May 11, 2017

Russian LGBT Network Steps Up Efforts To Get Gay Men Out Of Chechnya

Police in Chechnya have been reportedly cracking down on gay men. Some have been imprisoned and tortured. David Greene talks to a representative of the Russian LGBT Network, which is helping the men.

More than a hundred gay men have been rounded up by the police in the Russian republic of Chechnya. That's according to reporting by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. So far, the Kremlin has turned a blind eye to this, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week urged Vladimir Putin to intervene.

There is an NGO that has been working to get gay men who've been targeted out of Chechnya. It is the Russian LGBT Network. And I spoke with that group's communications manager via Skype. We should say we are not using her name because of the sensitive and dangerous nature of her work. She started by telling me how these men have been treated.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Well, they're telling us that they are beaten. Sometimes some people are beaten to death. And also people are saying that they're tortured with electric current, they are not fed properly and they don't have any water.

Audio interview and transcript here:

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/09/527540962/russian-lgbt-network-steps-up-efforts-to-get-gay-men-out-of-chechnya

May 4, 2017

How Every Member Voted on the House Health Care Bill

Complete list here:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/04/us/politics/house-vote-republican-health-care-bill.html

April 29, 2017

Mom pulls gun on Cleveland barber when son's haircut takes too long

The mother of a 7-year-old boy getting his haircut pulled a gun on the barber because she thought it was taking too long, according to a police report.

Investigators are still trying to identify the woman involved in the April 14 incident at the Allstate Barber College on Lorain Avenue near West 26th Street in Ohio City.

The woman complained several times before a manager came over to talk to the barber. The woman walked up and asked if he had something to say to her, according to a police report.

The woman pulled a handgun from her purse and pointed it at the barber, the report says.

"I got two clips. I'll pop you," she said, according to the report.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/04/mom_pulls_gun_on_cleveland_bar.html

April 29, 2017

Turkey purges 4,000 civil servants, bans TV dating programs

Turkey has passed two new decrees — one that expelled more than 4,000 civil servants and another that banned television dating programs.

The country's Official Gazette published the decrees Saturday evening. The first named thousands of civil servants to be dismissed, including nearly 500 academics and more than 1,000 Turkish military personnel. The decree also reinstated 236 people to their jobs.

The second decree, among other things, bans radio and television programs for "finding friends and spouses."

The state of emergency that followed last summer's coup attempt has allowed the Turkish government to rule by decrees. Since then, more than 47,000 people have been arrested and 100,000 have been purged for alleged connections to terror organizations.

http://www.startribune.com/turkey-purges-4-000-civil-servants-bans-tv-dating-programs/420814713/

April 29, 2017

Chechnya is persecuting its gays: Here's what we can do to rise up against it.

I HAVE ADDED OUR (US) EMBASSY CONTACT INFORMATION AT THE END OF THIS POST.


There is absolute silence in our part of the world about what is happening in Chechnya. Myself included. I have been more bothered about the next call for help I receive, someone is bothered about his girlfriend’s new friend. Some are just busy and worried about catching the train, the bus, the metro on time to reach office at the perfect time. In all of this we seem to have forgotten what’s happening in Chechnya. We have turned so numb to it.

We need to create a rush of emails and calls to the Russian embassy against the killings of gays in Chechnya. We need to write them letters and demand that the killings stop.

There will be every attempt to tell us that nothing so dastardly is happening in Chechnya. It has already started. It's not like we were expecting them to admit to everything, were we? Reports as fresh as yesterday have emerged stating that the people behind this exposé of concentration camps in Chechnya are running for cover.

http://www.firstpost.com/world/chechnya-is-persecuting-its-gays-heres-what-we-can-do-to-rise-up-against-it-3413602.html

Contact the Embassy

Consular Section of the Russian Embassy
2641 Tunlaw Rd., N.W.
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: (202) 939-8907, (202) 939-8913
Fax: (202) 483-7579
Email: russconswdc@gmail.com


Main Entrance to the Russian Embassy
2650 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: (202) 298-5700
Fax: (202) 298-5735
Email: rusembusa@mid.ru

April 29, 2017

Holocaust museum condemns 'torture and killing of gay men' in Chechnya

The Chechen and Russian governments must investigate claims of persecution of gay men and protect LGBT rights, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has said, as it condemned an alleged campaign of repression reported in Chechnya in recent months.

