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Showing posts from June 13, 2021

Armenian-Azerbaijani Post-War Peace Process on Hold Ahead of Armenia’s Snap Parliamentary Elections

On June 1, 2021, Yerevan announced the suspension of the Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian working group, which was established during the January 11 trilateral leaders’ summit and tasked with presenting action plans (including implementation schedules) to their governments regarding regional railroad and highway projects (see  EDM , January 12). Mher Grigorian, Armenia’s deputy prime minister, who also co-chairs the tri-partite working group along with his counterparts from the other two participating countries, claimed that the reason for Yerevan’s suspension was a lack of “an appropriate environment” for effective work ( TASS , June 1). “When the situation on the border is like it is, I do not think that constructive work is possible in this format. Contacts in this format have stopped; we will see what happens in the future,” he announced at a parliamentary meeting, referring to the recent escalation between Armenia and Azerbaijan at the state border (see  EDM , May 18). Meanwhile, Azer

Corporations Fighting Racism: How Are They Doing This Juneteenth?

  In the summer of 2020, companies and their leaders issued statements in support of Black Lives Matter. They communicated their commitments passionately to fight racism.  Corporations  such as Nike, Adidas, Citigroup, and many others declared  Juneteenth  a holiday and give their employees the day off.  Organizations   such as Google and Papa Johns offer implicit bias training. Some claim  the events of 2020 and 2021 altered how corporations think about racism. Yet has anything changed?  On the eve of Juneteenth 2021, the critical question is whether corporations are actively fighting racism since their initial declarations. Dee C. Marshall , CEO of  Diverse and Engaged , believes the US experienced a "diversity tipping point" beginning, May 2020 when corporations acknowledged that black lives do matter after the murder of George Floyd. Yet skeptics say the statements are all about good public relations for brands and nothing more. They are watching for meaningful behaviors

Sexual violence survivors in DR Congo caught in crisis of ‘catastrophic magnitude’

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  ‘The men broke my body and shattered my soul’  “We waited for hours in the distribution point until they eventually told us to go home. Hungry and empty-handed, I walked with three other women and two little girls. It was dusk, and I heard the little girls scream. My last thought before I lost consciousness, was how pure evil can exist in this world.  “I turned around and, in the dim light, I saw men and boys coming towards us. They grabbed us and they were jeering when they distributed us among them, including the children. Five men took turns raping me and violating my body. My last thought before I lost consciousness, was how pure evil can exist in this world.” This was the wrenching story from Larise*, an internally displaced person from Eastern Congo (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC), during Dr. Kanem’s visit to Bukavu, earlier this week. Larise handed the  UNFPA  chief a creased picture showing her battered body in the aftermath of the assault. “I was in the hospit

Lack of Vaccines Fuels Terrorism in Africa

 Earlier this month, leaders from across Africa convened in Paris to discuss the most pressing challenge facing the continent today: economic recovery in the wake of the most destructive global health crisis in living memory. Over the course of that summit, a common theme emerged. There is a direct line threading a lack of vaccines to lockdowns to economic depression to the resurgence of Islamist terrorism. To date, less than  2 percent  of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally have been in Africa despite the continent being home to some 1.3 billion people (or around 16 percent of the world population). In Uganda, just  1 percent  of the population has been vaccinated. The continent lacks its own established vaccine manufacturing centers and is therefore dependent on supplies from the rest of the world. However, international initiatives like COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), established to ensure equitable vaccine supply to low-income countries, have experienced teething

Biden to send troops to Kenya as US boosts war on Al-Shabaab

  Summary The special operations forces are expected to collaborate with the Kenyan military in combating the Somali militants. US President Joe Biden has announced the deployment of American special troops to Kenya to help in the region's counter-terrorism efforts. In a letter to the US Congress seen by the  Sunday Nation , President Biden said that he had approved sending special operations troops to Kenya, which is expected to collaborate with the Kenyan military in combating Al-Shabaab. The number of troops is not indicated. The US deployment is expected to be a security boost for Kenya, which has in recent years suffered deadly gun and bomb attacks from Al-Shabaab. The Somalia-based group is known to have sympathisers in Kenya.  Al-Shabaab has been attacking Somali government and military targets but occasionally launches high-profile assaults in neighbouring states, including Kenya. North Eastern Kenya and parts of the Coast have particularly been targeted by the terrorists,

Hackers have found a safe haven in Russia to attack foreign nations: US media reports

  The US has accused Russia of operating as a refuge for hackers by allowing them to operate as long as their actions are aimed outside of the country.  According to a media report published in the Washington Post, "the number of cyberattacks targeting the United States has recently increased, and the perpetrators all have one thing in common: they are believed to be tied to Russia." According to the Washington Post, hackers have discovered a safe haven in Russia to carry out their assault. That’s because they function without fear of retaliation from Moscow, which appears to tolerate them as long as they don't target Russia or its friends In a 2016 interview with NBC, when asked why Russia was not arresting hackers believed to have interfered in the U.S. election, Putin hinted at the hands-off approach: “If they did not break Russian law, there is nothing to prosecute them for in Russia.” The relationship between the Russian government and ransomware criminals allegedly

From Shifta to Terrorist: A Shifting Narrative Of Northern Kenya

As Kenya was celebrating her independence in 1963, the people of the Northern Frontier District were mourning the death of their dream of self-governance under British rule. In the spring of 1962, at the Lancaster House Conference, the region’s delegation had demanded self-determination for the NFD. The colonial government appointed an independent commission to look into the question and a referendum to determine the region’s future was subsequently held. The results of the plebiscite were however cancelled under suspicious circumstances even though they indicated that the overwhelming majority supported self-determination. The people felt cheated, and the north exploded in rebellion. Northerners, especially those from the northeast, accuse the British colonial government of craftily handing over the region to Kenyatta. The colonialists had promised the separatists’ leaders that they would delay independence for the region to facilitate the orderly transition from colonial rule to self

'I was humiliated': The continuing trauma of South Korea's spy cam victims

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 Kyung-mi (not her real name) was mocked online, sneered at by social media bullies and interrogated for hours by police and prosecutors after accusing her K-pop star boyfriend of filming her while they were having sex. She was the victim of a digital sex crime but she told the BBC that "no one was there to listen". "I was in school, young and very lonely. There was no one on my side," she said. "I really wanted to die, but I couldn't," she told us. "If I died, no one would know the truth about Jung Joon-young." Jung Joon-young rose to fame through a TV talent show and had a large base of K-pop fans across east Asia. Kyung-mi described him as an attentive, considerate boyfriend - until he filmed the couple having sex without her permission. She first went to the police in August 2016, but she said officers failed to get hold of his phone and she eventually dropped the case. She knew bringing charges against a high profile figure would be toug