Watchdog upholds Scottish Muslim minister’s complaint against nursery
Humza Yousaf said Little Scholars discriminated against his daughter because of her Muslim name
Care Inspectorate: ‘We found that the service did not promote fairness, equality and respect when offering placements’
Updated 03 November 2021
Arab News
LONDON: A complaint made by a Scottish minister that a local nursery discriminated against his daughter because of her Muslim name has been upheld by the country’s care watchdog.
Following a three-month investigation prompted by a complaint by Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, the country’s Care Inspectorate said Little Scholars nursery in the city of Dundee had failed to “promote fairness, equality and respect” in its handling of applications.
Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla complained to the inspectorate when the nursery repeatedly failed to assign a place to their daughter, despite offering spots to children with “white-sounding names.” The couple are also pursuing separate legal action against the nursery.
They said they became suspicious of Little Scholars when their daughter Amal was rejected twice in their applications for a space, while it confirmed to others without ethnic names that it had places available.
El-Nakla asked a friend to enquire with the nursery about a place for their child, who did not have an ethnic name, and they were told that spaces were available.
Yousaf reported the occurrences to local newspaper The Record, which investigated the nursery and carried out the same experiment.
Discussing what the paper had found, Yousaf tweeted that the reporter “created two profiles with kids same age, their requirements the same. ‘Aqsa Akhtar’ application was rejected while ‘Susan Blake’ was offered a choice of 4 afternoons.”
The Care Inspectorate said: “We have upheld a complaint in relation to this matter. We found that the service did not promote fairness, equality and respect when offering placements.
“Every child in Scotland has the right to good quality care that meets their needs and respects their rights.
“We have identified areas for improvement and we will follow up on these to check on progress.”
Little Scholars, the owners of which are of Asian heritage, denounced the inspectorate’s decision as “highly misleading” and said their lawyers are challenging it.
A statement by the owners’ spokesperson said: “As a small family business, we’re always looking at ways we can improve things. Whilst the Care Inspectorate found our admission procedure could be improved, this had nothing to do with discrimination or equality, and within a few days of becoming aware of Mr Yousaf and Ms El-Nakla’s complaint, we reviewed and updated our system for dealing with admissions.”
Polish centrist’s narrow presidential lead leaves pro-EU path in balance
Centrist and liberal left parties score lower than expected
Far-right voters to play crucial role in second round
Updated 13 sec ago
Reuters
WARSAW: Polish liberals performed worse than expected in a presidential election on Sunday, an exit poll showed, as Rafal Trzaskowski from ruling centrists Civic Coalition (KO) scraped to victory setting up a close fight for Warsaw’s pro-European path.
Trzaskowski placed first with 30.8 percent of the vote, ahead of Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, who had 29.1 percent, according to an Ipsos exit poll. The gap was much narrower than the 4-7 percentage points seen in opinion polls before the vote.
If confirmed, the result would mean that Trzaskowski and Nawrocki will go head-to-head in a runoff vote on June 1 to determine whether Poland sticks firmly on the pro-European track set by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk or moves closer to nationalist admirers of US President Donald Trump.
“We are going for victory. I said that it would be close and it is close,” Trzaskowski told supporters. “There is a lot, a lot, of work ahead of us and we need determination.”
Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the presidential candidate of the Civic Coalition reacts to exit polls for the first round of Poland's presidential election, in Sandomierz, Poland, on May 18, 2025. (REUTERS)
Nawrocki also told supporters he was confident of victory in the second round and called on the far-right to get behind him and “save Poland.”
“We have to win these elections so that there is no monopoly of power of one political group, so that there is no monolithic power in Poland,” he said.
An Opinia24 poll for private broadcaster TVN published after the first round gave Trzaskowski 46 percent in the run-off and Nawrocki 44 percent, with 10 percent of voters either undecided or refusing to say.
Far-right candidates Slawomir Mentzen and Grzegorz Braun scored almost 22 percent combined, a historically high score.
Braun, who in 2023 used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles in the country’s parliament, an incident that caused international outrage, won 6.2 percent of the vote according to the exit poll.
