The gleaming white booth towered over the medical conference in Italy in October, advertising a new brand of antidote for opioid overdoses. “Be prepared. Get naloxone. Save a life,” the slogan on its walls said.Some conference attendees were stunned when they saw the company logo: Mundipharma, the international affiliate of Purdue Pharma — the maker of the blockbuster opioid, OxyContin, widely blamed for unleashing the American overdose epidemic.Here they were cashing in on a cure.“You’re in the business of selling medicine that causes addiction and overdoses, and now you’re in the business of selling medicine that treats addiction and overdoses?” asked Dr. Andrew Kolodny, an outspoken critic of Purdue who has testified against the company in court. “That’s pretty clever, isn’t it?”As Purdue Pharma buckles under a mountain of litigation and public protest in the United States, its foreign affiliate, Mundipharma, has expanded abroad, using some of the same tactics to sell the addictive opioids that made its owners, the Sackler family, among the richest in the world. Mundipharma is also pushing another strategy globally: From Europe to Australia, it is working to dominate the market for opioid overdose treatment.“The way that they’ve pushed their opioids initially and now coming up with the expensive kind of antidote -- it’s something that just strikes me as deeply, deeply cynical,” said Ross Bell, executive director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation and a longtime advocate of greater naloxone availability. “You’ve got families devastated by this, and a company who sees dollar signs flashing.”___This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.___Mundipharma’s antidote, a naloxone nasal spray called Nyxoid, was recently approved in New Zealand, Europe and Australia. Mundipharma defended it as a tool to help those whose lives are at risk, and even experts who criticize the company say that antidotes to opioid overdoses are badly needed. Patrice Grand, a spokesman for Mundipharma Europe, said in a statement that heroin is the leading cause of overdose death in European countries and nasal naloxone is an important treatment option.Injectable naloxone has long been available; it is generic and cheap. But Mundipharma’s Nyxoid is the first in many countries that comes pre-packaged as a nasal spray — an easier, less threatening way for those who witness an overdose to intervene. Nyxoid, which isn’t sold in the U.S., is more expensive than injectable naloxone, running more than $50 a dose in some European countries. A similar product manufactured by another pharmaceutical company has been available for years in the U.S. under the brand name Narcan.Critics say Nyxoid’s price is excessive, particularly when inexpensive naloxone products already exist. Grand declined to say how much Nyxoid costs Mundipharma to manufacture or how profitable it has been.The Sackler family’s pharmaceutical empire has long considered whether it might make money treating addiction, according to lawsuits filed against Purdue and the family. In the U.S., Purdue Pharma called its secret proposal Project Tango, the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York have alleged, and discussed it in a September 2014 conference call that included family member Kathe Sackler. In internal documents, the lawsuits allege, Purdue illustrated the connection they had publicly denied between opioids and addiction with a graphic of a blue funnel. The top end was labeled “Pain treatment.” The bottom: “opioid addiction treatment.” The slideshow said they had an opportunity to become an “end-to-end provider” — opioids on the front end, and addiction treatment on the back end.“It is an attractive market,” the staff wrote, according to the Massachusetts complaint. “Large unmet need for vulnerable, underserved and stigmatized patient population suffering from substance abuse, dependence and addiction.”In its response to the court, the family’s lawyers wrote that the plan was put forward by a third-party private equity fund as a potential joint venture and “at the very most, Project Tango was mentioned in passing on a few occasions and the proposal was subsequently abandoned.” A press release issued by the Sacklers said no member of the family or board had an active role in the presentations or supported the proposal, and called the lawsuits “sensationalized” and “misleading.” Purdue declined to comment.New York’s lawsuit alleges that in 2015, Project Tango was presented to Purdue’s board as a joint venture to sell the addiction medication suboxone that could become the “market lead in the addiction medicine space.” The presentation highlighted the sales opportunity in opioid addiction: 40 to 60 percent who went through treatment would relapse and need it again.Project Tango stalled. It was revised the next year with a new plan to sell naloxone, the lawsuits allege.Publicly, Purdue was denying that its painkillers caused the addiction epidemic. But in internal communications, the company described naloxone as a “strategic fit” and a “complementary” product to the prescription opioids they were already selling, the Massachusetts attorney general said. Purdue calculated that the need for overdose reversal medication was increasing so rapidly, potential revenue could triple from 2016 to 2018.The lawsuit alleges that Purdue identified its own painkiller patients as a target market for naloxone — and that it could use its sales force already visiting doctors to promote opioids to also promote overdose reversal medication. They saw potential profits in government efforts to expand access to naloxone to stem the tide of overdose deaths, a toll that has soared to 400,000 since the American epidemic began. Project Tango fizzled in the U.S.; the family’s press release said Purdue’s board rejected it.But half a world away, in Australia, Mundipharma embarked on an effort to promote naloxone that was sweeping and effective. As part of an Australian coroner’s investigation last year into six fatal opioid overdoses in New South Wales state, Mundipharma submitted a 15-page document touting the benefits of naloxone. If people around the overdose victims had had access to naloxone, the company wrote, many of those deaths may have been avoided. At the same time, Mundipharma was registering Nyxoid in Australia, a fact it acknowledged within its submission.In the document, the company suggested that officials change the country’s laws to allow for easier access to naloxone, get naloxone into needle exchange programs, detox centers and supervised injecting clinics, and establish a national, free take-home naloxone program.“The Coroner should consider what is needed to realise the full public health benefits of this essential medicine,” Mundipharma wrote.During the coroner’s inquest, Mundipharma sent a staffer to court to testify about the benefits of naloxone nasal spray. According to a transcript, Mundipharma’s Medical Affairs Director, Brian Muller, came to court with samples of naloxone products, including Nyxoid.Health and addiction experts also praised the drug’s life-saving potential. In her written findings delivered in March, Coroner Harriet Grahame agreed that naloxone should be more widely distributed and Nyxoid given to the state’s paramedics, police agencies, doctors and hospital emergency departments.Mundipharma also paid for a drug policy institute’s study on naloxone that the federal government ultimately used as a blueprint for a 10 million Australian dollar ($6.8 million) pilot program to distribute naloxone, including Nyxoid. And in October, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that Australia’s government would subsidize Nyxoid prescriptions, meaning it costs Australians as little as AU$6.50 ($4.50) per pack, versus around AU$50 without the subsidy.Asked in an interview whether the government had any concerns about following the recommendations of a Mundipharma-funded report that stood to benefit the company financially, Hunt replied: “All of the advice is that this is a product that will save lives and protect lives and our approach is to be fearless of the source of the product.” In a statement, Mundipharma Australia denied its Nyxoid push in the country had any connection to, or was influenced in any way, by Purdue’s Project Tango.“Mundipharma Australia and Purdue Pharma are independent companies,” the Australian company wrote. “Mundipharma Australia introduced Nyxoid to help meet a clear clinical need.”Grand, the spokesman for Mundipharma Europe, also rejected any link between the company’s Nyxoid strategy and Project Tango, saying that the European company and Purdue have separate managements, boards and strategies.In some countries, including Norway, Nyxoid is the only nasal naloxone product approved, said Thomas Clausen, a professor at the University of Oslo in Norway who runs the nation’s naloxone program. Clausen is happy that Nyxoid is available, but not that a company profiting from mass marketing opioids is now trying to profit again off opioid addiction.“It’s kind of a paradox,” he said.Clausen said he hopes other companies will enter the market, and that competition will drive down cost. In its basic, generic form, Clausen said, naloxone is so cheap that the United Nations launched a pilot program in central Asian countries providing injectable naloxone at a cost of around $1 per kit. Some critics argue that Mundipharma should be providing a cheaper — or even free — naloxone product, although Nyxoid’s cost is not remarkable when compared to the exorbitant price of many prescription drugs in the U.S. The most common nasal antidote in the U.S. retails for more than $100, double what most Europeans pay for Nyxoid.Still, in some countries, Nyxoid’s price could prove problematic.Pernilla Isendahl runs a naloxone distribution program in a county in south Sweden that began in June 2018, when Nyxoid came onto the market. Each kit costs the government 450 Swedish Krona ($47.)The project is expected to run for at least three years, and she hopes after that the county will continue to pay for the medication, despite budget constraints.“I can’t really see how it would be financed by the people themselves, at the price it is now,” she said.In the United Kingdom, Nyxoid is being distributed by a handful of charities, said Peter Furlong, coordinator of British charity Change Grow Live’s Nyxoid distribution pilot program in Manchester. Furlong is pleased more people now have access to the medicine, but it still costs more than injectable naloxone. Furlong said he asked Mundipharma if they could reduce the drug’s price for the charity’s pilot, which began in August, but Mundipharma told him it was too early to talk discounts.Grand, the spokesman for Mundipharma Europe, said the company was working closely with charities and addiction organizations to identify the best ways to make the drug available to those who may benefit from it. Nyxoid’s price reflects the company’s investment, manufacturing cost and the value of the technology, while recognizing the “prevailing financial pressures that exist within care sectors,” he said.Stephen Wood, a fellow at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics who studied how pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. raised prices on naloxone products as the addiction epidemic intensified, says that Sackler-owned companies manufacturing naloxone have an ethical duty to make it widely available. “If they were trying to find a solution, they would just distribute naloxone for free,” he said. “They could use all that money they made off opioids to help support a program where they are giving away this life-saving medication.”___The Global Opioids project can be seen here: https://www.apnews.com/GlobalOpioids

