Stories from July, 2015
This Is What Happens When You Give Power to the ‘Chicas’
Chicas Poderosas is a movement that trains women in journalism to help bring more diversity to newsrooms in Latin America.
Watch This Giant Rainbow Mural Transform a Low-Income Mexican Neighborhood
A low-income neighborhood in Mexico was transformed in a giant rainbow by the collective Germen Crew—a youth organization of muralists and street artists formed by 15 graffiti artists, under the direction of...
Preserving Historic Thai Films
The Thai Film Archive has been uploading historic films and vintage news reports on YouTube. One of the films is Chok Song Chun (Double Luck), which is Thailand's first feature...
Palestinian Baby Burned to Death in West Bank Settler Attack
Israeli settlers have torched two homes in Douma, in the Occupied West Bank, leaving one baby dead and three civilians, including one child, severely injured.
Calls to #StopEvictions as Pakistani Authorities Bulldoze Slums
"Hey CDA: The children’s library in #Islamabad has been occupied by a religious seminary 4 yrs. Would you evict those illegal occupants too?"
Court Fines the Taiwan Immigration Authority for the Denied Entry of a Foreign Visitor Ahead Anti-nuclear Protest
Two years ago in March 2013, Daniel Andres Helmdach was detained and deported from Taiwan because the immigration suspected that he visited the country to join the anti-nuclear protest. The...
German Digital Rights Pioneers Investigated for Treason
The last time a German journalist was charged with treason was in 1962, when the editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel was prosecuted for publishing secret documents about the German defense forces.
“Ethiopians Should Not Wait for Obama to Give Them Democracy”
"The united hands of our people are stronger than that of Western world! Let us do that and reign the democracy we are longing for!"
‘Drunk and Half-Naked’ Russian Soldiers Take a Beating in Tajikistan
'We are kindly asking the Kulob police not to prosecute the local lions who defended our honor and culture and fought these Russian drunks.'
Azerbaijan's Political Prisoners, the State and its Secret Society
What is with the rows of passive spectators literally taking up space at the trials of the country's most high-profile political prisoners?
How China's Online Civilization Army Turned a Youth Street Fight into a Patriotic Struggle
"They just pick quarrels and fights all day long. Today vow to execute this and tomorrow execute someone else. Such patriotism is not loving one's country but hating one's country."
Battle of the Hashtags in Lead-up to Trinidad & Tobago's General Elections
The sparring match between Trinidad and Tobago's two main political parties on the eve of the country's general election has been duly hashtagged.
Africans Take Jabs at One Another With #IfAfricaWasABar Hashtag
"If Africa was a bar, what would your country be drinking/doing?," Siyanda- Panda, a writer from Botswana, asked on Twitter.
To Ululate or Not to Ululate for President Obama? Kenyans Are Asking That Question
The art of ululation is very common in African culture. Was a Kenyan TV host who ululated while welcoming Obama being unprofessional?
Iran's University of Kurdistan Opens Department of Kurdish Language and Literature for the First Time
Bakhtiar Sajjadi, the new chair of the department, announced last week that 40 students have been accepted to start their studies this October.
Ostula and Mexican Army Hold to Clashing Versions of Recent Attack
In Mexico, the independent investigation agency SubVersiones has published a compilation video that chronologically shows what events that took place on July 19, 2015, in the indigenous Nahua community of Santa María de Ostula. That day ended...
Russian Censors Threaten to Shut Down Business Website for Writing About Bitcoin
Officials today told a Russian business-news website that it must delete or edit within the next three days an article it published about bitcoins.
Russia to Web Anonymizers: Shut Up and Go Away
Russian censors are now officially adding anonymizing websites to their blacklist registry, on the grounds they enable access to extremist content that is already blocked in Russia.
#HackingTeam Leaks: Lebanon’s Cybercrime Bureau Exploited Angry Birds to Surveil Citizens’ Mobile Devices
Lebanon's Cybercrime Bureau seems to be conducting surveillance outside the boundaries of local law — and using Hacking Team software to do it.
Destroying a Mountain: Mexican President Orders Expropriation of Native Lands for Freeway Project
A presidential decree was enough to expropriate almost 100 acres of land from the indigenous Otomi community for the construction of a new highway.
Conspiracy Theory Blaming China's Stock Market Plunge on Foreign Forces Finds Online Support
Lin Zuoming, chairman of a state-owned aerospace and defense company called China Aviation Industry Corp., echoed the theory of foreign manipulation "aimed at breaking people’s faith in government."
