All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

‘Punch in the face to voters’: Arizona bill would let lawmakers throw out presidential election results | 12news.com

 We are seeing a slew of Republican bills at the Arizona Capitol in the name of “election integrity.”

But many of the bills would make it harder to vote in an election.

And a new piece of election legislation – the most extreme bill in recent memory – would give lawmakers the power to reject Arizonans’ votes for president.

Source: ‘Punch in the face to voters’: Arizona bill would let lawmakers throw out presidential election results | 12news.com

Biden cancels Houthi terror designation, restoring Yemen aid

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UN welcomes reversal of Trump-Pompeo order as state department says it is purely to alleviate ‘world’s worst humanitarian crisis’

The United States has said it intends to revoke the terrorist designation of the Houthi movement in response to Yemen’s humanitarian crisis – reversing one of the most criticised last-minute decisions of the Trump administration.

The reversal, confirmed by the state department, comes a day after Joe Biden declared a halt to US support for the Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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Myanmar: Australian adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, Sean Turnell, ‘being detained’ | Myanmar | The Guardian

Sean Turnell, an Australian economic adviser to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, has told the news agency Reuters that he is being detained, days after the Burmese leader was arrested in a military coup.

“I guess you will soon hear of it, but I am being detained,” he said. “Being charged with something, but not sure what. I am fine and strong, and not guilty of anything,” he said in a message, with a smile emoji. It was not subsequently possible to contact him.

According to his LinkedIn profile, which features a picture of him with Aung San Suu Kyi, Turnell is also a professor of economics at Sydney’s Macquarie University. It says he has been living in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, since December 2017 while serving as special economic consultant to the former leader.

The news came as thousands of people took to the streets of Yangon on Saturday to denounce this week’s coup and demand the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, in the first such demonstration since the generals seized power on Monday.

“Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win,” protesters chanted, calling for the military to free Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) who have been detained since the coup.

Source: Myanmar: Australian adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, Sean Turnell, ‘being detained’ | Myanmar | The Guardian

If India can charge journalists with ‘sedition’ for doing their jobs, it has no free press | Hartosh Singh Bal

Fascist Modi rolls on – sadly

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My colleagues reporting on alleged police violence at farmers’ protests have fallen foul of Modi’s government

The protests against farm laws that were hurriedly passed by the Indian government in September pose the most severe challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authority since he first came to power in 2014. Farmers fear the laws, which the supreme court has now paused, will pave the way for the entry of large corporations into the agricultural market, weakening their ability to negotiate a fair price. Several rounds of talks between farm leaders and government ministers have failed to reach a resolution, so now the government is using the large and visible presence of Sikh farmers to suggest the protests are influenced by religious separatists. In the process it is also coming down hard on the few media organisations that still act independently.

At 4:09pm on 26 January, as more than 100,000 farmers on tractors poured into Delhi, the monthly magazine where I work, the Caravan, tweeted: “Navneet Singh, a 34-year-old farmer protester from Uttarakhand, was shot and killed at ITO [the Income Tax Office area of the city] this afternoon, acc to an eyewitness.” This was followed by more details: “Harmanjit Singh said he was walking alongside a tractor that Navneet was driving when the latter was shot.”

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Supreme Court lifts some restrictions on California church services | TheHill

In a 6-3 ruling, the judges held that the state can’t ban indoor worship, but it can cap indoor services at 25 percent capacity. The court also didn’t stop the state from enforcing a ban on indoor singing and chanting.

The court ruled in two cases brought against the state by churches — one by South Bay United Pentecostal Church and another by Harvest Rock Church — over restrictions in the state.

Source: Supreme Court lifts some restrictions on California church services | TheHill