Benoît Martin, a leading union official with the leftist CGT, which is leading the charge on the strike, framed it as all about Mr. Macron himself. “It expresses a sort of resistance to Macron’s power,” Mr. Martin said.True, Mr. Macron’s plans by themselves spark fear in a nervous France demanding more security, not less. The current pension system is one of the world’s most protective, for all its flaws. Many French are asking why a plan of uncertain contours and outcomes should be substituted for it.But Mr. Macron argues that the current byzantine system is both unaffordable and unfair. It could be headed for a deficit of about $19 billion, and its disparities allow workers in some sectors to retire years ahead of others. While Mr. Macron is not proposing to spend less on pensions or to make people retire later, he aims to simplify the system, raising fears that he will reshuffle its winners and losers.The pension plan is not the first of Mr. Macron’s reforms to face resistance. His changes to the status of the country’s railway workers and revamping of France’s voluminous labor code met similarly fierce protests on the street. Some of those changes made it easier to hire and fire workers and have helped nudge down a stubborn unemployment rate that once hovered around 10 percent to about 8.4 percent this year. Yet for many French the perceived benefits don’t outweigh the feeling of insecurity they have introduced.Beyond that there is striking disaffection with the way Mr. Macron goes about presenting himself and his ideas.

More than 800,000 people have marched in cities across France as railway workers, teachers and hospital staff held one of the biggest public sector strikes in decades against Emmanuel Macron’s plans to overhaul the pension system.A nationwide transport strike brought much of France to a standstill and was expected to continue for the next few days as unions dug in, saying the president’s pension changes would force millions of people to work longer or receive lower payments.Trains, metros and bus services were severely hit, some flights were cancelled and many schools were closed in the biggest challenge to Macron’s reform agenda since the gilets jaunes (yellow vest) anti-government protests erupted last year.In Paris, police briefly fired teargas during skirmishes with black-clad protesters on the edges of the trade union-led march in the early afternoon. Some protesters set fire to a storage trailer, smashed windows and a bus shelter, and overturned cars. Firefighters put out small fires lit in bins.More than 6,000 riot police lined the route of the demonstration from Paris Gare du Nord to the east of the city, while groups of officers stopped people walking towards the demonstration and searched bags. By late afternoon there had been more than 70 arrests and 9,000 searches.Riot police in Nantes, western France, fired teargas at masked protesters, who hurled projectiles at them.The Paris march included hospital staff, electricity workers, firefighters, teachers and school pupils as well as gilets jaunes protesters who had taken part in blockades on roundabouts earlier this year. Banners read: “Macron out.”Isabelle Jarrivet, 52, who had worked as an administrator in a town hall north of Paris for 20 years, said: “It’s a question of life or death for the French social system, which Macron is dismantling. We’re being taken back to a time before 1945, where we risk losing the social safety net. Private pension funds are waiting in the wings to benefit.”She added: “The gilets jaunes protests got people thinking and talking more about politics and people determined not to let things pass. You can feel a defiant mood in the air.”The standoff is a crucial test for the centrist president, whose planned overhaul of the pensions system was a key election promise. Macron’s office said he was following events closely “with calm and determination”.The government argues that unifying the pensions system – and getting rid of the 42 “special” regimes for sectors ranging from rail and energy workers to lawyers and Paris Opera staff – is crucial to keep the system financially viable as the population ages. But unions say introducing a universal system for all will mean millions of workers in both the public and private sectors must work beyond the legal retirement age of 62 or face a severe drop in the value of their pensions.The row cuts to the heart of Macron’s presidential project and his pledge to deliver the biggest transformation of the French social model and welfare system since the postwar era. Since his election in 2017, Macron has leaned towards a Nordic style of “flexi-security” in which the labour market is loosened and the focus is on changing from a rigid work code to a society of individuals moving between jobs.While many voters agree the pensions system should be changed, they are not sure the pro-business president can be trusted to do it. A recent Ifop poll found 76% of people back pensions reform, but 64% do not trust the government to pull it off.Public transport unions said they would extend their strike until at least Monday, after 90% of TGV and regional trains were cancelled and nearly all lines on the Paris metro were affected.Sandrine Berger, an engineering lecturer at a Paris university and a representative for the leftwing CGT union, said: “This is about protecting public services, which are being chipped away and turned towards an American model of privatisation.”She criticised the government for suggesting public sector workers were privileged. With two PhDs, a 26-year career and a senior job running a department of 70 people, Berger said she earned €2,200 (£1,860) a month before tax, including bonuses.Grégory Chaillou, a fire officer, said: “We’ll see this through to the end. The public understands the need to support public services and workers.”As commuters in Paris turned to using bikes and scooters, the environmental group Extinction Rebellion claimed responsibility for the sabotage of 3,600 electric scooters in Paris and other French cities, saying the green image of the fashionable gadgets hid an “ecologically catastrophic” reality.Extinction Rebellion said it had sabotaged the scooters, including more than 2,000 in Paris as well as in Bordeaux and Lyon, by obscuring the QR codes that riders use to unlock them with their smartphones.“Contrary to their reputation as a ‘soft’ or ‘green’ way of getting around, the electric scooters are ecologically catastrophic,” the group said in a statement on its French Facebook page. Topics France Protest Emmanuel Macron Europe news

