Foreign News
Russian court bans ‘LGBT movement’
Russia’s Supreme Court has declared what it calls “the international LGBT public movement” an extremist organisation and banned its activities across the country.
The ruling was prompted by a motion from the justice ministry, even though no such organisation exists as a legal entity.
The hearing was held behind closed doors, but reporters were allowed in to hear the court’s decision. Nobody from “the defendant’s side” had been present, the court said.
Russia’s constitution was changed three years ago to make it clear that marriage means a union between a man and a woman. Same-sex unions are not recognised in Russia.
(BBC)
For full story: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67565509
Donald Trump will sign an executive order on today [28] making English the official language of the United States, according to White House officials, and scrapping requirements that federal agencies provide language services to non-English speakers.
The US has never had an official language in the nearly 250 years since the country was founded.
The order is intended to improve government efficiency and promote national unity, according to White House officials.
Nearly 68 million of the country’s 340 million residents speak a language other than English, according to the US Census Bureau, which includes more than 160 Native American tongues.
Friday’s executive order will roll back a policy from 2000 signed by former President Bill Clinton requiring that government agencies and federal funding recipients “ensure that their programs and activities normally provided in English are accessible to LEP (low-English proficiency) persons”.
Agencies will be allowed to still provide that language access to non-English speakers, according to White House officials.
Republicans have led efforts in the past to label English as the country’s official language, with members of the House as recently as 2021 introducing legislation on it that failed.
Those who have opposed those efforts say that the country does not need an official language, pointing to the high numbers of people who speak it and to the country never having one, while also saying establishing one could promote discrimination against non-English speakers.
During his presidential campaign last year, Trump included non-English languages in his statements calling for stricter immigration policies.
“We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language,” he told a crowd of supporters in February 2024.
“It’s the craziest thing – they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing,” he said.
And during the 2016 campaign he said, “This is a country where we speak English. It’s English. You have to speak English!”
When the US was founded, most residents spoke English and those writing the country’s constitution did not feel it was necessary to enshrine it as the official language and also did not want to alienate fellow new citizens who spoke German or other languages, according to most scholars.
The languages currently spoken the most in the US after English are Spanish, various Chinese languages, Tagolog, Vietnamese and Arabic, according to the Census Bureau. Another approximately one million people use American Sign Language, according to experts.
Approximately 180 countries around the world designate official national languages, and most countries recognise multiple official languages. However, several countries besides the United States do not have an official language, including the United Kingdom.
There are more than 30 US states which have designated English as the official language, while Alaska and Hawaii have also bestowed official status on several native languages.
[BBC]
A leading independent journalist and book author from Vietnam has been sentenced to 30 months in jail over Facebook posts critical of the government.
Following a trial that lasted only for a few hours, a court in the capital Hanoi convicted 63-year-old Huy Duc of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” through posting 13 articles on Facebook.
“These articles have a large number of interactions, comments and shares, causing negative impacts on social order and safety,” the indictment quoted by Vietnam News Agency read.
Huy Duc worked for influential state-run newspapers before authoring one of Vietnam’s most popular blogs and Facebook accounts, where he criticised the country’s communist leaders on issues such as corruption, media control and relations with China.
Huy Duc, whose real name is Truong Huy San, is a former senior army lieutenant. He was fired from a state news outlet in 2009 for criticising past actions by Vietnam’s former communist ally, the Soviet Union.
In 2012, Huy Duc spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship. During his time abroad, his account of life in Vietnam after the end of the war with the United States, The Winning Side, was published.
His conviction comes just a few months after blogger Duong Van Thai was jailed for 12 years on charges of publishing antistate information.
He had almost 120,000 followers on YouTube where he regularly recorded livestreams critical of the government.
In January, a prominent former lawyer was also jailed for three years over Facebook posts.
Shortly before his arrest in June, Huy Duc took aim online at Vietnam’s new powerful leader To Lam, as well as his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong. It is unclear if the charges were related to these particular posts.
Vietnam, a one-party state, has no free media and clamps down hard on any dissent. It is one of the world’s top jailers of journalists, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom campaign group.
