Category Archives: human rights

David Cameron pledges to rip up green regulations | Politics | The Guardian

 

David Cameron pledges to rip up green regulations | Politics | The Guardian.

Never, never, never underestimate Cameron’s capacity to pimp to business that have no care for the future and pretend he is doing the right thing – when it is actually incredibly stupid and damaging.

Ukraine: Activist Leader Missing | Human Rights Watch

Kill some – offer power “sharing” to some but not all to split opposition – all the usual steps by a wannabe dictator or shill for Russia.

(Kiev) – One of the leaders of Kiev’s protest movement has been missing since January 22, 2014. Dmitri Bulatov, 35, is the third protest activist who has disappeared in the past week. Human Rights Watch called on Ukrainian authorities to urgently undertake a thorough investigation to locate him and ensure his safety and well-being.

via Ukraine: Activist Leader Missing | Human Rights Watch.

Breadcrumbs in Dark Times: Any minute now, everything will change. | Rebelle Society

When the Going Gets Tough…

These days, the rough patch we’re navigating has turned into a very long haul. I believe we’ll weather the changes. I believe we’re strong enough to do so. Still, it’s easy to fall into despair and wish that our journey wasn’t so rife with trouble.

Right now, we’re in a thick soup of changes that rival any changes we’ve weathered in human history. The shit’s hitting the fan — environmentally, economically, emotionally — and everywhere we look, people are losing it. Shooting up the joint. Setting themselves on fire. Totaling their cars. Blowing up their personal lives.

via Breadcrumbs in Dark Times: Any minute now, everything will change. | Rebelle Society.

Time-out in Ukraine | Europe | DW.DE | 23.01.2014

In Kyiv, they\’re trying to pull off a coup,\” he told DW. The government, he added, has reacted \”very cleverly\”. It wants a political solution through negotiations. \”If we\’d wanted it otherwise, we would have settled the protests with violence a long time ago,\” Kalaschnikov said.

Government supporters meet in the Mariyinsky Park

\’Designate a leader\’

Yet the impression that Ukraine\’s police force stands fully behind the president is deceiving. At a blockade just one hundred meters (328 feet) from parliament, two police officers get involved in a discussion with opposition protesters. They\’re wearing black helmets and masks, so that only their eyes can be seen.

\”How should the crisis be solved?\” a man asks.

An officer replies that the opposition should designate a leader to negotiate with the president.

It\’s a line that almost sounds like the opposition.

Fearing he\’d said too much, the police officer glanced around and walked quickly away.

via Time-out in Ukraine | Europe | DW.DE | 23.01.2014.

El-Beblawi tells Davos Al-Sisi is Egypt’s De Gaulle – Daily News Egypt

“Sisi is under popular pressure to run. This is like De Gaulle, like Eisenhower,” he said, referring to the French and US war heroes who later took political office.

In Egypt, Sisi is viewed as a saviour by the millions who took to the streets against the Muslim Brotherhood, but the followers of the Islamists revile him for what they say was a “coup” against Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

via El-Beblawi tells Davos Al-Sisi is Egypt’s De Gaulle – Daily News Egypt.

Everyone wants to do a remake of The Warlord but people are dying for real! Anbar war opens front on Facebook, Twitter – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

A new front has opened in the battle for control of Anbar province. The conflict, which began in late December 2013 when the Iraqi army deployed to the Anbar desert to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), has now expanded to such popular social media platforms as Facebook and Twitter. Activists backing the Iraqi army have established pages supporting the security forces, while tribal fighters battling the army as well as ISIS have created similar pages. They all provide updates of events on the ground, and some do not shy from indulging in incitement against their adversary.

via Anbar war opens front on Facebook, Twitter – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Memorandum — Establishing a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault | The White House

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT:  Establishing a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault

The prevalence of rape and sexual assault at our Nation\’s institutions of higher education is both deeply troubling and a call to action.  Studies show that about one in five women is a survivor of attempted or completed sexual violence while in college.  In addition, a substantial number of men experience sexual violence during college.  Although schools have made progress in addressing rape and sexual assault, more needs to be done to ensure safe, secure environments for students of higher education.

via Memorandum — Establishing a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault | The White House.

Electronic Village: OURstory: Lynching in America

Some of the most graphic photographs that I\’ve ever seen in my life contained the images of Black men people being lynched. Collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. He published these photographs in his book Without Sanctuary. You can experience the images as a flash movie with narrative comments by James Allen, or as a gallery of photos. Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very graphic and very disturbing.

via Electronic Village: OURstory: Lynching in America.

Leaked records expose huge offshore tax havens used by families of CCP elite: Shanghaiist

A newly-published report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reveals some 22,000 clients from mainland China and Hong Kong who are stashing their money away in offshore acounts in the British Virgin Islands and other locales. The clients include family members of many preeminent CCP elites, including Xi Jinping and Wen Jiabao.

Many of the holdings are managed by top international banks, including UBS, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank, which have topnotch reputations for secrecy. These banks acted as middlemen for Chinese clients to establish trusts and companies in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa, and other islands whose primary reason for existence is the hiding of wealthy people\’s funds.

There are some big, big names involved in this case, as the ICIJ reports:

The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by current President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law and British Virgin Islands companies set up by former Premier Wen Jiabao’s son and also by his son-in-law. […]

Chinese officials aren’t required to disclose their assets publicly and until now citizens have remained largely in the dark about the parallel economy that can allow the powerful and well-connected to avoid taxes and keep their dealings secret. By some estimates, between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in untraced assets have left the country since 2000. […]

via Leaked records expose huge offshore tax havens used by families of CCP elite: Shanghaiist.

 

More Free Trade Zones for these folks to make hiding their money easier

Settlers uproot hundreds of trees near Ramallah | Maan News Agency

Israeli settlers uprooted over 600 recently planted olive and almond saplings in a village north of Ramallah on Wednesday, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma\’an that a group of settlers from Givat Ariel and Maale Levona uprooted newly planted saplings in the village of Sinjil.

Daghlas said Israeli police opened an investigation into the incident.

The saplings were planted by the International Committee of the Red Cross to support Palestinian farmers, Daghlas said.

More than 70 families would have benefited from the trees, he added.

via Settlers uproot hundreds of trees near Ramallah | Maan News Agency.