Policies allowing out gay people to serve in the US military have been denounced as part of a “Marxist” agenda aimed at prioritising social justice above combat-readiness by Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled defence secretary pick.
The assertion was among many contentious “anti-woke” views expressed in Hegseth’s latest book, The War on Warriors, published this year, in which he lambasted a previous policy – known as don’t ask, don’t tell (DADT) – that tolerated gay service members as long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation, while also excoriating its repeal.
DADT was introduced as a compromise during Bill Clinton’s presidency in 1993 to allow lesbians and gay men to serve in the military in the face of opposition from senior commanders. The policy overturned a previous blanket ban that had been in place since the second world war.
The escalating trend of bowel cancer among young adults is now so significant that it could also lead to higher incidence in older people, among whom rates have been stable or falling – potentially reversing decades of progress made against the disease.
“The global scope of this concerning trend highlights the need for innovative tools to prevent and control cancers linked to dietary habits, physical inactivity and excess body weight,” said Sung.
“Ongoing efforts are essential to identify the additional factors behind these trends and to develop effective prevention strategies tailored to younger generations and local resources worldwide.”
The study found bowel cancer rates in people aged between 25 and 49 rose in 27 of the 50 countries studied in the decade to 2017, the most recent year for which figures were analysed.
Protesters also were sending condolence flowers to the offices, typically reserved for funerals, to express their opposition to the boycott, with signs reading “insurrection accomplices”.
Local police in Seoul’s Dobong district told AFP that an unspecified “weapon” was found in front of PPP lawmaker Kim Jae-sub’s residence, and he has requested additional security.
Yoon suspended civilian rule a week ago and sent special forces and helicopters to parliament, before lawmakers forced him to rescind the decree in a country assumed to be a stable democracy.
Kim was contrite on Tuesday, saying through his lawyers that “all responsibility for this situation lies solely with me”.
He “deeply apologised” to the South Korean people and said that his subordinates were “merely following my orders and fulfilling their assigned duties”.
Rupert Murdoch’s](https://www.theguardian.com/media/rupert-murdoch)’s) three adult children will retain control over their father’s media empire upon his death, a Nevada court has ruled after Murdoch launched a campaign to wrest away their power and give it all to his oldest son.
The New York Times reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/business/media/rupert-lachlan-murdoch-family-trust.html)) on Murdoch’s loss, citing a sealed court decision that was filed on Saturday. The family battle took place outside of the public’s eye, despite attempts from the media to gain access to the trial.
Murdoch took three of his adult children, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, to court as he tried to completely remove their voting power over the trust Murdoch set up. The current trust structure gives all four adult children equal voting power over Murdoch’s empire, which includes Fox News](https://www.theguardian.com/media/fox-news)) and News Corp, but Murdoch wanted to give Lachlan, his oldest son and most likeminded child, complete control over the media companies. The change would have only impacted the voting power of the siblings, not their financial inheritance.
He had been president then for just two years, succeeding his father, Hafez, whose own name was a byword for brutality.
For a while the gawky former ophthalmologist, who had studied medicine in London and later married a British-Syrian wife, Asma, an investment banker at JP Morgan, was keen to show the world that Syria,](https://www.theguardian.com/world/syria),) under his leadership, could follow a different path.
Reaching out to the west, he pursued a public relations campaign to show the young Assad family as somehow ordinary despite the palaces and the ever visible apparatus of repression.
The Connecticut state appellate court on Friday affirmed a $965m verdict from 2022 against far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, determining there is “sufficient evidence” to support the damages awarded to relatives of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/newtown-shooting)) victims and an FBI agent.
In its unanimous opinion, the court cited the “traumatic threats and harassment” the families endured “stemming from the lies, as propagated by the defendants, that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax”.
“Our review of the record reveals that there was sufficient evidence to support the [$965m] in compensatory damages awarded by the jury,” the court said in the 62-page decision. It marks the largest jury verdict in Connecticut](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/connecticut)) history.
A top Romanian court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after declassified intelligence alleged Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.
The momentous move by the court effectively voids the national election, which will have to be re-run.
The constitutional court’s decision – which is final – came on Friday after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence two days earlier that alleged Moscow ran a sprawling drive comprising thousands of social media accounts to promote the pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram.
Despite being an unknown who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/calin-georgescu-romania-election-hard-right-candidate)) on 24 November, a shock result in the EU and Nato member state bordering Ukraine. He was due to face the pro-European reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union party, in a runoff on Sunday.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has ruled out resigning, saying he will stay in power until the end of his term in 2027 and will appoint a new prime minister in the coming days, after the government’s historic collapse plunged France into political turmoil.
“You have given me a democratic mandate of five years and I’ll carry it out fully until its term,” he said in a televised speech to the French people late on Thursday.
Macron, who is facing the worst political crisis](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/03/its-the-best-of-times-for-notre-dame-but-the-worst-of-times-for-the-french-pm)) of his two terms as president, criticised what he called the “cynicism”, lack of responsibility and “sense of chaos” of opposition politicians who toppled the government in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday, ending the beleaguered minority coalition of the rightwing prime minister, Michel Barnier, after only three months.
South Korea’s ruling party says it will rally behind the beleaguered president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to block a move by the opposition to impeach him over his botched and controversial attempt to impose martial law.
The floor leader of the People Power party vowed on Thursday that its lawmakers would “unite” to defeat the opposition-led motion to impeach the deeply unpopular president.
“All 108 lawmakers of the People Power party will stay united to reject the president’s impeachment,” Choo Kyung-ho told a livestreamed party meeting.
Opposition lawmakers need eight ruling party lawmakers to vote with them for the impeachment bill to pass. The opposition says the vote is expected on Saturday.
One of the cornerstones of Amazon rainforest protection – the Soy Moratorium – is under unprecedented pressure from Brazilian agribusiness organisations, politicians, and global trading companies, the Guardian has learned.
Soy is one of the most widely grown crops in Brazil,](https://www.theguardian.com/world/brazil),) and posed a huge deforestation threat to the Amazon rainforest until stakeholders voluntarily agreed to impose a moratorium and no longer source it from the region in 2006.
The voluntary agreement brought together farmers, environmentalists and international food companies such as Cargill and McDonald’s, and decided that any detection of soy planted on areas deforested after 2008 would result in the farm being blocked from supply chains, regardless of whether the land clearance was legal in Brazil.