Media player Media playback is unsupported on your device Video Protests turn violent at France's pension strike France's nationwide strike has disrupted schools and transport.Many union workers, including teachers, transport workers, hospital staff and some police are unhappy about the planned reforms that would see them retiring later or facing reduced payouts.President Emmanuel Macron wants to introduce a universal points-based pension system which made some union leaders vow to strike until he abandons his campaign.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to overhaul his country’s pension system sparked a massive strike in France this week, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets. Photo: Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA/Shutterstock By Updated Dec. 5, 2019 1:48 pm ET PARIS—Cities across France were paralyzed by a massive public transport strike against a planned overhaul of France’s pensions system, in a test of President Emmanuel Macron’s resolve to modernize the economy. Trains, including the high-speed line between Paris and London, subways and buses were severely curtailed if not halted altogether. Hundreds of flights were canceled. Many schools, and nurseries remained closed, while several museums, including the Louvre, said parts of their collections might not open. Even the Eiffel... To Read the Full Story Subscribe Sign In

PARIS — One protest movement started a year ago in France and drew hundreds of thousands at its peak to roundabouts across the country in angry “Yellow Vest” demonstrations against planned increases in gas taxes. Another — a nationwide strike expressing fury over President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to overhaul the pension system — began this past week. On Saturday, it continued to paralyze parts of the country.Even as the strength of the long-running Yellow Vest protests has dissipated over the year, the movement’s simmering anger at the president has run smack dab this weekend into the latest turmoil over his pension plans.Both events have harnessed broader discontent with the policies of Mr. Macron, who is viewed both by both Yellow Vests and labor activists as arrogant and disconnected from their daily struggles. At their most violent, the Yellow Vest protests saw people break shop windows, the police fire tear gas and rubber bullets and Mr. Macron consider a state of emergency.More Yellow Vest rallies were expected in Paris and other cities on Saturday, and so were traditional union demonstrations against unemployment. But the size and impact of both are uncertain. And though neither is directly tied to the pension demonstrations, both could get a boost from the latest social unrest. On Saturday, about a thousand Yellow Vest protesters marched from the Economy Ministry to southern Paris. The demonstration was mostly calm, despite brief scuffles with the police, who fired tear gas. A separate union protest gathered in the Montparnasse neighborhood, while labor activists also demonstrated in cities like Marseille and Caen.There is little sign of any coordination among any of those causes: The Yellow Vests — named for the fluorescent emergency gear that all French drivers must have in their vehicles — are largely leaderless and the union rallies are held annually on the first Saturday of December. But the pension fight has given new energy to both movements, and some Yellow Vests took part in this past week’s labor marches, a stark contrast to last year, when they rejected unions as inefficient and archaic.And the government was gearing up for more protests in the coming week. Labor unions have called for huge street demonstrations on Tuesday, the day before Prime Minister Édouard Philippe is expected to unveil fresh details of the pension plans. Mr. Macron has promised to standardize 42 public and private pension schemes into one state-managed, point-based plan. But for many protesters, nothing less than the future of their vaunted social safety net is at stake. Many fear losing money and having to work longer before retiring.The protests have already unleashed days of public transportation chaos that halted trains and led to canceled flights.On Saturday, the impact of the continuing strike was limited, since weekday workers did not have to commute. But train traffic was still heavily disrupted across France, and some businesses have started expressing worries that the strike could affect Christmas shopping.“This new movement and the risk of continuing strikes are a further hard blow for shopkeepers who were already seriously affected by one year of the Yellow Vest movement,” said Yohann Petiot, the head of the Alliance du Commerce trade group, in a statement. Only one in six scheduled high-speed trains was running, and in Paris, nine out of 16 metro lines remained shut down. Unrelated protests by truck drivers over fuel tax hikes worsened the disruptions, as trucks were used to block highways and tollbooths, slowing traffic to a crawl in places like Normandy and the Toulouse region. France’s national railway company, S.N.C.F., warned residents of Paris and its suburbs that crowds at some regional express stations on Monday could be “dangerous” because there were expected to be five times fewer commuter trains. “S.N.C.F. is asking those who can to cancel their trips,” the company said on Twitter. Labor unions, expecting a protracted struggle against the government, have activated strike funds to mitigate the loss of income for striking workers. Some supporters of the protesters have also started fund-raising campaigns. One was even started on Twitch, the video game streaming platform, where a collective of streamers and artists have vowed to keep broadcasting games, artwork and political discussions as long as the strike continued. The stream has raised more than 33,000 euros, nearly $36,500, so far. “It is not always possible to take to the streets or to go on strike,” the collective said on the website for the project. It added that it was important to “invent new spaces for mobilization and other ways of accompanying the movement.” (The French government has had similar ideas.) Mr. Philippe lamented in a televised address on Friday the spread of “fake news” about the pension overhaul.He specifically blamed a number of “simulators” that some unions have put online to show people how they would be affected by the changes, under which workers would accumulate points over the course of their careers and cash them in when they retire. Noting that the details of the plan had yet to be unveiled, he said that such simulators “correspond to nothing.” But the lack of clarity from the government has left many people in France fearful that their pensions will be diminished. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, said on Saturday that the “real problem” for French workers was that they retired “too late” and “too poor.”“We have three days left to put the maximum amount of pressure so that it gives up on the idea of a point-based retirement system,” Mr. Mélenchon, speaking to reporters in Marseille, said of the government.

