5: 

Activists Planning Protests at Rio Olympics Are Worried They Could Be Charged With Terrorism

Activists in Brazil say a proposed law defining terrorism will criminalize protest movements, including those looking to use media attention on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to highlight social injustices and push for reforms.

The bill, authored by President Dilma Rousseff’s office, was amended on its way through the lower house of Congress to add specific exemptions for social movements, but these were removed when it sailed through the Senate last week. It now heads back for a final reading by Brazil’s deputies, and would require final approval by the president.

Supporters of the bill argue Brazil needs legislation to define and fight terrorism, though experts charge that the move stems from pressure from the US-led anti-terrorism body — the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF — amid fears of sanctions that could exacerbate the country’s recession. The bill was signed by Rousseff’s top economic team — including finance minister Joaquim Levy, who government sources told VICE News is the legislation’s main proponent.

More than 80 social and political movements have signed an open letter repudiating what they label a “retrograde step” in citizens’ rights to protest. The letter argues that the bill would make routine the “state of exception” that they say Brazil first imposed by default during the World Cup last year — by giving the authorities the power to arrest and charge people as “terrorists” should the tiniest amount of damage result from heated protests.

Vice News

4: Marama Davidson takes seat in parliament

Manurewa has another wahine Maori MP.

Long time resident Marama Davidson was sworn in today as a Green Party list member, replacing former leader Russel Norman.=

Labour’s Manurewa MP Louisa Wall, who worked with Ms Davidson at the Human Rights Commission, is looking forward to working with her again.

“Marama is very strong and always has been in voicing her opinions so we are never left wondering what she thinks abut she thinks about issues but I am really looking forward to having someone else in Manurewa as well. It obviously strengthens the advocacy and the opportunity for us as members of parliament to identify the issues for south Auckland and to work constructively to address them,” she says.

Louisa Wall says she and Marama Davidson will also be members of the same Piki Te Ora branch of the Maori Women’s Welfare League in Manurewa.

Waatea News

3: 

Israel passes ‘minimum sentence’ for stone-throwers

Israel has passed an amendment to the country’s civil law establishing a minimum prison sentence of three years for people who throw rocks at Israeli troops, civilians or vehicles.

Passed late on Monday night by a vote of 51-17, the legislation includes a number of provisions, among them one that permits the government to strip those convicted of stone throwing of their state benefits.

In effect, the move will further entrench Israeli civil law in occupied East Jerusalem, according to rights groups.

Palestinians in the rest of the occupied West Bank, however, are subject to Israeli military law.

The law also enables Israel to cancel national health insurance and other social programmes for the parents of an imprisoned minor.

Rima Awad, a member of the Campaign for Jerusalem, a Palestinian rights group, said that Israel is “collectively punishing” Palestinian Jerusalemites.

Aljazeera

2: 

‘Heat flash’ recorded over Sinai at time of plane crash

A US infrared satellite has reportedly detected a heat flash at the time a Russian passenger jet went down in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a US official has said, as the investigation into the deadly plane crash continues.

The official told NBC News on Tuesday that the US intelligence community believes that it could have been some kind of explosion on the plane itself, either a fuel tank or a bomb.

The same satellite imagery ruled out a surface-to-air missile attack, the news channel reported.

“The speculation that this plane was brought down by a missile is off the table,” the official told NBC News.

Aljazeera

1: 

U.N.: Record Number of Refugees Crossed Mediterranean in October