saturday said he will run for parliament again, the latest political twist after his successor Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly called snap legislative elections. Issued on: 15/06/2024 – 18:35Modified: 15/06/2024 – 22:41 3 min Macron’s dissolving of parliament after the French far right’s victory in European parliamentary elections has swiftly redrawn the lines of French politics. A new left-wing alliance has emerged and the main right-wing party’s leader has announced he is prepared to back an alliance with the far right, sparking in-fighting within his party. On Saturday, police estimated that a quarter of a million people protested across France against the prospect of the far right coming to power. But it is far from sure that the fortunes of the far right will diminish in the legislative elections. Hollande, France’s president from 2012-2017, left office with record levels of unpopularity. He is hated by parts of the radical left and even the Socialist leadership regards him with suspicion. He said he would stand as an MP for the southwestern …

South African President Ramaphosa set for re-election as DA gives backing | Politics News

South African President Ramaphosa set for re-election as DA gives backing | Politics News

Published by Sam

Cyril Ramaphosa is set for re-election as South Africa’s president after the country’s second biggest party said it would back the African National Congress (ANC) leader following a government coalition deal. The ANC, which came to power in 1994 after waging a decades-long battle against apartheid, lost its majority for the first time in last month’s election and has spent two weeks locked in intensive behind-the-scenes talks with other parties. As the newly elected parliament convened on Friday, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen said his white-led main opposition party formally signed a governing agreement with the ANC and part of it would make Ramaphosa president. “We will be supporting President Cyril Ramaphosa in his election for the president of the republic of South Africa,” Steenhuisen said during a pause in the opening session of parliament. Lawmakers are due to elect a president later in the day and the ANC and DA together have a majority of lawmakers that would see the 71-year-old return for a second term. In the May 29 polls, the AND gathered …

Mexico’s new president ran on climate goals. Will she follow through? | Mexico

Mexico’s new president ran on climate goals. Will she follow through? | Mexico

Published by skeptic

The month before Mexico’s 2 June presidential vote the country was bedeviled by water cuts and blackouts as a record heatwave took the country beyond red and into an ominous purple on the weather map. As dehydrated monkeys dropped dead from trees, the landslide victory of Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist, might look like salvation. But her record paints a more complicated picture – one where climate convictions have often, and may still, come second to political pragmatism. Sheinbaum will inherit a country that has slipped from frontrunner to laggard on climate policy – in part due to the policies of her predecessor and ally, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which she has promised to continue. López Obrador, who comes from the oil-rich state of Tabasco, prioritised “energy sovereignty” by growing the role of state companies and striving for self-sufficiency. This was manifested in a $17bn oil refinery and colossal injections of cash and tax cuts for Pemex, the most indebted state oil company in the world, and one of the biggest historical polluters. One result …

South Africa’s President Announces Intent to Form National Unity Government

South Africa’s President Announces Intent to Form National Unity Government

Published by Sam

Days after his African National Congress party faced historic losses at the polls, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said on Thursday that he will seek to form a government that includes a wide range of parties, some with starkly opposing views. Led by the A.N.C. since the fall of apartheid, South Africa has been in limbo since the watershed election on May 29 when voters punished the ruling party for failing to address issues like skyrocketing unemployment, regular power outages and high rates of crime. Over the next few days, a weakened A.N.C. will meet with opposition parties to carve out a deal to avoid a hung Parliament — one in which no party or coalition has a majority — in what Mr. Ramaphosa cast as an effort to bring stability to South Africa’s government. “We invite political parties to form a government of national unity as the best option to move our country forward,” Mr. Ramaphosa said in a news conference late on Thursday night. “This moment calls for the broadest unity of …

Exclusive: The Guardian interviews President Zelenskiy | Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Exclusive: The Guardian interviews President Zelenskiy | Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Published by skeptic

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, revealed the tactics and traits that help him face the daily frustrations of leading a country at war for more than two years. Within a ceremonial room inside Kyiv’s presidential compound, Zelenskiy spoke for nearly an hour with a Guardian team, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner. The interview took place during perhaps the toughest time for Ukraine since the early days of the war. Russia is on the offensive in Kharkiv, an advance that follows months of delay in the US Congress over the passing of a major support package, limiting Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities Source link

How macho Mexico got a female president before the U.S.

