Author: RT

ICYMI: The art of the snowflake – Turner prize judges can’t bear to choose a winner (VIDEO) The winner of this year’s Turner prize for visual art is snowflakery. The four finalists asked whether in keeping with the times they could all win – and the judges agreed! This artists, who will share the $50,000 prize, said they wanted to show “commonality, multiplicity and solidarity” with their fellow competitors. Having looked at the work competing for the prize, you can see why some of them thought that at least taking something home would be the best option. But ICYMI asks: If there’s a competition that no one wins, doesn’t that mean everyone loses? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNgpFwO9Its&w=900&h=506] For more, f...

France’s pension reform will be gradual & ‘not brutal,’ PM Philippe says after protests Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Friday he was sticking with plans to reform France’s pension system but insisted change would be gradual and “not brutal,” Reuters reports. “I believe in social dialogue… I will never be in a logic of confrontation,” Edouard Philippe said. The statement came after unions called for a new day of strikes and demonstrations against the government’s pension reform plans on Tuesday. France is grappling with a second day of travel chaos and understaffed schools and hospitals after street protests on Thursday drew at least 800,000 people. Railways company SNCF said on Friday it expected rail traffic would still be heavily disrupted on Monday, based on st...

China’s envoy says European parties to Iran nuclear deal didn’t trigger dispute resolution mechanism European parties to the Iran nuclear deal did not trigger a mechanism that could lead to the renewal of UN sanctions at talks in Vienna on Friday, according to China’s envoy. “All countries need to refrain from taking actions that further complicate the situation,” Fu Cong, director general of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry told reporters after the talks. “In our view there is an element of automaticity into this and we can’t be sure that countries can keep this process under control. It could aggravate tensions,” Reuters quoted the envoy as saying. He said the European powers had not indicated whether they would trigger the mechanism, but all pa...

Russia will respond to any new deployment of missiles by US – Lavrov Russia will not hesitate to respond to any new deployment of missiles by the United States, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. “If practical steps are taken to create and deploy [missiles], we will have a mirror reaction, but we will not be the first,” Lavrov said in Rome. He made the statement at a news conference with his Italian counterpart, Luigi Di Maio on the sidelines of an international conference, the Mediterranean Dialogues. Russia has proposed a moratorium on the deployment of short and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe after the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) banning such a move formally ended in August. Russia will respond to any new deployment...