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• Communities in Indonesia’s Dairi district continue to protest a zinc and lead mine being developed by a Chinese-backed company.
• They warn the PT Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM) mine poses unacceptable risks to human life and the environment, given the potential for its waste dam to collapse in the earthquake-prone region.
• There are 11 villages located around or downstream of the proposed tailings dam, making the prospect of its collapse potentially disastrous. Some homes and houses of worship lie less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the dam, while an entire village of 2,010 people, called Pandiangan, is just 1.8 km (1.1 mi) from the dam.
• This would make the project illegal if it was built in China, since that country’s regulations prohibit the construction of a tailings dam within a kilometer of a populated area, according to Emerman.
• These concerns are borne out in a series of independent analyses of the project’s environmental impact assessment, which experts say fails to live up to the standards the developers claim to follow.
• Despite the questions over the assessment, the Indonesian government has issued environmental approval for the project, which local communities are now challenging at the Supreme Court.

Archived link

• Communities in Indonesia’s Dairi district continue to protest a zinc and lead mine being developed by a Chinese-backed company.
• They warn the PT Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM) mine poses unacceptable risks to human life and the environment, given the potential for its waste dam to collapse in the earthquake-prone region.
• There are 11 villages located around or downstream of the proposed tailings dam, making the prospect of its collapse potentially disastrous. Some homes and houses of worship lie less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the dam, while an entire village of 2,010 people, called Pandiangan, is just 1.8 km (1.1 mi) from the dam.
• This would make the project illegal if it was built in China, since that country’s regulations prohibit the construction of a tailings dam within a kilometer of a populated area, according to Emerman.
• These concerns are borne out in a series of independent analyses of the project’s environmental impact assessment, which experts say fails to live up to the standards the developers claim to follow.
• Despite the questions over the assessment, the Indonesian government has issued environmental approval for the project, which local communities are now challenging at the Supreme Court.

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• The Chinese government’s rejection of recommendations to end its deepening human rights crisis reflects its disdain for international human rights reviews at the United Nations, human rights nongovernmental organizations said in a joint statement released on June 25, 2024.
• In a disingenuous effort to paper over its refusal to engage to improve its appalling record made clear by latest Universal Periodical Review (UPR) in January 2024, the Chinese government said it would accept 290 of the 428 recommendations, partially accept 8, note 32, and reject 98 of the recommendations made. The 290 accepted ones include those the government said it “accepted and being implemented” and those “accepted and already implemented.”
• However, none of the “accepted” recommendations address concerns raised by UN member states about crimes against humanity, torture, forced disappearance, persecution of human rights defenders and journalists, or other grave and well-documented violations.
• In this context, the numerous acceptances by the Chinese government does not mean actual intention to improve its rights record. No one should confuse a high number of accepted recommendations with any real commitment by Beijing on human rights.
• Beijing’s responses to UPR recommendations also include hostility towards the process and towards UN human rights mechanisms. The government has challenged the authority of the UPR to address topics Beijing insists are a matter of “sovereignty,” and disparaged the professionalism of UN human rights experts.
• The Chinese government also falsely proclaimed the August 2022 OHCHR report on human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which that office alleged may constitute crimes against humanity, as “completely illegal and void.”

Archived link

• The Chinese government’s rejection of recommendations to end its deepening human rights crisis reflects its disdain for international human rights reviews at the United Nations, human rights nongovernmental organizations said in a joint statement released on June 25, 2024.
• In a disingenuous effort to paper over its refusal to engage to improve its appalling record made clear by latest Universal Periodical Review (UPR) in January 2024, the Chinese government said it would accept 290 of the 428 recommendations, partially accept 8, note 32, and reject 98 of the recommendations made. The 290 accepted ones include those the government said it “accepted and being implemented” and those “accepted and already implemented.”
• However, none of the “accepted” recommendations address concerns raised by UN member states about crimes against humanity, torture, forced disappearance, persecution of human rights defenders and journalists, or other grave and well-documented violations.
• In this context, the numerous acceptances by the Chinese government does not mean actual intention to improve its rights record. No one should confuse a high number of accepted recommendations with any real commitment by Beijing on human rights.
• Beijing’s responses to UPR recommendations also include hostility towards the process and towards UN human rights mechanisms. The government has challenged the authority of the UPR to address topics Beijing insists are a matter of “sovereignty,” and disparaged the professionalism of UN human rights experts.
• The Chinese government also falsely proclaimed the August 2022 OHCHR report on human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which that office alleged may constitute crimes against humanity, as “completely illegal and void.”

Reports surface days before UN summit on Afghanistan that will exclude Afghan women and debate on women’s rights

• In more than one case the arrests and sexual abuse that young women faced while in custody earlier this year led to suicide and attempted suicide.

• In one case, a woman’s body was allegedly found in a canal a few weeks after she had been taken into custody by Taliban militants, with a source close to her family saying she had been sexually abused before her death.

• Girls and women also say they had been subjected to beatings and intimidation while in detention.

Amina*, a 22-year-old medical student, said she spent three nights in a Taliban prison after being arrested in January 2024. She said she was interrogated by an older man who asked her about her menstruation and whether she was married or not.

“I fell at his feet and begged him, ‘Please, kill me but don’t harass me’,” she said. “He said: ‘Since you are keen to die, I will kill you, but before that, let us have fun with you.’

