Group items tagged

"Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has signed a decree aimed at restricting the powers of social media companies to remove accounts and content"

Wow...this is super topical and unique especially when freedom of speech and social media in the US.

Yes. .. and the US has taken the position that tech companies have "freedom of speech" as well, including the freedom to prohibit material. Personally, it bothers me when corporations are redefined as equivalent to people. Really, however, corporations' speech is SO much more influential than individual people's speech.

The Republican National Convention took an uncharacteristic turn toward foreign policy on Wednesday night, as two prominent speakers lashed out at President Barack Obama's leadership in world affairs. "Unfortunately, for four years, we've drifted away from our proudest traditions of global leadership, traditions that are truly bipartisan," said Sen.

Very interesting. I like this quote from the article: "Rice oversaw U.S. foreign policy during a time when many citizens have come to feel the United States overextended itself abroad, entering into two wars that continued well into the Obama administration (and one, Afghanistan, that continues to this day). Perhaps in a nod to that legacy, Rice acknowledged that "there is a weariness -- I know that it feels as if we have carried these burdens long enough." But, she continued, "One of two things will happen if we don't lead: No one will lead and there will be chaos, or someone will fill the vacuum who does not share our values. My fellow Americans, we do not have a choice: We cannot be reluctant to lead, and you cannot lead from behind." For us to discuss: what IS the United States' foreign policy role today? How might it be changing?

"Earlier in the day, Rice had offered some specific criticisms of Obama's handling of the uprising in Syria, accusing the president of waffling and "muting" America's voice."

A good analysis and overview of the programs outlined in Obama's jobs speech.

Interesting response by France regarding Trumps speech and idea to "totally destroy" North Korea.

An article analyzing the way that Trump's UN speech could impact peoples' view of Iran. The demeanors of both presidents (Trump and President Rouhani of Iran) are compared. The legitimacy of Rouhani's "facts" are also called into question. 

China mocked the protests at the US Capitol yesterday, comparing them to the Hong Kong protests in 2019 which the US supported. They considered this an example of failing democracy and even equated twitter blocking Donald Trump to "having no freedom of speech."

I also agree with Maya as Twitter is a private company and no one is banning Trump from speaking to the press or any other form of public media.

This seems like such a poor argument by the CCP I'm not sure why they would even make it, seeing as Twitter is literally banned in China.

More news from Cuba showing that free speech is still not given to their citizens.

This article not only suggests that education in excellent public schools is beneficial to end poverty, but learning comes in the form of new ideas in jobs. Workers are able to learn on the job and apply these skills to an even better, more qualified job. Furthermore, the article says that equality is another key to economic success.

Terrific article, Sophia. Did you watch the accompanying video? Pretty darn inspiring!

Hong Kong's government is not Hong Kong's own, its chief executive has been appointed by the central Chinese government since China regained sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. However, residents of Hong Kong have enjoyed more civil liberty than the residents of mainland China, for example the freedom of speech and it's own separate judiciary system. With residents of Hong Kong fed up with current pro-Beijing chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, and mainland China's current president, Xi Jiping, who are limiting the democratic liberties of the territory. Though mainland China has sovereignty over the domain of offshore Hong Kong, the levels of democracy in mainland China and Hong Kong are very dissimilar. In China, the internet, education systems, communities, and society as a whole are controlled by the central government, allowing the residents few civil liberties. For a while, Hong Kong, has utilized its own judiciary system and maintained its own chief executive to deal with governance, allowing Hong Kong to keep some of its Western democratic roots, from Hong Kong's time as a British colony; more recently the central government has appointed pro-Beijing (mainland) chief executives who have slowly taken more and more democratic liberties from the people. The people have taken to the streets of Hong Kong in protest asking for more democratic power in the appointment of their chief executive, but the iron-fisted Xi Jiping refuses to allow for any compromises. Xi Jiping is a strongly believes previous communist regimes fell apart because they were lax; as a result, Xi Jiping refuses to let these protests flourish or compromise with protestors because he doesn't want this to spark any freedom protests in the mainland. Yet, Xi Jiping can't use the force he would like to, because the level of force necessary to take down protests with such fervor at this scale who be reminiscent to the force used in the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. Any significant bloodshed would j

This article provides information on the guidelines for Empire of Japan's surrender at the end of WWII as written by U.S. President Harry S. Truman Jr., U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek. This article's main focus was highlighting the Potsdam Declaration as the forceful conversion of the Empire of Japan into a democratic regime, rather than monarchical regime, with more civil liberties for the people including, but not limited to, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of thought. This article also explains how the Potsdam Declaration caused Japan to open itself up to the growing democratic world and forced Japan to change or face destruction, leaving Japan very little choice in terms of regime. Furthermore, this article brings attention to the amount of military force that came along with the Potsdam Declaration. It is made clear that this was more than just a declaration by the Allied Forces, it was more of a threat to the Japanese to surrender on the Allied Force's terms or be utterly destroyed. Unfortunately, it is also highlighted that within less than a month of the declaration, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This article maps out the Postwar Constitution that Japan drafted and adopted in order to remove Allied occupation. The Postwar Constitution was called a "revision" to the Imperial Constitution that was previously followed in Japan, but it came as more of an Allied Powers overhaul of the monarchical regime that lead Japan throughout the war. The main articles of the Postwar Constitution focus on removing Japanese ability to declare war or have any industry related to arming for war, and granting democratic individual freedoms to the people of Japan (i.e. democratic elections and freedom of speech, to petition, to assemble, religion, thought, etc) Though, there is an article in the Postwar Constitution which allows amendments to be made, the amendments must be pass to through both houses of the bicameral Diet with a ⅔ majority before it is passed to the people. No amendments have been ratified since 1947, but as of late the Liberal Democratic Party have continually made pushes for amendments.