Spain’s National High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz ordered on Monday a temporary suspension of his own previous order to ban the social media app Telegram in Spain. Pedraz said that he issued the suspension pending a report from the General Information Commissioner’s Office on the instant messaging platform requesting information about Telegram’s characteristics and the [...]
Search Results for: Cuba and Human rights
Bob Rae, Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, does not shy away from tough questions. Though many in a position such as his might shy away from argument, Rae seems to relish the opportunity to engage in some intellectual sparring. It was in this context that I requested an interview as Canada grapples with multiple [...]
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on Monday accused the US of orchestrating a covert campaign to interfere with the upcoming Russian presidential election, set to take place on Mar. 15-17. The spy agency claims the administration of US President Joe Biden has ordered a group of American NGOs to stifle voter turnout in a bid [...]
Pakistan rejects US State Department inclusion in religious freedom concern list
Pakistan rejected Monday its designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) by the United States State Department over religious freedom concerns in the South Asian country. The US State Department designated Pakistan as a CPC on January 4 following a recommendation from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The Pakistan Ministry of [...]
Special EU envoy says US sanctions are worsening Cuba's human rights crisis
EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore, co-chaired the EU-Cuba human rights dialogue in Cuba, on Thursday. Gilmore stated that the agenda “recognised the impact of the embargo, and called for the release of July ’21 detainees.” He also told reporters that the US sanctions are “hurting the human rights situation” as it is [...]
US military judge at Guantanamo Bay rules that 9/11 defendant 'lacks capacity to stand trial'
A US military judge ruled on Thursday that Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a 9/11 defendant detained in US custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is unfit to stand trial. Military Judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall’s ruling comes after a medical panel found that al-Shibh has PTSD with “Secondary Psychotic Features” resulting from his abuse in Central Intelligence [...]
Meta announces removal of three state-linked fake account networks
Facebook parent company Meta Thursday announced that it took down three state-linked “domestic influence operations” in the past quarter. Each operation used fake account networks to influence domestic politics and target opposition parties. Operations linked to ruling parties and governments in Cuba, Serbia and Bolivia were found by Meta investigators to be engaging in a [...]
New York mayor declares 'no room' for migrants amid high immigration
New York City Mayor Eric Adams Sunday traveled to the US-Mexico border and declared that “there is no room” for migrants in his city. Adams called on the US government to help larger cities manage unprecedented levels of immigration and claimed that the influx of migrants could cost NYC up to $2 billion. “The federal [...]
US State Department report finds China and other countries enabled human trafficking
The US State Department Tuesday released its annual Trafficking in Persons Report which held China and 10 other countries responsible for enabling the practice of human trafficking within their borders. The report surveys and evaluates the trafficking prevention efforts of 188 countries, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken estimated that 25 million people remain [...]
US imposes new restrictions on Cuban officials over alleged involvement in crackdown on protests
The US Department of State Saturday announced visa restrictions on 28 Cuban officials allegedly involved in the violent crackdown on the July 2021 protests. This is the US’s fourth round of visa restrictions on Cuban officials. The US Department of Treasury has also instituted four rounds of financial sanctions against many of the same targets. According [...]