News in Brief

Date: 14 October 2022 - 21:26

News ID: ۱۰۷۷۸۱

LONDON (Middle East Eyes)- Academics, students and activists have been facing repression in Canada, including harassment, intimidation and reprisals for their pro-Palestinian views, a new 106-page report by Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) shows. “When it comes to Palestinian human rights, too often academic freedom and freedom of expression are undermined,” the report states, “and with them the possibility of finding just solutions to intractable problems.” The report, “Unveiling the Chilly Climate - The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada”, is thought to be the first detailed examination of the experiences of faculty and students who criticize Zionists’ policies toward Palestine. It examined Palestinians who are actively attempting to change these policies by both their support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and their opposition to the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

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LOKOJA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Widespread flooding has killed more than 500 people in Nigeria, left around 90,000 homes under water and blocked food and fuel supplies, two government ministries said on Friday. The floods have hit 27 of Nigeria’s 36 states and impacted around 1.4 million people, the ministries for humanitarian affairs and for disaster management said in an online posting. Nigerian authorities said flooding caused by heavier than usual rains had been building since early summer and intensified after water releases from the Lagdo dam in neighboring Cameroon.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) – Elon Musk said Friday his company SpaceX wouldn’t be able to fund the Starlink satellite internet network over Ukraine indefinitely, amid reports he had asked the U.S. military to cover the costs. The move comes as Musk has been embroiled in public spats with Ukranian leaders who were angered by his controversial proposals for de-escalating the conflict, which included acknowledging Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Starlink, a constellation of over 3,000 small satellites in low Earth orbit, has been vital to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, with SpaceX donating some 25,000 ground terminals, according to an updated figure given by Musk last week.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol voted on Thursday to subpoena Donald Trump, an action that could eventually result in the former president’s imprisonment if he does not comply. The House select committee’s seven Democratic and two Republican members voted 9-0 in favor of issuing a subpoena for Trump to provide documents and testimony under oath in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. The vote came after the committee spent more than two hours making its case – via statements from members, documents, and recorded testimony – that Trump planned to deny his 2020 election defeat in advance, failed to call off the thousands of supporters who stormed the Capitol, and followed through with his false claims the election was stolen even as close advisers told him he had lost.

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LONDON (AP) — Climate protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s National Gallery on Friday to protest fossil fuel extraction, but caused no discernible damage to the glass-covered painting. The group Just Stop Oil, which wants the British government to halt new oil and gas projects, said activists dumped two cans of tomato soup over the oil painting, one of the Dutch artist’s most iconic works. The two protesters also glued themselves to the gallery wall. The soup splashed across the glass covering the painting and its gilded frame. The gallery said “there is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed.” The work is one of several versions of “Sunflowers” that Van Gogh painted in the late 1880s.