At least 600 civilians were killed in northern Ethiopia on November 9 due to their ethnicity, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) alleged on Tuesday. The EHRC on November 24 released a preliminary report into the attack, which took place in Maikadra, a town in Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray region. The state-appointed human rights watchdog said in its report that “an informal group of Tigrayan youth known as ‘Samri,’ aided […]
Gabrielle Reyes
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One of the world’s busiest airports in Shanghai, China, canceled over 500 flights on Tuesday as the city raced to contain a recent coronavirus outbreak. “On Tuesday, figures from data services firm VariFlight showed that over 500 flights out of Pudong Airport had been called off — nearly half the day’s scheduled flights,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. “Almost half of scheduled inbound flights were also canceled.” “Variflight […]
Afghanistan is emerging as a significant global producer of methamphetamine, according to a study published on Tuesday by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). Afghan drug traffickers have in recent years discovered that the ephedra plant — commonly found growing wild in certain parts of the country — can be used to create ephedrine, the key component of the drug methamphetamine. Known as crystal […]
The Indian government on Tuesday said it had banned another 43 Chinese smartphone apps, citing national security concerns. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it was banning the Chinese applications “based on inputs regarding these apps for engaging in activities prejudicial to India’s sovereignty, integrity, defense, security and public order.” India’s central government is empowered to block public access to any website or mobile app that […]
A conditional ceasefire suspending attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq has ended, the leader of an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia group declared on Thursday. “The truce with the Americans has ended due to its conditions not being met,” Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Iranian-backed Shiite militia group Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, said in an interview with Iraqi state media on November 19, Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported on Friday. Asaib […]
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture on Thursday called for sanctions to be placed on the U.S. cable news network CNN, denying the network’s report claiming that Nigerian soldiers shot live rounds of ammunition at anti-police protesters in Lagos last month. “CNN relied heavily on unverified and possibly-doctored videos, as well as information sourced from questionable sources to reach its conclusion. This should earn CNN a serious […]
China is the “biggest stumbling block” for India in its bid to win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the Hindustan Times reported Thursday. As a permanent member of the UNSC, China has the power to veto any resolution put forth by the council, including those seeking to expand its membership. China has repeatedly blocked India’s attempts in recent years to gain permanent […]
India is the only G20 nation doing its “fair share” to meet the climate change mitigation commitments it agreed to under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, a 2020 Climate Transparency report published on Wednesday revealed. Climate Transparency is an international group of 14 research and non-governmental organizations that examines global climate action. In its report, the group examined the efforts taken by G20 nations to tackle […]
Nigerian soldiers razed at least six synagogues run by Jewish adherents of the local Igbo ethnic tribe last week in southern Rivers State, located in Nigeria’s Biafra region, the Jerusalem Post reported on November 14. Members of the Nigerian Army bulldozed the houses of worship as part of a crackdown on Jewish adherents in the region ordered by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, the Israeli newspaper reported, citing a 9Africa […]
Allegations of forced labor at Volkswagen’s car plant in China’s Xinjiang region are untrue, the German car manufacturer’s CEO in China told the BBC on Thursday. Human rights organizations have accused Communist Party officials in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region of detaining one to three million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in detention camps built since at least 2017, citing eyewitness testimony, leaked documents, and satellite imagery. Testimonies […]
South Korea recorded its largest daily increase in new coronavirus cases in 70 days on Friday, the same day that the national government announced it would begin fining people $90 for failing to wear sanitary masks in public. “Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 191 cases added to the country’s caseload Friday, the highest daily increase since September 4,” when health authorities reported 198 […]
Dozens of cars leaving Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, lined a country road leading out of the war-torn territory on November 11. The cars were filled with people fleeing the contested region after recent fighting there between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended in a peace deal on November 10, under which Armenian forces ceded some territory to Baku. Most people leaving Nagorno-Karabakh for Yerevan traveled on a […]
Terrorists tied to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) hacked “likely hundreds” of people to death in Ethiopia on November 9, Amnesty International reported on Thursday. “Amnesty International can today confirm that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the South West Zone of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,” the human rights organization […]
“Trumpism without Trump” is what America needs in four years, said conservative author Ann Coulter during a lecture at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday night hosted by the university’s Young Conservatives of Texas. In a wide-ranging speech that reached far beyond the event’s proposed topic of immigration, the political commentator explained to a socially-distanced crowd of 97 people why she believes the 2020 U.S. presidential […]
The number of suicides in Japan rose in October to the highest level recorded in over five years, Japanese police data revealed on Tuesday. “[T]he total number of suicides for October was 2,153, an increase of more than 300 from the previous month and the highest monthly tally since May 2015,” Japan Today reported, citing “preliminary police data” from the East Asian country. October marked the fourth month […]
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is attempting to erase the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan from Chinese history according to a report this weekend by human rights magazine Bitter Winter. Genghis Khan founded the Mongolian Empire in 1206. It was the largest contiguous land empire in world history at its peak, spanning roughly nine million square miles of territory from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the […]
