Head of US Christian college steps aside in flap over photo

Yahoo – AFP, Brendan Smialowski, August 8, 2020

President of Liberty University Jerry Falwell, Jr, shown here with US President Donald
Trump during the shool's commencement ceremony in 2017, posted a controversial
photo of himself with a woman on Instagram

Jerry Falwell Jr. has taken an indefinite leave of absence as president of a prominent US evangelical university amid a furor over an Instagram picture of him and a young woman, both with pants partly unzipped.

The 58-year-old Falwell, whose father was one of the country's best-known televangelists and who founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, is stepping aside at the request of the school's trustees.

He himself had posted the controversial picture showing him standing on a private yacht with one hand around the waist of a young woman -- later said to be his wife's assistant -- and the other holding an unidentified dark beverage.

Both sport broad smiles and have their zippers a few inches down, baring their midriffs.

A terse statement Friday from the Christian university said the trustees' executive committee had asked Falwell to "take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he has agreed, effective immediately."

It offered no explanation.

Falwell previously told radio station WLNI that he and the woman were at a costume party and "it was just in good fun."

He said he should never have posted the photo, adding, "I've apologized to everybody and I promised my kids I'm going to try to be a good boy from here on out."

The university has a strict code of conduct for students, who are told they must "dress modestly and appropriately at all times" while on campus and "avoid the appearance of impropriety."

One Republican member of Congress who is on a Liberty advisory board, Mark Walker of North Carolina, has called on Falwell to resign.

"I just think there's a code that leaders have to live by, especially when you're leading the largest Christian evangelical university in the country," he told CNN.

Falwell has been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, who appeared on the campus twice before his 2016 election.

In one appearance, Falwell introduced him as "one of the greatest visionaries of our time."

Elite UK school Eton to apologise to ex-pupil for racist abuse

Yahoo – AFP, 23 June 2020

The head of Britain's Eton College said Tuesday he will invite back a black former student to apologise in person for racism he experienced at the top fee-paying school in the 1960s.

England's Eton College has become a byword for elitism and the class divide

Simon Henderson said he wanted Dillibe Onyeama to feel welcome after he was previously banned from visiting Eton for writing a book about the racist abuse he faced there.

"We have made significant strides since Mr Onyeama was at Eton but... we have to have the institutional and personal humility to acknowledge that we still have more to do," Henderson said in a statement.

"We must all speak out and commit to doing better -- permanently -- and I am determined that we seize this moment as a catalyst for real and sustained change for the better.

"I will be inviting Mr Onyeama to meet so as to apologise to him in person, on behalf of the school, and to make clear that he will always be welcome at Eton."

The school's move follows anti-racism protests across Britain, sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, during a police arrest in the United States.

The demonstrations have focused renewed attention on racism in Britain, as well as the toxic legacy of its colonial past, including calls for it to be taught in schools.

Nigerian writer Onyeama, who graduated from Eton in 1969, wrote a book about his experiences at the exclusive private boys' school, near Windsor, west of London.

The school has become a byword for elitism and Britain's class divide.

Annual fees cost more than £42,000 ($52,000, 46,000 euros) per year. Old boys include Prime minister Boris Johnson, and princes William and Harry.

Onyeama told the BBC he had been taunted on a daily basis by fellow students, and asked questions like "why are you black?" and "how many maggots are there in your hair?"

When he struggled in academics or flourished in sports, the students attributed it to his race, while when he excelled in exams he was accused of cheating, the broadcaster said.

After detailing his experiences in a 1972 memoir, he received an official letter informing him that he was banned from visiting Eton.

Onyeama said although the apology now was not necessary, it "compels the recognition that prejudice on the grounds of colour or race dehumanises its victims in a way that ordinary forms of prejudice do not".

He added that his overall experience at Eton was "positive".

Henderson said he was "appalled" to learn of the racist abuse Onyeama faced, and his "absolute priority" was to make Eton an "inclusive, compassionate and supportive community for all".

