"It improves transparency" said lawmaker, to require news and other orgs that receive more that 20% of their rev from external to register as 'foreign agents'.
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This week the German government announced they'd arrested like 1000 people in a plot to overthrow their government and install a different leader.
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Turkey blocked Sweden and Finland bids to join NATOSweden and Finland had a decades-old policy of neutrality that they now seem to want to change.NATO needs a unanimous vote for new members.
The main reason given by Turkey is that those countries host Kurdish groups the Turkish government deems terrorists.Diplomats from the two countries are going to Turkey to try diplomacy, but Erdogan publicly said they shouldn't bother to tire themselves, as Turkey won't accept counties that impose sanctions (export bans on Turkey... Sweden halted arms sales to Turkey after Turkish intervention in Syria 3 years ago) on Turkey, because then NATO would cease to be a security organization and start to be a place where reps of terrorist organizations are represented. -
SA executes 81 menThe largest mass execution recently. Some were murderers, and others were found to have 'pledged allegiance to foreign terrorist organizations.'This was reported by Wion.73 of the 81 were Saudi nationals who had been found guilty in a single case of attempting to assassinate security officials, targeting police stations and convoys.SA officials said it was 'only protecting its national security interest through its laws.'The countries that execute the most people are China, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, and fifth SA.
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'Transnational repression''You are not allowed to be a popular person who is not working for them. Either you are their friend or you are their enemy, and that's it. You are their enemy because you tell what they don't want to be told.' - the guy they made Hotel Rwanda about, now a political activist outside of Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina.Rwanda got him. He was living as a legal resident in Texas, and tried to fly to Burundi through Dubai for something. He boarded a private plane in Dubai but it took him instead to Rwanda. (Admitted by Rwanda's justice minister) the Rwandan government paid for that plane. He was charged with terrorism and other crimes. However, from reports I saw he might have actually been funding and founding groups politically active in Rwanda. I can't comment on whether you would want to call them 'terrorist.'One of his daughters also was a target. Reportedly, the government hacked her phone and used it to listen in on her life, including meetings with lawyers.Transnational repression is the word people are using for part of this. Where governments use threats, intimidation, violence, assassination and murder to silence critics even when they're not in the country. Freedom House documents this.Some lawyers say he was kidnapped (by means of his illegal rendition to Rwanda). The government did not present a formal request for rendition, because, some lawyers say, this would have never passed a judge's test, and this is why they didn't do it legally (due process).His family is suing the private airline.
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Britain on the cusp of considering officially the entire Hamas as a 'terrorist organization'Because it can't tell which parts are political and which militant. Hamas does have a 'political wing,' though.US, Canada and EU already designate Hamas a terrorist group.The new Israel leadership has been pushing against 'terrorism' and closing NGOs under this justification."I think it's actually a fallacy to consider military and political separate. The political wing is integral in helping the military wing in terrorist organizations." - Anne HerzbergIncluded in the political move, if it passes (and Boris is considered to be pro-Israel) is criminal liability including jail punishment for people who support Hamas (as a 'terrorist organization'). This will affect all groups doing fundraising, meetings, media coverage. A Cambridge University professor commented that it affects teachers and how they teach, and that there has already been challenges to them and their freedom of expression, and the Hamas classification would add to that. She said England's Palestinian community of about 5000 would not any longer be able to speak freely about this issue.
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The Hill and others are talking still about the problem of labeling 'half of America' 'domestic terrorists'About 3 homicides per year in the US are possibly motivated by racial hatred. There are 15-20k homicides in the US per year.Below is a chart the Hill shared, which shows attacks and deaths for each year.
The second image shows PayPal Park in San Jose, which has a capacity of 18k. So that many people are murdered per year (is that accurate?). Three of those guys on that bleacher over on the other side were possibly motivated by hate, ie possibly 'racial supremacists.'When they talk about the current attempt to create a political cause for 'domestic terrorism' critics talk about 'the war on terror' which they see as doing the same thing for the past 20 years.According to AP, this many people died in America's 'Longest War' in Afghanistan:American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448.
U.S. contractors: 3,846.
Afghan national military and police: 66,000.
Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states: 1,144.
Afghan civilians: 47,245.
Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191.
Aid workers: 444.