Workers across France are striking as part of a national wave of industrial action, that has seen protests against reforms to the state pension system. Train and bus drivers, air traffic controllers, energy workers, truck drivers, teachers, students, police officers, lawyers, judges, and street cleaners are all threatening to stay off work for an indefinite period from December 5. French rail transport is being hit hard, with 82% of drivers on strike and at least 90% of regional trains cancelled. In Paris, 11 out of 16 metro lines have shut completely. In other sectors, 30% of domestic flights have been cancelled and 70% of primary teachers are on strike, which means around 40% of schools are closed. Truck drivers planned to blockade roads and tollbooths. The strikes are against government plans to remove 42 “special” pension schemes and switch to a universal points-based pension system for all workers, public and private. The finer details of the reforms are still unclear, but the direction points towards workers having to work for longer, with less generous pensions when they retire. The reform would mean pensions are based on a career average rather than a final salary calculation, as it currently is. And workers would have to accumulate a number of points (based on time worked) in order to start taking their pension. Under current pension regimes, some workers such as train drivers can take their pension from the age of 52, which was originally seen as compensation for tough working conditions such as difficult hours and shift work. The changes would mean a rise in the retirement age, currently to 62, and would end differential treatment. Over the last 15 years, France has introduced radical changes into its labor law, which has accelerated under Macron. He was elected in 2017 with a clear manifesto to reform, and put a halt to, the “régimes spéciaux” (special employment schemes) that exist mainly in France’s public sector, which has more advantageous employment rights than the private sector. In 2018 the government was able to push through reforms to change the protected status of railway workers. There was a showdown but the government won this battle. Now, it is looking to carry through one of the most controversial reforms set out by Macron. His government is holding firm, saying that the changes “will go through because they are necessary and fair”.French trade unions have had several battles with the government in the last 15 years, but apart from protests in 2006—which halted the introduction of a new employment contract for young workers—governments have managed to push through changes to the labor market. The inability of railway workers to stop Macron’s reforms in 2018 was a big defeat for trade unions. But in the current strike, railway workers have been joined by a number of other public and private sector groups, which strengthens the movement and lends itself more to public sympathy. The scale of the strike has been compared to the movement in 1995, also against pension reform, which forced the government of then prime minister Alan Juppé to reverse plans to change the system. Since the emergence of the yellow vests in November 2018, some argue that this has given workers a renewed confidence in the effectiveness of collective action. The yellow vest movement proved that protesting could still make the government back down. While the movement has dissipated somewhat and the demands have become more fragmented, the underlying sense of injustice has not. This provides a perfect set of conditions for a mass protest movement to emerge. Despite a stereotype of its being a heavily unionized nation, France has one of the lowest levels of trade union membership density among OECD countries. Only around 8% of workers are members of a union. But trade unions in France are still embedded in a number of institutions and 90% of workers are covered by a collective agreement, which means most workers terms and conditions are regulated by agreement between employers and trade unions. Unions also benefit from a high level of worker representation in organizations. Elected representatives participate and negotiate at all levels of organizations and enjoy a legal framework for employee representation that is the envy of trade unions in other countries such the UK, including a right to strike enshrined in the French constitution. Nonetheless, the current strikes are a test of strength for the French trade union movement, which has been more defensive since the 2008 economic crisis. It reflects a return to the more radical history of French unions, fighting to improve and maintain worker rights. They have long seen it as their responsibility to neutralize what they view as a neoliberal project, which aims to reduce employment protections and increase labor market flexibility and employer discretion in the workplace. And to defend the hard won rights (“aquis sociaux”)—like decent pensions—that public sector workers enjoy. But they are faced with a French government and president intent on carrying out the reforms that are central to their mandate.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

PARIS (Reuters) - Truckers blocked roads in about 10 regions around France on Saturday to protest against a planned reduction in tax breaks on diesel for road transport, while train and metro services remained heavily disrupted by a strike against pension reform. Protesters wearing yellow vests demonstrate during their 56th round of protests with a backdrop of social discontentment triggered by president Macron's pensions reform plan in Paris, France, December 7, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit TessierIn Paris there were scuffles with police in the Denfert Rochereau area of the residential Left Bank as several hundred “yellow vest” protesters continued their weekly demonstrations, but numbers were relatively small compared with previous weeks as the transport strike made it hard to reach the capital. The combined pressure of the yellow vest movement over the cost of living and union protests against pension reform are a major challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to balance the state budget and introduce more environmentally friendly legislation in the second half of his mandate. Truckers federation Otre (Organisation des Transporteurs Routiers Européens) said it opposed an increase in taxes on diesel for commercial vehicles as part of the government’s draft 2020 budget. “Our movement is a movement of rage against the continued fiscal punishment of road transport that we can no longer tolerate,” Alexis Gibergues, Otre’s president in the Ile-de-France region around Paris, said on LCI television. Gibergues said truckers were not targeting city centers for now, but that could change if the government does not respond. French TV showed images of trucks blocking motorways in several parts of the country including the Ile-de-France. Passenger cars were allowed to pass slowly, but many foreign trucks were forced to stop. Truckers’ organizations complain that foreign truckers can buy cheaper fuel at home, which allows them to operate more efficiently in France. In its draft 2020 budget, the government plans to gradually reduce tax breaks on fuel for trucks between July 1. 2020 and Jan. 1 2022. The measure is expected to raise about 140 million euros ($154 million) in a full year, which the government wants to use to finance new transport infrastructure. The draft law is set to get a second reading in parliament in mid-December. Last year, President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government dropped plans to increase taxes on fuel for passenger cars after the yellow vest movement against the plan morphed into a nationwide and often violent anti-government protest. Meanwhile French public transport systems were paralyzed on Thursday and Friday by a strike against planned pension reforms. On Saturday, transport remained disrupted, with only one in 10 regional trains and one in six high-speed TGV services running. In Paris, only lines 1 and 14 - both automatic, driverless lines - were in operation. Air traffic was virtually normal following disruptions on Thursday and Friday. ($1 = 0.9073 euros) Reporting by Marine Pennetier and Geert De Clercq; Editing by David HolmesOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The French government has vowed to press ahead with its overhaul of the pensions system despite a hardening nationwide strike that will keep transport at a standstill next week amid another round of planned massive street protests.Four days after at least 800,000 people took part in one of the biggest demonstrations of trade union strength in a decade on Thursday, transport remained virtually at a halt over the weekend as the president, Emmanuel Macron, held talks with ministers at the Elysée Palace on how to diffuse growing tension.The pro-business president, who has promised to deliver the biggest transformation of the French social model and welfare system since the postwar era, sees his pension reforms as a key test. He has staked his political credibility on refusing to buckle in the face of street protests, accusing previous presidents of lacking the bravery to stand strong. With Macron potentially aiming to run for a second term in the 2022 presidential election, backing down would be to risk losing his support base.The prime minister, Édouard Philippe, has been pushed to the front to insist the pension reform will go ahead, but after months of gilets jaunes anti-government protests earlier this year, the executive knows that to calm tensions, it must be seen to consult and negotiate rather than force things through in a top-down way.“I am determined to take this pension reform to its completion and I will do this respectfully and I will address people’s concerns about it,” Philippe told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. “If we do not implement a thorough, serious and progressive reform today, someone else will do one tomorrow, but really brutally,” he added.“The reform we’re putting into place is fair,” the economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, added on Sunday, saying people must work longer to keep the pensions system afloat.The next few days will be crucial as unions plan another major street protest on Tuesday before the government sets out full details of its pension plans on Wednesday.The government argues that unifying the French pensions system – and getting rid of the 42 “special” regimes for sectors ranging from rail and energy workers to lawyers and Paris Opera staff – is crucial to keep the system financially viable as the French population ages. But unions see the changes as an attack on fundamental worker rights, and fear people will have to work longer for smaller pensions.An Ifop poll on Sunday showed 53% of French people supported the strike. Polls earlier this month showed that a majority of French people support pension change but do not trust Macron to do it fairly.The three main rail unions are calling for strikes to continue this week, with services already virtually at a standstill. In the Paris region, rail operators warned of potentially dangerous overcrowding on the very few trains that would be running.As hotel unions complained of cancellations and shops said takings were down, businesses feared an open-ended strike which could continue towards Christmas.The leader of the leftwing CGT union, Philippe Martinez, told Le Journal du Dimanche they will keep up the strike until the withdrawal of the reform plan, which he said contained “nothing good”. Topics France Emmanuel Macron Europe news

