Nagasaki decided not to invite Cohen to mark this year‘s 79th anniversary of the bombing, citing security reasons to avoid possible protests.
That decision prompted the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and the European Union, among others, to skip the ceremony and send lower-level officials instead.
Journalists and critics of the „global pariah“ shared photos and videos of people filing out of the hall before Netanyahu‘s address—which came just a day after 25 anti-genocide protesters were arrested for blocking his motorcade in Manhattan.
While there was some audience applause from the sparsely populated room on Friday, Al Jazeera Arabic‘s Rami Ayari explained that „the people you hear cheering the PM during the speech are in the gallery who he brought for that purpose.“
Benjamin Netanyahu‘s highly anticipated speech at the UN, during which he repeatedly denounced the global organization as anti-Israel, was met with jeers by some delegates who walked out, but cheers and applause from his backers.
(06.04.2024)
Wegen ihrer Unterschrift unter eine Solidaritätserklärung mit Palästina ist die US-Philosophin Nancy Fraser eine Gastprofessur los. Die Universität zu Köln teilte am Freitag mit, alle Veranstaltungen der Albertus-Magnus-Professur 2024 abzusagen. Fraser habe im November 2023 den offenen Brief »Philosophy for Palestine« unterzeichnet, in dem »das Existenzrecht Israels als ›ethno-suprematistischer Staat‹ seit seiner Gründung 1948 faktisch in Frage gestellt« und der Terrorangriff palästinensischer Militanter vom 7. Oktober 2023 »relativiert« werde.
Under these circumstances, this Declaration calls not only for the denunciation of Israel’s genocidal assault but also for taking effective action to permanently prevent its repetition. We come together due to the urgency of the moment, which obliges global intellectuals to stand against the ongoing horrific ordeal of the Palestinian people and, most of all, to implore action by those who have the power, and hence the responsibility, to do so. Israel’s continuing rejection of a permanent ceasefire intensifies our concerns.
Many weeks of cruel devastation caused by Israel’s grossly disproportionate response to the October 7 attack, continues to exhibit Israel’s vengeful fury. That fury can in no way be excused by the horrendous violence of Hamas against civilians in Israel or inapplicable claims of self-defense against an occupied population.
(…)
In addition, Israel has been greenlighting settler-led violence and escalating ethnic cleansing efforts in the West Bank. Given these developments we urge national governments to embargo and halt all shipments of weapons to Israel, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, which should also withdraw their provocative naval presences from the Eastern Mediterranean; we urge the UN Security Council and General Assembly to so decree without delay.
Ntshavheni said the position of Israel’s ambassador to South Africa, Eliav Belotserkovsky, “is becoming very untenable”, after Cabinet noted his continued “disparaging remarks… about those who are opposing the atrocities and the genocide of the Israeli government”.
“This is despite the condemnation of the previous ambassadors of Israel to South Africa, who were clear that the acts of the Israeli government are a repeat of apartheid and no different to the apartheid antics,” she said.
South Africa’s government has recalled Monday its ambassador and diplomatic mission to Israel in condemnation of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, calling it a “genocide.”
The government also threatened action against the Israeli ambassador to South Africa over his recent remarks on the African country’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war. No further details were given about the remarks.
Palestinian ally Turkey had been mending torn relations with Israel until last month‘s start of the Israel-Hamas war.
But its tone hardened against both Israel and its Western supporters — particularly the United States — as the fighting escalated and the death toll among Palestinian civilians soared.
(November 3, 2023)
Bolivia’s government severed diplomatic relations with Israel on Tuesday, accusing it of carrying out “crimes against humanity” in Gaza. Chile and Colombia also recalled their own ambassadors to Israel as they criticized the Israeli offensive against Hamas militants.
(November 2, 2023)
The statement from the government in Manama made no mention of cutting economic relations, although it did say that flights between the two countries were temporarily suspended.
Chile, Colombia and Jordan announced Wednesday that they are recalling their respective ambassadors to Israel for consultations over Israel‘s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. These decisions come one day after the Bolivian government announced it was severing diplomatic ties with Israel, making it the first country to take such a step since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 Israelis.
Mustafa Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative Party (PNI), has said that the attack on al-Ahli Arab hospital should make Arab countries rethink normalisations with Israel, which have been brokered by the US.
“I think it is absolutely shameful for any Arab government now to have an Israeli ambassador in their country,” said Barghouti, who co-founded the PNI as an alternative to the dominant Fatah and Hamas Palestinian political parties. “All the acts of normalization between Arab governments and Israel must be eliminated and canceled. This is the least they can do.”
“But also they should tell the United States that enough is enough,” he added.
Sogavare‘s no-show at the two-day summit, which will run through Tuesday, represents a significant blow to the Biden administration‘s efforts to rebuild influence in the Pacific region.
(19.09.2023)
The bill could empower the government to undermine not just the privacy and security of U.K. residents, but internet users worldwide.
A clause of the bill allows Ofcom, the British telecom regulator, to serve a notice requiring tech companies to scan their users–all of them–for child abuse content.This would affect even messages and files that are end-to-end encrypted to protect user privacy. As enacted, the OSB allows the government to force companies to build technology that can scan regardless of encryption–in other words, build a backdoor.
