Category Archives: human rights

‘Utterly stupid’: Samoan PM hits out at climate change sceptics in fiery Sydney speech

Samoa’s Prime Minister urges Australia to make deeper cuts to carbon emissions to help save Pacific Island nations from the disaster of climate change.

Source: ‘Utterly stupid’: Samoan PM hits out at climate change sceptics in fiery Sydney speech

The principles that made Aung San Suu Kyi an icon are what undid her | Mary Dejevsky | Opinion | The Guardian

The Myanmar leader’s fall from grace is partly because we made the mistake of putting her on such a high pedestal, suggests writer and broadcaster Mary Dejevsky {She could not serve her nation by opposing the Generals who still hold the power. AKA: If you are Western you are allowed to compromise – if non-western, if you compromise, you fail! – BC}

Source: The principles that made Aung San Suu Kyi an icon are what undid her | Mary Dejevsky | Opinion | The Guardian

Archbishop Claims Pope Francis Long Knew of U.S. Cardinal’s Abuses – The New York Times {Nothing more vile than accusations from the right-wing of the church that hid most of the crimes for hundreds of years!}

Carlo Maria Viganò, formerly the Vatican’s top diplomat in the United States, charges that Francis was complicit in covering up abuses by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Violence, Crime, Drugs: These G.O.P. Messages Go Grim – The New York Times

In this ad produced by the Congressional Leadership Fund for Troy Balderson, the Ohio Republican who appears to have just edged out his Democratic opponent in a special election, the viewer sees a succession of images: someone in a hooded sweatshirt pulled over the face, a syringe dropping into white powder, a mob waving signs that say “Crush ICE.” And the kicker: Danny O’Connor, the Democratic candidate, is a sympathizer, the ad says.

Trump redirects over $200 million in U.S. aid for West Bank, Gaza | Reuters (when racists rule in DC)

U.S. National Security adviser John Bolton told Reuters this week that UNRWA, which extends aid to Palestinians displaced by the 1948 war of Israel’s founding and to millions of their descendants, was “a failed mechanism” that violated standard international law on the status of refugees. “I think it is long overdue that we have taken steps to reduce funding,” Bolton said, adding that “much of UNRWA’s expenses really go to perpetuating the refugee status of the Palestinian people.”

Source: Trump redirects over $200 million in U.S. aid for West Bank, Gaza | Reuters

Manafort Jury Holdout Blocked Guilty Verdicts on 10 of 18 Charges, Juror Says – The New York Times

Ms. Duncan said she had no further comment beyond the interview. Although the judge refused to release the names of the jurors, she told Fox News that she came forward because “the public, America, needed to know” how close the Alexandria, Va. jury came to convicting Mr. Manafort on all charges.

Trump Administration Proposes to Uproot Ag ResearchNational Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

The most recent reorganization attempt by the Trump Administration would dramatically impact USDA’s agricultural research centers by moving them outside of the nation’s capital.

Source: Trump Administration Proposes to Uproot Ag ResearchNational Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Trump aide Miller’s ancestor flunked naturalization test

Most interesting to Smolenyak is that this research “is so easy. You don’t have to go very far back.” It’s startling, she says, “how many of the people who are virulently anti-immigration are children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren of immigrants. We should have to work a lot harder for these stories, but there they are, on the lowest, easiest branches.” She originally expected that such views would be held by people whose stories go further back on the American timeline, but former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and his daughter, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, whose roots begin in the 1600s, are the exception. “Most of the rest of the time you think you’re going to have to really dig in and go very far back, you don’t,” she says. “Why are the children and grandchildren of immigrants so eager to keep immigrants out?” It’s the desire to make that point — “to point out to people who are being needlessly mean and spreading misinformation that they are conveniently forgetting their own family, which in turn means forgetting our national commonality” — that keeps Smolenyak and others in this fight. It’s why, when Miller said earlier this year that “we favor

Source: Trump aide Miller’s ancestor flunked naturalization test

The bizarre spat with Canada shows Mohammed bin Salman’s true colours | Nesrine Malik | Opinion | The Guardian

Under Mohammed bin Salman, the country has so far been involved in spats with Canada, Germany and Sweden, and embroiled itself in conflict with Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon. There is no “top-down” Arab spring here. Just a taste of what volatile princes, humoured by a gullible west, are capable of in a world where the old rules no longer apply.

Source: The bizarre spat with Canada shows Mohammed bin Salman’s true colours | Nesrine Malik | Opinion | The Guardian