The French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, warned lawmakers to prepare for a long battle over proposed changes to the pensions system, as more than 300,000 people took to the streets on Tuesday as a transport strike to ran into a second week.Rail-workers, teachers, air traffic controllers, doctors, national library staff and even ballet dancers marched through Paris and other cities to protest against the biggest overhaul of the French pension system since the post-war period.Numbers were down on last week’s street protests when at least 800,000 people took part in one of the biggest demonstrations of trade union strength in a decade. But unions said the nationwide transport strike would continue.Philippe is expected to announce the details of the government’s pensions proposals on Wednesday. But he downplayed the prospect of a speedy breakthrough in the dispute, saying there would be “no magic announcements” that would bring protests to a sudden halt. However, he suggested the pension changes could be gradual.Emmanuel Macron, the pro-business president who has promised to deliver the biggest “transformation” of the French social model and welfare system in 50 years, sees his pension reforms as a key test. He has staked his political credibility on refusing to buckle in the face of street protests. Backing down would be to risk losing his support-base. But demonstrators said they feared France’s social safety net was being unpicked.The government is concerned that protestors have taken to the street not just in big cities, but in small provincial towns, echoing the mood of the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) anti-government protests earlier this year. People are angry not only with pensions but low salaries, worsening prospects, the state of public services and what one demonstrator called “the feeling of being forgotten”.One local MP for Macron’s party said it would be hard to tackle a protest movement that spread from pensions to several different grievances at once.Guillaume Bouslah, 32, a freight rail worker from the Paris suburbs, said: “No one is talking about stopping the strike. I’ve already lost a week’s pay. If we have to continue, we’ll keep going, we feel supported by other professions and the public. The government clearly wants to boost private pension funds. Surely France should be defending its unique social model, not breaking it?”Sophie, 48, a primary teacher in Essonne said: “The unease runs deep: a lack of staff in schools, low salaries and the feeling that public services are under attack.”Across the country, transport turmoil continued with trains at a virtual halt, some flights grounded, 10 lines of the Paris metro closed and more than 180 miles (300km) of traffic jams on roads around Paris by 7am.In the greater Paris area, where more than 9 million people depend on an already overburdened public transport system each day, there were dangerous crushes on packed platforms.The government argues that unifying the French pensions system – and getting rid of the 42 “special” regimes for sectors ranging from rail and energy workers to lawyers and Paris Opera staff – is crucial to keep the system financially viable as the population ages. But unions have claimed the changes are an attack on fundamental workers’ rights, and fear people will have to work longer for smaller pensions. Topics France Emmanuel Macron Europe news

French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe has said controversial pension reforms are necessary to create a fairer system that "will be the same for everyone". The move towards a universal points-based system has sparked outrage among unions, who say it will force staff to work longer to avoid reduced payments.Mr Philippe said changes would apply to those entering work from 2022 and would not affect those born before 1975.It comes on the seventh day of strike action across France over the reforms."The time has come to build a universal pension system... we are proposing a new inter-generational pact," Mr Philippe told reporters at a news conference in Paris on Wednesday. He vowed to push ahead with the programme regardless of widespread protests. Opponents of the universal pension system - aimed at rewarding employees for each day worked with points later transferred into benefits - say it is part of an assault on French values by President Emmanuel Macron.France's biggest strike in decades - involving hundreds of thousands of people - has received public support, despite causing disruption to public transport, emergency services, hospitals and schools. Why are French workers on strike? In pictures: Pension protests rock France Some demonstrations, however, have turned violent since the industrial action began last week. On Tuesday, protesters and riot-police clashed in Lille and Bordeaux, with officers using tear gas to disperse large crowds. "There is no hidden agenda," Mr Philippe said, adding that while some people might disagree with the reforms, the plan was part of the government's "ambition of social justice". "We are not looking for small savings here or there," he said. "We do not want to leave anybody [behind] - on the contrary, [the plan is] to further protect the purchasing power of workers and the purchasing power of retired people both today and tomorrow."The reforms, the prime minister said, would guarantee a minimum monthly pension of €1,000 ($1108; £842) for those employed throughout their working life up to the age of 62, and that it would particularly benefit women.He said that public sector workers, such as members of France's armed forces, firefighters, police officers and prison guards, would still be entitled to early retirement under the plans. He added that the new universal scheme would, however, encourage people to work longer while putting an end to France's complex retirement system. France currently has 42 different pension schemes across its private and public sectors, with variations in retirement age and benefits. On Tuesday, Mr Philippe said his speech would have no "magic announcements" that might help bring the demonstrations to a halt. Unions representing millions of staff in both the public and private sectors warn that it will remove the most advantageous pensions for a number of jobs and force people to work longer or face reduced payouts when they retire.France raised the official retirement age in the past decade from 60 to 62, but it remains one of the lowest among the OECD group of rich nations - in the UK, for example, the retirement age for state pensions is 66 and is due to rise to at least 67.Mr Macron argues that further reform is needed because the current system is unsustainable. In November, a report commissioned by Mr Philippe concluded that, under the existing system, the country's pension deficit could be as high as €17.2bn ($19bn; £14.5bn) by 2025. Pension spendingCost per country as a percentage of GDPSource: OECDThe Macron administration is hoping to avoid a repeat of the country's general strike over pension reforms in 1995, which crippled the transport system for three weeks and drew massive popular support, forcing a government reversal.