Das rund sechs Jahre lang verhandelte Gesetz ist inzwischen auf gut 300 Seiten angewachsen und trifft nicht nur große Online-Dienste wie Facebook oder Google. Schätzungen der konservativen Regierung zufolge sind rund 20.000 kleinere und nicht-kommerzielle Anbieter wie die Wikipedia betroffen. Viele davon machen sind nun Sorgen, ob sie die Vorgaben überhaupt umsetzen können, für manche kommt sogar ein Rückzug aus dem Internet für britische Nutzer:innen in Frage.
(01.09.2023)
„You know, the long-standing technical consensus, and this goes back before the 90s, but really flared up in the 90s during the first iteration of what we call the crypto wars, where you had the US government wanting backdoors into encryption algorithms. And the vast majority, I would say, of the technical community showing over and over again that technologically, you cannot have it both ways. You cannot have a backdoor that only the good guys can access. Either it’s broken for everyone, or it works to preserve meaningful privacy.“
The divisions were already expected to be on vivid display this week, as a group of left-wing Democrats plans to boycott an address to a joint session of Congress by President Isaac Herzog of Israel in protest of Israel’s policies, and in the wake of President Biden’s invitation on Monday for Mr. Netanyahu to visit the United States.
But they have escalated in the run-up to Mr. Herzog’s arrival and following Ms. Jayapal’s comment. The top four House Democratic leaders rushed on Sunday to issue a public statement declaring that “Israel is not a racist state.”
US Reps. Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have all made statements confirming they will not be attending Herzog’s speech.
Lucy Crompton-Reid, the chief executive of Wikimedia UK, said it was “definitely possible that one of the most visited websites in the world – and a vital source of freely accessible knowledge and information for millions of people – won’t be accessible to UK readers (let alone UK-based contributors)”.
Lucy Crompton-Reid, chief executive of Wikimedia UK, warned the text of the bill could compel the website to introduce age verification.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which supports the free encyclopaedia, said it would refuse to verify the age of UK readers.
Failure to properly comply with the Online Safety Bill could create a situation where the site is fined, or even blocked for UK users entirely.
(April 25, 2023)
WhatsApp and Signal, two of the largest privacy-focused messaging apps, have joined forces to petition against the United Kingdom’s proposed Online Safety Bill due to privacy concerns. They are accompanied in this effort by several other smaller privacy apps, such as Viber and Wire, who have signed on to an open letter directed to UK legislators.
(19.04.2023)
Mr Hodgson, of UK company Element, called the proposals a „spectacular violation of privacy… equivalent to putting a CCTV camera in everyone‘s bedroom“.
Mr Cathcart has told BBC News WhatsApp would rather be blocked in the UK than weaken the privacy of encrypted messaging.
Ms Whittaker has said the same – Signal „would absolutely, 100% walk“ should encryption be undermined.
(18.04.2023)
Es könne kein „britisches Internet“ oder eine Version der Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung geben, die speziell auf das Vereinigte Königreich zugeschnitten ist. Die britische Regierung müsse das Gesetz deswegen dringend überarbeiten.
Der offene Brief enthält keine Ankündigung, was die Messenger machen würden, sollte die britische Regierung den Forderungen nicht nachkommen. In der Vergangenheit hatten aber einzelne Messenger-Anbieter aufgezeigt, in welche Richtung ihre Reaktion gehen würde. So will Threema es auf einen Rausschmiss ankommen lassen, und WhatsApp hatte einen Rückzug aus Großbritannien ins Spiel gebracht.
(24.02.2023)
Critics say companies could be required by Ofcom to scan messages on encrypted apps for child sexual abuse material or terrorism content under the new law.
This has worried firms whose business is enabling private, secure communication.
Element, a UK company whose customers include the Ministry of Defence, told the BBC the plan would cost it clients.
Der Messenger Threema beteiligt sich nicht am von WhatsApp und Signal angekündigten „Walk-Out“ aus Großbritannien wegen des geplanten Überwachungsgesetzes. Den Anforderungen des „Online Safety Bills“ wird das Schweizer Unternehmen allerdings auch nicht nachkommen.
WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app in the world, with more than 2 billion users, including around 40 million in the UK.
(10.12.2022)
WhatsApp is threatened with a shut down in Britain as ministers press ahead with plans to require easier access to messages for police and MI5, the messaging app has warned.
Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, told The Telegraph he was prepared to see the app blocked for British smartphone users rather than weaken its security.
Großbritannien plant unabhängig von der EU ein ähnliches Gesetz wie die Chatkontrolle. Sollte der jetzige Entwurf mit seinen Bestimmungen durchkommen, erwägt der weltweit größte Messenger einen Rückzug von der Insel.
Die Atommächte boykottieren die UNO-Konferenz.
(07.03.2022)
Many analysts attribute Pakistan’s “neutrality” in the Ukrainian crisis to the country’s growing military and economic dependence on China, which is an ally of Russia. Beijing has refused to refer to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as an “invasion” and blamed the US and West for precipitating the crisis.
„Today I am announcing the United States is targeting the main artery of Russia‘s economy. We‘re banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy,“ Biden said in remarks from the White House. „That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin‘s war machine.“
#NoVaccinePassports #NoGreenPass #NoAlPaseSanitario #NonAuPassVaccinal #NaoAoPassaporteSanitario #NeinzurImpfpflicht #Freedomrally #onverdeeldopen
Der Atomwaffenverbotsvertrag ist seit dem 22. Januar 2021 gültiges Völkerrecht, doch die deutsche Bundesregierung und die anderen Nato-Staaten boykottieren dieses wichtige Abkommen.