Journalists: 72In the Iraq War (2003-2011), between 151k and 1m Iraqis died, estimated, and 4500 US troop deaths.
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A British politician was stabbed to deathThe killing has been announced as motivated by 'terrorism.'
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US schools: Conflict over masks and vaccinesLots of disagreement in meetings and signs being put up, and some low-key violence like grabbing phones, as well as 'threats of violence' and letters to government.In a letter to the president, the National School Boards Assoc Pres Viola Garcia went somewhat nuclear, straight to 'terrorism:'"As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes," she wrote.
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France lower house approved a bill to give the government more powers to combat things tied to 'religion' (Islamist separatism)Powers to enable the government to do things with religious organizations and places of worship, foreign funding, home schooling, wearing religious symbols and certain clothing, and 'online abuse.'
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Tanzania government rounds up members of opposition party, talk they might charge them with terrorismPrevious VP now president after death of previous president extending authoritarian tendencies used by previous president?
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Last US troops leave Bagram Airfield in the night... without telling the new Afghan commander.The base, about an hour away from Kabul, has made headlines over the years for horrible accounts of the US forces there torturing Afghanis, sometimes to death.The Afghan soldiers now guarding the base have said they look to the government and the village to support them with resources. 'the Americans destroyed everything here.' Much of the supplies (boots, exercise machines - The Americans took their sophisticated modern military tools) left by the troops has made it's way to scrapyards and second-hand shops.Some have said they are glad the Americans left, that now Afghanistan can have peace, which the Americans didn't bring.
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Belarus president causes Ryanair flight to land to arrest opposition activistConsidered the most brazen act from an Eastern European regime in a long time, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus had a the plane tailed by a fighter jet, and under the pretense of a bomb threat caused the plane to divert from its course (Greece to Lithuania) and land in Minsk.No explosives were found but they arrested
Roman Protasevich, who is seen as taking on the role of a sort of hero in recent anti-government protests through a Telegram channel.The country has him on charges of terrorism for his blogging on what the State calls extremist organization, and protest organizing, which the state refers to as organizing mass riots and enticing social hatred, it seems. Western powers are now calling Belarus' act one of 'State terrorism.'The EU wants to react strongly, but people wonder how they can do so. Some considerations that might hurt the Belarusian regime include blocking Belarus from the international banking system, in cooperation with the US. They could sanction state companies that support the Belarusian regime. They could stop oil imports and exports--the EU is the second-biggest trade partner of Belarus after Russia.Lukashenko said it was his country’s 'sovereign right' to arrest the activist: 'Let his numerous Western patrons answer this question: Which intelligence services did this individual work for? Not only him but his accomplice as well.'
Belarus later released videos of Protasevich and his girlfriend in custody confessing to crimes against the state. He said the activist had moved on from reporting solely on Belarus to 'working full out against Russia, thus showing the true goal of western strategists. ... Their goal is to dissolve the Belarusian people and move on to smothering their arch-enemy: the Russian.'Lukashenko commented on the bomb threat: 'Was Chernobyl not enough?, If there was a bomb on board the plane and terrorists wanted to blow it up, we couldn’t really have helped. But I couldn’t let the plane fall on our people’s heads.'
Belarusian authorities also arrested 14 staff from the organization Protasevich worked for in a tax evasion case. There were reports of numerous incidents of violence against journalists in the country.According to Reuters, 'a day after Protasevich's arrest, the government introduced new measures to regulate media activities, including a blanket ban on covering protests or publishing opinion polls without prior authorization from the government.'Many people, not least of all Russian journalists, have pointed out that in 2013 the USA and EU countries forced a Bolivian plane--carrying that country's president Evo Morales--to land in Austria (it was en route from Moscow to Bolivia after a summit) for 13 hours because they thought fugitive US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden might be on board, who was charged with conveying classified information to an unauthorized party, disclosing communications intelligence information, and theft of government property.The weekend following the incident, Lukashenko visited Putin and video footage was published of the two enjoying conversation and some laughs and dining together with Lukashenko's son on a yacht in the Black Sea in Sochi. During a televised conference between the two, Putin also brought up the 2013 incident of Morales' plane, laughing.#Terrorism #Lithuania #FreeSpeech #press #EdwardSnowden
