The men, allegedly part of a religious activist group called the Hindu Yuva Vahini, cornered one of the parishioners. Smartphone footage shows the woman pulling her blue shawl tightly around herself as she answers questions about her involvement with the church. “No one is forcing me to convert,” she insists.“If the police hadn’t arrived, we don’t know what would have happened next,” Joshua says. “After the men left, everyone in the church was silent, so frightened. This is a time of testing for us.”Last week, the monk who founded the HYV, and whose firebrand Hindu supremacist vision guides the organisation, was selected by the party of prime minister Narendra Modi to lead the most populous state in India – the equivalent of the sixth largest nation on earth.
Category Archives: human rights
Richard Gere on segregation in Hebron: It’s exactly like the Old South | +972 Magazine
In the report, broadcast during the prime time evening news hour Wednesday, Gere responds to what he sees in blunt terms. He compares occupied Hebron to the Jim Crow era in the southern United States.Looking around, Gere says to his guides, and to the television camera, “It’s exactly what the Old South was in America. Blacks knew where they could go: they could drink from that fountain, they couldn’t go over there, they couldn’t eat in that place. It was well understood — you didn’t cross over if you didn’t want to get your head beat in, or you get lynched.”
Source: Richard Gere on segregation in Hebron: It’s exactly like the Old South | +972 Magazine
Uranium Mine Near Grand Canyon Filling with Contaminated Water – Intercontinental Cry Arizona being irradiated for profit…
The controversial Canyon Mine, located just six miles from Grand Canyon’s South Rim, is filling with surplus water after a wet winter. In an effort to dispose of the water from the bottom of the mine shaft, mine owner Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc. is trucking the contaminated water to the White Mesa Mill uranium processing facility near Blanding, Utah and spraying it, into the air and on the adjacent Kaibab National Forest, in an attempt to evaporate it. The Plan of Operations requires that all excess water be retained in holding ponds and be treated on-site.Simultaneously, Energy Fuels has allowed state environmental permits intended to help protect groundwater to expire.Communities on the Navajo Nation along the haul route from Canyon Mine to the White Mesa Mill were not formally notified of hazardous materials being transported. The route traverses 300 miles, with approximately 180 miles going through Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute community south of the Mill. The Navajo Nation has a law that restricts transport of radioactive materials, including uranium ore, “over, under or across Navajo Indian Country”[1]; however, Navajo does not have jurisdiction over the state roads of the haul route. Trucks are marked “non-potable water” and at least one truck observed had a placard misidentifying the contents as petroleum products.Indigenous peoples are not just concerned about the transport, but also Red Butte, a designated Traditional Cultural Property and sacred site, near the mine, as well as risks to precious water resources, possibility of accidents, lack of emergency response, and impacts to human health, plants, and wildlife.“As Navajo Nation, we have dealt with uranium since the cold war and still dealing with mines left behind by irresponsible people….the last thing we need is for another mine transferring it though our communities….No Haul!” said Milton Tso, Cameron Chapter President.The U.S. Forest Service did not require Energy Fuels to update its 1986 Plan of Operations to reflect any new information or technology when it began drilling after nearly 30 years on “standby,” where the mine sat and was nonoperational. Now, before the mine has even removed any uranium ore, they seem to be out of compliance with their Plan.
Source: Uranium Mine Near Grand Canyon Filling with Contaminated Water – Intercontinental Cry
Trump-Russia inquiry in ‘grave doubt’ after GOP chair briefs White House | US news | The Guardian – “Traitorous and disloyal conduct seems to be catching…”
Nunes took whatever material he had acquired to Trump before sharing it with the committee – a decision that represented nearly a final straw for Schiff, who called for an independent commission to investigate ties between Trump and Russia.In language that stripped away any pretense of cordiality remaining on the committee, Schiff said Nunes would have to decide whether to helm a credible inquiry or whether to operate as a White House adjunct, complicit in what Schiff intimated was a “campaign by the White House to deflect from the [FBI] director’s testimony”.Asked if Schiff was considering pulling out of the inquiry, Schiff said he would have to “analyze what this development means”, suggesting a potential Democratic departure from one of the most internationally watched congressional investigations in recent history.“If you have a chairman who is interacting with the White House, sharing information with the White House, when the people around the White House are the subject of the investigation and doing it before sharing it with the committee, it puts a profound doubt over whether that can be done credibly,” Schiff said.Schiff reiterated that from what he had gleaned from his conversation with Nunes, “there is still no evidence that the president was wiretapped by his predecessor”.Without receiving the actual intercept, Schiff said, it was “impossible” to evaluate the merits of Nunes’s claims.
