Inner Asia
jewdriver

Jew driver

China is denying claims aired by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that up to a million Muslim Uighurs have been detained in "re-education camps" in Xinjiang region. But Beijing appears to be imposing harsh surveillance and restrictions on freedom of worship on Muslims throughout China, even requiring those making the pilgrimage to Mecca to be fitted with GPS tracking devices. Yet such methods almost always prove counter-productive, leading to resentment that only fuels the unrest that Chinese authorities are responding to. This week saw mass protests in Weizhou, Ningxia province, after authorities attempted to demolish a newly built mosque which they said had not received construction permits. After days of protest, authorities backed down and agreed to postpone the demolition. (Photo of protest at Weizhou Grand Mosque from Weibo via BBC News)

Africa

Obama brother busted for ganja in Nairobi

George Obama, half-brother of President Barack Obama, was arrested for possession of one joint in Nairobi on Friday. He is denying the charge against him. Kenya has some of the world’s harshest marijuana laws.

North America

Obama and Lincoln: our readers write

In the inevitable Lincoln-Obama analogy, it is largely forgotten that Lincoln was only pushed to emancipation by the Civil War. Will Obama similarly be radicalized in office by historical circumstance?

The Andes

Venezuela: gunmen ransack Caracas synagogue

A group of 15 gunmen took over the oldest synagogue in Caracas Friday night, ransacking the sanctuary, desecrating Torahs and spray-painting walls with anti-Semitic slogans.

Europe

Swiss police clash with Davos protesters

Swiss police clashed with protesters against the World Economic Forum, firing tear gas and arresting 60 in Geneva after officers equipped with a water cannon blocked the planned route of the march.

The Amazon

Brazil: illegal miners murder Amazon indigenous leader

Illegal gold-miners shot dead a Yekuana indigenous leader and injured his son last week in the Brazilian state of Roraima. The two men had refused to take the miners up dangerous rapids into Yanomami country.

Mexico
amazon3 2

Human banner at World Social Forum

Turkey's TRT World runs a report recalling the Chontal Maya blockades of the Pemex oil installations in Mexico's southern state of Tabasco in 1996, to protest the pollution of their lands and waters. This is a struggle that is still being waged today by the Chontal of Tabasco, but back in 1996 the figurehead of the movement was Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO)—now Mexico's left-populist president-elect. The report asks if AMLO as president will remain true to the indigenous struggle that first put him on Mexico's political map. In a segment exploring this question, TRT World speaks with Melissa Ortiz Massó of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and CounterVortex editor Bill Weinberg. 

The Amazon
amazon3 0

Huan banner at SWF

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador issued a long-awaited ruling in favor of those affected by the transnational oil company Chevron, which operated through its subsidiary Texaco in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990. Chevron will now have to pay $9.5 billion for the repair and remediation of social and environmental damage that, according to audits and expert reports, were a result of oil company operations in the Amazonian provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana. The court found that Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic oil waste on indigenous lands in the Amazon rainforest. (Photo via Mongabay)