Mentzen stopped short of immediately endorsing Nawrocki.
“Voters... are not sacks of potatoes, they are not thrown from one place to another,” he said. “Each of our voters is a conscious, intelligent person and will make their own decision.”
Stanley Bill, Professor of Polish Studies at the University of Cambridge, said the combined strong showing of nationalist and far-right parties meant the results were “a disappointment for the Trzaskowski camp and put wind in the sails of Nawrocki.”
“I would add to this that the results are a significant blow to Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition,” Bill added. “Candidates representing parties that won 53.7 percent of the vote in the 2023 parliamentary elections won only 44.9 percent of the vote this evening.”
Turnout was 66.8 percent according to the exit poll.
The vote in Poland took place on the same day as a presidential run-off vote in Romania, in which centrist Bucharest mayor, Nicusor Dan, appeared on course to defeat Euroskeptic hard-right lawmaker George Simion.
Karol Nawrocki, presidential candidate for the 2025 Polish presidential election supported by Poland's national conservative Law and Justice party, wave to supporters as first exit polls following the presidential elections are announced in Gdansk, Poland, on May 18, 2025. ( AP Photo)
Presidential veto
In Poland, the president has the power to veto laws. A Trzaskowski victory in the second round would enable Tusk’s government to implement an agenda that includes rolling back judicial reforms introduced by PiS that critics say undermined the independence of the courts.
However, if Nawrocki wins, the impasse that has existed since Tusk became prime minister in 2023 would be set to continue. Until now, PiS-ally President Andrzej Duda has stymied Tusk’s efforts.
If the exit poll is confirmed, the other candidates in the first round, including Mentzen from the far-right Confederation Party, Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia of the center-right Poland 2050 and Magdalena Biejat from the Left, will be eliminated.
Two updated polls that take into account partial official results will be published later in the evening and early on Monday morning.
Role in Europe
Trzaskowski has pledged to cement Poland’s role as a major player at the heart of European policymaking and work with the government to roll back PiS’s judicial changes.
Nawrocki’s campaign was rocked by allegations, which he denies, that he deceived an elderly man into selling him a flat in return for a promise of care he did not provide. But Trump showed support by meeting Nawrocki in the White House.
Nawrocki casts the election as a chance to stop Tusk achieving unchecked power and push back against liberal values represented by Trzaskowski, who as Warsaw mayor was a patron of LGBT marches and took down Christian crosses from public buildings.
Unlike some other euroskeptics in central Europe, Nawrocki supports military aid to help Ukraine fend off Russia. However, he has tapped into anti-Ukrainian sentiment among some Poles weary of an influx of refugees from their neighbor.
He has said Polish citizens should get priority in public services and criticized Kyiv’s attitude to exhumations of the remains of Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War Two.
Starmer discusses Russian war against Ukraine with US, Italy, France and Germany
The talks followed intense diplomacy by the leaders that started with their May 10 trip to Kyiv when the major European powers threw their weight behind an unconditional 30-day Ukraine ceasefire
Updated 2 min 33 sec ago
Reuters
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine with leaders of the US, Italy, France and Germany, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Looking ahead to US President Donald Trump’s call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire in the war that Russia launched against its smaller neighbor more than three years ago.
They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia fails to engage seriously in ceasefire and peace talks, the spokesperson added.
The talks followed intense diplomacy by the leaders that started with their May 10 trip to Kyiv when the major European powers threw their weight behind an unconditional 30-day Ukraine ceasefire.
“Tomorrow, President Putin must show he wants peace by accepting the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and backed by Ukraine and Europe,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X after the Sunday call.
UK’s Foreign Minister David Lammy on Saturday accused Moscow of obfuscating after talks between Ukraine and Russia on a possible ceasefire ended in less than two hours and Trump said “nothing could happen” until he had met directly with Putin.
Russia — which is slowly but steadily advancing on the battlefield and is worried that Ukraine will use such a pause to regroup and re-arm — has said it needs to nail down the terms of a ceasefire before signing up to one.
