As Angela Merkel flies to Washington for her first meeting with Donald Trump, the US president’s critics may be hoping the German chancellor will give her US counterpart a lecture on the folly of borders and the values of a free press. They are likely to be disappointed.Although Merkel “explained” the Geneva convention to Trump in their first phone call after his inauguration, she is expected to raise the issue of refugees and migration only as part of a wider discussion of the volatile political situation in north Africa when she meets the US president at the White House on Friday, rescheduled from Tuesday due to the snowstorm that hit the eastern US this week.“We’ve heard that the president’s favourite pastime is not being lectured,” said one senior German adviser. (the guardian)…[+]

The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has seen off a challenge from the anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders to claim a resounding victory in parliamentary elections widely seen as a test for resurgent nationalism before other key European polls.With nearly 95% of votes counted and no further significant changes expected, Rutte’s centre-right, liberal VVD was assured of 33 MPs, by far the largest party in the 150-seat Dutch parliament, the national news agency ANP said.Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV) looked certain to finish second, but a long way behind on 20 seats, just ahead of the Christian Democrat CDA and liberal-progressive D66, which both ended third with 19 seats.(the guardian)…[+]

Parents of former pupils of an ultra-nationalist Japanese kindergarten at the centre of a political scandal have asked authorities to investigate its operator over claims of hate speech toward ethnic minorities and the borderline abuse of children.The parents have asked the prefectural government in Osaka, where Moritomo Gakuen kindergarten is based, to look into claims that it “often does things to the children that verge on abuse, and uses discriminatory language toward Chinese people and others in its newsletters”, Kyodo news reported on Wednesday.The nature of the alleged abuse was not immediately clear.The private kindergarten has attracted daily media coverage in recent weeks over a land deal and its relationship with the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, his wife and prominent politicians who support its conservative education ethos.(the guardian)…[+]

A historic murder conviction against a British marine who shot dead a seriously wounded Taliban prisoner in Afghanistan has been quashed and replaced with one of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Alexander Blackman became the first member of the UK armed forces in recent history to be convicted of murder while on an overseas tour and has been serving a life sentence in a civilian prison since 2013.Blackman, who was not at the Royal Courts of Justice to hear the decision, remains in prison for the moment but will be re-sentenced within the next couple of weeks and at that point could be released.Outside court Blackman’s wife, Claire, who has led the campaign to free the former sergeant, said she was delighted by the result saying it “much better reflected the circumstances that [her] husband found himself in during that terrible tour of Afghanistan”.(The guardian)…[+]

Donald Trump’s leaked tax return reveals that the businessman had to pay tens of millions of dollars in a single year because of a tax rule that he has specifically promised to abolish as president.A two-page section of Trump’s tax return for 2005, which was published by MSNBC late on Tuesday, revealed that the president paid $38m in federal taxes on more than $150m in income in 2005.But the documents also showed that about 82% of the total paid to the Internal Revenue Service that year by Trump and his wife, Melania, was incurred due to a tax that Trump has said should be abolished.(the guardian)…[+]

New Home Office criteria to fill the last 150 places under the Dubs scheme to bring lone refugee children in Europe to Britain have been sharply criticised by charities and campaigners.The department has said only children who arrived in Europe before 20 March 2016 will be eligible for the remaining places before the scheme is closed in April.

Ministers have capped the total number to be brought to Britain at 350, well below expectations of 3,000 when parliament approved Lords Dubs’ amendment to the 2016 Immigration Act in May last year.

Charities say the cut-off date, when the EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow of refugees across its border came into force, will exclude the majority of the lone refugee children now in camps in Greece.(The guardian)…[+]

After eight years of a rigorous resettlement process at Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, Dahabo Hashi and her five children were due to travel to South Dakota on 10 March. Civil war in Somalia had forced them to flee to Dadaab. But their plans to start a new life in the US are now on hold, after President Donald Trump last week signed a new executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries.This is the second time that Hashi’s family has been hit by the US president’s travel ban. On 27 January, as their flight was being booked, they were told that all travel arrangements had been cancelled. When US federal courts blocked Trump’s executive order in February, Hashi was among hundreds of Somali refugees in Kenya who were cleared for travel. But the new revised order means that their case is again on hold – at least for 120 days while the US refugee resettlement programme is suspended.(The guardian)…[+]

Employers may bar staff from wearing visible religious symbols, the EU’s highest court has ruled in its first decision on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work. But customers cannot simply demand that workers remove headscarves if the company has no policy barring religious symbols, the court ruled on Tuesday.On the eve of a Dutch election in which Muslim immigration has been a key issue and a bellwether for attitudes to migration and refugee policies across Europe, the European court of justice (ECJ) gave a joint judgment in the cases of two women, in France and Belgium, who were dismissed for refusing to remove headscarves.(The guardian)…[+]

Indonesia has transferred a convicted US citizen to its so-called execution island, prompting fears among rights organisations that the government may be preparing another round of firing squads.Human Rights Watch said Frank Amado, who faces the death penalty for drug trafficking, had been moved to facilities on Nusa Kambangan island, the site of previous recent executions.Indonesian press is reporting six other foreign nationals on death row may have moved along with him, including Chen Weibiao, Xiao Jin Zeng and Lo Tin Yau, from China; Malaysian citizen E Wee Hock; Frank Nwaomeka from Nigeria; and Lai Siu Cheung Anika, from Hong Kong.(The guardian)…[+]

The former Catalan president Artur Mas has been banned from holding public office for two years after being found guilty of disobeying the Spanish constitutional court by holding a symbolic independence referendum three years ago.The Catalan high court convicted Mas, former vice-president Joana Ortega and former education minister Irene Rigau of defying the constitutional court by pressing ahead with the non-binding vote in November 2014.Mas was also fined €36,500 (£31,900). Ortega was banned from holding office for 21 months, Rigau for 18 months.(the guardian)…[+]