"Racism has no place in civilised society, then or now," he added.

Chileans go on strike as protest death toll hits 18

Yahoo – AFP, Miguel SANCHEZ, October 23, 2019

Riot police use water cannons on demonstrators in Santiago, on the sixth straight
day of street violence in Chile, which has left at least 18 people dead (AFP Photo/
Javier TORRES)

Santiago (AFP) - Thousands of Chileans flooded the streets of Santiago and other cities Wednesday on day one of a general strike, upping the pressure on President Sebastien Pinera after days of social unrest that have left at least 18 dead.

Students, professors and state workers walked off the job at the urging of the country's largest union, ignoring a package of measures announced by Pinera aimed at quelling the violence.

"THE STRIKE IS ON! We say it loud and clear: enough of the increases and abuses," said the Workers' United Center of Chile (CUT), which organized the two-day action with about 20 other groups.

In the capital Santiago, police used water cannons to dispel protesters.

"Chile has awakened," read the sign of one protester.

The country, usually one of the most stable in Latin America, has experienced its worst violence in decades since protests against a now-scrapped hike in metro fares escalated dramatically on Friday.

Demonstrators have decried social and economic woes, including a yawning gap between rich and poor.

A demonstrator in Santiago holds a sign reading 'Chile has awakened' (AFP Photo/

Martin BERNETTI)

A four-year-child and a man were killed in the latest protests when a drunk driver rammed into a crowd of demonstrators, Interior Undersecretary Rodrigo Ubilla said.

A third person died after being beaten by police, according to the victim's family.

In an address to the nation late Tuesday, Pinera apologized for failing to anticipate the outbreak of social unrest.

"I recognize this lack of vision," Pinera said after a meeting with some of Chile's opposition leaders.

Beyond the dead, another 269 people have been injured and about 1,900 have been arrested, according to the National Institute for Human Rights (INDH).

Pinera's proposals

Having initially taken a confrontational line -- declaring that Chile was "at war against a powerful, implacable enemy," and imposing a state of emergency in Santiago and most of Chile's 16 regions -- Pinera has rapidly changed tack and sought cross-party support to find a solution.

He says he will increase the universal basic pension by 20 percent, cancel a recent 9.2 percent increase in electricity bills and propose a law that would see the state cover the costs of expensive medical treatment.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera apologized in an address to the nation for 

failing to anticipate the outbreak of social unrest (AFP Photo/HO)

He also pledged a state subsidy to increase the minimum wage from 301,000 to 350,000 pesos ($482) a month and said the government would introduce health insurance for medication, which is among the most expensive in the region.

Chileans were unconvinced by the promises.

"I don't think that what Pinera said is all that useful," said 38-year-old Karla Araneda, who works near the seat of government.

"Today, even more people are going to be in the streets and the problems are going to continue."

After widespread scenes of violence, destruction, arson and looting last week, protests have become more peaceful this week, particularly in Santiago.

But it's the worst violence to hit Chile since the country returned to democracy after the 1973-1990 right-wing dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet.

Some 20,000 police and troops have been deployed while a nighttime curfew was announced on each of the last four days.

After widespread scenes of violence, destruction, arson and looting last week, 

protests have become more peaceful this week, particularly in Santiago (AFP Photo/

Martin BERNETTI )

Strike organizers issued a statement demanding that the government end the state of emergency and send troops back to their barracks.

The country's powerful copper mine workers' unions have joined the strike movement.

Chile is the largest producer of copper in the world, much of which is sold to China.

But despite 2.5 percent growth, ordinary Chileans are deeply unhappy about low salaries and pensions, as well as health and education systems that are unaffordable for most.

"Pinera has always been a liar and now... he is asking for forgiveness," said 23-year-old Carlos Morales.

Another resident, Ximena Gutierrez, told AFP: "We will not be silent."

