Latest news with #Aubry
France 24
4 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
EU's von der Leyen 'has to be held accountable' for vaccine texts: Senior MEP Aubry
Aubry reacts to the recent EU General Court ruling over undisclosed vaccine deal text messages between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer during the Covid-19 pandemic. The court's decision was hailed as a victory for transparency, but von der Leyen has not made the text messages public. "Well, it's a scandal, let's be honest," Aubry says. "And let's face it, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has been negotiating the contract with Pfizer for the vaccines. The price of the vaccines has been increasing out of nowhere, probably from direct negotiations. And those SMS were not just like me sending you a nice and friendly SMS; 'Do you want to have a drink'? No, it was about negotiation of public money. So she has to be held accountable for that. I think, to be honest, she should be resigning." Aubry puts the "Pfizergate" controversy in the context of broader concerns about a lack of transparency in the EU institutions. "How many scandals have we had over the last few years? You might remember ' Qatargate ', and the recent 'Huaweigate', Aubry says. "The core of the issue is opacity. Everything that is dealt, negotiated, agreed upon in the European institutions is done within closed doors, with no possibility for journalists, for NGOs, for citizens to hold the politicians accountable. And that's a problem. We need the independent ethics body that we've been advocating [for], but we also need to take of money out [of the European Parliament]. As an MEP, you should not take a single cent outside of the money that you earn as an MEP." Aubry draws a parallel between attempts to simplify corporate due diligence and sustainability directives and French President Emmanuel Macron 's call to remove "Duty of Care" requirements on multinationals. "This is a trend that is following Trump, quite simply. It's deregulation," Aubry states. "The 'Duty of Care' text is one that I negotiated over the last five years. It's been adopted only a year ago. So democratically speaking, killing a directive that has been adopted only a year ago, that companies were starting to get ready to implement, is a bit of a problem. But most importantly, why is that 'Duty of Care' Directive important? You know, if you take all of the big multinationals, take Nike, take Total, take Carrefour, take Vinci, take whatever companies; they make profits out of the exploitation of workers and the environment. So the principle is very simple for that directive. We are just saying that companies will have to be responsible for their subcontractors, for the whole value chain, because they cannot make profits out of this. They will have to be careful. It's a duty of care! So they will have to prevent human rights violations. And if there are human rights violations, then they can be held responsible and pay fines for it." Aubry calls on progressive forces in the European Parliament to get together and block the watering down of such legislative acts. "To be honest, the Socialists are giving up," Aubry laments. "On the 'Stop-the-clock' directive, which is postponing the implementation of the 'Duty of Care' legislation, precisely to water it down, they voted in favour! How come they voted in favour? They were on our side to negotiate that directive, and now they agree to water it down. So I think this goes beyond that directive. It's a big question now for the whole left, for the Greens, for the Socialists, for all the progressives. Where are you? And what will you tell your kids?" Aubry has been supporting women 's reproductive freedoms, particularly in Poland amid the election of the arch-conservative president, Karol Nawrocki. "You know, there was a time when French women were going to Poland to get abortions. And now it's the other way around," Aubry points out. "And I want to tell all the feminist activists in Poland: we are together with you. We're going to keep helping you. I'm going to be back in Poland early July. I'm going to bring back abortion pills. I'm going to keep fighting to get abortion into the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights. We are in 2025. How come we're still fighting for that very simple right of abortion?" Aubry is a well-known advocate for the Palestinian cause. We ask her if French President Emmanuel Macron is backtracking from his earlier signals that he would recognise a Palestinian state. "It looks like it. There's at least a strong hesitation," she replies. "And I remember when he made his first declaration, he said, well, that it was not the right moment to recognise the state of Palestine. But when will be the right moment? We've got 100 percent of the 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza that are at risk of famine. We've got people dying every single day under the bombs of Israel. We've got an embargo on humanitarian aid. And in the meantime, France is still delivering weapons to Israel. So I will keep fighting strongly to suspend the Association Agreement, the trade association agreement between Israel and the EU. I'll keep fighting for an embargo on weapons. We need to support Gaza. We need to support the Palestinians, because what is at stake in Gaza is not only the Palestinians. It's our humanity. And that's the humanity that we should be fighting for."
The National
28-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Why should the left be ashamed to be left?
