Today, I want you to read about:
- A historic legal win for 36 Mayan Indigenous women in Guatemala
- Cameroon's deadly stampede at a football match
- Why Indonesia's capital is sinking
- I also took a look at LGBTQ+ rights in France and Afghanistan, a gorilla in the U.S., a monk in Vietnam, some space stuff, a lying Pope in Germany, another killed journalist in Mexico and Australia's Aboriginal NFT flag.
Now without further ado, here's what happened last week,
what happened last week
Trigger warning: sexual abuse.
We finally got justice for 36 Mayan Indigenous women in Guatemala -- after 40 years
A historic trial came to a happy end (Spanish) in Guatemala. Last week, a court sentenced five former paramilitary soldiers up to 40 years in prison for having raped, sexually enslaved and tortured 36 Mayan Achí Indigenous women (Spanish) between 1981 and 1985 (during the civil war).
Why this matters:
Patriarchy and violence go hand in hand. The civil war in Guatemala was the most brutal armed conflict in all of Central America. A lot of really horrible crimes were committed (mostly) by the government against ethnic Maya Indigenous and Ladino leftist groups from 1960 to 1996. It is estimated that between 140,000 and 200,000 people died or went missing. Today, it is clear that the army in Guatemala (funded and trained by the United States) committed acts of genocide. However, only some of these crimes have been prosecuted. Even worse, lawmakers are looking into amnesty bills today. So, this is a small 'yay!' but a 'yay!' it is.
Tell me more:
The case started in 2011, when the women started telling their story to Indigenous lawyers Lucía Xiloj, Haydeé Valey and Gloria Reyes Xitumul. Guatemala Human Rights Commission was like, "This sentence is a fundamental victory, not only for these 36 brave women, but for all survivors of state violence. Justice is the only way to ensure that these heinous crimes are never repeated."
- Good to know: The men are also Indigenous and some are from the same villages as the women. The Guatemalan army recruited, often by force, local men into these paramilitary "civil defence patrols" during the civil war.
- Btw, this case is based on another one from around six years ago. Back then, a court sentenced two former military officers of raping and sexually enslaving 15 Maya Q'eqchi' women in the 1980s in eastern Guatemala.
What now?
Now, the case gets looked at as a sort-of precedent case. (I paraphrase) 'Now everybody is, once again, reminded of the fact that sexual violence is a tool in armed conflict,' said Brisna Caxaj, a sociologist and gender programme coordinator for Impunity Watch Guatemala.
We witnessed this year's second deadly stampede -- this time it was at a football match in Cameroon
Last week, a stampede killed eight and injured about 50 people during a football match in the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations (short Afcon) in Olembé Stadium in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Why this matters:
Human stampedes have been a chronically understudied topic. And more and more of them keep happening. Two recent 'events' come to mind: the stampede at the Travis Scott concert in Houston, USA killed at least ten people on November 5, 2021 and on January 1, 2022, twelve people died during a stampede at a Hindu shrine in Kashmir, India as they were celebrating the New Year.
Tell me more:
It all started so quickly. Right outside the stadium, before the game, closed-for-too-long gates made people super nervous, and when they 'recklessly' opened, hundreds of people stormed in, causing a stampede. Plus, according to a spectator Liam Mwen: "Access was really, really difficult. People came to the stadium without tickets and had access. Some of them scaled the fence."
What do we know about stampedes?
There are some scientists who are looking into this. For example, Professor Edwin Galea and his Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich use behavioural experiments and mathematical modelling to understand...
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Below you'll find some of the sources used for this issue. Only sources that support "media embedding" are included.
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La Justicia condenó a 5 ex integrantes de las PAC a 30 años de prisión por delitos contra deberes de la humanidad cometidos en 1982 contra 36 mujeres Achi. Por Prensa Comunitaria Tras 40 años de búsqueda de justicia, 36 mujeres Achi, lograron que 5 de sus verdugos, exintegrantes de las Patrullas de Autodefensa ... Read more
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More than 200,000 people died or vanished in Guatemala's civil war and thousands are still executed by police and vigilantes every year. Now secret state files detailing the atrocities are to be made public - despite death threats from the security forces. Billy Briggs reports.
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Mata Vaishno Devi is one of the most revered Hindu shrines in northern India, with tens of thousands visiting every day.
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Mass panic? Stampedes? Nonsense, say the experts trying to stop another disaster like last week’s in Mecca: they’re failures of management, and they aren’t inevitable. So why aren’t they a thing of the past?
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Now the government is leaving, and moving the country's capital to the island of Borneo.
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Climate change is causing flooding and storms like we've never seen before. Coastal or port cities including Miami, New Orleans, Bangkok, and Mumbai are especially vulnerable as the sea level may rise by 1 to 2 meters by 2100.
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A new report by Greenpeace East Asia looks at the risks in seven regional cities, concluding that in these metropolises alone, more than 15 million people could be affected by rising sea levels and flooding by 2030.
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Ozzie was experiencing symptoms such as decreased appetite, facial swelling and weakness in the past week. He was found deceased on Tuesday at the Atlanta zoo, where he lived since 1988.
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The $10 billion telescope is nearly ready to begin capturing images that scientists hope will help uncover the mysteries of the universe — and scope out other possible habitable planets.
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Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, which earned him a global following, gave simple instructions on mindfulness and emphasized how it could be practiced anytime, even when doing routine chores.
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Cut through the busyness and anxieties of daily life to discover the simple happiness of living in the present moment, as taught by a world-renowned Zen monkIn this book, Thich Nhat Hanh—Zen monk, author, and meditation master—distills the essence of Buddhist thought and practice, emphasizing the power of mindfulness to transform our lives. But true mindfulness, Hanh explains, is not an escape. It is being in the present moment, totally alive and free.Based on a retreat that Thich Nhat Hanh led for Westerners, You Are Here offers a range of effective practices for cultivating mindfulness and staying in the present moment—including awareness of breathing and walking, deep listening, and skillful speech. These teachings will empower you to witness the wonder of life and transform your suffering, both within and outside you, into compassion, tenderness, and peace. As Thich Nhat Hanh declares, “the energy of mindfulness is the energy of the Buddha, and it can be produced by anybody.” It is as simple as breathing in and breathing out.
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Anyone convicted under the law could face fines of up to €30,000 (£25,000) and two years in jail.
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Taliban officials in Afghanistan’s provinces are using a manual that imposes rules harsher than the abusive policies announced by their leaders in Kabul.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Afghans and people who do not conform to rigid gender norms in Afghanistan have faced an increasingly desperate situation and grave threats to their safety and lives under the Taliban, Human Rights Watch and OutRight Action International said in a report released today.
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A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese has faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s.
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‘The press was her family:’ Slain Tijuana journalist laid to rest as special prosecutor is named – San Diego Union-TribuneTIJUANA — At the moment the sun was at its highest, Lourdes Maldonado arrived at her final resting place. The reporter, who had more than 40 years’ experience in national and local media, was found Sunday shot to death in her car on the driveway of her home in Tijuana. At about noon on Thursday, she was […]
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Copyright for the Aboriginal flag now belongs to the Commonwealth, as custodian for the people of Australia.
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BEIJING - The first rule of Fight Club in China? Don't mention the original ending. The second rule of Fight Club in China? Change it so the police win.
Each week, What Happened Last Week curates news and perspectives from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The newsletter is written by Sham Jaff and focuses on stories that rarely receive sustained attention in Western media.
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