22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama, from Mali, Africa, entered France illegally last year - but now he is the country's hero
Hello, this is Anna bringing you Monday's top stories.
Today's headlines
‘Spider-man’ becomes French citizen
A young ‘hero’ Malian migrant who rescued a child dangling from a balcony will be made a French citizen and has been offered a job by the Paris fire brigade, the office of the French presidency said. A video of the ‘Spider-man’ rescue showed 22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama climbing up four floors of the apartment building in just seconds to rescue the child. By the time Parisian emergency services arrived at the building, he had already pulled the child to safety. Onlookers and social media users have hailed the actions as heroic. President Emmanuel Macron invited Gassama to the Elysee Palace on Monday, where he was given a certificate and a gold medal for performing an act of courage and dedication.
Italy’s political crisis
A political standoff over Italy’s future in the eurozone has forced the resignation of the populist prime minister-in-waiting, Giuseppe Conte, after the country’s president refused to accept Conte’s controversial choice for finance minister. Sergio Mattarella refused to accept the nomination for potential finance minister of Paolo Savona, an 81-year-old former industry minister who has called Italy’s entry into the euro a ‘historic mistake’. ‘I have given up my mandate to form the government of change,’ Conte told reporters. Italy has been without a government since elections on 4 March ended in a hung parliament.
Colombia fails to elect president
Colombians have failed to elect a president, therefore premeditating a runoff between two frontrunners with polarised political positions at a time when a peace process with leftist rebels hangs in the balance. Iván Duque, a hardline conservative, took the largest share of the vote on Sunday with 39%, but fell short of the 50% required to win at the first round. He will now face Gustavo Petro – a leftwinger and former mayor of Bogotá, who came second with 25% – in the second round on 17 June.
‘Abortion bus’ in Northern Ireland
Irish pro-choice activists are planning to distribute abortion pills from a bus touring Northern Ireland this week in protest against the near-total ban on terminations in the region. After the historic referendum in the Republic of Ireland on Friday - which repealed a constitutional amendment that gave equal value to the mother and the unborn, and paved way for legalising abortion - will soon be the only place in the UK and Ireland where women cannot terminate unwanted pregnancies. Members of Rosa (Reproductive Rights, Against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity) will offer the pills from an ‘abortion bus’ touring Belfast, Derry, Lisburn and Cookstown.
Techno, chants and the far-right
Thousands of demonstrators for and against the German far right have faced off in mass rallies in Berlin, the country’s capital, where calls of ‘we are the people’ were met with chants of ‘go away, Nazis’ and techno music. Police officers were deployed on Sunday to keep groups apart and prevent clashes, as leftwing groups vowed to ‘sabotage’ the march by the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Sesame Street lawsuit
The company behind Sesame Street is suing the makers of Melissa McCarthy's upcoming adult comedy, The Happytime Murders, for referencing the popular kids show in its marketing campaign. The R-rated film follows ‘two clashing detectives’ -- Melissa McCarthy and her partner, a puppet named Phil Phillips. The tagline used in the film's marketing campaign - ‘No Sesame. All Street’ - is what the company is upset about. In the lawsuit obtained by CNN, Sesame Workshop argues that STX Entertainment does not have the right to use ‘Sesame Street’ in its tagline. The lawsuit particularly cites use of the tagline in the film's ‘just-released trailer with explicit, profane, drug-using, misogynistic, violent, copulating, and even ejaculating puppets.’