The price of bitcoin continued to plunge on Tuesday as it fell another 7% to $4,387, taking its losses to almost 30% in the past week.A 14% tumble in the price of the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency on Monday had taken bitcoin below $5,000 for the first time in 13 months. It is now at its lowest level since October last year.Other cryptocurrencies have also declined in the past days.Last December the cryptocurrency surged to an all-time high of $19,511 in highly volatile trading but fell back to $13,500 at the start of this year.“The crypto bloodbath continues,” said Neil Wilson, the chief market analyst at Markets.com. “Things looks like they only get worse from here. Where is the incentive to buy? It does rather look like the bottom is coming out of this market.”On Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission took action against two cryptocurrency startups that staged initial coin offerings, or ICOs, selling cryptocurrency tokens to the public. Airfox and Paragon Coin agreed to pay civil penalties for conducting token sales last year without registering them as securities offerings.That sparked numerous warnings from central bankers and JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon who declared in September 2017 that bitcoin was a fraud that would ultimately blow up.However, this year bitcoin has become increasingly attractive to institutional investors. Fidelity Investments announced last month that it was launching a new company for institutional clients that will trade and store cryptocurrency assets. Fidelity said it wanted to make them more accessible to investors such as hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries.Central banks have also begun to discuss the idea of issuing their own digital currencies, as cash is used less and has nearly vanished in some countries, such as Sweden and China. Topics Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies news

SAN FRANCISCO -- The maker of popular video game League of Legends has agreed to pay $10 million to female employees to settle a broad gender discrimination case. Los Angeles-based Riot Games will pay about 1,000 current and former female employees who have worked at the company in the last five years. The case against Riot Games claimed the company paid women less than men, passed them over for promotions and fostered a “bro culture” that excluded them. The lawsuit claims that culture led to sexual harassment and misconduct. Allegations of misconduct against women have plagued the video game industry for years. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Ryan Saba, said the large settlement amount shows that Riot was serious about changing its culture. A Riot spokesman, Joe Hixson, said the company was pleased to have a settlement that resolved the lawsuit, calling it an important step that demonstrates Riot’s commitment to creating an “inclusive environment for the industry’s best talent.” The court is expected to confirm the settlement this week.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced today that it completed a nearly two-year long investigation into the standard-setting activities of the GSM Association (GSMA), a trade association for mobile network operators. The Antitrust Division’s investigation revealed that, in recent years, the GSMA used its industry influence to steer the design of eSIMs technology in mobile devices. In response to the investigation, the GSMA has drafted new standard-setting procedures that will incorporate more input from non-operator members of the mobile communications industry. The new standard-setting process will have a greater likelihood of creating procompetitive benefits for consumers of mobile devices; it will also curb the ability of mobile network operators to use the GSMA standard as a way to avoid new forms of disruptive competition that the embedded SIMs (eSIMs) technology may unleash. The GSMA expressed its intent to adopt the new procedures in a request for a business review letter from the Antitrust Division. After completing its investigation, the division is today issuing a business review letter that expresses concern about the past procedures and some of the resulting provisions in the standard. The letter concludes, however, that the proposed changes appear to adequately address those concerns. In light of these planned changes, the Antitrust Division has no present intention to bring an enforcement action against the GSMA or its mobile network operator members.“I am pleased that the GSMA is ready to use its standard-setting process to create a more consumer-friendly eSIM standard,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim. “The GSMA’s old procedures resulted in certain eSIMs rules that benefitted only its incumbent mobile network operators at the risk of innovation and American consumers. The new procedures proposed going forward significantly reduce that risk and should result in new innovative offerings for consumers.” The mobile communications industry has begun to migrate away from traditional SIM cards—a removable plastic card that is preprogrammed to connect to a single mobile network—and toward innovative eSIMs, which perform the same function as a SIM card but are soldered into the device and capable of being remotely programmed and re-programmed to connect to different operators’ mobile networks. The mobile industry refers to this process as Remote SIM Provisioning (RSP).According to the Antitrust Division’s investigation, the GSMA and its mobile network operator members used an unbalanced standard-setting process, with procedures that stacked the deck in their favor, to enact an RSP Specification that included provisions designed to limit competition among networks. When standard-setting organizations are used in an anticompetitive manner, the division stands ready to evaluate that conduct under the antitrust laws and take whatever action is necessary to restore competition.The GSMA is a non-profit association with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom, and additional offices throughout the world, including offices in Atlanta, Georgia, and San Francisco, California. The GSMA is a trade association representing mobile operators worldwide, including more than 750 operators and over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem. GSMA’s membership includes all of the major mobile network operators worldwide, including the major, national carriers in the United States.Under the Department of Justice’s business review procedure, an organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement as to whether the division currently intends to challenge the action under the antitrust laws based on the information provided. The department reserves the right to challenge the proposed action under the antitrust laws if the actual operation of the proposed conduct proves to be anticompetitive in purpose or effect.Copies of the business review request and the department’s response are available on the Antitrust Division’s website at https://www.justice.gov/atr/business-review-letters-and-request-letters, as well as in a file maintained by the Antitrust Documents Group of the Antitrust Division. After a 30-day waiting period, any documents supporting the business review will be added to the file, unless a basis for their exclusion for reasons of confidentiality has been established under the business review procedure. Supporting documents in the file will be maintained for a period of one year, and copies will be available upon request to the FOIA/Privacy Act Unit, Antitrust Documents Group at [email protected].

