Month: September 2021

Namibian activists and opposition members stormed parliament this week over a deal with Germany to atone for a colonial genocide more than a century ago. Opposition lawmakers also called for a renegotiation of the deal, in which Germany has agreed to fund about $1.3 billion in development projects over 30 years to redress land taken and tens of thousands killed from 1904 to 1908. Critics said the amount was insufficient. Activist Sima Luipert vowed legal action if the Namibian parliament approved a bill accepting the deal. She said the deal, which the Namibian and German governments reached in May, violated the …

READ MORE

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet reported the human rights situation in Belarus continues to worsen, as President Alexander Lukashenko stiffens repressive measures to quell dissent. The High Commissioner has submitted her latest update on Belarus to the U.N. Human Rights Council.   This latest report examines alleged human rights violations in Belarus since May 2020. Bachelet said the government has refused to cooperate or grant access to U.N. experts to undertake their probe, so all information has been gathered remotely.  She called the findings very disheartening.  “I am deeply concerned by increasingly severe restrictions on civic space and fundamental freedoms, …

READ MORE

Officials on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma say the Cumbre Vieja volcano continued to erupt Friday, spewing lava and ash, and threatening the homes and livelihoods of the island’s 85,000 residents. Pictures and drone video taken of a single home that was surrounded but spared by the advancing lava has made it a symbol of the natural disaster that began Sunday. The Associated Press, citing a European Union monitoring agency, reports nearly 400 buildings have been destroyed by the advancing lava flow, including homes, businesses and banana plantations. The manager of the island’s banana producer’s association, Sergio Caceres, …

READ MORE

Poland’s broadcasting regulators extended the license of Discovery Inc.-owned TVN24 at the last moment Wednesday but also adopted a resolution to pressure the American company to sell its majority stake in the TV news channel, which airs coverage that is critical of Poland’s government.     The National Broadcasting Council, known by the Polish acronym KRRiT, had delayed the renewal of TVN24’s license for almost two years. The independent television channel is watched by millions of people daily in Poland. Its current license expires on Sunday.   Discovery said the news of the extensions was “bittersweet” because it showed there …

READ MORE

Exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was arrested in Italy on Thursday, his lawyer and an aide said, four years after fleeing following an independence referendum that Madrid ruled unconstitutional. The European MEP was expected to appear in court on Friday at a hearing that could see him extradited to Spain to face sedition charges. The Catalan leader — who has been based in Belgium since the 2017 referendum — was detained in Alghero, Sardinia, his chief of staff, Josep Lluis Alay, wrote on Twitter. “At his arrival at Alghero airport, he was arrested by Italian police. Tomorrow (Friday), he’ll …

READ MORE

Britain is in talks with U.S. nuclear reactor company Westinghouse on building a new atomic power plant on Anglesey in Wales, the British newspaper The Times reported. If it gets the go-ahead the new plant at Wylfa would be able to generate enough electricity to power more than 6 million homes and could be operational in the mid-2030s, The Times said. Japan’s Hitachi Ltd scrapped plans to build a nuclear power plant at the Wylfa site a year ago after it failed to find private investors or secure sufficient government support for the project. The decision left only the British …

READ MORE

Belarus and Myanmar registered a significant decline in global internet freedom ratings following political turmoil in which authorities in the two countries arrested journalists and blocked access to the internet.     In its annual Freedom on the Net report, the global nonprofit Freedom House found digital rights had declined globally for the 11th consecutive year, with China ranking the worst for the seventh time, and the U.S. seeing a decline for a fifth year.   Freedom on the Net is an annual assessment of digital rights in 70 states, with each country given a score on a 100-point scale …

READ MORE

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday that it would take “time” and “actions” to repair ties with the U.S. in the wake of a submarine deal that undercut a French agreement to supply Australia with diesel subs.  Last week, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced a deal under which the U.K. and U.S. will instead supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.  The move angered France, which withdrew its ambassadors from the U.S. and Australia.  Earlier in the week, Le Drian expressed concern about what he characterized as “deceit” by one …

READ MORE

Jets of red hot lava shot into the sky on Spain’s La Palma on Thursday as a huge cloud of toxic ash drifted from the Cumbre Vieja volcano toward the mainland and jeopardized the island’s economically crucial banana crops.   Walls of lava, which turn black when exposed to the air, have advanced slowly westward since Sunday, engulfing everything in their path, including houses, schools and some banana plantations.   Farmers near the town of Todoque raced to save as much as possible of their crop, piling their trucks high with sacks of the green bananas, on which many of …

READ MORE