NZ gun law reforms
New Zealand will seek to tighten its gun laws after it emerged the man charged with mass shooting in two Christchurch mosques had bought weapons online. “What the public rightly are asking right now is why is it and how is it that you are currently able to buy military style semi-automatic weapons in New Zealand, and that’s the right question to ask,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern was quoted by Reuters as saying on Monday. More on this from The Guardian, and politico. Get an overview of other mass shootings around the world on Reuters.
China “terrorist” purge
Authorities in China have arrested around 13,000 “terrorists” since 2014, holding them in detention centres which they say are essential to stem the threat of Islamist militancy. Critics says China is using counter-terrorism to suppress the Uighurs, a Turkish ethnic group living in Xinjiang Uyghur in China. Read more on Reuters, The Guardian, and the New York Times.
Brexit poll
Faced with remaining in the UK or backing Theresa May’s Brexit deal, a poll suggests 46% of Brits would vote remain if there were a second referendum. The Observer’s latest opinion poll comes after May’s deal was rejected by 149 votes and MPs voted to rule-out a no-deal and extend article 50 by three months, from The Guardian. Reuters, meanwhile, reports that Britain faces its first crisis as EU seasonal workers stay away for the asparagus season. “We’re really at the point where we either import the workers or we import the asparagus,” Reuters quoted a farmer as saying.
Serbia protests
Serbia president Aleksandar Vučić says he will not give in to protestors and step down. After months of peaceful protests, opposition supporters stormed the national TV station on Saturday, protesting against alleged autocratic rule and media bias. Further skirmishes followed on Sunday when riot police broke up a human chain of protestors which trapped the president inside a building. Vučić branded the protestors “fascists, hooligans and thieves,” according to The Guardian. More on BBC news.
Yellow vests get nasty
France president Emmanuel Macron cut short a ski trip to deal with the “gilets jaunes”, or yellow jacket protestors on Sunday. Protestors gathered in the capital for the eighteenth time on Saturday, some vandalising shops and restaurants on the Champs-Elysées. “What happened today on the Champs-Élysées is no longer called a demonstration. These are people who want to destroy the Republic, at the risk of killing,” Macron was cited by politico as saying. More on The Guardian.
Bank merger
Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are expected to hold formal talks about a merger, a move which the German government appears to favour. More on this from BBC news.
Prized-pigeon
A pigeon has fetched a record €1.25m in an online auction after it was bought by a Chinese buyer. Armando is Belgium’s best long-distance racer of all time, AFP reports.