Human Rights

LONDON (AP) — Here’s some of what happened while the world was distracted by the coronavirus: Hungary banned the public depiction of homosexuality. China shut Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy newspaper. Brazil’s government extolled dictatorship. And Belarus hijacked a passenger plane to arrest a journalist.

COVID-19 has absorbed the world’s energies and isolated countries from one another, which may have accelerated the creep of authoritarianism and extremism across the globe, some researchers and activists believe.

14 July 2021; MEMO: A quarter of American Jews believe Israel is an apartheid state according to a new poll which has made a number of striking findings over the extent to which the occupation state is losing the battle for hearts and minds amongst the most populous Jewish community outside Israel.

14 July 2021; MEMO: Egyptian intelligence officials have intensified their contacts with Palestinian factions in the besieged Gaza Strip over the past few hours asking them for time to pressure Israel to move forward with Gaza reconstruction plans.

14 July 2021; MEMO: Facebook yesterday removed the page of the Palestinian Shehab News Agency from its platform.

News Director at Shehab, Hossam Al-Zayegh, described Facebook's action as a new violation of freedom of opinion and expression guaranteed by international law.

"Deleting our page is a reprehensible and condemned action which aims to fight Palestinian content under the pretext of violating standards and inciting violence," he added.

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) The Supreme Court Thursday agreed to examine a fresh plea by a former army officer challenging the Constitutional validity of the sedition law on the ground that it causes "chilling effect" on speech and is an unreasonable restriction on free expression, a fundamental right.

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana, A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy directed the petitioner to serve a copy of the plea to the Attorney General K K Venugopal.

Guwahati, Jul 13 (PTI) The new cattle Bill presented by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is a "copy-paste" of the ordinance on cow protection introduced by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh which has been unnecessarily pushed in Assam on behalf of the RSS, senior Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said Tuesday.

13 July 2021; MEMO: The German and French ambassadors, along with other European Union (EU) ambassadors, boycotted a ceremony at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israeli Ynet News revealed on Tuesday.

The ceremony was held on 4 July at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, in honour of American Independence Day.

13 July 2021; MEMO: In his blistering resignation letter to Harvard University, Dr Cornell West, one of America's leading public intellectuals, cited the administration's "anti-Palestinian prejudice" as one of the main reasons for departing after four years of teaching. West is expected to return to Union Theological Seminary, where he first taught 44 years ago.

New Delhi, July 12 (PTI) The south Delhi district administration on Monday razed a church built upon "encroached" land during a demolition drive in Chattarpur.

However, the church members termed the action "illegal", claiming that a notice was not served to vacate the premises.

The district administration, in a statement, said the church was built on the gram sabha land, which was "encroached by some people by installment of religious structures".

New Delhi, Jul 12 (PTI) Convoys of farmers from different parts of Punjab have started their journeys towards Delhi to take part in planned protests outside the Parliament House during the monsoon session, a statement by Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) said on Monday.

We already announced plans to stage protests during the monsoon session of Parliament starting July 22.