Theresa May’s official spokesman has called on Venezuela’s government to release political prisoners and show respect for democracy and human rights, after weeks of violence in the country. No 10 said Britain had condemned the government of President Nicolás Maduro for forcing through a constituent assembly that clearly did not represent the will of the Venezuelan people. “It is a tragedy that so many people have lost their lives in protests in Venezuela. We’re clear that urgent action must be taken to stop the situation getting worse,” the prime minister’s spokesman said.
“The UK has repeatedly called on the Maduro government to work with the opposition, release political prisoners and show respect for democracy and human rights.”

The situation in Venezuela has worsened since the government was granted sweeping powers to overhaul the country’s political system in a disputed recent poll that was boycotted by the opposition. Security agents seized two opposition leaders from their homes after they called for protests against the vote. Widespread protests against the government of the oil-producing South American country have been going since April amid spiralling prices for food and medicine because of low oil prices, with more than 120 people killed in the unrest.(theguardian)…[+]

Suspects on trial over last year’s coup attempt in Turkey will wear a brown uniform during their hearings, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced, after a controversy over a defendant wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word “hero” during a court appearance.

The Turkish president made his announcement during a speech in the city of Malatya, days after nearly 500 defendants, including top generals and officers, appeared in court. It was the largest mass trial of suspects accused of masterminding and carrying out the attempted putsch last July, in which 250 people were killed and 1,400 wounded. “There will be no more coming to courts wearing whatever they want,” Erdoğan said, according to the daily newspaper Hürriyet. “They will be introduced to the world like that.”

A suspect accused of belonging to the Fethullah Gülen movement, which is widely believed in Turkey to have masterminded the coup attempt and is led by an exiled preacher in the United States, wore the “hero” T-shirt to his hearing.

Several people were detained afterwards for wearing the same shirt. At a rally on the anniversary of the coup last month, Erdoğan had called for the suspects to be dressed in orange jumpsuits like those worn by people incarcerated in the US prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Tens of thousands of people have been dismissed from their jobs or detained over alleged links to the Gülen movement in the months since the failed coup, and trials are ongoing for many of the top military officers and civilians accused by prosecutors of leading the putsch. The broad crackdown has gone beyond the alleged perpetrators, however, and has ensnared journalists, academics, judges and civil servants.(theguardian)…[+]

Peter Oloo wiggles his way through the maze ahead of him, easily avoiding hitting, or getting hit by, the dozens of people moving between the narrow streets of Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Every few metres he stops, fist-bumping childhood friends or respectfully bowing when shaking hands with older women.

“These were my mothers when growing up,” he says. “Here, we used to look out for each other. Everyone was their brother’s keeper.” Kibera is made up of 13 villages crammed into 2.5 sq kilometres and has an estimated population of 250,000 people. The unemployment rate in Kenya stands at 22%, with most of those being the young, many of whom live in informal settlements such as Kibera. “It is this group of people that is most vulnerable during this political season,” Oloo says. “Everyone lives peacefully here,” says his colleague Eric Mwanzia. “Until the politics start.”

On 8 August, Kenya will hold national elections. In Kibera, promises of employment opportunities and the provision of basic amenities such as reliable and clean water are cited in the manifestos of dozens of politicians seeking to represent the various parts of the slum. But as they sell their policies, they sell something else, too.

“Fear, intimidation, division and tribalism,” Oloo says. “All these make their way back into the day-to-day conversations of Kibera.”

For Mwanzia, who is part of a group called the Shofco Urban Network (SUN), the heightened hate speech and intimidation is all deja vu. “We know where this is heading, we don’t like it. But we know we can play a role to stop it,” Mwanzia says.(theguardian)…[+]