Keyword: Sweden

A century before coronavirus, the economic lessons from Spanish Flu

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A sign from October 1918 at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia warning people not to spit. © DR A sign from October 1918 at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia warning people not to spit. © DR

Along with the medical and health fears over the current coronavirus outbreak, there are also growing concerns about the economic impact of a pandemic on the world. In 1918 and 1919, at the end of World War I, the so-called 'Spanish Influenza' killed close to 18 million people. Yet the impact it had on the world economy at the time is poorly understood. Mediapart's Romaric Godin examines what lessons the deadly Spanish flu outbreak might hold for us today.

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President Hollande rejects French asylum for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

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In an open letter to the French president on Friday the founder of WikiLeaks, Julain Assange, made an apparent appeal for political asylum in France. Assange, whose whistleblowing organisation was behind the recent revelations published by Mediapart and Libération about US spying on French heads of state, said that he faced “political persecution” and that his life was “in danger”. However, within an hour of the publication of the open letter President Hollande's office issued a brusque statement rejecting asylum for Assange, who has spent three years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to escape extradition to Sweden. As Lénaïg Bredoux, Jérôme Hourdeaux and Mathieu Magnaudeix report, the episode quickly stirred up a row and will inevitably reignite the debate about how far France should be prepared to go in welcoming whistleblowers such as Assange and the former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden.

Ryanair passenger to France allowed on Sweden flight

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Investigation starts after professional surfer Toby Donachie, 19, who was supposed to be flying to the south of France, ended up in Sweden.