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Showing posts from June 14, 2020

Antifa, The Left-Wing Version Of Fascism

Antifa, the group that fancies itself as the face of modern anti-fascism, has a handbook. Really. It is named, appropriately enough,  “Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook.”  The author, Mark Bray, also wrote  “Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street,”  and co-edits  “Anarchist Education and the Modern School,”  so we can see where he is coming from. And, as a lecturer at Dartmouth College, a prestigious Ivy League institution, he is also teaching your children, or someone’s children. The obvious thing about Antifa is that they oppose fascism, which, on its face, is a good thing. Fascism has a horrid history of oppression, genocide, racism, and all manner of other violations of rights or human decency. Who wouldn’t be against that?  “Antifa,”  the book, gives the history of atrocities at the hands of fascists, where and how it gets initiated, and how prior anti-fascists handled the situations, from which lessons are taken. Antifa’s marketing program proposes that its purpo

No mention of Hong Kong security law as China closes meeting

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress dealt with numerous agenda items but said nothing about the fate of the security legislation that has been strongly criticized. The body that handles most lawmaking for  China ’s top legislative body closed its latest meeting Saturday with no mention of passing a highly controversial national security law for Hong Kong. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress dealt with numerous agenda items but said nothing about the fate of the security legislation that has been strongly criticized as undermining the semi-autonomous territory’s legal and political institutions, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. The bill was submitted Thursday for deliberation, covering four categories of crimes: succession, subversion of state power, local terrorist activities, and collaborating with foreign or external foreign forces to endanger national security. Beijing has repeatedly said it is determined to press ahead with

What we know about the last 100 people shot and killed by police in Canada

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TORONTO --  Jimmy Cloutier  was shot and killed by police in Montreal on Jan. 6, 2017. Rodney Levi  was shot and killed by police in Miramichi, N.B. on June 12, 2020. Cloutier, 38 and white, was a longtime client of a homeless shelter. An investigation by Quebec's police watchdog found that police shot him after he stabbed another man and ran toward a police officer with a knife in his hand. Levi, 48 and Indigenous, has been described as nonviolent and dealing with mental health challenges. Police have said he had threatened officers and was in possession of two knives. Quebec's watchdog has been brought in to investigate his death, too, because New Brunswick does not have a similar agency of its own. In the time between their deaths, 98 other people were fatally shot by police officers in Canada – a rate of approximately one death every 12.6 days. Read more:  Why are Indigenous people in Canada so much more likely to be shot and killed by police? The stories of Cloutier and Le

More than 6,000 Canadian online channels involved in spreading right-wing extremism, study finds

TORONTO -- A new study has identified more than 6,600 online channels, pages, groups and accounts across several social media platforms where Canadians were involved in spreading white supremacist, misogynistic or other extremist views. The research, led by the U.K.-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and published Friday, found a variety of Canadian right-wing extremist communities across online platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Iron March, Fascist Forge, 4chan and Gab. The  study reported  that these channels, pages, groups and accounts collectively have reached more than 11 million users across their platforms. On one particular message board called "politically incorrect" on the fringe site 4chan, researchers found that Canadian users created more than 1.6 million posts, representing nearly six per cent of posts from all countries, according to the study. "We found that Canadians are highly active on forums associated with white supremacy, repr

Nearly 80mn people forcibly displaced worldwide; 26mn living as refugees

NEW DELHI: The population of forcibly displaced people around the world due to war, conflict, persecution, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order reached 79.5 million in 2019, according to the latest Global Trends report by UNHCR. This is an increase of 8.7 million from 2018. Of this, a whopping 26 million are refugees alone (20.4 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate and 5.6 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate).  What is noteworthy is that more than two thirds of all refugees are from just five countries-Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar.  With 3.6 million people, Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country, followed by Colombia (1.8 million) and Pakistan (1.4 million).  Sadly, in the last one decade, only a fraction (3.9 million) have returned to their country of origin.  Displaced population and current pandemic While  Covid-19  has led many governments to impose lockdowns and close borders, it has not been able

