August, 05 2010, 02:19pm EDT
Amnesty International Condemns Pre-Election Attacks on Politicians and Journalists in Rwanda
Amnesty
International condemns attacks on politicians and journalists in the run
up to the presidential election on August 9 and calls on the government
to ensure the poll is held in an atmosphere where Rwandans can freely express
their views.
The murder of a journalist and an opposition politician - both critical
of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) - in late June and mid-July
has created a climate of repression likely to inhibit freedom of expression
ahead of the vote, the organization said.
lond
Amnesty
International condemns attacks on politicians and journalists in the run
up to the presidential election on August 9 and calls on the government
to ensure the poll is held in an atmosphere where Rwandans can freely express
their views.
The murder of a journalist and an opposition politician - both critical
of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) - in late June and mid-July
has created a climate of repression likely to inhibit freedom of expression
ahead of the vote, the organization said.
"In recent months killings, arrests and the closure of newspapers and
broadcasters has reinforced a climate of fear," said Amnesty International's
Africa program deputy director, Tawanda Hondora. "The Rwandan government
must ensure that investigations into the killings are thorough and reinstate
closed media outlets."
On July 14, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, the vice president of the opposition
Democratic Green Party, was found dead in Butare, southern Rwanda. Amnesty
International has obtained photographs that show that his head was severed
from his body.
Rwisereka, who left the RPF to create the Green Party, had reportedly been
concerned for his security in the weeks before his murder. Other Green
Party members said they had also received threats .
Investigations into Rwisereka's death continue, but insufficient evidence
has been gathered to press charges, according to the prosecution.
None of the main opposition parties are able to stand in Monday's elections.
The Democratic Green Party of Rwanda and FDU-Inkingi have been obstructed
from holding the meetings required to register their parties.
The only new opposition party to secure registration - PS-Imberakuri -
was unable to stand after the party's leader, Bernard Ntaganda, was arrested
on June 24. Ntaganda was charged with "genocide ideology" and "divisionism"
under vague laws, ostensibly used to restrict hate speech, but often used
to silence legitimate dissent.
Opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, has still not been brought to trial
on charges of "genocide ideology", and other charges following her arrest
in April. In May, the prosecution said that investigations may take up
to a year, ruling out a trial before the elections.
"Until an independent inquiry into Rwisereka's murder reveals the true
circumstances surrounding his death, Rwandans will fear that it was linked
to his opposition activities," said Hondora. "They may be reluctant to
express themselves as a result."
Jean-Leonard Rugambage, a journalist working for the Umuvugizi newspaper,
was shot dead on June 24 outside his home in the capital, Kigali. Rugambage
had been investigating the shooting in South Africa of the exiled former
general, Kayumba Nyamwasa. On the day of his murder, Umuvugizi published
a story alleging that Rwandan intelligence officials were linked to Nyamwasa's
shooting.
Two suspects have been arrested for Rugambage's murder and are currently
awaiting trial.
Rwandan media critical of the government has effectively been dismantled
in the run-up to elections. In late July, the Rwandan High Media Council,
a regulatory body close to the ruling party, banned some 30 media outlets
arguing they failed to adhere to a 2009 media law. The law restricts media
freedom.
Agnes Nkusi Uwimana, the editor of the Urubayo newspaper, was arrested
in July and charged with "genocide ideology."
Two other newspaper editors fled Rwanda in recent months after their
papers were suspended and they received repeated threats.
The United Nations, the European Union, the United States, France and Spain
have already publicly expressed concerns about the deteriorating human
rights situation in Rwanda ahead of the election. Amnesty International
calls on other countries to also express their concerns.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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Watchdogs' Database Details Right-Wing Efforts to Sway US Supreme Court
"Supreme corruption demands supreme transparency," said one campaigner behind the new effort.
Apr 18, 2024
A trio of progressive watchdog groups on Thursday unveiled a new database detailing the "troubling connections" between the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing justices, the conservative organizations that have intervened in cases before the court, and the wealthy donors funding them.
Take Back the Court, Revolving Door Project, and True North Research published the database at SupremeTransparency.org, which "shines a spotlight on the complex web connecting justices to powerbrokers and the organizations that those powerbrokers fund, lead, and are otherwise linked to."
The watchdogs found that nearly 1 in 7 amicus briefs filed during the 2023-24 Supreme Court term were lodged by at least one powerbroker-affiliated organization. This affects 32 different cases before the court.
"The current U.S. Supreme Court has gone rogue."
For example, in Moore v. United States—in which the Supreme Court could preemptively ban or limit wealth taxes—half of all amicus briefs were filed by groups affiliated with right-wing powerbrokers.
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, groups funded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch want to scupper the Chevron deference, a 40-year precedent under which judges defer to the legal interpretations of federal agencies if Congress has not passed any laws on an issue. Powerbroker-affiliated organizations have filed more than one-third of the amicus briefs seeking to overturn the Chevron doctrine.
"Far too often people with insidiously close ties to justices like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, such as Harlan Crow and Paul Singer, signal their interest in the outcome of cases by funding, leading, or influencing organizations that file amicus briefs," Revolving Door Project executive director Jeff Hauser said in a statement.
"There is just as much of a conflict of interest when a justice hears a case involving a benefactor as a named party and one in which the person who illicitly enabled their luxurious lifestyle is 'merely' similarly situated to one of the parties," Hauser added.
According to SupremeTransparency.org:
The current U.S. Supreme Court has gone rogue. The right-wing justices that make up the court's supermajority frequently toy with precedent and the rule of law to issue opinions that not only defy the will of a majority of Americans, but also rewrite constitutional principles, overturn widely respected legal precedents, and gut longstanding rules that protect the public interest.