Peterson, to his credit, didn’t seem particularly interested in Yang’s identity. He was interested in drawing a line between Yang and “establishment” politicians. Yang is an entrepreneur who grew up in a model immigrant household before graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy and Brown University, but for supporters he remains an outsider. This is partly because he is not a politician and because the central idea of his long-shot candidacy, a universal basic income, isn’t exactly mainstream. But for a disillusioned voter who can’t stomach the Democratic field, Yang evades other key signifiers, too. He is not “woke” in any exhausting way. He avoids negative messaging. And he is not a woman, nor is he white, black or Latino. He manages to be, as Hua Hsu pointed out in a recent New Yorker article, an “Asian Everyman” who plays down “identity politics” and opts for an almost anachronistic message about everyone coming together — one that, in its rosy vagueness, contrasts with the rest of the field’s willingness to dive, however emptily, into thorny questions about busing, reparations or gender equality.For Asian-Americans, Hsu points out, guys like this are familiar, and they are seen as insiders, for the ease with which they can blend into white culture. Yang grew up as one of the only Asians in his hometown, enduring racial abuse and bullying, and you can still spot defense mechanisms in the pragmatic, almost dismissive way he talks about identity today. When Asians like this enter elite workplaces, where they are again surrounded by white people, they tend to use such mechanisms to great effect: They are the so-called model-minority Asians who are “like everyone else,” who don’t “play the race card,” who know how to assure others that they belong. When Yang talks about his immigrant parents, it’s in economic terms, describing the patents his father generated for GE and IBM as “a pretty good deal for the United States.” He has a habit of making light ethnic jokes about himself, like a kid trying to ingratiate himself at a new school: “I’m Asian, so I know a lot of doctors,” or “The opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math.” Yang even offered public absolution to Shane Gillis, the comedian who was fired from “S.N.L.” for, among other things, calling Yang a “Jew chink.” His approach to race is the conciliatory style a nonwhite candidate might have adopted years ago — the one Barack Obama took when he talked about being “a skinny kid with a funny name.” It acknowledges racial difference but asks us — self-deprecatingly, a little humiliatingly — to get over it.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The police commander who oversaw pro-democracy demonstrations that roiled Hong Kong in 2014 has been recalled from retirement to help deal with the violent protests convulsing the Chinese-ruled city, two sources with knowledge of the move told Reuters. People watch the dots of laser pointers move across the facade of the Hong Kong Space Museum during a flashmob staged to denounce the authorities' claim that laser pointers were offensive weapons in Hong Kong, China August 7, 2019. Picture taken with a slow shutter. REUTERS/Thomas PeterThe sources, both senior government security officials, said former deputy police commissioner Alan Lau Yip-shing, planned to meet top-level ground commanders on Friday. The move comes ahead of yet another weekend of protests across the former British colony, including a three-day rally at the international airport, that have prompted travel warnings from countries including the United States and Australia. “The protests and confrontations have spilled over into neighborhoods other than those where the police have permitted marches or rallies,” said an advisory posted on the website of the U.S. State Department on Wednesday. What began as protests against a bill that would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China for trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party have evolved into a broader backlash against the city’s government, with flash mob-style demonstrations on an almost daily basis. Lau’s recall suggests the government lacks confidence in the capacity of the current police leadership to manage the response, the security officials said. Hong Kong police and the government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The police have been increasingly targeted by protesters, who have hurled abuse at officers on the front lines and attacked them in online forums. Activists accuse the police, who have fired rubber bullets and nearly 2,000 rounds of tear gas to disperse demonstrators, of using excessive force and have called on the government to launch an independent inquiry into their actions. The violence has escalated rapidly in the past few weeks, with many protests degenerating into running battles between demonstrators and police, who have arrested nearly 600 people since June, the youngest aged 13. The Hong Kong government and authorities in Beijing have condemned the violence and said they stand by the police and the city’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam. Lau, who retired in November, has been appointed deputy commissioner for special duties, which would give him responsibility for handling the protests, the sources said. Officers who served with Lau during the pro-democracy protests in 2014 that paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for 79 days but failed to wrest concessions from Beijing said he was respected by senior commanders for his leadership at that time. He is widely seen as a decisive officer, according to senior security officials. The protests pose the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Xi is also grappling with a debilitating trade war with the United States and a slowing economy. China’s Foreign Ministry lodged stern representations with the United States, urging U.S. officials to stop sending wrong signals to the “violent separatists” in Hong Kong. Local media have reported that a U.S. diplomat met democracy activist Joshua Wong in the city. Hong Kong is facing its worst crisis since it returned to China from British rule in 1997, the head of China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office said. Protesters who plan more action this weekend want Lam to categorically withdraw the extradition bill, and an independent inquiry into the government’s handling of the controversy, among other demands. Lam, who says the bill is dead but has not withdrawn it, visited some districts on Wednesday to speak with residents and inspect a police station recently targeted by protesters. The government would put forward measures to improve people’s livelihoods, she said after the visit. Young people are at the forefront of the protests, worried about China encroaching on Hong Kong’s freedoms and problems such as sky-high living costs and what many see as an unfair housing policy favoring the wealthy. The normally efficient and orderly city has seen its transport network besieged and closed down by demonstrators and big-brand stores and popular shopping malls have been shut. Three masked activists, who did not give their names, held a news conference on Thursday, their second this week and broadcast on domestic television channels, to criticize what they called arbitrary arrests and police use of tear gas. “The continuation of such attempts at spreading fear and suppressing the freedom of press will eventually backfire on the government itself,” one activist told the Citizens’ Press Conference, a platform used by protesters. “The ultimate victim of these tactics will be the police force’s crumbling public image,” the activist said in English. The comments came after plainclothes police arrested a student leader from Baptist University, Keith Fong, on the grounds that laser pointers he bought were offensive weapons. Several thousand black-clad Hong Kong lawyers marched in silence on Wednesday to call on the government to safeguard the independence of the city’s justice department. Related CoverageMore Hong Kong companies say business impacted by mass protestsBubble tea brawl: Taiwan brands face mainland boycott over Hong Kong gestureThey fear prosecutions of arrested protesters are taking on an increasingly political slant. Many of those arrested have been charged with rioting, which carries a 10-year jail term. Ahead of the airport rally, protesters circulated brightly-colored pamphlets online to help tourists understand events. “Dear travelers, please forgive us for the ‘unexpected Hong Kong’. You’re arrived in a broken, torn-apart city, not the one you have once pictured. Yet the city you imagined is exactly what we are fighting for,” the pamphlets said. Reporting by David Lague, Farah Master, Felix Tam, Anne Marie Roantree and Twinnie Siu; Editing by Paul Tait and Darren Schuettler and Catherine EvansOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