Paris airport chaos to enter second day after air traffic breakdown
The breakdown hit on Sunday and has affected thousands of passengers
Updated 19 May 2025
AFP
ORLY, France: An air traffic control breakdown at Paris-Orly airport caused the cancelation and delay of hundreds of flights and the aviation authority said the chaos would extend into Monday.
The breakdown hit on Sunday and has affected thousands of passengers with some already sat in planes at the French capital’s second biggest airport when flights were canceled.
The control tower breakdown forced the cancelation of about 130 flights in and out of Orly Sunday, officials said.
It had not been resolved by late Sunday and the DGAC French civil aviation authority said it was “asking airlines to reduce their flight schedules by 15 percent” on Monday and warned that “delays are expected.”
“The situation is improving but still requires traffic regulation,” the DGAC said.
The authority blamed an air traffic control “malfunction.” An airport source said there had been a “radar failure.”
Flights to European and North Africa destinations and across France were among those hit. Long queues formed at terminals amid a frenzied rush to find alternative transport.
“We were in the aircraft, all seated and strapped in, ready to go, when they made us disembark and collect our bags ... then began the ordeal,” said Azgal Abichou, a 63-year-old business owner.
“The only option is a 300 euro flight — and there’s only one seat left, but there are two of us and we are not even sure it will take off,” said Romane Penault, a 22-year-old student. “So for now, we’re going home.”
Agnes Zilouri, 46, tried desperately to find a seat for her 86-year-old mother and six year old son in the terminal. The family should have taken a flight to Oujda in Morocco on Sunday evening to go to a funeral.
“The flight is canceled. Fortunately I am with my mother,” she said.
Last year Orly handled about 33 million passengers, approximately half the number of the main Paris Charles de Gaulle international airport.
Authorities say suspect in California fertility clinic bombing left behind ‘anti-pro-life’ writings
US Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area, called the writings “anti-pro-life”
Updated 19 May 2025
AP
A 25-year-old man the FBI believes was responsible for an explosion that ripped through a Southern California fertility clinic left behind “anti-pro-life” writings before carrying out an attack investigators are calling an act of terrorism, authorities said Sunday.
Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, California, was identified by the FBI as the suspect in the apparent car bomb detonation Saturday that damaged the clinic in the upscale city of Palm Springs in the desert east of Los Angeles.
Investigators believe Barktus died in the blast, which a senior FBI official called possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.” A body was found near a charred vehicle outside the clinic.
Bartkus attempted to livestream the explosion and left behind writings that communicated “nihilistic ideations” that were still being examined to determine his state of mind, said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. US Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area, called the writings “anti-pro-life.”
The Associated Press reported Saturday night that those writings professed a sentiment that the world should not be populated.
“This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,” Davis said Sunday. “Make no mistake: we are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”
The bombing injured four other people, though Davis said all embryos at the facility were saved.
“Good guys one, bad guys zero,” he said.
Authorities were executing a search warrant in Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 residents about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Palm Springs, as part of the investigation.
The suspect posted writings online and attempted to record the explosion, though authorities said the video failed to upload. An official who was not authorized to discuss details of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity to the AP.
The blast gutted the single-story American Reproductive Centers clinic, though a doctor said its staff members were safe.
“Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients,” Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, told the AP in a phone interview Saturday.
Former US President Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer
Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after having experienced urinary symptoms
Updated 19 May 2025
Reuters
Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone, his office said in a statement on Sunday.
Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after having experienced urinary symptoms, and he and his family are reviewing treatment options with doctors, the statement said.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” his office said.
Biden, who served as president from 2021 to 2025, abruptly ended his bid for reelection last July, weeks after a halting performance during a debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump prompted panic among his fellow Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris took over as the party’s nominee but lost in November to Trump.
Biden’s physical health and mental acuity drew intense media scrutiny even before the debate. At the time of his election, Biden was the oldest person to win the presidency.
Trump, 78, broke that record when he defeated Harris last year.
