Floods in Nepal in 2019

As many as four million people in the Indian state of Assam and neighbouring Nepal have been displaced by severe flooding and at least 189 people have been killed.

Heavy rainfall over the past week caused riverbeds to burst, triggering mudslides and pushing at least 27,000 people into relief camps. The floods have further submerged cropland and villages.

The mayor of Portland was one of several voices who demanded US President Donald Trump removed federal agents from the city, after videos emerged of camouflaged federal law enforcement officers detaining protestors in unmarked vans, seemingly without cause.

Thousands of Bulgarians continue to gather in the capital, Sofia, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister, Boyko Borissov, upon allegations of high-level corruption.

Thousands in Thailand joined in a student-led protest pushing for the government’s resignation, defying a government ban on large gatherings due to Covid-19 concerns.

This demonstration, with an estimated total of 2,500 protestors gathered on Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, has become one of the largest street demonstrations since a 2014 military coup.

Former Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, defended Kashmiris’ to self-determination during the 15^th EU-India Summit and accused Europe of holding a “double standard”.

Puigdemont, who is also a member of the European Parliament, told The News that human rights could not be defined without the fundamental principles of a right to self-determination. He maintains that democracy forms the basis of human rights and that this was a cornerstone of self-determination.

Responding to the United State’s condemnation of China’s new security laws, China has condemned the “gangster logic” of US President Donald J Trump.

Beijing’s Liaison Office stated on the matter:

“Unreasonable meddling and shameless threats by the United States are typical gangster logic and bullying behaviour,”

They further warned that any move to end Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law, as Trump had ordered, would threaten US interests whilst having limited impact on Hong Kong.

Israel is reported to have compiled a classified list of officials who could possibly be charged with war crimes in Palestine by the International Criminal Court.

The list has been described by the Israeli daily Haaretz as containing the names of 200 to 300 officials from the military and intelligence services, also including Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister, Benny Gantz. The government has warned the enlisted officials not to travel in fear of arrest.

Following a call by Iran’s Supreme Court to uphold the death sentence for three anti-government protesters, Iran’s security forces have cracked down on dissidents gathered in Behbahan.

Iran’s Supreme Court has since stated that they may halt the executions and in effect reverse, the decision reached on Tuesday due to the international outcry. However, the security forces have been seen to use tear gas to disperse protesters on Thursday and have arrested activists in Behbahan.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet’s, has called for accountability for deaths which could number over 25,000, caused by the Philippine government’s, “Double Barrel” campaign which ran from 1 July 2016 to the 31 January 2020.

The UN Human Rights office has also linked this campaign to the deaths of 73 children, one of which was as young as five months old.

Writing for the Guardian, Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Bosnian genocide in which over 7,000 Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered and more than 35,000 were forcibly displaced.

In his statement, he remarked upon his ten-year service as chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where they made a clear judgement that genocide was committed.