It sounds like the longest of long shots. Guilherme Boulos has never stood for political office of any kind, but he is somehow now aiming for the very top job. “Clearly, it’s a David v Goliath battle,” the 35-year-old social activist admits of his unlikely quest to become Brazil’s youngest ever president. “But it’s something that we must face.”Polls leave no doubt that Boulos – who is running alongside indigenous activist Sônia Guajajara for the leftist Socialism and Liberty party – has a wafer-thin chance of achieving his goal when Latin America’s biggest democracy votes on 7 October. In the longer term, however, the São Paulo-born politician’s prospects look far brighter. As Brazil’s crisis-stricken left comes to terms with the sidelining of its torchbearer, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Boulos is being touted as a potential successor – not least by Lula himself.In his last public speech before being jailed last month, Lula clutched Boulos’s hand and urged supporters to take note of this “companheiro of the highest quality”. Turning to Boulos next to him on stage, Lula added: “You’ve got a bright future, brother, just don’t ever give up.”Lula made no fewer than five allusions to the activist during that parting address, Piauí magazine noted in a recent profile proclaiming Boulos “o herdeiro” or “the heir”: “Nobody was mentioned or praised as much.”Boulos, who shares Lula’s eventually relinquished love of smoking and the Corinthians football club as well as his legendary charisma, has downplayed that nickname, while recognising parallels between his 16-year struggle for social justice with the Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST) and Lula’s championing of the poor. “Only the dead have heirs,” Boulos said during a high-profile television interview this week.But that widely applauded TV appearance only intensified chatter over Boulos’s status as Lula’s inheritor. In an article headlined “The Star is Born”, political journalist Luis Nassif celebrated “the birth of a national leader”. Leonardo Boff, a leftist theologian and longtime Lula confidant, seconded the emotion, tweeting: “You are a new leadership in Brazil.” During a recent interview with the Guardian – conducted while clattering around Rio in the back of a silver Honda compact – Boulos spoke of his desire to lead a long-term renewal of Brazil’s left, a movement at a crossroads after losing its leader of nearly four decades. He insisted his presidential bid was a genuine attempt to gain power and hoped the anti-systemic frustrations rippling across the globe might boost his campaign. “People are tired of the the same old marketing tricks. People no longer have faith in the old ways of doing politics. This opens up an possibility,” said Boulos. “This is an election in which anything is possible.”Boulos said combating “pornographic” levels of inequality would be his priority as president. “Brazil is the world’s seventh biggest economy and yet also one of the 10 most unequal,” he said as his car sped past Jacarezinho, a vast redbrick favela, on its way to the family home of murdered Rio councillor Marielle Franco. “Brazil isn’t just one country,” Boulos added that afternoon. “Brazil is a fissure. Brazil is an abyss.”He also vowed to build “a new kind of politics” reconnecting citizens with their detached and discredited political leaders. “So often we see the left, all over the world, claiming to speak for the people, in the name of the people, doing programs for the people,” he said. “What’s harder to find is the left standing together with the people, listening to the people [and hearing] … their most fundamental demands for change.”On the campaign trail, Boulos, who holds a master’s in psychiatry from one of Brazil’s top universities, has been doing plenty of that. After spending the morning with Franco’s sister and parents, he set off for a round table discussion with leftwing artists and activists who served up a bewildering smorgasbord of demands.One called for academic quotas for Brazil’s transgender community; another demanded action against tyrannical media oligopolies; a third protested that the swimming pool of a local state school had become a dumping site for old sofas and dead dogs.“We must roll up our sleeves, hang our pants on the washing line and demand from the government what is ours!” a fourth petitioner bellowed to furrowed brows and giggles.Throughout the meandering session Boulos sat attentively taking notes before ending with a brief but rousing address delivered in a silky baritone not unlike that of his incarcerated political patron.The would-be president railed against corruption, racism, gender discrimination, the “stupid” war on drugs and the failings of Brazil’s inward-looking left which spent too much time “preaching to the converted”.“We’re in a moment of transition. We’re entering a new cycle,” intoned Boulos, whose purple T-shirt carried the words of the German playwright Bertolt Brecht: “Nothing should seem impossible to change.” When Lula’s increasingly apparent heir concluded he was cheered off the stage and mobbed for selfies. Back in his Honda and heading to Rio’s airport, Boulos said his travels around Brazil had convinced him the country needed a leader capable of hearing “the clamour of the people”. “Perhaps one of the characteristics of our failed political system is that it is deaf … Politics is full of people who can come out and make big speeches … but someone who wants to govern a country must really know that country and listening is essential to knowing.” Topics Brazil Americas Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Socialism news

Bitcoin giveth, and bitcoin taketh away.Last year, the price of bitcoin rose more than 1,000%, other cryptocurrencies surged even more, and crypto billionaires were minted along the way. This year is off to a very different start. A crash in the price of bitcoin wiped off nearly $50 billion from the cryptocurrency’s market cap in January alone.The price of bitcoin has halved from its December peak, to less than $10,000. January was the worst one-month loss in the cryptocurrency’s history, with previous declines paling in comparison (in absolute terms). February isn’t looking so great either, with bitcoin falling by around 8% today, at the time of writing.The cryptocurrency markets is suffering amid a regulatory crackdown across Asia, a hotbed for bitcoin mining and trading, and the general backlash against the volatile, sometimes scam-ridden market: Facebook recently announced it was going to ban ads promoting cryptocurrencies.

He mentioned Judge Kavanaugh twice, and at one point was met with chants of “Vote him in!” Mr. Trump moved on quickly from the topic, a contrast to his rally appearance in Mississippi on Tuesday night, when he tried to stoke the crowd as he mocked the testimony of one of Judge Kavanaugh’s accusers, Christine Blasey Ford.At another point, Mr. Trump complained that the news media did not properly cover his discussions with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and that he was treated too aggressively over his relations with Mr. Putin.“They want me to get into a boxing match with him,” Mr. Trump said of the criticism of his friendly encounter with the Russian leader in Finland. “If I was really rough with Russia they’d say, ‘He was too tough.’”For all the jabs, though, the speech was not one of Mr. Trump’s punchiest or most engaged. The energy of the crowd members sagged for the first half of the rally, and Mr. Trump appeared to be testing different lines to try to entice them. He eventually abandoned his prepared remarks almost entirely, and the crowd got more engaged.His supporters seemed to like a story he told about a concession that he claimed to have gotten from Canada in the renegotiated trade agreement with that nation and Mexico. He said it related to advertising rights and the N.F.L.“I heard that the N.F.L. had a problem with Canada on their advertising, on the commercials. A big, big problem. I’m not going to get into what it was, but it was a very bad problem, and it went on for years, and it was hurting the N.F.L.,” Mr. Trump said. “I like some of the people, I don’t like some of them — it doesn’t matter. It is an American company. It’s a great American company. So during the negotiation I said, ‘We have to fix the N.F.L. problem.’”He said he had gotten a call from the N.F.L. commissioner, Roger Goodell, thanking him for interceding. Mr. Trump has been at war with the N.F.L. over acts of protest against racism by players during the national anthem.

LEIPZIG, Germany—Chancellor Angela Merkel was handed a damaging defeat at her party’s annual convention over her plans to allow China’s Huawei Technologies Co. to build Germany’s next-generation 5G mobile network. The dispute within Ms. Merkel’s party threatens to further destabilize Germany’s fragile coalition government ahead of the final decision on opening the 5G market to foreign bidders.Ms....