Source: Trump-Russia inquiry in ‘grave doubt’ after GOP chair briefs White House | US news | The Guardian
While Gorsuch was testifying, the Supreme Court unanimously said he was wrong
All eight justices rejected Gorsuch’s approach. IDEA, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “is markedly more demanding than the ‘merely more than de minimis’ test applied by the Tenth Circuit.” Indeed, Roberts added, Gorsuch’s approach would effectively strip many disabled students of their right to an education. Roberts went on:When all is said and done, a student offered an educational program providing “merely more than de minimis” progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an education at all. For children with disabilities, receiving instruction that aims so low would be tantamount to “sitting idly . . . awaiting the time when they were old enough to ‘drop out.’”
Source: While Gorsuch was testifying, the Supreme Court unanimously said he was wrong
“Hate Group” Inclusion (to US delegtion by Trump) Shows UN Members Still Divided on LGBT Rights
C-FAM – one of the invited members of the United States official delegation to the meeting – has been designated as an Anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center “for its often violent rhetoric on LGBTQI rights” according to the International Women’s Health Coalition, who opposed the appointment.Including C-Fam on the US delegation reflects ongoing disagreement between UN member states – and even within UN member states domestically – about the importance of including LGBTI rights within the UN’s work.For the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) community, there were many reasons to come to this year’s annual women’s meeting with “battle scars,” and “eyes open” says Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International.
Source: Inoreader – “Hate Group” Inclusion Shows UN Members Still Divided on LGBT Rights
Obamacare: How Americans who voted for Trump now fear for their health insurance | In English | EL PAÍS
More than 95,000 people, around 10% of Kern’s population, will lose health cover after funding for Medicaid – the public health system extended by Obama – is cut, according to a study by the University of California, which says that more than 16,000 people will lose subsidies toward their private health insurance. Under Obamacare, the number of people without medical cover fell in the county from 18.2% to 7.9%. The study also estimates that withdrawing the funding will mean the loss of 5,000 jobs in the county.
Former Police Chief Says He Was Detained At JFK: ‘This Country Now Feels Cold’: Gothamist
A former police chief from Virginia says he was held for an hour and a half at JFK Airport earlier this month, after landing in the United States on a flight from Paris. Hassan Aden, a naturalized US citizen, detailed the experience in a Facebook post, stressing that the lengthy screening process marked a departure from his frequent encounters with Customs and Border Control over the years. Five international trips within the last year alone, all prior to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, had gone off without incident, he said.”On all of my prior trips, I was greeted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers with a warm smile and the usual, ‘Welcome home sir,'” Aden wrote. “Not this time.”Aden, 52, was en route to Alexandra, Virginia on Monday, March 13th, according to the Washington Post. He had spent the weekend abroad with his mother, celebrating her 80th birthday. Born in Italy (his mother is Italian, his father, Somali), Aden became a naturalized citizen 42 years ago, when he was 10 years old. The former Chief of Police for Greenville, North Carolina also serves as a senior policy advisor on police reform for the Vera Institute of Justice.According to Aden, a Customs officer at JFK pulled him out of a routine security check.”I was taken to a back office which looked to be a re-purposed storage facility with three desks and signs stating, ‘Remain seated at all times’ and ‘Use of telephones strictly prohibited,'” he recalled. Another officer eventually explained that the name Hassan Aden had been “used as an alias by someone on some watch list.” Another officer told Aden that he was not technically being detained—CBP has a “secondary processing” protocol if an officer “determines that additional inspection is needed”—but Aden found any technical distinction meaningless.”I certainly was not free to leave,” he wrote.After an hour and a half, Aden said a new CBP officer arrived and “aggressively asked… for status updates” until Aden was released, an hour and a half after after being pulled from the line.
Source: Former Police Chief Says He Was Detained At JFK: ‘This Country Now Feels Cold’: Gothamist
No African citizens granted visas for African trade summit in California | US news | The Guardian
An annual African trade summit in California had no African attendees this year after at least 60 people were denied visas, according to event leaders.The African Global Economic and Development Summit, a three-day conference at the University of Southern California (USC), typically brings delegations from across Africa to meet with business leaders in the US in an effort to foster partnerships. But this year, every single African citizen who requested a visa was rejected, according to organizer Mary Flowers.
Source: No African citizens granted visas for African trade summit in California | US news | The Guardian
Ivanka Trump has West Wing office and will get access to classified information | US news | The Guardian – Corruption reaching new heights – and what says the GOP? Nada!
Since Donald Trump took office, his eldest daughter has been an increasingly visible presence in the White House, where her husband, Jared Kushner, already serves as a senior adviser. On Friday she participated in a meeting on vocational training with the president and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. She stepped down from her position at the Trump Organization before her father’s inauguration, but still owns her own fashion label.










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