Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party appears to have won London's mayoral election (though the vote counts haven't been finalized), making him the first Muslim mayor of the city.
Khan had been expected to beat the Conservative candidate, Zac Goldsmith, who came under significant criticism from other Conservatives for focusing on Khan's religion and ties to "extremists."
(Khan was a human rights lawyer who represented some clients he calls "pretty unsavoury characters." But representing someone doesn't mean sharing their views.)
From one angle, Khan's election is a vindication for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party — the progressive wave that swept Corbyn to the head of the party last year also helped Khan win the party's candidacy in the mayoral election.
But Labour has been something of a problem for Khan in the last days of the campaign. He had some pretty harsh words about anti-Semitic comments from some Labour leaders (including former London Mayor Ken Livingstone), and was trying to distance himself from the party earlier this week.
In the rest of the country, Labour lost a few dozen seats on local councils, which is highly unusual for a minority party. (Like midterm elections in the US, off-year elections in the UK tend to favor the opposition.)
The losses are just bad enough for Corbyn's moderate critics within Labour to criticize him, but not quite bad enough for them to actually call for his removal.
The rule would require disclosure of anyone who owned 25 percent or more of the equity interest, or anyone with "significant responsibility" for the business.
Obama paired the regulation with a call for Congress to tighten up financial disclosure laws — requiring all companies to tell the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit who their real owners are, for example.
It probably sounds like this is all a reaction to the Panama Papers leak last month. It's actually been in the works since 2012, but it's quite likely that the leak sped it along.
It's unlikely, though, that the regulation will be enough to satisfy the leaker, who released a manifesto Friday (under the name "John Doe") expressing frustration that the documents had led to more talk than action.
John Doe's complaints go way beyond shell companies, though. He thinks that the Panama Papers should have spurred widespread action on income inequality itself. (Note to future leakers: You don't always control the narrative.)
Ain't no party (congress) like a Workers' Party (congress)
Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
North Korea's seventh Workers' Party congress in national history, and the first since 1980, began on Friday.
In a stunning move, foreign journalists were invited into the country to cover the congress. In an even more (or perhaps not at all) stunning move, they were subsequently barred from actually attending it.
Here's what we know: Kim Jong Un is following in the footsteps of his grandfather Kim Il Sung in elevating the role of the party in the workings of the country (while his father, Kim Jong Il, preferred the military).
That's not to say North Korea doesn't have expanding military capacity, though — Kim Jong Un opened the congress by praising its nuclear progress, which US intelligence officials admit they haven't been able to stop.
This is all a case for taking North Korea seriously. As Max Fisher wrote for Vox in January, it's important not to think of it as a kingdom ruled by a cartoon dictator but as a holdover from 1930s-era Japanese fascism.
In that context, the fact that Kim Jong Un banned weddings and funerals for the weekend, so that all attention could be paid to the congress, is ridiculous — but it's also totalitarian and immiserating.
Sadly, the boat that should be named Boaty McBoatface will be named after Sir David Attenborough. But one of its remotely operated undersea vehicles will be Boaty McBoatface, even though it is not a boat and should be called "remotely operated undersea vehicle mcremotely operated undersea vehicleface" (ROUVy McROUVface for short).
Meet Chloe and Halle. They are 16 and 17, they are beloved of Michelle Obama and mentored by Beyoncé, and you will be hearing them on the radio shortly.
"Converts like Hugo Marcus, a gay Jewish philosopher, show Islam wasn’t just present in Europe in the years after World War I — for some, it played a vital role in discussions about what the continent’s future should look like."
"In one study in 2011 of more than 5,000 women across India, only 3 percent said they were "forced" into the sex trade, and only 10 percent said they freely chose it. The rest fell into the gray area in between."
"In the moving piece, published by Time, Spears praises Preston, 10, and Jayden, 9, calling them her 'masterpiece' — which, while certainly heartfelt, sort of diminishes Spears’ hit 2001 song, 'I’m A Slave 4 U,' long heralded by fans and critics alike as her actual masterpiece."
В День парашютиста героем рубрики «Знай наших» стал сотрудник вневедомственной охраны столичного главка Росгвардии младший лейтенант полиции Александр С.
«Краснодар» и московское «Динамо» проведут сегодня первые матчи в Кубке России
Чемпионат по военно-спортивному многоборью среди росгвардейцев завершился в Грозном
Сотрудница подразделения столичного главка Росгвардии завоевала «золото» на чемпионате войск по легкоатлетическому кроссу