Category Archives: Global Politics

Pakistan honour killings continue despite tough new laws – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Who encourages these brainless disempowered and cowardly “Un-men?”

Children discovered his crime

It was Khan’s young neighbours who discovered his crime.The children were playing cricket barefoot in the dirt street of their Karachi slum when they heard screams and shouting from one of the houses and rushed over.”We peeped inside and we saw our neighbour, Hayat Khan, was carrying a long knife and was beating his sister,” says 11-year-old Nawaz.”He was abusing her in their Pashto language.”Khan was stabbing 16-year-old Sumaira in a frenzied attack, and deliberately cut her throat.”There was blood all around and she was twitching,” recalls Nawaz.Watched by neighbours who alerted police, Khan dragged his seriously injured sister outside the house, then sat beside her body and checked her mobile phone.

Source: Pakistan honour killings continue despite tough new laws – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

It’s Against My Religion to Accommodate Nazis. | Rebelle Society

 

The backlash so far is mostly vindictive, verbally violent, and devoid of insight that tables have turned on the flamethrowers. This lack of self-awareness is stunning, if not surprising. The same constituency who applauded business owners who exercised their freedom of religion by denying service to LGBTQ patrons are now howling at the injustice of being unwelcome beyond certain doors or, in this case, a door.While it’s amusing to observe the confused flailing of bullies receiving a taste of their own medicine, there’s a larger kernel of wisdom to pluck from this story. Even as they are placed firmly in the shoes of their victims, the new GOP are incapable of making the leap to empathy.They see no connection between harm they’ve done and their own outrage at being excluded from places to which they’ve denied others entrance. This is the hubris of white males who believe the myth of their superiority, but it’s also something more troubling.The GOP’s devolution escalated with the election of Barack Obama. At a secret dinner, the night of Obama’s inauguration, 15 Republicans schemed to block the new president and do everything in their power to bring down his presidency. They put party ahead of country, caring little if the downward-spiraling economy bullet-trained to the abyss.

Source: It’s Against My Religion to Accommodate Nazis. | Rebelle Society

Israeli diplomat who plotted against MPs also set up political groups | World news | The Guardian

An Israeli embassy official who plotted to “take down” MPs regarded as hostile has also set up a number of political organisations in the UK that operated as though entirely independent.Shai Masot was filmed covertly as he boasted about establishing several groups, at least one of which was intended to influence Labour party policy, while appearing to obscure their links to Israel.The disclosure comes as Labour demanded the government launch an immediate inquiry into “improper interference in our democratic politics”. A former Tory government minister also called for an inquiry into the Israeli embassy’s links with two organisations, Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).

Source: Israeli diplomat who plotted against MPs also set up political groups | World news | The Guardian

Russia spreading fake news and forged docs in Sweden: report – The Local

Sweden’s most respected foreign policy institute has accused Russia of using underhand methods, including fake news, counterfeit documents, and other disinformation, to influence Swedish decision-making.The report by Martin Kragh, a Russia expert at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, is the first empirical study detailing Russia’s use of ‘active measures’ in its information war against Sweden, which is largely directed at steering the country away from joining Nato.

Source: Russia spreading fake news and forged docs in Sweden: report – The Local

Russia Requires Apple and Google to Remove LinkedIn From Local App Stores – The New York Times “Money first, Morals/Principles pfft!”

Direct blocking of websites has been done by China, Russia, Turkey and several other nations for years, usually through their state-run internet service providers. But civil rights groups say the pressure authoritarian governments are now placing on Apple and Google is a new wrinkle.“Apps are the new choke point of free expression,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, who leads a project on open internet tracking at New America.Increasingly, United States tech companies are complying with those demands.

Coachella owner denies donating to anti-LGBT groups amid outrage | Music | The Guardian “Talking from both sides of mouth – he uses funds from Coachilla to fund Trump supporters!”

