àn sóng biểu tình ủng hộ người Palestine và kêu gọi chấm dứt cuộc chiến của Israel ở Dải Gaza đang diễn ra tại ít nhất 50 đại học ở Mỹ.
Các sinh viên dựng lều trại trong cuộc biểu tình ủng hộ người Palestine tại khuôn viên Đại học Columbia ở TP New York (Mỹ) hôm 26-4 – Ảnh: Reuters
Tính đến ngày 27-4 (giờ Việt Nam), các sinh viên đã dựng lều phản đối trong khuôn viên của ít nhất 50 trường đại học, cao đẳng ở Mỹ, từ các trường nổi tiếng trong nhóm Ivy League cho đến các trường công lập. Nhiều sinh viên cho biết sẽ không dừng việc biểu tình cho đến khi yêu cầu được đáp ứng.
In this combination of images from body-camera videos, medics prepare to inject sedatives to Ivan Gutzalenko in Richmond, Calif., in 2021; Hunter Barr in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2020, and Wesley Garrett-Henry in San Diego, Calif., in 2020. (Richmond Police Department, Colorado Springs Police Department, San Diego Police Department via AP)
Demetrio Jackson was desperate for medical help when the paramedics arrived.
The 43-year-old was surrounded by police who arrested him after responding to a trespassing call in a Wisconsin parking lot. Officers had shocked him with a Taser and pinned him as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. Now he sat on the ground with hands cuffed behind his back and took in oxygen through a mask.
Then, officers moved Jackson to his side so a medic could inject him with a potent knockout drug.
On 21 September, 2022, an IT specialist with the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, Timur Izmailov, was leading a normal life in Moscow. Three weeks later Izmailov found himself serving as a soldier in Russia’s 27th motorized rifle brigade near the Ukrainian city of Svatove, when he was eventually killed by mortar fire. How does a 33-year-old techie make his way from his cubicle to the frontline of an unprovoked war in a neighbouring democratic state?
Timur’s journey began on 24 February, 2022, when President Vladimir Putin ordered the all-out military invasion of Ukraine in continuation of a war started in 2014. The response was immediate. The Ukrainian people and their leadership — with the support of the democratic allies — have defended themselves against armed aggression despite gross human rights violations.
Western sanctions imposed on Russia created an extremely hostile commercial environment for companies such as Raiffeisen to continue their operations in the aggressor state. Many international firms pulled out, announcing plans to leave or suspend activity in Russia. But many more international companies continue to operate and pay taxes, thus contributing to the occupation of Ukraine and undermining the financial support provided to Ukraine by their own governments.
On 21 September 2022, President Vladimir Putin issued the mobilization decree that obliged companies to immediately assist in conscripting soldiers and help equip the Russian army. The results of this piece of legislation were immediately felt by many, including Timur Izmailov. Raiffeisen’s attempts to shield their staff from the draft failed.
How do bank employees in other countries feel knowing this is happening to their colleagues in Russia? How does a client of Raiffeisen based in Vienna feel, knowing the employees of his bank might soon become soldiers sent to the battlefield to kill innocent civilians in Ukraine?
An additional stopover on the companies’ journey from compliance to complicity happened last July, when Putin signed a new law allowing the government to impose special economic measures to support “counter-terrorism and other operations outside of Russia”. Once introduced, such measures would require companies to provide goods and services in support of these operations and impose significant penalties for failing to do so. In accordance with the law of 7 October 2022, the Russian subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank International is now obliged to provide loan payment holidays to the troops fighting in Ukraine. Moreover, the bank is required to write off the entire debt in case of a soldier’s death. This legal requirement concerns other financial institutions that still operate in Russia, namely Intesa Sanpaolo, OTP Bank, ING Bank, Credit Agricole, Citibank, Credit Europe Bank and UniCredit.
This loan relief scheme has already triggered criticism from Ukraine’s central bank, as well as from investors concerned about reputational impact. The requirement for banks to grant payment holidays to soldiers “illustrates the dangers of operating in jurisdictions where companies can…be forced into actions that go directly against their corporate values,” said Eric Christian Pederson of Nordea Asset Management. “We feel that it is right for companies to withdraw from Russia, given its unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” he added.
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and for his widely quoted 1946 “First they came …“
In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Visitors stand in front of the quotation from Martin Niemöller that is on display in the Permanent Exhibition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Niemöller was a Lutheran minister and early Nazi supporter who was later imprisoned for opposing Hitler’s regime.
By Khang A Tủa and Alex Nguyễn 29 January 2024 at 18:36 (Updated on 30 January 2024 at 10:29)
After decades of pursuing development goals, Hmong people in northern Viet Nam face a battle to preserve disappearing indigenous corn
Cúa bua (in Vietnamese), or quav npua (in Hmong) , an indigenous corn variety in Chế Cu Nha, Mù Cang Chải district, Yên Bái province.