Before Pinera's announcement, one of Chile's largest conglomerates, Quinenco, promised to increase its minimum salaries to 500,000 pesos a month from January 1 -- 60 percent more than the current minimum wage.

Map of Latin America showing countries where major protests 

have occurred in recent months (AFP Photo)

Chile's big business conglomerates are one of the major factors in the huge wealth disparity that has angered protesters.

Nine dead in fires

The strike will put Santiago to the test. Life in the capital has been returning to normal, with three of seven metro lines due to be open Wednesday and buses back on the road.

More than half of Santiago's 136 metro stations suffered heavy damage during last week's protests and remained guarded by soldiers.

Shops and businesses -- even banks -- appeared to be reopening, but some Santiago-area schools were still closed.

Ex-SS guard, 93, 'sorry for what he did', German court hears

Yahoo – AFP, Mathieu FOULKES, October 17, 2019

A 93-year-old former SS guard holds his walking stick during his trial at
the regional court in Muenster, Germany (AFP Photo/Guido Kirchner)

Hamburg (AFP) - A former SS guard, 93, said he was sorry for his actions as he went on trial in Germany on Thursday for complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 people at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

In what could be one of the last such cases of surviving Nazi guards, Bruno Dey stands accused of abetting the murder of 5,230 people when he worked at the Stutthof camp near what was then Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland.

While he insisted that he did not join the deadly operation voluntarily, he voiced regret for his actions.

"That's what he said in his interrogation: He felt sorry for what he did," said his lawyer Stefan Waterkamp.

"It was also clear to him that (the inmates) were not in there because they were criminals, but for anti-Semitic, racist and other reasons. He had compassion for them. But he did not see himself in a position to free them."

Seated in a wheelchair, Dey wore a hat and sunglasses and hid his face behind a red folder as he entered the courtroom.

Waterkamp said his client was "ready to respond to all questions", underlining that Dey "did not join the SS voluntarily".

Prosecutors said nevertheless that as an "SS guard at Stutthof concentration camp between August 1944 and April 1945, he is believed to have provided support to the gruesome killing of Jewish prisoners in particular".

Although the trial comes decades on, Ben Cohen, grandchild of a survivor, said "it's a really powerful way to acknowledge that we're not just going to look away and we're not just going to just turn around and say 'this is finished, we do not need to think about it anymore.' These things are as relevant today as they ever were."

Jewish groups underlined the trial's importance in light of contemporary far-right anti-Semitic violence after last week's deadly shooting in the eastern city of Halle that included a synagogue.

"Why are you doing this trial today? Remember what happened in Halle," said Efraim Zuroff of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

The 93-year-old Bruno Dey admitted in court to being an SS guard, but the 

defence underlined that he did not join the SS voluntarily' (AFP Photo/Markus Scholz)

'Cog in the murder machine'

During Dey's time at the camp, the "Final Solution" order to exterminate Jews was issued by the Nazi leadership, leading to the systematic killing of inmates in gas chambers, while others died of starvation or because they were denied medical care, prosecutors said.

Dey is being tried by a juvenile court in Hamburg because he was 17 when he first worked at Stutthof.

According to German media, Dey, who now lives in Hamburg, became a baker after the war.

Married with two daughters, he supplemented his income by working as a truck driver, before later taking on a job in building maintenance.

The law finally caught up with him as a result of the legal precedent set when former guard John Demjanjuk was convicted in 2011 on the basis that he served as part of the Nazi killing machine at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland.

Since then, Germany has been racing to put on trial surviving SS personnel on those grounds rather than for murders or atrocities directly linked to the individual accused.

In the same vein, Dey is "accused of having contributed as a cog in the murder machine, in full knowledge of the circumstances, so that the order to kill could be carried out," prosecutors said.

'Speak up'

During pre-trial questioning, Dey said he ended up in the SS-Totenkopfsturmbahn (Death's Head Battalion) that ran the camp only because of a heart condition that prevented him from being sent to the front, according to Tagesspiegel daily.