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace deal on Monday to end their recent fighting over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Regional power Russia brokered the agreement, which is expected to take effect starting November 10. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the peace deal on Monday in a statement posted to his official Facebook account. “I have signed a statement with the Presidents of […]
Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak resigned from his post on Sunday citing health reasons, one day after Ankara fired its central bank chief. Albayrak is the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who fired central bank governor Murat Uysal on Saturday. Erdoğan replaced Uysal with former Finance Minister Naci Agbal, whose policies are believed to be at odds with those of Albayrak. The personnel shuffle comes as Turkey […]
China, which has built concentration camps holding as many as up to 3 million Muslims in the past five years, demanded at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday that America do more to fight “systematic racism, racial discrimination, white supremacy, religious intolerance, and xenophobia.” Ahead of the U.N.’s periodic review of the U.S.’s human rights record on Monday, the international body published questions for the […]
Iran’s supreme leader mocked the ongoing U.S. presidential election on Wednesday, claiming the vote has exposed the true nature of “U.S. democracy.” The U.S. held its presidential election on November 3. Initial results showed U.S. President Donald Trump held a lead over challenger Joe Biden. As polls closed on election night, Trump was poised to lead in key states. By the next morning on November 4, […]
Iran has canceled its traditional Student Day march — which commemorates the anniversary of the Iranian seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 — for the first time in nearly 40 years due to coronavirus concerns, London-based Iran International reported on Monday. The number of new coronavirus cases reported in Iran has surged in recent weeks. The Islamic Republic surpassed its single-day record for both new […]
An Indian group known as Hindu Sena (Hindu Army) in Delhi on Tuesday conducted fire rituals and chanted verses for U.S. President Donald Trump’s victory in the November 3 presidential election. Joined by a Hindu priest dressed in saffron robes, over a dozen members of the group sat around a ritual fire in a Hindu temple to offer a special prayer for Trump’s reelection, according to video […]
A Mulsim mob beat a man to death and burned his body after he allegedly desecrated a copy of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, at a mosque in northern Bangladesh on Thursday. A second man attacked by the mob survived and is currently under police protection. The incident occurred in the Bangladesh town of Burimari, located in the country’s northern Lalmonirhat district near the Indian border. […]
A 21-year-old tuberculosis patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital in the northern Indian city of Gurugram was allegedly raped by a member of the hospital staff while she was in a semi-conscious condition on a ventilator, local police said Wednesday. “The patient gained consciousness on Tuesday [October 27] and informed her father about the incident through a handwritten note,” Gurugram police said, according to […]
China’s foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday accused U.S. senators of telling “all sorts of lies” after the U.S. Senate introduced a draft bill on Monday accusing Beijing of committing “genocide” against ethnic and religious minorities in its northwestern territory of Xinjiang. Put forth by a bipartisan group of U.S. legislators, the resolution alleges that China has discriminated “against Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and members of other […]
An Iranian court sentenced the CEO of Aparat, a video-sharing website similar to YouTube, to ten years in prison this month for “encouraging corruption” after an Aparat user uploaded a video to the platform last year that authorities in the Islamic Republic deemed “vulgar.” In the video, children were asked “whether they know how they were born,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on Monday, citing […]
Photos and videos circulating online on Tuesday appear to show the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group flag at a demonstration on Sunday in northeastern Syria. Local Muslims organized the rally to protest French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent comments denouncing Islamists’ use of violence in response to cartoons. The anti-Macron protest took place in Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain), a town currently controlled by Turkish-backed jihadists. “[S]everal ISIS flags were spotted at […]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a cemetery honoring Chinese veterans of the Korean War on October 21. The commemoration was widely viewed as part of Kim’s recent efforts to move closer to Beijing, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping on October 19 also honored the 70th anniversary of China’s entry into the conflict. Kim visited the cemetery, located in Hoechang County, South Phyongan Province, for a wreath-laying […]
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Monday it would reverse its ban on the video-sharing app TikTok — announced ten days ago on October 9 — after the app’s Chinese owners committed to moderating content in accordance with Pakistani law. “TikTok is being unlocked after assurance from management that they will block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality,” the PTA said in […]
Long-distance truck drivers in East Africa are paying bribes to avoid state-enforced coronavirus testing at the Uganda-Kenya border, the head of Uganda’s Professional Drivers Network (UPDN) revealed on Monday. Drivers “pay bribes of between $14 and $40 to get a certificate indicating negative [coronavirus] status, or to cross the border without being tested,” UPDN director Omongo Ndugu, who is also vice-chairman of the Uganda Long Distance and […]
The Taliban accused the U.S. military on Sunday of violating a peace deal the two sides agreed to in February, claiming that the U.S. had carried out “excessive airstrikes” in areas of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province occupied by the Taliban and elsewhere in the country. Muhammad Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Islamist terror group, said the peace agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, on February 29 […]
Ongoing anti-government protests in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, forced authorities to declare a “severe” state of emergency in the city on October 15. The emergency decree allowed the government to order the shutdown of news agencies supporting the protest movement on October 19. Thailand’s national police ordered that four news agencies and the main student activist Facebook page organizing protests be shut down, local news outlet Coconuts […]
Swedish climate activist Great Thunberg on Saturday joined an online campaign demanding the release of 12 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists detained in China. The campaign calls for participants to post a photo of themselves holding up a placard with the hashtag “#Save12HongKongYouths” to social media and to nominate three others to do the same and spread awareness about the detainees. Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, 24, nominated Thunberg, […]