RSF said previously that his articles were “an invaluable source of information enabling the Vietnamese public to access censored information by the Hanoi regime”.
Rights campaigners say the government has in recent years intensified its crackdown on civil society.
In December, Vietnam enacted new online rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities.
Under “Decree 147”, all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify user accounts by phone number or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth.
[Aljazeera]
Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1990s and 2000s, has died aged 39.
Police in Manhattan said they responded to an emergency call on Wednesday morning and found Trachtenberg “unconscious and unresponsive”. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The US actress was best known for playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s younger sister Dawn Summers, and later took on the role of manipulative socialite Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl as an adult.
Trachtenberg made her film debut in Harriet the Spy in 1996, and also appeared in several Nickelodeon productions.
Co-stars paid tribute to her, describing her as a “fiercely intelligent” person who “cared deeply” about her work.
Her family’s representatives confirmed her death in a statement.
“It is with great sadness to confirm that Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away. The family requests privacy for their loss,” it said.
Authorities said her death was not being treated as suspicious.
“Criminality is not suspected. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The investigation remains ongoing,” the NYPD said in a statement.
Trachtenberg got her start in acting at age nine on the Nickelodeon television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete.
In the early 2000s, she was nominated for several acting awards – including a Daytime Emmy Award – for her role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
She also starred in films including EuroTrip, Ice Princess, Killing Kennedy, and Sister Cities.
Blake Lively, a Gossip Girl co-star, said everything Trachtenberg did “she did 200%”.
“She laughed the fullest at someone’s joke… she cared deeply about her work, she was fiercely loyal to her friends and brave for those she loved, she was big and bold and distinctly herself,” she wrote on social media.
“The real tragedies in life are the ones that blindside you on an idle Tuesday. Hold those you love and have loved dear.”
US comedian Rosie O’Donnell, who starred alongside Trachtenberg in her Harriet the Spy debut, said her death was “heartbreaking”.
“I loved her very much. She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped.”
Josh Safran, a writer and producer on Gossip Girl, said it was “an honour and joy to write for Michelle for so many years”, as she had a “clear voice” as an actor.
“You heard her as you typed,” he wrote. “You knew she’d make each line rougher, more real, much funnier – and that made the writing better.
Former castmates also paid tribute.
Buffy cast member James Marsters said on social media that the actress was “fiercely intelligent, howlingly funny, and a very talented person”.
“She died much too young, and leaves behind scores of people who knew and loved her,” Marsters said.
How I Met Your Mother actress Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow Rosenberg in Buffy, shared a series of photos on social media, including images of the two sharing scenes, and said Trachtenberg “brought a loving energy to the set of Buffy”.
Trachtenberg first appeared in Gossip Girl – which ran from 2007 to 2012 – in 2008. She returned to the role for two episodes of the second season of HBO Max’s reboot in 2023.
Her last major acting role was in 2021 as the host of a true-crime docuseries Meet, Marry, Murder, which appeared on digital streamer Tubi.
In 2021, Trachtenberg accused Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon of inappropriate behaviour on set, after her co-star Charisma Carpenter said she had been left traumatised due to the treatment she received from Whedon.
[BBC]
Trump to order English as official US language
Dozens arrested in global hit against AI-generated child abuse
Australia seal semi-finals spot after rain spoils Head’s party
-
Business5 days agoSri Lanka’s 1st Culinary Studio opened by The Hungryislander
-
Sports6 days agoHow Sri Lanka fumbled their Champions Trophy spot
-
News7 days agoSC notices Power Minister and several others over FR petition alleging govt. set to incur loss exceeding Rs 3bn due to irregular tender
-
Features6 days agoThe Murder of a Journalist
-
Sports6 days agoMahinda earn long awaited Tier ‘A’ promotion
-
Features6 days agoExcellent Budget by AKD, NPP Inexperience is the Government’s Enemy
-
News7 days agoMobile number portability to be introduced in June
-
Sports5 days agoAir Force Rugby on the path to its glorious past