All posts by nedhamson

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

Supreme Court Says Police May Use Evidence Found After Illegal Stops – The New York Times

Justice Sotomayor said the court had vastly expanded police power. “The court today holds that the discovery of a warrant for an unpaid parking ticket will forgive a police officer’s violation of your Fourth Amendment rights,” she wrote. “Do not be soothed by the opinion’s technical language: This case allows the police to stop you on the street, demand your identification and check it for outstanding traffic warrants — even if you are doing nothing wrong.

Source: Supreme Court Says Police May Use Evidence Found After Illegal Stops – The New York Times

Facebook takedown: Social media censorship in Philippines? – IFEX – Two faced Facebook fails users…

News broke on June 1 that Facebook had deleted veteran journalist Ed Lingao’s May 24 post that criticized Duterte’s statement that he would allow the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Lingao said the post was deleted for allegedly violating Facebook’s “community standards.” A follow-up post documenting the comments he received from social media users was also deleted. Lingao posted an edited version of his original post but it was also taken down. Facebook restored it later, apologizing for the “mistake.” Lingao, however, was not the only affected Facebook user. Journalists Nonoy Espina and Inday Espina-Varona were barred from posting and commenting in their own Facebook accounts. Espina-Varona said “some other friends in the media, some artists and social activists” had also been suspended from using their account. The Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines’ (EJAP) official Facebook account, Ejap Pilipinas, was also taken down on June 4 for allegedly violating Facebook’s “authenticity policy.” On June 3, prior to the takedown, EJAP released a statement criticizing Duterte’s remarks about the killing of journalists. Following its removal, the statement circulated in other social media accounts and pages, including that of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).

Source: Facebook takedown: Social media censorship in Philippines? – IFEX

Egyptian Aak 2016-Week 24 ( June 13-19)

Can Egypt ride this fine line between fundamentalist suppression and a non-sectarian state for long? Don’t know but Nervana keeps us informed.

Nervana

Top Headlines

  • An Egyptian court sentenced ousted Islamist president Morsi to life in prison in an espionage trial
  • Egypt has recovered both black boxes from the crashed Egypt air jet
  • Prosecution appeals release order for Egyptian rights campaigner Mina Thabet
  • Giulio Regeni’s parents ask European Parliament to take severe measures against Egypt
  • Egypt’s central bank raises interest rates to the highest level in at least a decade

 

Main Headlines

 Monday

Tuesday

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Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar – The New York Times

The development has potential to be more than just a convenience for women already on birth control. Public health experts hope it will encourage more to start, or restart, using contraception and help reduce the country’s stubbornly high rate of unintended pregnancies, as well as the rate of abortions. And as apps and websites, rather than legislative proposals or taxpayer-funded programs, the new services have so far sprung up beneath the political radar and grown through word of mouth, with little of the furor that has come to be expected in issues involving reproductive health. At least six digital ventures, by private companies and nonprofits, including Planned Parenthood, now provide prescriptions written by clinicians after women answer questions about their health online or by video. All prescribe birth control pills, and some prescribe patches, rings and morning-after pills. Some ship contraceptives directly to women’s doors. Some accept insurance, including Medicaid for women with low incomes; some charge modest fees. Some send prescriptions to local pharmacies, where women can present their insurance information when picking up the contraceptives.

Source: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar – The New York Times

Photo: Red-Tailed Hawk Likes Chilling On This Brooklyn Balcony: Gothamist

As for our Brooklyn resident and his new friend, Suárez marveled, “I don’t know if it’s a sign of something, was some sort of a moment of divine intervention, or just some random-ass Brooklyn occurrence; but I’m a changed man. Love nature still owning it in NYC!”

Source: Photo: Red-Tailed Hawk Likes Chilling On This Brooklyn Balcony: Gothamist

British rock band Radiohead slams Islamist attack on fans in Istanbul | News | DW.COM | 18.06.2016

Similar attacks like those on the Velvet IndieGround record store and altercations during gay pride events have taken part also at art galleries in the area in the past. Critics say that Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government under the leadership of the AK Party (Justice and Development Party) has been undermining the country’s secular tradition, culminating in the Gezi Park protests in the summer of 2013, which resulted in 22 deaths without leading to any change.

Source: British rock band Radiohead slams Islamist attack on fans in Istanbul | News | DW.COM | 18.06.2016

Rebel US diplomats won’t be heard on Syria, ex-ambassador says – France 24 – “51 Neo-Cons in US State Department attempting – along with Neo-Con elements in the press – to con public that US should go to war with Syria!”

It is a message telling Secretary of State John Kerry that the current policy is failing and that it cannot succeed, that it will continue to fail. It is a memo that says that more must be done to put pressure on the Assad government. It is suggesting that we need limited American strikes against Assad government targets so that Assad understands the ceasefire must be respected, and that there must be compromises and more acceptance of the moderate Syrian opposition in the negotiations.

Source: Rebel US diplomats won’t be heard on Syria, ex-ambassador says – France 24

The Palestinian leadership. A continuous embarrassment

It may be little to help marginalized people feel better about themselves despite bad leadership but years and years of poor leadership is a common experience among peoples who are under control of an external or dictatorial power. That kind of power breeds corruption and bribery, as well leadership and methods that mirrors and occupying power.

نادية حرحش

Each time one thinks, things cannot get worse. It only gets worse. This cannot be a coincidence. It cannot be a simple act of fate. It cannot just be mere bad luck. There is a problem in our reality. Our reality as a people that insists on producing such leadership.

I have to admit once again ,that my state of disappointment is a state of embarrassment as well. A state of confusion and trying to redefine our own state of reality.

I grew up believing that freedom is what I need to make me alive. That living under occupation can never entitle a life with freedom. Without freedom the core of life will always be missing. I strongly believe in the just cause of Palestine. It is almost impossible for anyone who is not Palestinian to understand the meaning of this essence of missing life. Unless one experiences real oppression…

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Zakia Jafri’s Fight Isn’t Over: Only 11 Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Gulbarg Massacre – The Ladies Finger

On 28th February, 2002, during the infamous Gujarat riots, 69 people living in Gulbarg Society, a Muslim locality in Ahmedabad, were dragged out of their homes by a Hindu mob. At least 35 were burnt alive, and 69 were killed in total. Over 14 years later, on 2nd June, 2016, a Special SIT Court convicted 24 people of the murders, and yesterday, completed their sentencing. Eleven people convicted for murder were sentenced to life imprisonment. Of the remaining 13 convicted on charges like arson and rioting, 12 were sentenced to a term of seven years imprisonment, while one was sentenced to 10 years. The Court has requested the Centre not to remit the sentences of those accused to life imprisonment even after they complete a term of fourteen years in prison, at which point the Centre has the discretion to remit the sentences. Amongst those brutally murdered in this massacre was Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. His widow Zakia Jafri has been relentlessly fighting for justice for him and the other victims of this massacre for 14 years. In June 2006, she filed a complaint alleging that the police refused to register an FIR against Narendra Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and several other ministers and top administrative officials. Her plea went unheard by the Gujarat High Court in 2007. In 2008, the Supreme Court took cognisance of the matter and ordered the Narendra Modi-led government in Gujarat to re-investigate some cases from the riots, including the Gulbarg Society one.

Source: Zakia Jafri’s Fight Isn’t Over: Only 11 Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Gulbarg Massacre – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger