Some (mostly) human rights links [Note: Content Warning - reader discretion is advised!] and thoughts - Saturday 8th January, 2022

Some human rights (including significant, relevant links in other fields - such as geopolitics, democracy, or authoritarianism) links: 

• an assessment of how various nations/blocs have been approaching the topic of human rights in cyberspace - and some thoughts on transhumanism and human rights; 
• Canada has shown decency towards women and LGBTIQ+ refugees from Afghanistan; 
• Senegal has decided to leave its anti-LGBTIQ+ hate at the current level;
  
• as an example of the harm done by the Newtonian worldview of right wingers, this article shows that Japan and North Korea normalising relations (based on Japan apologising and North Korea returning abductees) in around 2014 was stopped by right wingers in Japan - much as "hawks" several times stopped a formal peace treaty on the Korean peninsula after the active phase of the still-continuing Korean War; 
• another example of the harm done by right wingers is this - the securitisation mindset that the evil  John  Howard introduced; 
• in a rare joint statement, more commitments against nuclear weapons by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council . . . which China has within days tried to undermine; 
  
• Iran is threatening retaliation against #45 and others over the killing two years ago of one its military leaders by the USA unless there is a "fair" international trial
  (a "fair" trial is likely impossible - for a start, any insistence on sharia law, for instance would be unacceptable: the ICC is the only "fair" international venue for trial of individuals, but the USA will not give up one of it's own for any international trial.
  Any retaliation by Iran, however, is unlikely to involve missiles as their current material suggests [they don't have the range/orbital capacity, although that may change eventually, and I doubt North Korea would want the risk of allowing Iran to use its locale/submarines and missiles - apart from the certainty of a US response, it would anger China, which North Korea still depends on for many of its survival needs],
  but might involve a "dirty" bomb [they have expertise at violent extremism [terrorism] and some nuclear materials] against US interests, but unlikely on continental US territory or Hawaii. If that is so, I hope those in possible target areas will be properly protected [travel warnings etc may be issued], and that the international community effectively manages the situation with Iran [which might require an attack of rationality - or at least management of its RWNJ "hawks" on the part of the USA].
  Subsequent drone attacks also raise the possibility of less severe responses);
  
• "On International Treaties, the United States Refuses to Play Ball" - because it hypocritically expects other nations to give up a little of their national sovereignty for the greater good, but continues its elitist refusal to do so itself (which is shooting itself in the foot again, much as it did during part of the Cold War);
• the USA has "excluded Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from a US-Africa trade agreement" over human rights breaches; 
• also from the USA, "one year after the violent assault on the US Capitol, Americans remain deeply concerned about the health of their democracy and about a third say violence against the government can sometimes be justified"; 
• "the recent rise in coups in Africa reflects a waning regional and international willingness to enforce anti-coup norms. Reversing the trend requires incentivising democracy and consistently imposing real costs on coup makers";  
• the recent resignation of Sudan's civilian PM has been attributed to the military coup leaders reneging on an agreement; 
  
• an opposition MP in Tunisia, currently experiencing a suppression of democracy that has been likened to a coup, has been kidnapped; 
• US President Joe Biden has spoken powerfully in support of democracy and against #45 on the anniversary of #45's attempted insurrection; 
• criticism of Australia's "leaders" for following the mob instead of constructive, positive leadership;
  
• a state of emergency has been declared in Kazakhstan over violent, fatal  protests  against rising fuel prices - and Russian and other troops have arrived;
  
• the CCP has successfully used intimidation and fear to close another news outlet in Hong Kong, in its continuing campaign to silence dissent - and Western businesses continue to be cowards on China's human rights abuses; 
• the European Union's border agency has claimed a legal action against it is inadmissible - without addressing the serious allegations made - and sought costs against activists, continuing a practice which saw the European Parliament decide "not to discharge the agency's 2019 budget, the European Parliament highlighted that "charging civil society with excessively high legal fees has a chilling effect on civil society's access to justice in the field of access to documents" "; 
• concerns about an "anti-woke" backlash in Europe;
  
• Ethiopia is abusing Tigrayan refugees who have been returned from other nations; 
• South Africa's President (and government generally) is facing a challenge to properly address "damning" findings by a state commission of inquiry into corruption; 
  
• Nigeria - currently struggling against violent extremists and criminals - is missing nearly 90,000 AK47s (!);
  
• a soldier in the German army has been arrested for allegedly threatening the government over pandemic containment measures;  
• more reports on Afghan families being forced to sell children;  
• an example of the damage done by child sexual abuse;
  
• an award shows the growing awareness in Portugal of racism; 
• the "alleged creator of app ‘selling’ Muslim women [has been] arrested in India"; 
• three murderers of a black man in the USA have been sentenced to life in prison - two without parole. The judge's remarks were powerful, and included a comment to the families that sentencing doesn't always heal, and should be seen as an exercise in accountability;
  
• an encouraging report on those white people who reject racism despite being raised in the midst of white supremacism - because of empathy, strength of character, being outsiders in other ways, being touched by a story, or relationships;
  
• "There Can Be No Masters at The Table of Human Rights . . . Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights”"; 
• the "human rights of elderly and disabled people [are] ‘not fairweather luxuries’";
  
• anti-union arrests in Cambodia may be in breach of human rights laws; 
  
• short-sighted bias in rejecting applications for academic grants; 
  
• "the BMI's really old, non-medical and racist origins"; 
  
• the COVID crisis is continuing, in many forms.
  

 On journalism: 

• recent reports that NASA had hired a bunch of theologians were wrong.