Dey also reportedly confirmed he knew of the camp's gas chambers and admitted seeing "emaciated figures, people who had suffered", but insisted he was not guilty, according to the daily Die Welt.

The Nazis set up the Stutthof camp in 1939, initially using it to detain Polish political prisoners.

But it ended up holding 110,000 detainees, including many Jews. Some 65,000 people perished in the camp.

Since the landmark Demjanjuk ruling, German courts have convicted Oskar Groening, an accountant at Auschwitz, and Reinhold Hanning, a former SS guard at the same camp, for complicity in mass murder.

Both men were found guilty at the age of 94 but died before they could be imprisoned.

Sex assault claims rock Ardern's New Zealand government

Yahoo – AFP, September 11, 2019

The New Zealand Labour Party's handling of an alleged sexual assault has left
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern facing the most serious scandal since she took
office (AFP Photo/YOAN VALAT)

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern apologised Wednesday for her party's handling of an alleged sexual assault, as a top ally was forced to resign.

In the most serious scandal Ardern has faced since she took office in late 2017, the centre-left leader admitted "mistakes were made" after a Labour Party volunteer accused a senior party staffer of assault last year.

"Raising an allegation of sexual assault is an incredibly difficult thing to do -- for additional distress to be caused through the way these allegations are handled is incredibly distressing," Ardern said in a statement.

The 19-year-old woman alleges the staffer sexually assaulted her at his home in February last year and she reported it to Labour Party president Nigel Haworth in October that year.

An internal party investigation recommended no action against the man and Haworth argued as recently as Tuesday that the complainant did not inform him about the seriousness of the allegations.

The woman, who has not been publicly named, disputed this, providing media with emails and documents she said supported her version of events.

Other volunteers also backed the woman and said their complaints to the party were not taken seriously.

Ardern said she discussed the woman's documents with Haworth on Wednesday morning, as she tried to address the scandal.

"Whilst he stands by the statements he made on this matter, I believe mistakes were made," she said.

Ardern added: "On behalf of the Labour Party, I apologise to the complainants for the way this matter has been dealt with."

In a separate statement, Labour said that Haworth -- who has been credited as an unsung hero of Ardern's electoral victory -- had resigned.

Ardern said she never knew about the nature of the allegations.

"I was informed in the very beginning that the allegations made were not sexual in nature," she said. "That is obviously directly counter to what is now being reported."

A barrister, Maria Dew, has been appointed to review the Labour Party's handling of the case and is due to report directly to Ardern next month.

Ardern said she was willing to meet with the complainants and would ensure they were receiving appropriate support.

"I want a justice system in New Zealand where people feel comfortable coming forward and are listened to," she said.

"But I also need to ensure the Labour Party lives up to that expectation too."

New Zealand's next general election is scheduled for late 2020.

MIT professor quits in protest over lab links to Epstein

Yahoo – AFP, August 22, 2019

Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein portrayed himself as a 'science philanthropist'
and was friendly with several renowned scientists (AFP Photo/STEPHANIE KEITH)

New York (AFP) - The head of a research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has said he will quit in protest after the revelation of financial ties between the institution and disgraced hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein.

Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at the MIT Media Lab, said he would leave at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year after finding out that lab director Joi Ito took money from Epstein, who committed suicide in prison on August 10 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

"My logic was simple: the work my group does focuses on social justice and on the inclusion of marginalized individuals and points of view," Zuckerman wrote in a message posted on the Medium forum Tuesday and added to Wednesday.

"It's hard to do that work with a straight face in a place that violated its own values so clearly in working with Epstein and in disguising that relationship."

Zuckerman said he had apologized to the three recipients of the Media Lab's 2018 "Disobedience Prize" who were recognized for their fight against sexual harassment in the science world.

"For me, the deep involvement of Epstein in the life of the Media Lab is something that makes my work impossible to carry forward there," Zuckerman said.

