What's happening around the world? - October 14, 2021
In retaliation to Judge Tarek Bitar’s decision regarding MP Ali Hassan Khalil, Hezbollah and Amal movements’ followers took to the streets to protest this decision accusing him of political bias. As protesters marched towards the Beirut Palace of Justice bursts of gunfire occurred on the way from a nearby neighborhood, Tayouneh. Though the identities and affiliations of the shooters were not immediately clear, the violent clashes that then took place were among Lebanese rival factions. At least 6 people died and over 30 wounded according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
Project Nimbus is a $1.2bn contract to provide cloud services for the Israeli military and government which allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians and facilitates expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
Google and Amazon employees of conscience, from diverse backgrounds, condemn Amazon and Google’s decision to contract this project and ask them to pull out of it and cut all ties with the Israeli military. So far, more than 90 workers at Google and more than 300 at Amazon have signed this letter internally, remaining anonymous because they fear retaliation.
Google and Amazon have aggressively pursued contracts that are part of a disturbing pattern of militarization, lack of transparency, and avoidance of oversight with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), and state and local police departments.
Ethiopian government forces have launched a renewed assault to recapture the rebellious northern region of Tigray, raising fears of a more devastating humanitarian crisis in a region that is already in the grip of famine after a nearly yearlong conflict in which thousands of people have been killed. Ethiopian ground troops, backed by regional militia from the Amhara region, launched coordinated attacks from multiple fronts along Tigray’s southern border, government and rebel officials said (Oct 12) – shattering a ceasefire that Ethiopia’s government declared in June 2021.
A trial of four Egyptian security officials charged with the kidnapping, torture and killing of Italian student Giulio Regeni opened today (October 14th 2021), the first time Egyptian officials have been prosecuted abroad for crimes that human rights groups say have been committed on a large scale in the north African country in recent years.
The four are being tried in absentia and are represented in Italy by court-appointed lawyers.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Warsaw and other Polish cities on October 10th to oppose a court ruling that European Union legal judgments have become incompatible with the Polish constitution, a decision protesters fear could prompt Poland to follow the U.K. out of the bloc.
The deaths of eight people during a farmers’ protest in northern India have sparked days of demonstrations around the country and deepened anger against an overhaul of the country’s agricultural laws.
In a country where two-thirds of the population lives in rural areas dependent on farming, the protests are presenting a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for market-oriented changes.
Mexican authorities detained 652 migrants, including some 350 children, traveling in three refrigerated double-trailer trucks near the U.S. southern border, officials said on October 8th.
The majority of the children were unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Most of the migrants were from Guatemala.
A friendly reminder: We've done our research, but you should too! Check our sources against your own, and always exercise sound judgment.
Sources:
Al Jazeera:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/14/gunfire-kills-several-people-near-beirut-protest-live-news
The Guardian:
The Wall Street Journal:
