All posts tagged: justification

‘Justification of dictatorship’: outcry as Milei rewrites Argentina’s history | Argentina

‘Justification of dictatorship’: outcry as Milei rewrites Argentina’s history | Argentina

Published by skeptic

Human rights groups in Argentina have raised the alarm over President Javier Milei’s attempts to rewrite history on the eve of the annual day of remembrance for the thousands of victims of the country’s brutal 1976-1983 dictatorship. Thousands of protesters will take to the streets on Sunday to mark the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice in Argentina, a holiday commemorating the 30,000 victims of the dictatorship, called “desaparecidos”. The date usually sees Argentina’s largest demonstrations of the year, with millions of citizens flooding the country’s streets to declare: “Nunca más” (never again). However, this 24 March is set to be different as it will be the first under Milei, a far-right libertarian who has consistently denied Argentinians’ long-standing consensus over the dictatorship’s crimes. “There were no 30,000,” Milei said provocatively during a presidential debate ahead of his election triumph last November. “For us, during the 70s, there was a war where excesses were committed.” Numerous Argentinian media outlets have reported that the government plans to release a video with its “official version” of …

Drone footage raises questions about Israeli justification for deadly strike on Gaza journalists

Drone footage raises questions about Israeli justification for deadly strike on Gaza journalists

Published by Sam

JERUSALEM — On Jan. 7, the Israeli military conducted a targeted missile strike on a car carrying four Palestinian journalists outside Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Two members of an Al Jazeera crew — Hamza Dahdouh, 27, and drone operator Mustafa Thuraya, 30 — were killed, along with their driver. Two freelance journalists were seriously wounded. They were returning from the scene of an earlier Israeli strike on a building, where they had used a drone to capture the aftermath. The drone — a consumer model available at Best Buy — would be central to the Israeli justification for the strike. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement the next day it had “identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops.” Two days later, the military announced that it had uncovered evidence that both men belonged to militant groups — Thuraya to Hamas and Dahdouh to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, its smaller rival in Gaza — and that the attack had been in response to an “immediate” …

The Guardian view on marching for Gaza: a ban without legal justification would only inflame divisions | Editorial

Published by Sam

Political demonstrations are frequently controversial. Any issue that can mobilise tens of thousands of people is likely to involve fierce passions, and provoke strong reactions. In a democracy, those are insufficient grounds for a ban. That is why the Metropolitan police have resisted ministerial pressure to withdraw permission for a Palestinian solidarity march in central London this weekend. Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, has taken the view that Saturday’s march does not pose a threat to public safety. Downing Street has very reluctantly, and perhaps only temporarily, deferred to that judgment. Rishi Sunak has expressed his objection in terms of the date. A rally on Armistice Day would be “disrespectful”, according to the prime minister. Whether or not that is true – and the march organisers have tried to accommodate such sensitivities in their choice of route – respectfulness is not a measure of public order. There would be few public demonstrations on any issue if the threshold for a ban were set at breaches of a prime minister’s sense of decorum. The more …

SBF asked FTX general counsel to create ‘legal justification’ for using billions in customer funds amid collapse

SBF asked FTX general counsel to create ‘legal justification’ for using billions in customer funds amid collapse

Published by skeptic

Can Sun, former FTX general counsel, took the stand on Thursday to testify on behalf of the prosecution’s case against Sam Bankman-Fried. Sun has a non-prosecution agreement in exchange for his cooperation. The Yale law school grad joined FTX at the end of August 2021 and stayed until early November 2022 shortly after the crypto exchange collapsed. Before going in-house at the exchange, Sun worked for Fenwick & West where he also advised FTX as outside counsel. Once in-house, Sun’s role consisted of various legal functions like obtaining regulatory licenses for the exchange and dealing with how FTX treated customer assets — or so he thought, he testified. Bankman-Fried had allegedly told him that FTX customer deposits were unequivocally “safeguarded, segregated and protected.” When asked by prosecutors whether he ever approved FTX’s use of customer assets, Sun replied, “no, absolutely not” and said he was told the customer funds were held in a separate account that didn’t include FTX’s own proprietary funds, and he was not aware Alameda was getting FTX customer deposits. “In all …

Conservative MPs gave weak justification for law that could stop people voting

Conservative MPs gave weak justification for law that could stop people voting

Published by skeptic

The UK government has changed the law so that people in England will have to show ID when they go to vote. This controversial new rule was brought in on the insistence that the “integrity of elections” needs to be protected. But it has the potential to prevent many people from taking part in elections. Given the stakes, you would expect this to mean there is good evidence that elections in the UK are in danger of being compromised. If there is concern about their integrity, there must be an issue with voter fraud – and specifically with people posing as other people in order to vote in their name. This, after all, would be the only problem that voter ID could resolve. When I explored how Conservative MPs debated this controversial policy in parliament, however, I found that they didn’t seem to talk much about voter fraud by impersonation, despite voting to introduce ID to prevent it. All the evidence shows voter fraud is extremely rare in the UK. There have been only three …

analysis shows Conservative MPs offering weak justification for law which is now in force

analysis shows Conservative MPs offering weak justification for law which is now in force

Published by skeptic

The UK government has changed the law so that people in England will have to show ID when they go to vote. This controversial new rule was brought in on the insistence that the “integrity of elections” needs to be protected. But it has the potential to prevent many people from taking part in elections. Given the stakes, you would expect this to mean there is good evidence that elections in the UK are in danger of being compromised. If there is concern about their integrity, there must be an issue with voter fraud – and specifically with people posing as other people in order to vote in their name. This, after all, would be the only problem that voter ID could resolve. When I explored how Conservative MPs debated this controversial policy in parliament, however, I found that they didn’t seem to talk much about voter fraud by impersonation, despite voting to introduce ID to prevent it. All the evidence shows voter fraud is extremely rare in the UK. There have been only three …