Researcher J. Nathan Matias, a visiting scholar at the lab, said he was also resigning following the revelations about Ito's ties with Epstein.

Matias was working on a project conducting research on protecting women and other vulnerable people from online abuse and harassment.

"I cannot with integrity do that from a place with the kind of relationship that the Media Lab has had with Epstein. It's that simple," he said in a post on Medium announcing his resignation.

Earlier this month, Ito apologized in an open letter for his links with Epstein, who was accused of trafficking girls as young as 14 for sex.

Ito said he met the businessman in 2013, five years after Epstein's first conviction in Florida for paying young girls for sexual massages.

He admitted to visiting residences owned by the multimillionaire and having accepted financial assistance for the Media Lab and for his own investment fund.

While taking "full responsibility for my error in judgment," Ito said "that in all of my interactions with Epstein, I was never involved in, never heard him talk about, and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of."

Other scientists, including Harvard genetics professor George Church, have apologized for having contacts with Epstein.

The hedge fund manager had portrayed himself as a "science philanthropist" and was friendly with several renowned scientists.

According to recently released court documents quoted by US media, one of Epstein's alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, said as a teenager she was forced to have sex at one of Epstein's residences with Marvin Minsky, a co-founder of the MIT Media Lab who died in early 2016.

Monsanto ordered to pay $2 bn in latest Roundup blow

Yahoo – AFP, Glenn CHAPMAN, May 14, 2019

Monsanto has suffered the latest in a series of court defeats for its glyphosate-based
weedkiller Roundup, which the company insists is not linked to cancer (AFP Photo/
JOSH EDELSON)

San Francisco (AFP) - In a third major legal blow to Bayer-owned Monsanto and its weedkiller Roundup, a jury in California has ordered the chemicals giant to pay more than $2 billion in damages to a couple that sued on grounds the product caused their cancer, lawyers said.

The ruling on Monday was the latest in a series of court defeats for Monsanto over the glyphosate-based product, but the company insists the weedkiller is not linked to cancer.

The couple's legal team described the damages award as "historic," saying it totalled $2.055 billion (1.8 billion euros) after adding in slightly more than $55 million in compensatory damages.

"The jury saw for themselves internal company documents demonstrating that, from day one, Monsanto has never had any interest in finding out whether Roundup is safe," said plaintiff's counsel Brent Wisner.

"Instead of investing in sound science, they invested millions in attacking science that threatened their business agenda."

The setback sent Bayer's shares tumbling 2.55 percent to 55 euros in Frankfurt in mid-morning trading on Tuesday.

The German chemicals giant has seen close to 45 percent of its market capitalisation evaporate since it bought Monsanto in June 2018 for $63 billion.

Bayer finalised its massive acquisition of Monsanto last year, but the blockbuster
purchase has turned out to be plagued with other massive costs (AFP Photo/
Odd ANDERSEN)

In a statement, Bayer said it was disappointed with the jury's decision and would appeal the verdict, which it argues was at odds with a recent US Environmental Protection Agency review of glyphosate-based weedkillers.

"The consensus among leading health regulators worldwide is that glyphosate-based products can be used safely and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic," Bayer said.

Bayer apologises

Glyphosate developer Monsanto was convicted in the United States in 2018 and 2019 of not taking necessary steps to warn of the potential risks of Roundup -- their weedkiller containing the chemical, which two California juries found caused cancer in two users.

Bayer announced last month that more than 13,000 lawsuits related to the weedkiller had been launched in the US.

Monday's stunning verdict came as Bayer admitted that its subsidiary Monsanto kept lists of high-profile people -- for or against pesticides -- in France and likely other European countries.

Bayer apologised on Sunday after it emerged that Monsanto had a PR agency collate lists of French politicians, scientists and journalists, with their views on pesticides and GM crops.

French authorities have opened a preliminary inquiry into the claims.

