livus

livus, 1 month ago

Original report from Greenpeace here.

livus, 1 month ago

From the article:

In this post, the BYC also announced protests in 22 different locations across Balochistan. The locations included prominent cities like Turbat, Mustang and Gwadar. Additionally, protests have also been planned by BYC at Bulaida, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Grisha, Naal, Kharan, Qalat, Kohlu, Sweat, Mangchar, Hub, Awaran, and Dalbandin.

Taking the matter to 'X' prominent journalist Hamid Mir said, "On this Eid-ul-Fitr, protests will be held in 22 different cities of Balochistan, including Karachi and Quetta, for the recovery of missing persons. ReleaseAllMissingPersons."Additionally, the president of the Baloch American Congress, Tara Chand, in a post on 'X', emphasised that while everyone is celebrating Eid, the Baloch people are mourning their loved ones and protesting for justice.

"While the world celebrates Eid, the Baloch people mourn their loved ones and protest for justice, showcasing their remarkable resilience and courage in the face of adversity. The demand for accountability from the Pakistani army is inevitable during this time. BalochistanProtestOnEid," Tara Chand stated....

Mahrang Baloch, the leader of the Baloch Solidarity Committee, in a virtual address from Islamabad, pleaded for humanitarian intervention against the Baloch genocide that has persisted for decades in Balochistan.

She highlighted the forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and forced displacement of thousands, emphasising the escalating intensity of the genocide.

She said that the movement began with a peaceful sit-in in Turbat, lasting 13 days, before transitioning into a peaceful long march covering hundreds of kilometres to reach the capital.

However, the state responded with extreme force throughout the mass movement, employing false FIRs, physical violence, and arrests against the activists.

livus, 1 month ago

Balochistan is also located partly in #Iran and #Afghanistan, but these protests seem to be mainly in #Pakistan.

livus, 1 month ago

From the article:

The report is based on interviews with crew working on Chinese vessels in the SWIO and a wide range of secondary data sources, and is the first of its kind to examine China’s DWF in the region. Between 2017 and 2023, Chinese vessels were linked to 86 unique cases of illegal fishing or human rights abuses in the SWIO. Of the 95 tuna longliners currently believed to be authorised to target tuna in the SWIO, almost half are linked to cases of illegal fishing and/or human rights abuses.

Of the 44 fishers interviewed, 80% reported shark finning, 100% reported abusive working and living conditions, 96% excessive overtime and 55% physical violence. EJF also interviewed 16 fishers who worked on Chinese trawlers in Mozambique who similarly reported widespread illegalities, with 81% reporting physical abuse and half reporting the deliberate capture and/or injury of vulnerable marine megafauna.

Seafood linked to these vessels is potentially entering key international markets, including Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea; around 73% of the vessels suspected of human rights abuses and illegal fishing appear on the list of authorised exporters to the EU at time of writing.

Through the Belt and Road Initiative, China has invested heavily in the countries bordering the SWIO, including building a range of ports and fisheries infrastructure. The terms of these investments are often opaque and, despite positive articles about Chinese investment in local media, concerns have been raised by civil society groups and local communities regarding the impacts on coastal communities...

livus, 1 month ago

Legal personhood endows rights and duties, a status enjoyed by humans but rarely extended to other entities. New Zealand is a frontrunner: in 2017 it passed a historic law that granted personhood status to the Whanganui River because of its importance to Maori, New Zealand’s indigenous people.

Three years earlier, in 2014, New Zealand declared the Te Urewera ranges in the east of the North Island to be the first ecosystem in the world with legal personhood. The law declared: “Te Urewera is a legal entity, and has all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of a legal person.”

While animal rights have been enshrined in the German constitution since 2002, past attempts to confer legal personhood on them have foundered. A New York appeals court ruled in 2014 that apes cannot give back to society in a way that merits human rights.