“Then he started touching my private parts,” Amina said. “I fainted twice during the interrogation, but every time, he poured cold water over my head.”

Amina said what happened to her happened to every girl taken to that interrogation room and left alone with the man.

Reports surface days before UN summit on Afghanistan that will exclude Afghan women and debate on women’s rights

• In more than one case the arrests and sexual abuse that young women faced while in custody earlier this year led to suicide and attempted suicide.

• In one case, a woman’s body was allegedly found in a canal a few weeks after she had been taken into custody by Taliban militants, with a source close to her family saying she had been sexually abused before her death.

• Girls and women also say they had been subjected to beatings and intimidation while in detention.

Amina*, a 22-year-old medical student, said she spent three nights in a Taliban prison after being arrested in January 2024. She said she was interrogated by an older man who asked her about her menstruation and whether she was married or not.

“I fell at his feet and begged him, ‘Please, kill me but don’t harass me’,” she said. “He said: ‘Since you are keen to die, I will kill you, but before that, let us have fun with you.’

“Then he started touching my private parts,” Amina said. “I fainted twice during the interrogation, but every time, he poured cold water over my head.”

Amina said what happened to her happened to every girl taken to that interrogation room and left alone with the man.

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• A previously undocumented Chinese-speaking threat actor codenamed SneakyChef has been linked to an espionage campaign primarily targeting government entities across Asia and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) with SugarGh0st malware since at least August 2023.

• SneakyChef uses lures that are scanned documents of government agencies, most of which are related to various countries' Ministries of Foreign Affairs or embassies, according to security analysts.

Archived link

• A previously undocumented Chinese-speaking threat actor codenamed SneakyChef has been linked to an espionage campaign primarily targeting government entities across Asia and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) with SugarGh0st malware since at least August 2023.

• SneakyChef uses lures that are scanned documents of government agencies, most of which are related to various countries' Ministries of Foreign Affairs or embassies, according to security analysts.

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Russia's exiled chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt was speaking after gunmen killed 19 people in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan in southern Russia in attacks on churches, synagogues and the police.

"The Russian authorities during the last years have used the law enforcement authorities to repress any kind of opposition to the Kremlin, opposition to the war and any movements like the LGBT movement which was declared as extremist. People are sent to prison for criticising the war," Goldschmidt said in a video interview from Berlin.

"So instead of using law enforcement and the interior ministry and FSB (security service) to provide security for Russian citizens, it's being used to eradicate any opposition to the regime. And here we see the results, that such terrorists like ISIS are able to again and again mount successful attacks against houses of worship, against cultural events." [...]

Putin offers condolences

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin expressed his deep condolences over Sunday's attacks, but it has not commented on who was to blame or why authorities failed to stop them.

[...]

Goldschmidt himself left Russia soon after the start of the war and has encouraged more Jews to follow his example rather than stay on in what he called a "semi-totalitarian" country.

"Tens of thousands of Jews left, and I'm happy they left," he said. "We are worried for all of those who are still there."

Archived link

Russia's exiled chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt was speaking after gunmen killed 19 people in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan in southern Russia in attacks on churches, synagogues and the police.

"The Russian authorities during the last years have used the law enforcement authorities to repress any kind of opposition to the Kremlin, opposition to the war and any movements like the LGBT movement which was declared as extremist. People are sent to prison for criticising the war," Goldschmidt said in a video interview from Berlin.

"So instead of using law enforcement and the interior ministry and FSB (security service) to provide security for Russian citizens, it's being used to eradicate any opposition to the regime. And here we see the results, that such terrorists like ISIS are able to again and again mount successful attacks against houses of worship, against cultural events." [...]

Putin offers condolences

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin expressed his deep condolences over Sunday's attacks, but it has not commented on who was to blame or why authorities failed to stop them.

[...]

Goldschmidt himself left Russia soon after the start of the war and has encouraged more Jews to follow his example rather than stay on in what he called a "semi-totalitarian" country.

"Tens of thousands of Jews left, and I'm happy they left," he said. "We are worried for all of those who are still there."

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The Russian division of the Bank of China has suspended operations with Russian lenders sanctioned by the United States in order to avoid being hit with secondary sanctions, the Kommersant business newspaper reported Monday, citing industry insiders.

The Bank of China’s Russian division — which specializes in yuan payments between Russia and China — is the second-largest Chinese banking subsidiary in the country [...]

Experts [said that this] would likely increase fraud risks given the subsequent shift to opaque intermediaries to process payments between Russian and Chinese entities.

“This is not very good news for the Russian market,” an anonymous industry insider was quoted [...]. “There will be additional costs both in time and the price of processing payments.”

"But the most important problem is that payments go beyond the banking sector, resulting in the state having less control,” the source added.

Archived link

The Russian division of the Bank of China has suspended operations with Russian lenders sanctioned by the United States in order to avoid being hit with secondary sanctions, the Kommersant business newspaper reported Monday, citing industry insiders.

The Bank of China’s Russian division — which specializes in yuan payments between Russia and China — is the second-largest Chinese banking subsidiary in the country [...]

Experts [said that this] would likely increase fraud risks given the subsequent shift to opaque intermediaries to process payments between Russian and Chinese entities.

“This is not very good news for the Russian market,” an anonymous industry insider was quoted [...]. “There will be additional costs both in time and the price of processing payments.”

"But the most important problem is that payments go beyond the banking sector, resulting in the state having less control,” the source added.