"It is clear that we apologise for what has come to light in France," Matthias Berninger, Bayer's head of public affairs, told journalists in a conference call.

Bayer has said that more than 13,000 lawsuits related to its 

glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup have been launched in the 

US (AFP Photo/Alain BOMMENEL, Laurence SAUBADU, Kun TIAN)

But he admitted that "it's very likely that such lists also exist in other European countries."

"We consider what we have seen so far to be completely inappropriate," he said.

"We were of the opinion that the reports of these dealings with journalists, politicians and activists are not in order and not in agreement with what Bayer stands for."

Hidden costs

The German agro-chemicals and drugs giant finalised its massive acquisition of Monsanto last year, but the blockbuster purchase has turned out to be plagued with other massive costs.

Just two months after the acquisition was completed, Monsanto lost a case to a school groundskeeper suffering from terminal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He had sued the company over the glyphosate weedkillers Roundup and Ranger Pro.

Monsanto was initially ordered to pay $289 million to the groundskeeper, before the damages were reduced to $78.5 million.

In March, the company lost another case to an American retiree who blames his cancer on the weedkiller, and was ordered by a court to pay $80 million to the plaintiff.

Bayer is appealing both cases.

Japan's sterilised 'eugenics' victims to get payout

Yahoo – AFP, April 24, 2019

Victims of Japan's 'eugenics' programme complain the compensation offered
is not enough (AFP Photo/Toshifumi KITAMURA)

Thousands of Japanese people -- some as young as nine -- forcibly sterilised under now-defunct eugenics laws, will receive government compensation after lawmakers passed historic legislation on Wednesday.

Following the unanimous vote, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe voiced "sincere regret" and said the government "apologised wholeheartedly" over the notorious policy.

Some 16,500 mentally disabled people were sterilised without their consent under the law that remained in force until 1996, according to health ministry data.

Each victim will receive 3.2 million yen ($29,000) under the measures passed on Wednesday -- an amount derided by campaigners as "failing to meet the seriousness" of the damage suffered.

The issue hit the headlines last year after a Japanese woman, now in her 60s, sued the government over a sterilisation operation carried out in 1972 after she was diagnosed with a mental disability.

Lawyers and campaigners have long criticised the government and parliament for failing to compensate victims long after the eugenics law was abandoned in 1996.

About 20 victims have so far filed lawsuits across the country seeking compensation of up to 38 million yen.

The first verdict over the issue will be announced on May 28, and plaintiffs' lawyers have vowed to seek compensation they say matches the gravity of the harm suffered.

"It is understandable that lawmakers have been hurrying to enact the law to pay one-off compensation to ageing victims," lawyers said in a statement before the legislation was passed.

But without sufficient compensation, it is not a "true solution to the issue," they charged.

Tokyo has pledged to pay the compensation "swiftly" but the government will likely continue to battle in court against victims claiming more.

Germany and Sweden had similar eugenics laws and governments there have also apologised and paid compensation to the victims.

Under Japan's law, some leprosy patients were also forced into abortions under policies that forbade them from having children.

In 2005, a Japanese court for the first time ordered the state to pay damages to a former leprosy sufferer affected by this law.

Bernie Sanders, from gadfly to serious White House contender

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine Triomphe with Chris Lefkow in Washington, 19 February 2019

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is making another run at the White House

Once dismissed by many as a fringe candidate with wacky socialist ideas, Bernie Sanders campaigned to the brink of the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and has now set his sights on the White House once again.

Sanders, a 77-year-old US Senator from Vermont, announced on Tuesday that he will join an already crowded field of candidates seeking to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020.

"I wanted to let the people of the state of Vermont know about this first," Sanders said on Vermont Public Radio.

He called Trump a national embarrassment and a pathological liar.

"I also think he is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, somebody who is gaining cheap political points by trying to pick on minorities, often undocumented immigrants," Sanders said.