A major Republican donor, Anschutz gave more than $1m to conservative candidates and political fundraising groups in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog. Employees of the Anschutz Corporation also leaned heavily toward Republican candidates. The businessman has attended political events hosted by the Koch brothers, the billionaire scions of an oil fortune and also Republican donors, and Anschutz has donated to their political group Americans for Prosperity, which opposes climate change research and regulations. Anschutz’s natural gas company has also sued small towns in pursuit of fracking rights, and the businessman has invested heavily in a gigantic Wyoming wind farm.

Source: Coachella owner denies donating to anti-LGBT groups amid outrage | Music | The Guardian

‘I’m an American and I was racially profiled in Berlin 23 times’ – The Local

Nine months later and she had been stopped and checked by police a total of 23 times – while going to a museum, going to the U-Bahn station, or while out to socialize, being picked out of a group of white friends.“It really makes you feel like an outsider. I have never felt so much like an outsider as I have in Germany,” Kambhampati says.“I don’t feel welcome and that bothers me the most because I think about especially the large number of refugees that are coming in and being welcomed into the country… I’ve heard from some that have said they were racially profiled and don’t feel at home. They should feel at home.”But since she’s a journalist who came to Berlin to work for investigative news initiative Correctiv, Kambhampati didn’t let her feelings of frustration stop there.She met with Berlin police department’s press spokesman, who apologized and said the checks could be seen as illegal. But he also noted that officers wouldn’t search a “blond, German-looking person,” before later saying this wasn’t what he meant.Kambhampati first wrote about her experiences in an in-depth article for Vox last month, which can be read here. And now she’s working on an investigation with her colleagues at Correctiv, looking to find others who have had similar experiences.Different histories, different discussionsGrowing up in New Jersey and studying in Ohio, Kambhampati said she had encountered discrimination in the US as well, and similar issues of racism exist in both places. But the different immigration histories of the two countries also seems to have affected how people act today.“In Germany, many people assume I’m from India based on my skin colour rather than considering that I could be from somewhere like the US,” she explained.“I’ve gotten that before in the US, but not as much. Maybe it has to do with the way that different people have come to the US for generations now.“Some people that I’ve spoken to who have experienced racial profiling have been living in Germany their whole lives… and they still don’t feel like they are welcomed into the German society. And that’s largely in part because they’re stopped and asked questions like this.”

Source: ‘I’m an American and I was racially profiled in Berlin 23 times’ – The Local

Italy boat migrant numbers surge 20% in 2016 – The Local – “This is what greed, fear, war, hate, sexism, racism, profiteering brings all over the world!”

Migrants and refugees wait to be transferred from Malta’s Topaz Responder ship after being rescued off the coast of Libya on November 5, 2016.

Source: Italy boat migrant numbers surge 20% in 2016 – The Local

Is Marine Le Pen’s Russian cash pipeline drying up? – France 24 – Wonder how much they lent to Trump?

The Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant party had heaved a sigh of relief in September 2014, when it secured a €9 million loan from Russian lender First Czech-Russian Bank (FCRB).The decision to take out the loan, even as the rest of Europe was slapping sanctions on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, kicked up a storm in France, where it was widely seen as evidence of Le Pen’s growing coziness with the Kremlin.The FN is France’s only party to have hailed Russia’s annexation of Crimea. It regularly praises Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “patriot” and a bulwark for traditional European values.But then the Russian bank went bust last year, and Le Pen lost a financial lifeline.According to Russian and French media reports, the Moscow-based Deposit Insurance Agency (SVA), which administers FCRB’s assets and debts, has now started legal proceedings to get the money back.

Source: Is Marine Le Pen’s Russian cash pipeline drying up? – France 24

Man told to take citizenship test despite living entire life (32 years) in UK | Politics | The Guardian

A man born in London to German parents has been told he cannot get a British passport unless he takes a UK citizenship test because he cannot prove his mother was legally in the country when she gave birth.Dom Wolf, 32, said he felt betrayed by the country in which he was born and has written to Theresa May in the hope she can intervene.Wolf’s parents came to Britain in 1974 with his mother working for the University of London as a lecturer and his father being self-employed. He has been told by authorities he needs to provide proof they were here legally, even though they were entitled to live and work in Britain under EU law.

Source: Man told to take citizenship test despite living entire life in UK | Politics | The Guardian