(LONDON) — Thousands are marching in Northern Ireland to demand that the region’s leaders permit same-sex marriage.

The demonstrators in Belfast on Saturday want same-sex couples to be treated the same way in Northern Ireland as they are in the rest of the UK, where same-sex marriage is legal. The issue is a stumbling block to restoring Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant power-sharing administration, which has been suspended for more than two years.

Northern Ireland’s 1.8 million people have been without a functioning administration since the government collapsed in January 2017 over a failed green-energy project. The rift later widened to broader cultural issues separating Northern Ireland’s British unionists and Irish nationalists.

The socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party, an ally of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, is opposed to a redefinition of the law.

(VIENNA) — Austrian vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned Saturday after two German newspapers published footage of him apparently offering lucrative government contracts to a potential Russian benefactor at a gathering in Ibiza.

The resignation was a black eye for populist and nationalist forces who favor tighter European immigration policies and comes only a few days before the May 23-26 elections in 28 European Union nations to fill the European parliament.

Standing before journalists and TV cameras, Strache announced his resignation without taking questions. He said he was set up in a “political assassination” but added that his behavior in the video was “stupid, irresponsible and a mistake.”

The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the weekly Der Spiegel on Friday published extracts of a covert video purportedly showing Strache offering government contracts to a Russian woman allegedly interested in investing large amounts of money in Austria.

The 49-year-old politician s..

(CANNES, France) — Ahead of Saturday’s premiere of an Argentine documentary on abortion, dozens of women demonstrated for abortion rights on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Women, including the filmmakers and activists seen in the film, waved green handkerchiefs and carried a large banner while walking the Cannes carpet at the premiere of Argentine director Juan Solanas’ “Let It Be Law.” The documentary depicts Argentina’s battle to legalize abortion.

Argentina’s Senate last year rejected a bill to legalize abortion, prompting protests in Buenos Aires streets. Green handkerchiefs have come to be symbol of the movement. A modified version of the bill is to be presented to Congress on May 28.

The film’s debut comes as abortion rights are also being fiercely contested in the U.S. On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate passed a bill that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state, including those involving pregnancies from rape or incest.

Many in the movie industry in..