How macho Mexico got a female president before the U.S.

Published by Sam

MEXICO CITY — Mexico is famous for its macho culture. Women here didn’t win the right to vote for president until 1953 — three decades after their U.S. counterparts. As recently as nine years ago, there wasn’t a single female state governor. Yet Mexico has just elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in what was essentially a race between two women engineers. With 88 percent of the ballots counted Monday, Sheinbaum had 59 percent of the vote; Xóchitl Gálvez, her closest rival, had 28 percent. As the United States gears up for another two-man contest for the presidency — Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump — Mexico is eclipsing its northern neighbor on gender parity in government. Today, women hold half the seats in Mexico’s legislature — roughly double the percentage in the U.S. Congress. Women lead Mexico’s Supreme Court and central bank. While the United States has a record 12 female governors, Mexico will soon have 13, including four who won election Sunday. Female politicians and activists lobbied for years to force parties to …

What to Know About Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s Newly Elected President

What to Know About Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s Newly Elected President

Published by Sam

Claudia Sheinbaum’s list of accolades is long: She has a Ph.D in energy engineering, participated in a United Nations panel of climate scientists awarded a Nobel Peace Prize and governed the capital, one of the largest cities in the hemisphere. On Sunday, she added another achievement to her résumé: becoming the first woman elected president of Mexico. Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, captured at least 58 percent of the vote in a landmark election on Sunday that featured two women competing for the nation’s highest office — a groundbreaking contest in a country long known for a culture of machismo and rampant violence against women. “For the first time in 200 years of the republic, I will become the first female president of Mexico,” she said. “And as I have said on other occasions, I do not arrive alone. We all arrived, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.” Now that she has clinched the presidency, Ms. Sheinbaum’s next hurdle will be stepping out of the …

Claudia Sheinbaum elected Mexico’s first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum elected Mexico’s first female president

Published by Sam

MEXICO CITY — Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico’s first female president in a landslide on Sunday, an official quick count of votes showed, cementing the dominance of the left-leaning Morena movement that over the past six years has upended the country’s political establishment. Her victory stunned an opposition that’s accused Morena of weakening the country’s democratic institutions. The former Mexico City mayor led with more than 58 percent of the vote, according to the count released by the National Electoral Institute. Her triumph ensures another six years in power for Morena, founded 13 years ago by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a charismatic leader who has emphasized helping the poor. Sheinbaum, 61, an engineering professor and protégée of López Obrador, appeared likely to surpass even the massive number of votes he received in 2018, defeating her top rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, by a 2-1 margin. Morena and its allies also appeared close to winning a supermajority in Congress, which would allow them to change the constitution. Gálvez, a pro-business tech entrepreneur with Indigenous origins, called Sheinbaum …

Ruling leftist party candidate Sheinbaum elected Mexico’s first female president

Ruling leftist party candidate Sheinbaum elected Mexico’s first female president

Published by Sam

Climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum held an irreversible lead Sunday in the race that would make her Mexico’s first female president, according to an official quick count. The governing party candidate campaigned on continuing the political course set over the last six years by her political mentor President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. His anointed successor, the 61-year-old Sheinbaum led the campaign wire-to-wire despite a spirited challenge from opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez. This was the first time in Mexico that the two main opponents were women. Shortly before electoral authorities’ announcement, Gálvez wrote on the social platform X, “The votes are there. Don’t let them hide them.” Sheinbaum is unlikely to enjoy the kind of unquestioning devotion that López Obrador has enjoyed. Both belong to the governing Morena party. 04:08 In Mexico City’s main colonial-era main plaza, the Zocalo, Sheinbaum’s lead did not initially draw the kind of cheering, jubilant crowds that greeted López Obrador’s victory in 2018. Fernando Fernández, a chef, 28, joined the relatively small crowd, hoping for a Sheinbaum victory, but even he acknowledged …