Labour never promised transformation. They campaigned on stability, on fiscal discipline, on not scaring anyone. The fiscal rules were locked in. Public investment was already constrained. Immigration rhetoric hardened before the first vote was cast. Still, many voters – including some on the left – held on to the hope that the machinery of government might offer opportunities for ambition, or at least decency. But less than a year in, that hope is evaporating. Cabinet ministers are storming out of meetings. The Deputy Prime Minister is circulating an alternative budget memo proposing tax increases to avoid welfare cuts. A leadership contest is openly discussed. Not because something unexpected has happened – but because everything is happening exactly as expected. What's missing is not just policy. It's narrative. Starmer offers fiscal discipline, praises business, restricts immigration and maintains brutal Conservative-era policies like the two-child benefit cap – which denies support to third children in poor families. Only when Nigel Farage's Reform UK began criticising the policy did Labour begin murmuring about change. This isn't just caution. It's a failure to lead. Because what British voters want – like French voters in 2012 – is not just competence. It's transformation: an end to austerity, a belief that the state can be a force for good, a moral rebalancing after a decade of precarity. And here's the danger: when the left refuses to offer that, it opens the door to those who will. In France, that is, ever increasingly, the far-right Rassemblement National. In the UK, it may well be Farage. Reform UK are now talking about child poverty, restoring fuel payments, helping working-class families – themes Labour once owned and have since abandoned. Farage is no ally of the poor. But Labour's silence gives him room to pretend. This keeps happening because too many centre-left parties have internalised the idea that they must apologise for their values. That being 'electable' means abandoning redistribution, avoiding the word tax and endlessly chasing the political centre. But you can't technocrat your way out of political collapse. You can't reconnect with working-class voters if you treat them as an embarrassment. I've seen this before. I'm a French journalist now based in Scotland. In 2012, I was a member of the French Socialist Party. I campaigned enthusiastically in the primaries for Martine Aubry (below) – one of the last political leaders I truly admired. For readers unfamiliar with her, Aubry was the architect of France's 35-hour work week and a principled social democrat who placed care, justice and shared dignity at the heart of her politics. She stood for a kind of feminism rooted in working-class realities and state responsibility. But Aubry lost the primary. François Hollande – a bland centrist and consensus-builder – won. And what followed was one of the most disillusioning experiences of my political life: a slow implosion of the French left, driven by a man who, like Starmer, confused caution with courage and management with leadership. Hollande's 2012 victory was heavy with hope but light on slogan – Le changement, c'est maintenant ('Change is now') – was designed to be vague. And the result itself was far from a plebiscite. He won with a modest margin and limited enthusiasm, mostly because people wanted rid of Nicolas Sarkozy, not because they believed in his vision. Starmer's path to power followed the same logic. Labour's share of the vote was historically low. The scale of the victory masked the thinness of the mandate – a rejection of 14 years of Conservative rule, not an endorsement of a bold new programme. The moment Hollande took office, something broke. He tried to reassure the markets, surrounded himself with economic technocrats and embraced 'fiscal responsibility'. Early tax increases on the wealthy were reversed. Corporate tax breaks expanded. Labour protections were weakened. Investment in social transformation stalled. READ MORE: Scottish director's film set during Highland Clearances takes Cannes by storm Then came the real rupture: a shift to the right on identity and security. In the wake of terrorist attacks, Hollande declared a state of emergency, expanded police powers and even proposed revoking French citizenship from dual nationals convicted of terrorism – a deeply symbolic, reactionary move that split his own party and alienated much of the electorate. By 2017, Hollande was so unpopular he didn't even run for re-election. The Socialist Party collapsed. Emmanuel Macron took power. And the far-right surged into the space the left had abandoned. Meanwhile, in Scotland, the story has played out differently – but not necessarily more hopefully. Labour's collapse created space not for a bold progressive force, but for the SNP: a party that, while rhetorically centre-left, has governed in a cautious, often managerial