
-
I Am Maximus backed for National as Mullins hot streak continues
-
2014 World Cup winner Hummels to retire at season's end
-
Intercommunal violence kills dozens in central Nigeria
-
Nigerian, S. African music saw 'extraordinary growth' in 2024: Spotify
-
Russell Brand: From Hollywood star to rape suspect
-
France soccer star Mbappe unveiled in London... in waxwork form
-
Trump goads China as global trade war escalates
-
Israel expands Gaza ground offensive, hits Hamas in Lebanon
-
TikTok faces new US deadline to ditch Chinese owner
-
US Fed Chair warns tariffs will likely raise inflation, cool growth
-
Mbappe among three Real Madrid players fined for 'indecent conduct'
-
How can the EU respond to Trump tariffs?
-
Canada loses jobs for first time in 3 years as US tariffs bite
-
Real Madrid and Barcelona respect each other, says Ancelotti
-
Nations divided ahead of decisive week for shipping emissions
-
Trump goads China after Beijing retaliates in global trade war
-
Arteta urges Arsenal to enjoy "beautiful" run-in despite injury woes
-
London mayor gets new powers to revive capital's ailing nightlife
-
Italy's ski star Brignone takes on 'new challenge' after serious leg injury
-
Amorim in a 'rush' to succeed at Man Utd
-
PSG coach Luis Enrique targets unbeaten season
-
Duterte victims seeking 'truth and justice': lawyer
-
US job growth strong in March but Trump tariff impact still to come
-
UK comedian and actor Russell Brand charged with rape
-
Stocks, oil slump as China retaliates and Trump digs in heels
-
Postecoglou 'falling out of love' with football due to VAR
-
EU hails 'new era' in relations with Central Asia
-
US hiring beats expectations in March as tariff uncertainty brews
-
'Unique' De Bruyne one of the greats, says Guardiola
-
Automakers shift gears after Trump tariffs
-
Where things stand in the US-China trade war
-
De Bruyne to leave Man City at end of the season
-
Youthful Matildas provide spark in friendly win over South Korea
-
Stocks, oil extend rout as China retaliates over Trump tariffs
-
De Bruyne says he will leave Man City at end of season
-
UK spy agency MI5 reveals fruity secrets in new show
-
Leverkusen's Wirtz to return 'next week', says Alonso
-
England bowler Stone to miss most of India Test series
-
Taiwan earmarks $2.7 bn to help industries hit by US tariffs
-
Rat earns world record for sniffing landmines in Cambodia
-
Elton John says new album 'freshest' since 1970s
-
EU announces 'new era' in relations with Central Asia
-
Greece nixes Acropolis shoot for 'Poor Things' director
-
'Historic moment': South Koreans react to Yoon's dismissal
-
Israel kills Hamas commander in Lebanon strike
-
Trump unveils first $5 million 'gold card' visa
-
Crashes, fires as Piastri fastest in chaotic second Japan GP practice
-
India and Bangladesh leaders meet for first time since revolution
-
Israel expands ground offensive in Gaza
-
Families of Duterte drug war victims demand probe into online threats
RBGPF | 1.48% | 69.02 | $ | |
JRI | -7.1% | 11.97 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.54% | 22.141 | $ | |
BCC | -0.29% | 94.36 | $ | |
RYCEF | -16.39% | 8.42 | $ | |
NGG | -4.36% | 66.49 | $ | |
RIO | -7.47% | 54.367 | $ | |
BCE | 1.82% | 23.08 | $ | |
RELX | -4.89% | 49.04 | $ | |
SCS | -1.8% | 10.55 | $ | |
CMSD | -1.02% | 22.44 | $ | |
VOD | -9.78% | 8.535 | $ | |
AZN | -7.07% | 69.04 | $ | |
BTI | -4.14% | 40.255 | $ | |
BP | -9.91% | 28.515 | $ | |
GSK | -6.05% | 36.786 | $ |

Sahra Wagenknecht, Germany's combative 'left-wing conservative'
After a lifetime in opposition, Germany's hard-left standard-bearer Sahra Wagenknecht has shaken up the political scene with a blend of pro-poor, Moscow-friendly and anti-immigration policies.
On Sunday, the 55-year-old launches the campaign of her one-year-old BSW party in the hope it will enter parliament after a snap general election slated for February 23, replicating its success in regional and European polls last year.
Known as a polarising TV talk show guest and best-selling author, Wagenknecht has long given voice to popular discontent at what she calls heartless capitalism, arrogant political elites and dangerous Western militarism.
Hailing from the former communist East Germany, she has spoken with nostalgia about the state that vanished a year after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
Unlike traditional leftists who encourage solidarity with refugees, she has demanded strict limits on migrants and those seeking asylum, also a key theme for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Her favourite targets are progressive Green party voters and "lifestyle leftists" who, Wagenknecht charges, preach sustainable living and multiculturalism but look down on the poor and less educated.
A year ago, she broke with her long-time comrades-in-arms at Die Linke, the successor to East Germany's socialist SED ruling party, to form a party named after herself, the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).
What she has dubbed a "left-wing conservative" agenda blends demands for higher wages, pensions and benefits with calls for stricter border controls, more police and a defence of family, homeland and state.
"She appeals to left-wing authoritarians, voters who hold economically left-wing positions but are culturally conservative," said political scientist Jan Philipp Thomeczek of Potsdam University.
- 'System detonator' -
Wagenknecht got a taste of power when the BSW obtained scores ranging from 12 to 16 percent in elections in three eastern states last year, allowing the party to enter coalition governments in two of them, Thuringia and Brandenburg.
For many years Germany's mainstream parties were able to dismiss parties on the left and right fringes -- but this has changed as ever more parties have emerged and eaten away at their support.
All parties have pledged a "firewall" of non-cooperation with the AfD, which has forced them to instead reach out to the BSW to build majorities despite the ideological chasm between them.
Wagenknecht has tried to leverage this new power to win symbolic concessions, including on her demand that the West stop arms supplies to Kyiv and seek peace talks with Moscow.
In the eastern states, parties spent weeks haggling over formulations they could all live with, settling in the end on a watered-down commitment to seek "peace in Europe".
News magazine Der Spiegel last year dubbed Wagenknecht the "system detonator", depicting her in a cover illustration holding aloft a red dynamite stick with a lit fuse.
- Strict hierarchy -
Wagenknecht grew up during the Cold War in what was then East Berlin, where the philosophy and economics graduate was known early on for her headstrong and rebellious nature.
But in the final months of the German Democratic Republic, she demonstratively joined the SED. Years later she declared that she "would have preferred to spend my life in the GDR a thousand times rather than in the Germany in which I have to live now".
She is married to former Social Democratic Party heavyweight Oskar Lafontaine, decades her senior at 81, with whom she lives in the southwestern region of Saarland.
Her BSW has attracted a mix of personalities from the arts and sports as well as the millionaire businessman Ralph Suikat, who has said he wants to "pay more tax".
But, as the name suggests, the BSW is heavily centred on its founder and chief, with a strict hierarchy and tight vetting of new members by Wagenknecht's inner circle.
So far the party has just 1,100 full members and around 25,000 registered supporters. In many regions it still lacks established party structures and volunteers.
The BSW currently polls at around five percent nationwide, the minimum for entry into parliament, but Wagenknecht is determined to anchor her party in German politics.
Der Spiegel said Wagenknecht long "had her own speaker's corner in the political marketplace, from where she drowned out most of the others, but now that's no longer enough for her, now she wants to join in".
R.Adler--BTB