Like Trump, Sanders was an outsider when the 2016 presidential primaries began, little known to the public at large and initially not given much of a chance against the Hillary Clinton machine.

But he came close to pulling off the upset and ended up winning 23 primaries or caucuses against the better-funded Clinton.

Sanders galvanized a broad coalition with his anti-Wall Street rhetoric and talk of a "political revolution."

Though the oldest candidate in the field, Sanders garnered passionate support among young liberals with his calls for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education.

He made the fight against income inequality, which he has called the greatest moral, economic and political issue of our times, the centerpiece of his insurgent campaign.

Four years later, Sanders' policies remain the same but much has changed on the political landscape.

Trump won the election and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a young congresswoman from New York, is a rising Democratic star, embracing many of the positions held by Sanders.

"We have had more success in ideologically changing the party than I would have dreamed possible," Sanders said in an interview with GQ magazine. "The world has changed."

From Brooklyn to Senate

Bernard Sanders was born on September 8, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland.

He attended Brooklyn College and later the University of Chicago, where he was active in the civil rights movement, attending the 1963 "March on Washington" where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

After graduating, Sanders worked on an Israeli kibbutz and moved to Vermont, where he worked as a carpenter and filmmaker.

In 1981, he was elected mayor of Burlington, the state's largest city, by a mere 10-vote margin and went on to win another three terms.

He served as mayor until 1989, winning election as an independent to the US House of Representatives in 1990.

Sanders served in the House until 2006, when he was elected to the US Senate. He was re-elected in 2012 and 2018.

While Sanders remains popular among many Democrats, some in the party are questioning whether their champion this time around should be a septuagenarian white man.

Multiple women have already joined the race, including Kamala Harris, an African-American senator from California, seen as the early front-runner.

Some #MeToo movement activists have also come out against a Sanders candidacy after several employees on his 2016 campaign complained of sexual harassment by staffers.

Sanders has issued an apology "to the women on my 2016 campaign who were harassed or mistreated."

"We can't just talk about ending sexism and discrimination," he said. "It must be a reality in our daily lives."

Famously short-tempered and irascible, Sanders also still displays the energy of a much younger man -- he campaigned tirelessly for Democratic candidates in the 2018 mid-terms.

Sanders claims that he does not have a burning desire to occupy the White House and that the priority is defeating Trump.

"If there's somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I'll work my ass off to elect him or her," he told New York magazine.

Sanders lives in Burlington with his second wife, Jane. Together, they have four children and seven grandchildren.

Prince Philip, 97, gives up licence after car crash

Yahoo – AFP, February 9, 2019

Philip came under strong media criticism for failing to quickly and publically
apologise for causing the accident (AFP Photo/Victoria Jones)

London (AFP) - Queen Elizabeth II's 97-year-old husband Prince Philip on Saturday surrendered his driving licence after causing a car crash that outraged the media and raised a debate about old age and driving.

Buckingham Palace said he took the decision on his own after rolling over his Land Rover last month.

"After careful consideration the Duke of Edinburgh has taken the decision to voluntarily surrender his driving licence," Buckingham Palace said in a brief statement.

A witness told British media that Philip emerged unharmed but "shocked and shaken" from the smashup with the much smaller Kia hatchback.

Police said a nine-month-old baby who was in the back seat of Kia was uninjured. One woman in the vehicle broke her wrist and the other cut her knee.

Philip came under strong media criticism for failing to quickly and publically apologise for causing the accident.

The same witness said Philip had told police he was "blinded by the sun" when he turned onto the road without seeing the oncoming car.

The critics were out again when Philip was photographed two days later driving a replacement Range Rover without a seatbelt.

Philip retired from public life in 2017 and underwent a hip replacement operation last April.

He is famous in Britain for his forthright manner and his love for speed.

The royal family website says the duke "learned to fly all type of aircraft" after passing a Royal Air Force test in 1953.

Related Article:

UK's Prince Philip, 97, back driving - without seatbelt