YÊN BÁI & SƠN LA, VIET NAM – Early one winter morning, Khang Chờ Dê of Chế Cu Nha hamlet in Yên Bái province was woken by loud knocking on his door. Sào, his relative, needed some red corn kernels, an indigenous crop used by Hmong people in northern Viet Nam for spiritual offerings to ward off bad luck.
The son of a shaman, Dê understood the importance of red corn in ritual practices. He quickly took some kernels from his kitchen, wrapped them up neatly and handed them to his relative.
Back in bed, the 46-year-old farmer pondered the scarcity of the indigenous cúa bua (in Vietnamese), or quav npua (in Hmong)corn seeds in Chế Cu Nha, his family’s ancestral home. For generations, indigenous corn crops have been essential to Hmong spiritual and cultural traditions, as well as helping to strengthening their autonomy in agricultural cultivation.
Tòa án Công lý quốc tế (ICJ) vừa đưa ra một quyết định liên quan vụ kiện của Nam Phi đối với Israel về tội “diệt chủng” khi tiến hành hoạt động quân sự chống lực lượng Hamas ở Dải Gaza, gây ra cái chết cho hàng chục ngàn thường dân Palestine vô tội.
Các thẩm phán Tòa ICJ đưa ra phán quyết.
Tuy nhiên, ICJ cũng mở cho Israel một lối thoát “cửa hậu” bằng cách không đáp ứng hoàn toàn yêu cầu của Nam Phi là buộc Israel ngừng bắn ngay lập tức mà chỉ yêu cầu Israel “đảm bảo rằng hành động quân sự tại Gaza là không diệt chủng”.
FILE – Starved prisoner’s, nearly dead from hunger, at one of the largest Nazi Concentration camps at Evensee Austria, in the Austrian Alps, May 7, 1945. Many were starving to death and inmates were dying at the rate of 2,000 per week. The camp was reputedly used for ‘Scientific’ experiments. It was liberated by the 80th Division, U.S. Third Army. (AP Photo, File)
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FILE- This February/March 1945, file photo shows the entry to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, with snow covered rail tracks leading to the camp. Israel is hoping the U.N. General Assembly will unanimously adopt a resolution rejecting and condemning any denial of the Holocaust and urging all nations and social media companies “to take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion.” The 193-member world body is scheduled to vote Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, on the resolution, which is strongly supported by Germany. (AP Photo/Stanislaw Mucha, File)
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FILE – In this Nov. 21, 1945, file photo, Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering stands in the prisoner’s dock at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial in Germany. He is entering a plea of not guilty to the International Military Tribunal Indictment. Goering is wearing headphones of the court translating system. Germany marks the 75th anniversary of the landmark Nuremberg trials of several Nazi leaders and in what is now seen as the birthplace of a new era of international law on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. (AP Photo, file)
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FILE – Visitors look at pictures of Jews killed in the Holocaust in the Hall of Names in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Sunday, April 7, 2013. The annual Israeli memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust of World War II begins at sundown Sunday. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)
BY MIKE CORDERUpdated 2:04 AM GMT+7, January 26, 2024 AP
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the world united around a now-familiar pledge: Never again.
A key part of that lofty aspiration was the drafting of a convention that codified and committed nations to prevent and punish a new crime, sometimes called the crime of crimes: genocide.
The convention was drawn up in 1948, the year of Israel’s creation as a Jewish state. Now that country is being accused at the United Nations’ highest court of committing the very crime so deeply woven into its national identity.
TTCT – Sau 3 tháng, về mặt số liệu, chiến tranh tại Gaza đã lọt hàng top những thảm họa trên thế giới trong thế kỷ 21.
Ảnh: Doctors without Borders
Xin so sánh với chiến tranh tại Ukraine, tuy đây không phải là một cuộc thi hoa hậu. Dân số Gaza là 2,3 triệu và dân số Ukraine là 43,8 triệu, tức gấp 19 lần. Các số liệu ở Gaza là từ 7-10-2023 cho đến 10-1-2024 (3 tháng), còn ở Ukraine là từ 24-2-2022 đến 24-9-2023 (19 tháng).
EU vốn không cho thấy sự thống nhất trong nỗ lực hòa giải xung đột Israel – Hamas. Quan điểm của 27 quốc gia thành viên EU không hoàn toàn nhất quán trong việc giải quyết vấn đề này và thực tế là EU đã gần như giữ im lặng về vụ kiện của Nam Phi.
EU đứng đâu trong vụ kiện tội ác diệt chủng chống Israel tại Tòa quốc tế? Ảnh: AA.