style. It has benefited from Westminster's failures more than from its own radicalism. Still, within a bleak UK-wide landscape, the Scottish Child Payment stands out as one of the few serious policy efforts to reduce child poverty. It recognises, at least, that the state should do something. While Labour drift, something interesting is happening back in France. In the coming days, the Socialist Party – the traditional party of the centre-left, once dominant and now largely eclipsed – will hold their national congress. For the first time in years, there is a real debate about what the left is for. How do we rebuild a credible alternative in time to prevent the far right from winning the presidency in 2027? Among the candidates vying to lead the party is Boris Vallaud, a relatively little-known figure outside France but a serious and thoughtful one. A former Élysée adviser under Hollande and now an MP in the Landes, Vallaud has built a reputation as a consistent, principled voice on the democratic left. Unlike many in his generation, he never embraced Macronism or the hollow centre. His campaign has resonated around a striking formulation: 'Socialism is orphaned of a strong idea.' His answer is démarchandisation – the reclaiming of life from the logic of the market. It's a concept that avoids the nostalgia of full nationalisation and the clichés of 'big state' politics. Instead, it questions the market's expansion into every domain of life – from early years care to education, housing, even human relationships. It asks what parts of society should be protected from profit imperatives, and how the state, civil society and communities might reclaim them. Vallaud is not alone: across the French left, from François Ruffin to Clémentine Autain, a common diagnosis is emerging – that the unchecked commodification of everything fuels not only inequality, but despair, loneliness and, eventually, the far right. In this sense, démarchandisation isn't just a policy tool. It's a way to reconnect socialism with meaning, power and emotion – and to name the unease so many people feel in a world where even water, old age and education are for sale. That kind of language – of meaning, purpose, direction – is strikingly absent from British a time when so much of the debate here has been reduced to numbers, caps, thresholds and reviews, it's worth noting when someone tries to articulate a broader horizon. READ MORE: I followed the SNP campaign trail in Hamilton – here's what I found out Because what I learned from campaigning with Aubry – and what I still believe — is that the left is strongest when it speaks from a place of care. Not sentimentality, but care as structure: interdependence, dignity, shared wealth. The 35-hour week was never just about hours. It was about balance, collective life, and rejecting the idea that growth is all that matters. Aubry didn't just manage. She inspired. Hollande didn't. And Starmer isn't. When the left retreats from these principles, it becomes cold. When it retreats from redistribution, it becomes irrelevant. When it copies the right, it legitimises its ideas. That's what Hollande did. And now Starmer is walking straight down the same path. In 2017, the French Socialist Party collapsed into irrelevance. The lesson wasn't that the left is doomed. It was that a left that forgets what it's for will not survive. Starmer should take note. Otherwise, like Hollande, he will be remembered not just for failing to deliver change – but for extinguishing the hope that change was still possible. As for whether démarchandisation could be that long-lost strong idea – well, that's for another column.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
After fire destroys kitchen, Herbivorous Butcher launches fundraiser to rebuild
The Herbivorous Butcher in Northeast Minneapolis has closed after a May 13 fire caused "serious damage" to its kitchen, forcing the vegan "butcher" to close its doors indefinitely. The owners, siblings Aubry and Kate Welch, say they don't "know yet how long the road to recovery will be," but the popular shop with meat-free meats and dairy-free cheeses is "committed to coming back." It has launched a GoFundMe fundraiser, looking for assistance as it rebuilds. "Right now, we're still learning the full extent of the damage," the owners wrote on the fundraiser. "The insurance company is on-site today, and we're doing everything we can to assess what can be salvaged, what needs rebuilding, and how long recovery might take." The fundraiser, which has a goal of $100,000, aims to help The Herbivorous Butcher with cleanup, repair, and "restoring operations." A day after launching the fundraiser, it had collected more than $16,500 in donations. "We've poured everything into creating a space that brings people together through compassionate food," the fundraiser reads, "and we're so grateful for your support during this incredibly difficult time."