The museum's director, Sara Bloomfield, said: "The Holocaust teaches us what can happen when state-sponsored, group-targeted violence is allowed to go unchecked. The reports about the targeting of LGBT persons in Chechnya combined with statements from Chechen officials seemingly endorsing violence are cause for great concern."

Reports suggest Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wants to "eliminate" the republic's gay community by the start of Ramadan on 26 May, according to the UK Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan.

"Human rights groups report that these anti-gay campaigns and killings are orchestrated by the head of the Chechen republic, Ramzan Kadyrov," Sir Alan told Parliament.

continued:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/us-holocaust-museum-chechnya-gay-men-torture-killing-lgbt-rights-sara-bloomfield-chechen-leader-a7706931.html

April 27, 2017

In Muslim Indonesia, tiny Jewish community lives on

In a remote corner of the Indonesian archipelago, a modest synagogue stands in a tiny Jewish community that has found acceptance despite rising intolerance in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

The red-roofed building on Sulawesi island is the only synagogue in the nation of 255 million people. Here, unlike other parts of the country, the Jewish community feel safe to practise their faith openly.

"We can wear the kippah (Jewish skullcap) in the mall or anywhere we want, it's not a problem," Yobby Hattie Ensel, a Jewish leader from the nearby city of Manado told AFP.

In Tondano, the "Shaar Hasyamayim" synagogue sits close to several churches and residents of different religions live, work, and worship alongside each other without incident.

http://www.france24.com/en/20170427-muslim-indonesia-tiny-jewish-community-lives?ref=tw_i

April 27, 2017

Tim Farron sacks Lib Dem candidate for 'offensive and antisemitic' remarks

The Liberal Democrats have barred the former Bradford East MP David Ward from standing again for the party, after Tim Farron said his comments about Jews had been “deeply offensive, wrong and antisemitic”.

Ward’s local party had chosen him to stand in Bradford East, the seat he held from 2010 until 2015 when he was ousted by Labour, but after criticism from Theresa May in the House of Commons and a meeting of senior Lib Dem officials, Farron said: “I believe in a politics that is open, tolerant and united. David Ward is unfit to represent the party and I have sacked him.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/26/lib-dems-criticised-over-reselection-of-ex-mp-censured-for-antisemitism

April 26, 2017

US Navy fires warning flare at Iran vessel in Persian Gulf

A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer fired a warning flare toward an Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel coming near it in the Persian Gulf, an American official said on Wednesday, the latest tense naval encounter between the two countries.

The incident happened Monday as the vessel attempted to draw closer to the USS Mahan despite the destroyer trying to turn away from it, said Lt. Ian McConnaughey, a spokesman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

The "Mahan made several attempts to contact the Iranian vessel by bridge-to-bridge radio, issuing warning messages and twice sounding the internationally recognized danger signal of five short blasts with the ship's whistle, as well as deploying a flare to determine the Iranian vessel's intentions," McConnaughey said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The Iranian vessel came within 1,000 meters (1,100 yards) of the Mahan during the incident, the lieutenant said. The vessel later turned and sailed away.

https://apnews.com/b6e586e56f73494db6f0b99117e4982f

April 24, 2017

French Presidential election. How they differ from us.

Are there any rules on how to campaign?

French candidates are allowed to print posters, hold rallies and such, but they're not allowed to run the kind of TV ad campaigns you might see in the US and other countries.

Each candidate is allowed a small number of "statements" during the five-week official campaign period, which have to follow certain rules on editing and time.

What rules do the media have to follow?

The amount of time TV and radio stations dedicate to candidates and the amount of time they get to speak on air is fairly strictly controlled by France's audiovisual council.

What about opinion polls?

As always, it's forbidden to publish, broadcast or comment on any polls concerning voting intentions the day before or the day of the vote.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20170410/official-campaign-begins-for-french-presidential-election

Much more at the link above. I only snipped portions of the article.