dissent

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Bad News for Dissidents in Hong Kong
Bad News for
Dissidents in
Hong Kong
Mar 19, 2024 11:00 AM CDT

Bad News for Dissidents in Hong Kong

New law gives government sweeping powers to stifle dissent

(Newser) - Hong Kong lawmakers unanimously approved a new national security law Tuesday that grants the government more power to quash dissent, reports the AP , widely seen as the latest step in a sweeping political crackdown triggered by pro-democracy protests in 2019. The Safeguarding National Security Bill will expand the authorities' ability...

WiFi Network Name Lands Moscow Student in Jail

Officers confiscate router after a search

(Newser) - The Russian government's intolerance of dissent over its invasion of Ukraine has reached into a college dorm room. A Moscow State University student has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for giving his WiFi network the name "Slava Ukraini," which means "Glory to Ukraine."...

Hong Kong Introduces Harsh 'National Security' Bill

Some residents could face life sentences under law seen as crackdown on dissent

(Newser) - Hong Kong unveiled a proposed law on Friday that threatens life imprisonment for residents who "endanger national security," deepening worries about erosion of the city's freedoms four years after Beijing imposed a similar law that all but wiped out public dissent. More, from the AP :
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Nicaragua Raids Church Residence, Arresting Bishop

Police knock down door at 3am, taking other priests and seminarians to prison

(Newser) - Nicaraguan riot police raided a Roman Catholic diocese's headquarters at 3am Friday, knocking the door down and taking a bishop and several priests and seminarians into custody. The raid was on the residence of Bishop Rolando Álvarez in the northern city of Matagalpa, the Wall Street Journal reports....

Small Gestures Honor Tiananmen Victims
Small Gestures Honor
Tiananmen Victims
photos
Jun 4, 2022 1:00 PM CDT

Small Gestures Honor Tiananmen Victims

Police block displays in Hong Kong, but vigils take place elsewhere in the world

(Newser) - Heavy police force patrolled Hong Kong's Victoria Park on Saturday after authorities for a third consecutive year banned public commemoration of the anniversary of the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, with vigils overseas the only place marking the event. For decades, the AP reports, Hong Kong and nearby...

Russian Student Detained for Sign That Read: *** *****

'Even seemingly benign actions have led to arrests,' reports the AP

(Newser) - A Russian shopper looking for the price of a grocery item might instead learn about the Russian bombing of a Ukrainian school. As NPR reports, an artist in St. Petersburg is among several people facing penalty in Russia for swapping price tags with anti-war messages. A district court ruled this...

1K State Department Officials Sign Dissent Memo

Spicer says they should 'get with the program' or go

(Newser) - President Trump's refugee and visa ban "runs counter to American values" and "will hurt America economically," according to a dissent memo signed by an unprecedented number of State Department officials. More than 1,000 officials, including American diplomats all over the world, had signed the cable...

Money Clash Divides Occupy Protesters

'I've seen this coming for a while': protester

(Newser) - Occupy Wall Street seems to have its own 1%: Over the past few days, a fracture has opened between leaders of the movement who control its cash and tent-dwellers who are feeling rather frosty and forgotten, MSNBC reports. The divide led to yelling and jockeying at a general assembly meeting...

UC Muslims Appealing Free-Speech Conviction

They got fines, community service for disrupting speech by Israeli ambassador

(Newser) - Ten Muslim students are appealing a conviction for disrupting a speech by an Israeli ambassador presented at a Unversity of California campus. The controversial case is seen as a test of the right to dissent. The students last year shouted out preplanned phrases to interfere with the ambassdor's speech...

China Bans Ai Weiwei From Media, Internet

Rights activists criticize Beijing's conditions for release

(Newser) - Chinese artist and provocateur Ai Weiwei may be out of jail , but that hardly means he's out of trouble, as authorities have banned Ai from traveling or talking publicly for a year, reports Reuters . It's effectively a gag on the talkative and media-savvy artist. "The key thing...

China Detains 169 for Praying in Public

Protestant group latest target of government clampdown

(Newser) - China’s weeks-long campaign against dissenters continues: Some 169 congregants of an unofficial Protestant church were detained yesterday after they tried to pray in public in Beijing, the New York Times reports. The thousand-member Shouwang church, which has for years sought official recognition, had been evicted from its rented space...

Iraq War Critic to Serve Final Tour in Iraq

Jon Soltz of VoteVets will see the end of the war he despised

(Newser) - Jon Soltz, the outspoken Iraq war critic who runs VoteVets.org, will soon take a year-long leave of absence from the group—so he can be deployed to Iraq. “I'm not an idiot. I've known the possibilities of this for a long time,” Soltz, a longtime Army Reserve...

US Ambassador Disagrees on Afghan Troop Surge

Wants Karzai government to shape up first

(Newser) - The US ambassador to Afghanistan—a former general who served there as recently as 2007—is against increasing troop levels until the Afghan government gets its act together. In classified cables ahead of President Obama’s deliberations on a surge, Karl Eikenberry cites rampant corruption and mismanagement in Hamid Karzai’...

Palin Channels Ahmadinejad
 Palin Channels Ahmadinejad 
OPINION
Aug 3, 2009 9:13 AM CDT

Palin Channels Ahmadinejad

Her self-presentation, politics, and biography are like his

(Newser) - Sarah Palin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have their differences—but their images, politics, and even life stories show significant overlap, writes Juan Cole for Salon. Both are former governors of “frontier states,” both drum up support through “wounded nationalism,” and both battle foreign influence. “Above all,...

At 89, Influential Justice Stevens Isn't Budging

Oldest Supreme is vindicated as dissents become majorities

(Newser) - John Paul Stevens turned 89 last week, and the senior associate justice of the Supreme Court has lived to see many of his dissenting opinions eventually become the majority during his 33 years on the court. Stevens—who has given no indications of impending retirement—has led a number of...

French Mock Sarkozy by Reading Book He Hates

La Princesse de Cleves gets a boost of unexpected popularity as a protest symbol

(Newser) - France is in the grip of a nationwide strike, but dissatisfaction with Nicolas Sarkozy’s reforms is also taking a more cultured form: the reading of a classic 17th-century book the president has said he hates. The book has become an odd symbol of dissent. Sales are climbing as Sarko’...

Palin Swings Hard, Lacks Follow-Through
 Palin Swings Hard, 
 Lacks Follow-Through 
ANALYSIS
Sep 8, 2008 11:46 AM CDT

Palin Swings Hard, Lacks Follow-Through

Record shows her taking bold stances, shying away from follow-through

(Newser) - Those who have worked with Sarah Palin in Alaskan politics—Democrats and Republicans alike—are split on the governor's leadership style. While most praise her bold, tough approach, they also point out her lack of follow-through and seeming disinterest in the details of governing, and her inability to work with...

Chinese Teacher Sent to Labor Camp Over Quake Dissent

Man posted photos of collapsed schools

(Newser) - A Chinese teacher has been sent to a labor camp for a year of "re-education" after he posted online photos of school buildings that collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake, the Guardian reports. The man, who was neither formally charged with a crime nor given a trial, is one of...

Chinese Rights Advocate Jailed
 Chinese Rights Advocate Jailed 
Apr 3, 2008 8:18 AM CDT

Chinese Rights Advocate Jailed

EU, US slam China's handling of Hu Jia's case

(Newser) - A top Chinese human-rights activist has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for writings and comments considered subversive, the New York Times reports. The case of Hu Jia, 34, been watched closely around the world; critics see it as part of a government crackdown on dissidents...

19 Stories