Mumbai 26/11 key conspirator arrested in LA; faces extradition to India

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Rana was convicted in Chicago of providing support for Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which planned the attack Tahawwur Rana. File Photo Los Angeles, June 10 A Chicago businessman, who spent more than 10 years in prison for supporting terrorist groups, has been arrested in Los Angeles to face charges in India for Mumbai 26/11 attack in 2008 that killed more than 160 people, US prosecutors said Friday. Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian, was convicted of a crime related to the Mumbai 26/11 killings that are sometimes called India’s 9/11, though the US prosecutors had failed to prove a terrorism charge that connected him directly to the three-day rampage during his 2011 trial. Rana, 59, was serving a 14-year sentence when he was granted early release from a Los Angeles federal prison last week because of poor health and a bout of COVID-19, prosecutors said. He was arrested two days later and remains in custody in LA because he faces extradition to India on murder conspirac

US in mind, UN body to report on racism after Floyd killing

GENEVA: The UN's top  human rights  body voted unanimously Friday to commission a UN report on systemic racism and discrimination against black people while stopping short of ordering a more intensive investigation singling out the United States after the death of  George Floyd  at the hands of police sparked worldwide demonstrations.  The Human Rights Council approved a consensus resolution following days of grappling over language after African nations backed away from their initial push for a commission of inquiry, the council's most intrusive form of scrutiny, focusing more on the USInstead, the resolution calls for a simple and more generic report to be written by the UN human rights chief's office and outside experts.  The aim is ``to contribute to accountability and redress for victims`` in the USand beyond, the resolution states.  Iran and Palestine signed on as co-sponsors for the resolution that condemns ``the continuing racially discriminatory and violent practic

South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ladakh…Is the dragon stretching itself in too many directions?

With the pandemic wreaking havoc around the world, China perhaps sees this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make rapid territorial gains and become the undisputed hegemon of Asia. Key Highlights China has taken potentially destabilising steps in the South China Sea, including naming all the islands and other features in the sea so as to claim them Xi’s government has also threatened Taiwan, using language that is a marked departure from its more careful statements in the past The aggression in Ladakh is, therefore, another piece of this puzzle, though the bloodiest one so far The violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh has led to the death of 20 Indian troops and an unknown number of Chinese casualties. The deaths on both sides represent the most serious incident involving the two militaries since 1967, and the shockwaves from this will reverberate far into the future. Put simply, India-China relation

Recruiter for Jihadi ideology nabbed by Anti-Terrorism Squad

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UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested one Jihad recruiter Shoeb alias Ab Mehmood Al Hindi alias Inamul Haq from district Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. UP ATS was monitoring Haq's movements.   Key Highlights During interrogation accused has confessed to the crime of radicalising people to join Jihad take up arms for terrorist activities One mobile phone and two SIM cards have been recovered Police is doing detail analysis of his social media accounts and also verifying the fact that weather he was a lone wolf or is he associated with some terrorist organisation like Al Qaeda UP Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested one Jihadi recruiter Shoeb alias Ab Mehmood Al Hindi alias Inamul Haq from district Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. ATS received specific input that one Inamul Haq who himself is completely radicalised by Jihadi ideology is radicalising more youths and recruiting them for terrorist organisations. UP ATS monitored Haq's movements and his activities on social media for quite some ti

Moving tribute to terror victims earns top front page prize

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A regional daily’s moving page one tribute to the two victims of the London Bridge attacks in November 2019 has been named the best front page of the past 12 months. Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were stabbed to death by Usman Khan at a prisoner rehabilitation conference in London organised by the University of Cambridge. The  Cambridge News  devoted the first 11 pages of its Monday 2 December edition to coverage of the attacks which had taken place the previous Friday. Its front page, headlined ‘They tried to make the world a better place’ was named Daily Newspaper Front Page of the Year in the Regional Press Awards announced earlier today. In their citation the judges described the News’ front page as “a moving and effective way to capture the grief of a city after a shocking event.” “This front page sets a template for all others to follow. It delivers a message of loss with the utmost dignity and respect for those who have died. It makes great use of text and imagery to m

Trends of radicalisation in Indonesia

Increasing radicalisation in Indonesia has led to multiple terror attacks in the country, mostly targeted against foreign tourists and minorities. The government has taken several measures towards counter-terrorism, but with limited success. In recent years, online platforms and especially social media have become the preferred choice of the radical elements to propagate their ideas among the Indonesian people, who largely follow moderate Islam. The youth are more vulnerable to being conditioned with misinterpretation of Islamic beliefs, often calling for violence in the name of ‘jihad’. An effective counter-narrative against radicalisation, supported by religious scholars, could help fight the challenge. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Historically, its population has subscribed to liberal views and inclusive ideas. However, since the latter part of the 20th century, there has been a growing tendency to rebel against the secular state philosophy of ‘Pancasila’ or