UK nationals among victims of Air India plane crash
United Kingdom correspondent Edward O'Driscoll spoke to Lisa Owen about the victims of the Air India plane crash that was supposed to fly to London, many of which were UK nationals.
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RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
French president sues Candace Owens over claims his wife is a man
By Joseph Ataman and Saskya Vandoorne , CNN French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte. Photo: Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto / Getty Images via CNN Newsource French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have filed a 22-count defamation lawsuit in the United States against right-wing podcaster Candace Owens over the claim that Brigitte could be a man. The lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court alleges Owens has broadcast "a relentless year-long campaign of defamation against the Macrons" according to a statement from Tom Clare, the Macrons' lawyer. In March, conservative commentator Candace Owens revived an absurd conspiracy theory with a YouTube video titled "Is France's First Lady a Man?" according to the complaint. Promoted widely on X, Owens said the conspiracy theory was, "likely the biggest scandal in political history." Since then, Owens has produced numerous videos about Brigitte Macron for her nearly 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, including a multi-part series called "Becoming Brigitte." The lawsuit further claims she has also sold merchandise promoting the claim. Candace Owens. Photo: AFP/ Getty Images - Jason Davies The Macrons' attorney Tom Clare told CNN Wednesday that they had asked Owens to stop making the claim for about a year and filed the lawsuit as a "last resort" after she refused. The complaint alleges Owens was the first person to bring these baseless claims to the US media and an international audience. The couple are suing for punitive damages and allege that they have suffered "substantial economic damages" including loss of future business opportunities. On Instagram, Owens posted a screenshot Wednesday of an article referencing the Macrons' lawsuit and a picture of the couple with the caption: "I will be coming for this wig today. Stay tuned." She later posted a video on YouTube saying the lawsuit was "an obvious and desperate public relations strategy." CNN has reached out to Owens for comment. Separately, Brigitte Macron sued two French women for spreading similar claims in 2022. After winning the initial case, this year the women won an appeal and the lawsuit will go to a higher court, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. According to the statement, these retraction demands to Owens were accompanied by, "incontrovertible evidence disproving her allegations and proving, among other things, that Mrs. Macron was born a woman named Brigitte Trogneux, that she is not a blood relative of President Macron," and that the Macrons are not being controlled or blackmailed by unknown forces by a CIA-linked program. "Owens has used this false statement to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money," the official complaint said. The claims caused, "tremendous damage" to the Macrons, the complaint added. "Every time the Macrons leave their home, they do so knowing that countless people have heard, and many believe, these vile fabrications. It is invasive, dehumanizing, and deeply unjust," the complaint continued. Clare said, "What people forget is these are human beings, these are a married couple. They have a social life, they have a private life together, they have the same feelings and the same hurt from these sorts of defamatory statements as anybody would. And it does have a material impact on them." The Macrons are seeking punitive damages against Owens and her business entities for 22 counts of defamation, false light, and defamation by implication, the statement said. Clare declined to say the amount of money the Macrons would seek but warned that if Owens continues to double-down on the claim, "it'll be a substantial award." At a Paris event in March 2024, Macron addressed the rumor around his wife saying that the worst part of being a president was having to deal with "the false information and fabricated stories." "People end up believing them, and it disrupts your life, even in your most private moments," Macron said. France's Elysee Palace said the lawsuit was a "private affair" and would not comment on the matter. - CNN
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
'James Bond wannabe' found guilty of trying to spy for Russia
United Kingdom correspondent Edward O'Driscoll spoke to Melissa Chan-Green about a British man who "dreamt of being like James Bond", and has been found guilty of trying to spy for Russia, as well as British Fighter jet which has finally taken flight after being stranded in India for a month. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
The House: Foreign Minister Winston Peters navigates opposition questions on Gaza
Winston Peters speaking in the debate on a ministerial statement regarding the Israel/USA/Iran conflict. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith For Foreign Minister Winston Peters, the sitting week began with the task of navigating opposition questions on the war in Gaza. The questions were asked of Peters, not during question time, but following his Ministerial Statement on the government response to the situation in the Middle East - his second statement on this in as many months. The statement itself echoed the joint statement made on 21 July by New Zealand (and 27 other countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom), calling for an end to the war in Gaza. "The international community is united in its revulsion to what is happening in Gaza," Peters told the House. "This horror must end. Too many lives have been lost; too many people have been traumatised, polarised, and embittered, ensuring that yet another generation of Israeli and Palestinian children are born into a situation of insufferable conflict and enmity. That is why New Zealand has come together with Foreign Ministers from 27 other countries to state as clearly as we can that enough is enough, that this war must end now, that this suffering is intolerable." "In that joint statement, we