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The government estimates that at any one time there are 10,000 to 13,000 people in situations of slavery in the UK, but experts believe it is closer to 100,000. Government estimate the annual cost to be £4.3bn but, again, experts say it is nearer £32.9bn. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides measures for dealing with…
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Good News Europe At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the staff at TV Rain in Russia resigned on air and fled the country. They are now relaunching the channel and its immediate priority is to challenge official propaganda on Ukraine. Germany has agreed to return sculptures known as the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.…
Continue reading Good and Bad News in Europe – August 2022 Update
Good News Britain The government has paused deportations to Rwanda until the new leader of the Conservative Party (and hence Prime Minister) is elected. The Divisional Court has granted the application to adjourn the legal review of the legality of deportations to Rwanda until September. The Home Affairs Committee has said that there is no…
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The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want and Campaign Against Arms Trade are hosting a seminar on Zoom on 9 August at 6.00pm called Barclays: Banking on Apartheid. Research has shown that Barclays Bank provides loans and other financial services to companies supplying Israel with military technology used in the repression of Palestinians. Barclays Bank…
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Authorities in Egypt are actively targeting human rights defenders, opposition politicians and other activists through unlawful arrests and prosecutions. Thousands of people have been arbitrarily detained and enforced disappearances and torture continue. Alaa Abdel Fattah, an icon of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, is now a British citizen (via his mother’s nationality) and has spent most of…
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Good News World The Taliban have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the country’s production of opium and heroin. Afghanistan is the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia. The ban will, however, affect the livelihoods of many farmers and day labourers who…
Continue reading Good and Bad News around the World – July Update
Good News Europe The Nobel Peace Prize auctioned off by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees was sold for £84.4mn. Bomb-disposal experts are clearing landmines from farms in Ukraine and the Halo Trust is training more women detectors to replace the men in Ukraine who have been conscripted. Belgium is…
Continue reading Good News and Bad News in Europe – July Update
Good News Britain Peter Jouvenal, who featured in our Action Links in June, has now been freed by the Taliban along with the four other British nationals they held for more than six months. They have all now left Afghanistan. The government has announced that it will waive the £1,012 child citizenship fee for children…
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Jagtar Singh Johal is a young Scotsman facing the death penalty in India. He had translated for an activist website called neverforget84 which refers to Indian troops storming the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest site. In October 2017, Jagtar travelled to India to get married. Just two weeks later, he was abducted off the…
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Abortion in the USA The Supreme Court decided on 24 June to overturn (by six votes to three) the 1973 decision in Roe vs Wade which had held that the Constitution generally protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to have an abortion. The Court has now ruled that the Constitution ‘does not confer the right to…
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