Stories about English from August, 2019
Remembering the '88 uprising’ for democracy in Myanmar
"Government newspapers said over 300 died in the crackdown but independent sources estimated that the actual figure was ten times that."
Dubious CIA plot theory by former Yugoslav army colonel finds a platform in Serbian media
“Fake news, fake media, fake journalists, fake analysts – they have flooded the Serbian media space.”
Travel: An extreme sport for Africans
It’s difficult for Africans to travel outside Africa — but it’s equally grim to travel within the continent.
Two universities sign historic agreement on slavery reparations in the Caribbean
The agreement marks the first time that a British institution has apologised for the profits it made from slavery and attaches both money and resources to help make amends.
In Ethiopia, disinformation spreads through Facebook live as political tensions rise
Online conspiracy theories, political rants and rumors laced with communal hatred are now common genres in Ethiopian social media.
China’s hunger for minerals stirs resistance in rural Thailand
Chinese efforts to obtain a cheap source of a crop-boosting mineral are raising fears of an environmental crisis among farming communities in Thailand.
Nigerian creatives bid farewell to Toni Morrison, who wrote race into American consciousness
"The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being." — Toni Morrison
Indian government abolishes Kashmir's special status, announces bifurcation
"It's basically like England walking into Scotland with troops and getting rid of the Scottish Parliament and arresting all the Scottish nationalists. This is just not acceptable."
Security forces in Guinea now have the right to use deadly force
Human rights and opposition groups fear the law could be used to grant impunity and target dissent ahead of 2020 elections when President Alpha Condé will seek a third term.
Witch-hunting still claims lives in rural India
Witch-hunting is a practice that still exists in some parts of India where people, mostly women, are branded witches and treated inhumanly often leading to mob-lynching.
A Hong Kong artist’s ‘surreal’ depiction of the anti-extradition protests
In addition to the Lennon Wall, the artist's work has likened the protesters to superheroes, compared protest power to Dragon Ball Z, and depicted the protesters fighting against Gozilla.
Netflix's ‘The Great Hack’ highlights Cambridge Analytica's role in Trinidad & Tobago elections
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie may visit Trinidad and Tobago to talk to a parliamentary Joint Select Committee about campaign election interference — and who hired and paid the company.
Hong Kong anti-extradition protests accelerate into a movement against Beijing-backed police authorities
More evidence is starting to emerge that the Hong Kong police force worked in cooperation with the Triad, an organized crime unit, during the Yuen Long mob attack on July 21, 2019.
Hashtag campaign against Pakistani religious minority group during PM Khan's US visit
An online hate campaign targeting the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan started after an 82-year-old Ahmadiyya Abdul Shakoor shared his community's ordeal in a meeting with US President Trump.
Cannabis advocates petition Trinidad & Tobago parliament to enact existing medical marijuana legislation
Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Health has never exercised its power to issue cannabis licences "for medicinal or scientific purposes”; supporters of marijuana legalisation think it's long overdue.
‘I am a Hongkonger’: Artist Ai Weiwei on why he supports the city’s protest movement
'Freedom of expression is the most important weapon to combat authoritarianism. Authoritarians simply have no imagination, and without that, they have no future.'
It's Emancipation Day in Trinidad & Tobago — but is the country free?
"This emancipation embrace the fullness and richness of who you are, where you came from, the blood and history that's in your veins."
Trinidad and Tobago prime minister refuses to impeach embattled chief justice
"The conclusion I have reached in all the circumstances is that [there is] an insufficient basis, in fact, to warrant [...] that the chief justice's removal ought to be investigated."