condemned Hamas' continued detention of hostages and called for their immediate and unconditional release, and we condemned Israel's policies, which are leading to untold and unimaginable suffering and death among Palestinian civilians. And we call for [Israel] to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law." Ministerial statements are used by governments to brief Parliament-and by extension the public-on an unfolding situation or event, and to explain the government's plan of action in response to it. They resemble an MP-only press conference, wherein a minister delivers a statement, followed by questions or comments from MPs from other parties, generally spokespersons on the relevant topic. Like a press conference, the most interesting or illuminating information comes not from a minister's prepared statement, but from the Q&A that follows. In Tuesday's exchange, all three opposition parties held similar stances - supporting the joint statement, while also questioning what they perceived to be a reluctance from the government to follow up those words with actions. The Greens' Teanau Tuiono asked about potential concrete measures like sanctions the government could take to support its condemnation of Israel's actions in Gaza. "The discussions [with the signatories] have been wide ranging," Peters said. "We do not want to make a decision or actions which are purely symbolic in nature and of no real meaning in fact." Tuiono followed up by asking why the government had not also frozen the assets of the two Israeli Ministers who had received a ban from travelling to New Zealand. "Because we do not believe that the justification for that, at this point in time, has been established," Peters replied. Calls from the Greens and Te Pāti Māori to recognise Palestinian statehood were met with a familiar response from Peters. "We have always said, this government, that it's not a matter of 'if' but 'when'. The question that has to be answered-saving us lowering our standards of statehood-who would we negotiate with? Who would we talk to…. We have talked to Egypt about that. We've talked to many Middle Eastern countries about that. We've talked to [the United Arab] Emirates about that. We've talked to Indonesia about that. We're all on the same wavelength here. Who would we talk to, to establish this so-called state? Or are we just virtue signalling? Virtue signalling is not what we're going to do here." Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi's version of the question was relatively more blunt than Tuiono's. "Does the Minister, and this government, recognise Palestine as a sovereign state - yes or no?" Peter's answer evoked a sense of deja vu. "We have made it clear that, for us, it's a question of not if but when. But we need to ensure we do not lower the standards of what statehood comprises. There, in our conversation with the Middle East and with Egypt and other countries bordering there, knowing far more about the circumstances than us, they have an agreement with us. We need to establish who it is we're going to negotiate with before we recognise [it]." President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) US lawyer Joan Donoghue (2R) confers with colleagues at the court in The Hague on 12 January, 2024, prior to the hearing of the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa. Photo: Remko de Waal / ANP / AFP Labour's Peeni Henare asked Peters whether allegations of a genocide in Gaza was something the International Court of Justice should determine, and not politicians. "Yes, we agree in the sense that the court of which that member speaks has got a duty, but hitherto they have not found that, they have taken it by way of investigation and reviewed it. But they have not come down with a precedent, directive, or, dare I say, finding. However, that still doesn't obligate the rest of us needing to be considering the merit or otherwise of such a claim and to see whether it is substantial or not," Peters replied. After being pressed on the issue again by Waititi, Peters gave a similar answer. "It has not been declared by the international courts to be that, so we are not going to add our support to something that is not based on facts but is based on what someone would hope to be the case regardless of legal precedent." In the joint statement, there is a condemnation of what is referred to as a "drip feeding" of humanitarian aid to Gazans. Signatories to the statement, including Peters, hope that momentum from this collective condemnation will put pressure on those responsible for distributing aid to those in need. Henare had a series of questions for the minister on New Zealand's role in the area of humanitarian aid. Henare: "Is the government concerned by the widespread criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, including by over 240 NGOs, and has New Zealand contributed funding to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation; and if so, what conditions, if any, were attached?" Peters: "The reality is that we have a duty in these circumstances, no matter how desperate they are and inhumanitarian they are, to ensure we can recount to the New Zealand taxpayer. And that's why, when we ran into difficulties with the server of aid, and they were under suspicion, and indeed under investigation, by the United Nations themselves, we found other organisations with credibility to assist us, to ensure that the aid continued. That has always been our course, under successive governments." Henare: "Will the government commit to more aid resource to fill the need in this unfolding humanitarian crisis?" Peters: "I understand what the member has asked for, but the reality is New Zealand has already given significant amounts of aid, and at a time when the international economy is facing uncertainty and so is the domestic economy as a consequence. We also have serious aid programmes in the Pacific, which are our number one priorities and have been under the last two governments. And so whilst we'll carry on endeavouring to help out, remember this: it is an awful long way away from New Zealand, and we have the right to feel awfully frustrated that for decades of all of our lives, this issue has been there, at the centre of international news. We hope one day it would finally be over." *RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk.