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Country music singer dies aged 73 after being admitted to hospice care as family pay tribute
Country music star Johnny Rodriguez has died aged 73, his family have announced. The Texas-born singer, who had a string of number one hits in the 1970s, passed away on Friday after being admitted to hospice care. His daughter Aubry wrote on social media: 'It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Johnny Rodriguez, who left us peacefully on May 9th, surrounded by family. 'Dad was not only a legendary musician whose artistry touched millions around the world, but also a deeply loved husband, father, uncle, and brother whose warmth, humor, and compassion shaped the lives of all who knew him. 'While the world has lost an extraordinary talent, we have lost someone irreplaceable - and we ask for privacy as we navigate this painful moment together.' The country music pioneer had a glittering career that included six number one hits and 20 top 10s in his heyday, which was between 1973 and 1978. His most memorable hits included Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico, That's the way Love Goes and You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me). He was honoured by presidents George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush during his lifetime. The singer is credited with helping to define the genre of country music and was even was even inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. Rodriguez was also known for being one of the first Hispanic country music stars, with his use of Spanish lyrics and sounds giving him a unique sound. The star was born in Texas in 1951 and was captain of the football team and an altar boy during his younger years. However, tragedy struck when his father died from cancer when he was just 16 years old, before his brother passed away the following year in a car crash. According to The Sun, he spent time in jail and his singing was noticed by famous Texas ranger Joaquin Jackson, who recognised the talent and told his music promoter pal"Happy" Shahan. He then got to perform at the Almo Village where Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare noticed his voice in 1971, telling him he should move to Nashville. He did just that aged 21 years old and signed a record deal with Mercury less than a year later. From there, his career skyrocketed with a string of number ones and in 1979 he signed to Epic Records and worked with well-known music producer Billy Sherrill. His last top ten singles were in 1983 - Foolin' and How Could I Love Her So Much. However, the music came to a halt for a while in 1998 when he shot and killed a man in his home who he had mistaken for a burglar, before being acquitted on all charges by a jury. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s he continued to tour and record new material and released his first live album in 2012. Fans of Rodriguez have rushed to social media to pay tribute, writing: 'RIP to another Texas legend. 'Johnny Rodriguez passed away today. With his smooth voice, heartfelt lyrics, and fearless blending of country and Latin influences, Johnny helped shape the sound of a generation. His songs were timeless and his impact undeniable. Rest easy, Johnny.' 'RIP Johnny Rodriguez… another country great is gone.' Fans of Rodriguez have rushed to social media to pay tribute, writing: 'RIP to another Texas legend 'Years ago I opened up for Johnny Rodriguez at California State University of Bakersfield he will truly be missed. My thoughts and prayers for his family and loved ones may he rest in peace.' 'I got the privilege of meeting Johnny Rodriguez last year when I went to visit my daughter in Nashville. Nice gentleman. RIP Johnny.' 'RIP Johnny Rodriguez. Great singer!' 'I'm so damn bummed hearing about Johnny Rodriguez passing. 'Him and Freddy Fender were trailblazers in the country music scene and did a lot of real good stuff over the years and the Latin influences were only part of the voice of these two. Tonight we're blasting Rodriguez.'
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Johnny Rodriguez, Hispanic Country Music Star and 'That's the Way Love Goes' Singer, Dies at 73
Johnny Rodriguez, the chart-topping Hispanic country music star and 'That's the Way Love Goes' singer, has died. He was 73. Rodriguez's daughter, Aubry Rodriguez, announced his death on social media on Friday. More from The Hollywood Reporter Greg Cannom, Oscar-Winning Makeup Artist on 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' and 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' Dies at 73 Dump Truck Crashes Into Whisky a Go Go Music Venue on Sunset Strip Rosanna Norton, Oscar-Nominated Costume Designer on 'Tron,' Dies at 80 'Dad was not only a legendary musician whose artistry touched millions around the world, but also a deeply loved husband, father, uncle and brother whose warmth, humor, and compassion shaped the lives of all who knew him,' she wrote in an Instagram post. 'We are immensely grateful for the outpouring of love and support from fans, colleagues and friends during this time of grief.' 'While the world has lost an extraordinary talent, we have lost someone irreplaceable — and we ask for privacy as we navigate this painful moment together,' Aubry concluded. Rodriguez was one of the first Hispanic country music stars, finding success at the beginning of his career after moving to Nashville at 21 and signing a deal with Mercury Records. His first single with the label, 1972's 'Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through),' reached No. 9 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. His first No. 1 hit on the country charts arrived in 1973 with his track 'You Always Come Back to Hurting Me,' with his song 'Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico' also reaching No. 1 later that year. Rodriguez's debut album, Introducing Johnny Rodriguez, became a No. 1 album on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart in 1973. That same year, he received the most promising vocalist honor at the Academy of Country Music Awards and was nominated for single record of the year for 'Pass Me By.' In total, he had six No. 1 tracks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, including 'That's the Way Love Goes,' 'I Just Can't Get Her Out Out of My Mind,' 'Just Get Up and Close the Door' and 'Love Put a Song in My Heart.' He later signed with Epic Records in 1979 and worked alongside producer Billy Sherrill. In 2007, he was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame. Survivors include his daughter, Aubry, whom Rodriguez shared with his ex-wife, Debbie McNeely. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