Cambodian people will never forget the end of the Pol Pot regime 45 years ago and the whole-hearted support and sacrifices made by Vietnamese voluntary troops. Those efforts have helped create an unbreakable bond between the two nations.
Sitting on my tiny rooftop garden, how much I cherish the early morning tea with the sweet sounds of a bird family, who has graciously made my roof their home since the day I settled here.
How thankful I am for this precious gift of sound, offered by my birdy friends despite the city noise that they have to compete with. How unbearable it would be, imagine one day, I find no birdy singing on my roof nor in any other corner of this Earth.
In the quiet corners of our world, where nature once thrived and rang its melody, Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” warned us about a future where the symphony of Nature would be no bird chirping, no insect buzzing, not even leaf rustling, but replaced by creepy hush, only. And that scary destructive silence was caused by the pesticide and herbicide.
These days, we find ourselves in a different strike of silence, one that haunts the holiday season in Gaza, Palestine – a Silent Christmas, where the laughters of children and the voices of joyous carols are muted by the horrors of war and genocide.
This is not a Christmas story from a distant land; this haunting silence deeply matters to our conscience. For this silence echoes the death of humanity. For this silence is the death of the voice in our heart.
(Sen Nguyen is a Vietnamese journalist – the author of this article won the 2023 Global Media Competition on Labour Migration, hosted by the International Labour Organization - ILO. Her entry, titled “Risk, rewards and remittances in Vietnam’s Nghe An province” published in Al Jazeera, was chosen out of more than 400 entries from 85 countries. SeeILO‘s announcement here)
39 Vietnamese people died being smuggled into the UK in 2019. Most were from Nghe An province.
Hoang Thi Ai holds up her phone showing a photo of her son, Hoang Van Tiep, who she later discovered was among the 39 people who were found dead in a truck container in Essex, the UK, in 2019 [File: Hau Dinh/AP Photo]
In late October 2019, ambulance crews in the United Kingdom were called to a scene of horror.
On a quiet road in a nondescript industrial park in Essex, the bodies of 39 people were found when the heavy steel doors of a refrigerated truck trailer were opened.
The victims had suffocated. Death came slowly as oxygen levels inside the airtight container depleted for the 28 men, eight women and three children as their attempt to be smuggled into the UK ended tragically.
The youngest were two 15-year-olds. All were from Vietnam and the majority were from one province – Nghe An.
“I’m sorry Dad and Mum,” 26-year-old Pham Thi Tra My tapped out in a final text message she composed for her parents.
“Mum, I love Dad and you so much. I’m dying because I can’t breathe … I am so sorry, Mum,” she wrote in a phone message that was widely reported on at the time.
The message was delivered long before her death was officially confirmed by police investigators in the UK.
Video Duration 01 minutes 41 seconds01:41Vietnamese family fears their daughter may be among Essex victims
In 2021, seven people were jailed in the UK for a total of 92 years for their role in the deaths of the 39. This week, an eighth suspect, described as a “right-hand man” in the smuggling ring, was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison by a UK court.
Pope Francis on Monday deplored the desperate humanitarian situation of Palestinians in Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire and the freeing of hostages in his Christmas message.
“We are close to our brothers and sisters who are suffering from war,” Pope Francis said during his recitation of the Angelus on Sunday.
“We are thinking of Palestine, Israel, Ukraine. We are thinking, too, of all those who suffer from misery, from hunger, from slavery.”
On Christmas Eve – which this year falls on the Fourth Sunday of Advent – the Holy Father invited Christians to spend the day “in prayer, in the warmth of affection, and with sobriety.”
“Let us not confuse celebration with consumerism!” he pleaded. He urged the faithful to celebrate Christmas with simplicity, without waste, “and by sharing with those who lack necessities or companionship.”
Looking ahead to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, Pope Francis prayed that “the God who took a human heart for Himself might infuse humanity into human hearts.”
And, as usual, he asked the faithful not to forget to pray for him, before wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.
The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 and Israel declared war on the militant Palestinian group, launching strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip.
CPJ is investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing in the war, which has led to the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
As of December 21, 2023, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 68 journalists and media workers were among the more than 20,000 killed since the war began on October 7—with more than 19,000 Palestinian deathsin Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 deaths in Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Reuters and Agence France Press news agencies that it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip, after they had sought assurances that their journalists would not be targeted by Israeli strikes, Reuters reported on October 27.
Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages and extensive power outages.
As of December 21:
68 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 61 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese.
CPJ is also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes.
![Visitors stand in front of the quotation from Martin Niemöller that is on display in the Permanent Exhibition of the United States ... [LCID: img4857]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/6496052e-1383-4c7a-b28b-28286277ced7.jpg)
CVD 