Conservationists intend to use the whales declaration, signed on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands last week, as a basis to lobby the governments of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Tahiti and Tonga...

livus, 1 month ago

From the article:

The three peacekeepers were killed in a strike on SAMIDRC's Mubambiro base, just outside of the town of Sake, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Goma. This is the same base where two South African soldiers were killed and three wounded by a mortar bomb in mid-February.

"This highlights the vulnerability of this base and the likelihood that this will remain the case as combatants continue to rely on artillery and long distance ordnance," wrote Piers Pigou, Southern Africa Programme Head at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, in response to questions by DW. "It raises questions of SAMIDRC's ability to defend such bases and whether it has the requisite defensive options or will have them in the future."
M23 grows in strength

DR Congo, the United Nations and many Western countries as well as independent observers have accumulated strong evidence of Rwanda's support for M23.

The M23 rebels are increasingly wielding military-grade weaponry not usually associated with militia groups, including sophisticated assault rifles, GPS-guided long-range mortars and even surface-to-air missiles.

Stephanie Wolters, an expert on the Great Lakes region, stresses that M23 is "very different" now compared to back in 2013 when SADC forces defeated the rebel group in Congo after it temporarily seized Goma....

livus, 1 month ago

...SADC forces, however, aren't fighting the rebels alone. With an offensive mandate, the SADC troops are doing battle alongside an informal coalition which includes the Congolese army, forces from neighboring Burundi and Uganda and armed groups allied with Congo's government.
Burundian soldiers sit in the back of transport truck, seen though the windscreen of a car
Burundi hasn't officially acknowledged having troops in DRC, but its solidiers, seen here in the back of a truck in South Kivu province, are openly visibleImage: ALEXIS HUGUET/AFP

At the same time, SADC forces are also deployed in a region where the UN has started pulling out its 15,000 MONUSCO peacekeepers after Congo's government asked it to leave, citing its failure to secure the country.

livus, 1 month ago

Specifically it seems to imply there will only be one.

livus, 1 month ago

I'm finding the tone of this article a bit bizarre.

Do American people have some kind of feeling that the moon is American or something??

livus, 1 month ago

Damnit the top comment in there is about a song that is very hard to get out of my head.

livus, 1 month ago

Orientalism is this stuff.

Idk I personally enjoy seeing terms I learned in grad school being thrown around in a mod log.

Paradigm shifts keep the brain nimble.

livus, 1 month ago

I can't see the whole comment.

Besides which it's a qualitative judgment so unless they did a full on Content Analysis grid on your ass, I'd probably not know what they meant, unless you were doing something really obvious like calling the Chinese "inscrutible".

I still kind of enjoy the novelty of seeing mods censor people for this arcane stuff. I wouldn't want to be on that instance but I quite like visiting it.

livus, 1 month ago

3rd party isn't formally a vote for genocide though. It's formally a vote for whatever the third party's policies are.

If everyone voted for a third party who promises no genocide then you'd have voted out the genocide.

I know that your electoral system prevents that from happening but when it comes to conscience I think it's worth making the distinction.

livus, 1 month ago

Assange is not an American citizen.

These days it's a public issue in Australia that their ally the US is doing this instead of handing him to them. It makes their politicians look weak.

So there's political pressure on Biden from Australia on this.

livus, 1 month ago

I din't think we have to defend what he did in order to defend his human rights.

The US itself has spies and espionage in many countries.

It's crazy hearing people talk like Assange's journalism/espionage/whatever is somehow this unheard-of thing that is deserving of whatever torture gulag/Guantanamo type situation the US wants to dream up.

livus, 1 month ago

Did you reply to the wrong comment?

I'm just pointing out he's an Australian citizen who never resided in the US so for Australians this is one of their citizens.

Honestly just check the Australian news coverage, this is a political issue over there.

livus, 1 month ago

No but I think it's okay for mods to have some guidelunes and this submission breaks them.

People are supoosed to post news articles with an excerpt. Not some kind of semi literate editorial of their personal opinion.