Category Archives: Global Politics

Ukip candidate suspended for threatening to ‘put a bullet in’ Tory rival | Politics | The Guardian

In the footage, Blay is heard to express his frustration with suggestions that Jayawardena has a bright political career ahead of him and especially at the possibility that he could rise to be Britain’s first prime minister of Asian descent.

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“If he is, I will personally put a bullet between his eyes,” says Blay. “If this lad turns up to be our prime minister, I will personally put a bullet in him. That’s how strong I feel about it.

via Ukip candidate suspended for threatening to ‘put a bullet in’ Tory rival | Politics | The Guardian.

Prominent Iranian activist arrested in Tehran – Al Jazeera English

Iranian security forces have arrested a prominent activist just days after she was charged in court with crimes “against national security”, a human rights group has said.

Narges Mohammadi, a senior leader of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Centre, was “forcibly arrested” early on Tuesday from her house in the Iranian capital, Tehran, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group.

The report said that security forces entered her house and arrested her, after she refused to open her door.

via Prominent Iranian activist arrested in Tehran – Al Jazeera English.

Russell Brand has endorsed Labour – and the Tories should be worried | Owen Jones | Comment is free | The Guardian

He has been supportive of the Greens, and still calls on the people of Brighton Pavilion to return Caroline Lucas to parliament.

via Russell Brand has endorsed Labour – and the Tories should be worried | Owen Jones | Comment is free | The Guardian.

Saudi Arabia’s Islamist-liberal divide – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

King Salman bin Adbul-Aziz Al Saud had been known to patronize liberal intellectuals at historical research centers and pan-Arab media, but after becoming king, he has been courting Islamists. The war in Yemen seems to have attracted the approval of Islamists opposed to the Shiites. Within hours of announcing Operation Decisive Storm against the Shiite Houthis in Yemen, Islamists proclaimed their support and praised the new king. The war was sorely needed, as it prompted Islamists to back the regime after its new anti-terrorism law had criminalized most of them, notably the Muslim Brotherhood, Sururis and radical jihadi fighters. Surprisingly, the war also unified the liberals and the Islamists, albeit temporarily, against an external enemy for the first time since the Arab uprisings.

via Saudi Arabia’s Islamist-liberal divide – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Sinai jihadist groups threaten Copts for their support to President al-Sisi – Fides News Agency

The Coptic Christians must leave their homes and the Sinai Peninsula if they do not want to die for the next targeted attacks that jihadist groups operating in the Peninsula are preparing to carry out against them. The threat, direct and selective, was spread through social networks by militants, such as the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group. In their threatening messages – say local sources consulted by Agenzia Fides – jihadists explicitly declare that the Copts are a target of their violence because of their support towards President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and therefore for their non-marginal contribution to the consensus enjoyed by the current strong man of Egypt.

via Sinai jihadist groups threaten Copts for their support to President al-Sisi – Fides News Agency.

Settlers Raise Israeli Flag over Hebron’s Al-Ibrahimi Mosque

Israeli settlers raised the Israeli flag on the walls and over the rooftop of al-Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as Cave of the Patriarchs, today in Hebron.

The reconstruction committee in Hebron condemned, in a press statement, this measure and considered it a continuation of ongoing Israeli attempts to alter the character  of the mosque and annex  it to the list of Jewish heritage sites.

The committee slammed this Israeli measure as a provocative act and an assault against Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular.

It called on all relevant human rights and humanitarian organizations to take the necessary actions to protect the mosque.

Al-Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the old city of Hebron, few hundred meters away from the part of the city illegally occupied by around 400 extremist settlers, who are protected by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers.

Since 1967, al-Ibrahimi Mosque, like all other Muslim holy sites in Palestine, became a target for the Israeli occupying forces and Zionist settlers, reported the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee.

In 1994, Israel divided al-Ibrahimi Mosque between Muslims and Jews, after an Israeli settler gunned down 30 Palestinians during dawn prayer.

via Settlers Raise Israeli Flag over Hebron’s Al-Ibrahimi Mosque.

Katie Hopkins calling migrants vermin recalls the darkest events of history | Zoe Williams | Comment is free | The Guardian

It is no joke when people start talking like this. We are not “giving her what she wants” when we make manifest our disgust. It is not a free speech issue. I’m not saying gag her: I’m saying fight her. Articulate the fellowship, the human empathy, that makes these deaths important. Stop talking about how many children were among the dead, as though only children matter. Start talking about everybody’s life as cherishable, irrespective of anything they might produce.

via Katie Hopkins calling migrants vermin recalls the darkest events of history | Zoe Williams | Comment is free | The Guardian.

I Am Voting With My Vagina: Hillary Clinton For President | Dame Magazine

This is not an essay about how you should vote in the next presidential election.

I believe you should vote in a way that reflects your own personal blend of what you value and what you can stomach in a presidential candidate. If that comes down to registering your support for someone who has no real chance, writing in your ideal candidate, or even staying home on election day, I respect that. Your vote is yours, and you don’t owe anyone an explanation, let alone justification, of how you decide to use it.

Me, I intend to vote with my vagina. Unapologetically. Enthusiastically. (Metaphorically, for those concerned about ending up in line behind me.) And I intend to talk about it.

**

During the 2008 Democratic primaries, I supported Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for two main reasons:

 

She was older, which mattered to me a small amount in terms of experience, and a large amount in terms of the difference eight years would make. President Obama is younger than two of my siblings. If he ran today, at 53, he’d still be younger than most of his opponents. Hillary Clinton is now 67—in apparently great health, and willing to go through all this bullshit again, so more power to her! But now, in addition to the usual sexism coming her way, we’re about to endure 18 months of hearing what a shriveled old crone she is—and wouldn’t she be better off staying home and dandling wee Charlotte on her wrinkled knee? I was really hoping to avoid that.

She’s a woman, and President Obama is a man.

via I Am Voting With My Vagina: Hillary Clinton For President | Dame Magazine.

U.S. Deports Salvadoran General Accused in ’80s Killings – NYTimes.com

After a 16-year legal battle, a former defense minister of El Salvador once embraced by Washington as a close ally during the civil war there in the 1980s, was deported on Wednesday after immigration courts found that he had participated in torture and killings by troops under his command.

The officer, Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, is the highest-ranking foreign official to be deported under laws enacted in 2004 to prevent human rights violators from seeking haven in this country. The expulsion culminates persistent efforts by rights advocates to hold General Vides accountable for his role in the 1980 murders of four American churchwomen, one of the most notorious crimes by the Salvadoran armed forces in that era.

via U.S. Deports Salvadoran General Accused in ’80s Killings – NYTimes.com.