In just the 2021 and 2022 Supreme Court terms alone, the court overturned Roe v. Wadeafter 49 years; gutted both the decades-old Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act; overturned a 100+ year old gun safety law; eroded the National Labor Relations Act (adopted as part of New Deal reforms to protect workers); broke with their own procedures regarding standing to sue in order to block student debt relief; and reversed decades of precedent to end the decadeslong practice of race-conscious college admissions policies that promoted diversity and redressed discrimination. But this radically reactionary court and its radically reactionary justices aren't acting alone.
"Supreme corruption demands supreme transparency," said Take Back the Court president Sarah Lipton-Lubet. "It's no secret that the many of the rich benefactors cozying up to the conservative justices are the same people who fund right-wing organizations with business before the court."
"But too often, stories about the Supreme Court don't connect these dots—and as a result, they leave us with an incomplete picture," she continued. "The truth is right-wing powerbrokers are seemingly paying to play; they're funding groups that are weighing in on court cases even as they buy access to the justices who will rule on those cases."
"It's just one of the ways our Supreme Court is deeply, fundamentally broken," Lipton-Lubet added. "And it's a reminder of how urgent and necessary it is that we reform this corrupt court."
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"This clearly shows that protecting our climate is much cheaper than not doing so, and that is without even considering noneconomic impacts such as loss of life or biodiversity," a new study's lead author said.
Apr 18, 2024
The climate crisis will shrink the average global income 19% in the next 26 years compared to what it would have been without global heating caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, a study published in Nature Wednesday has found.
The researchers, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), said that economic shrinkage was largely locked in by mid-century by existing climate change, but that actions taken to reduce emissions now could determine whether income losses hold steady at around 20% or triple through the second half of the century.
"These near-term damages are a result of our past emissions," study lead author and PIK scientist Leonie Wenz said in a statement. "We will need more adaptation efforts if we want to avoid at least some of them. And we have to cut down our emissions drastically and immediately—if not, economic losses will become even bigger in the second half of the century, amounting to up to 60% on global average by 2100."
"I am used to my work not having a nice societal outcome, but I was surprised by how big the damages were."
Put in dollar terms, the climate crisis will take a yearly $38 trillion chunk out of the global economy in damages by 2050, the study authors found.
"That seems like… a lot," writer and climate advocate Bill McKibben wrote in response to the findings. "The entire world economy at the moment is about $100 trillion a year; the federal budget is about $6 trillion a year."
This means that the costs of inaction have already exceeded the costs of limiting global heating to 2°C by six times, the study authors said. However, limiting warming to 2°C can still significantly reduce economic losses through 2100.
"This clearly shows that protecting our climate is much cheaper than not doing so, and that is without even considering noneconomic impacts such as loss of life or biodiversity," Wenz said.
The damages predicted by the study were more than twice those of similar analyses because the researchers looked beyond national temperature data to also incorporate the impacts of extreme weather and rainfall on more than 1,600 subnational regions over a 40-year period, The Guardian explained.
"Strong income reductions are projected for the majority of regions, including North America and Europe, with South Asia and Africa being most strongly affected," PIK scientist and first author Maximilian Kotz said in a statement. "These are caused by the impact of climate change on various aspects that are relevant for economic growth such as agricultural yields, labor productivity, or infrastructure."
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Unlike previous studies, the research predicted economic losses for most wealthier countries in the Global North, with the U.S. and German economies shrinking by 11% by mid-century, France's by 13%, and the U.K.'s by 7%. However, the countries set to suffer the most are countries closer to the equator that have lower incomes already and have historically done much less to contribute to the climate crisis. Iraq, for example, could see incomes drop by 30%, Botswana 25%, and Brazil 21%.
"Our study highlights the considerable inequity of climate impacts: We find damages almost everywhere, but countries in the tropics will suffer the most because they are already warmer," study co-author Anders Levermann, who leads Research Department Complexity Science at PIK, said in a statement. "Further temperature increases will therefore be most harmful there. The countries least responsible for climate change, are predicted to suffer income loss that is 60% greater than the higher-income countries and 40% greater than higher-emission countries. They are also the ones with the least resources to adapt to its impacts."
Wenz told The Guardian that the results were "devastating."
"I am used to my work not having a nice societal outcome, but I was surprised by how big the damages were. The inequality dimension was really shocking," Wenz said.
Levermann said the paper presented society with a clear choice:
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The Congressional Progressive Caucus on Thursday published a "comprehensive domestic policy legislative agenda" for U.S. President Joe Biden's possible second White House term that seeks to "deliver equality, justice, and economic security for working people."
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"Progressives are proud to have been part of the most significant Democratic legislative accomplishments of this century. We have made real progress for everyday Americans—but there's much more work to be done," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement.
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Progressive lawmakers have already introduced bills for many items on the agenda, including a Green New Deal for Public Schools, expanding the Supreme Court, comprehensive voting rights protection, and legalizing marijuana.
Critics noted the conspicuous absence of Medicare for All—once a top progressive agenda item—and foreign policy issues including ending Israel's genocide, apartheid, occupation, settler colonization, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
Jayapal toldNBC News that the CPC is focusing its blueprint exclusively on domestic goals—especially ones it feels can be achieved.
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The CPC agenda is backed by a wide range of labor, climate, environmental, civil rights, consumer, faith-based, and other organizations.
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Mary Small, chief strategy officer at Indivisible, said: "House progressives were the engine at the heart of our legislative accomplishments in 2021 and 2022. They've continued that momentum to be true governing partners to the Biden administration as those laws and programs are implemented."
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That moment is far from guaranteed, with not only the White House hanging in the balance as Biden will all but certainly face former Republican President Donald Trump in November's election but also the Senate Democratic Caucus clinging to a single-seat advantage over the GOP. Republicans currently hold the House of Representatives by a five-seat margin.
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