John McCain: Why We Must Support Human Rights; New York Times, May 8, 2017

John McCain, New York Times; 

John McCain: Why We Must Support Human Rights

"In a recent address to State Department employees, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said conditioning our foreign policy too heavily on values creates obstacles to advance our national interests. With those words, Secretary Tillerson sent a message to oppressed people everywhere: Don’t look to the United States for hope. Our values make us sympathetic to your plight, and, when it’s convenient, we might officially express that sympathy. But we make policy to serve our interests, which are not related to our values. So, if you happen to be in the way of our forging relationships with your oppressors that could serve our security and economic interests, good luck to you. You’re on your own...

In the real world, as lived and experienced by real people, the demand for human rights and dignity, the longing for liberty and justice and opportunity, the hatred of oppression and corruption and cruelty is reality. By denying this experience, we deny the aspirations of billions of people, and invite their enduring resentment...

We are a country with a conscience. We have long believed moral concerns must be an essential part of our foreign policy, not a departure from it. We are the chief architect and defender of an international order governed by rules derived from our political and economic values. We have grown vastly wealthier and more powerful under those rules. More of humanity than ever before lives in freedom and out of poverty because of those rules.

Our values are our strength and greatest treasure. We are distinguished from other countries because we are not made from a land or tribe or particular race or creed, but from an ideal that liberty is the inalienable right of mankind and in accord with nature and nature’s Creator."

Diversity is Key to Star Trek: Discovery’s Mission, Fuller Promises; Comic Book Resources, May 4, 2017

Kristy Puchko, Comic Book Resources; Diversity is Key to Star Trek: Discovery’s Mission, Fuller Promises

"“We were very adamant early on about that cast, not just in terms of race but also in terms of gender,” Fuller explained. “Janeway (of “Star Trek: Voyager”) carved a nice path as did Majel Barrett (Nurse Christine Chapel in the original “Star Trek” series) in 1966, in the original pilot. So it was important for ethnic inclusivity and gender inclusivity (to be upheld in casting). I was very excited to cast Michelle Yeoh before I left. I was pushing very hard for Sonequa Martin-Green to be cast before I left. So I feel like there’s a lot of wonderful diversity represented in the show, and I’m excited to see how it turns out.”

Best-known for her stunning performance in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Yeoh will portray Captain Georgiou, Starfleet Captain aboard the Starship Shenzhou. “Harry Potter” baddie Jason Isaacs will star as Captain Lorca, of the USS Discovery. Joining them will be “The Walking Dead”s Sonequa Martin-Green, “Penny Dreadful”s Shazad Latif, “30 Rock”s Maulik Pancholy, “Basttlestar Galatica”s Rekha Sharma, “Longmire”s Mary Wiseman, “The Office”s Rain Wilson, and famed creature-feature performer Doug Jones, whose appeared in films like “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy,” “Crimson Peak,” and “Hocus Pocus.”"

Parents are told – ‘Kill your gay children or we’ll do it for you’: Terrifying threats made by Chechen police are revealed by victims of country’s ‘concentration camps’ for homosexuals; Daily Mail, May 3, 2017

Dave Burke, Daily Mail; 

Parents are told – ‘Kill your gay children or we’ll do it for you’: Terrifying threats made by Chechen police are revealed by victims of country’s ‘concentration camps’ for homosexuals

"Reports from the Chechen republic claim that homosexuals are being rounded up and killed on the orders of leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

And last week the British Parliament heard Kadyrov intends to eliminate the gay community by the end of this month.

Horrifying testimony from survivors from Chechen concentration camps say victims are being tortured and their family summoned to kill them.

A survivor told France24: 'They tell the parents to kill their child. They say, "Either you do it, or we will". They call it "cleaning your honour with blood".

'They tortured a man for two weeks [then] they summoned his parents and brothers who all came.

'The authorities said to them: "Your son is a homosexual – sort it out or we'll do it ourselves.""

Chechnya’s Anti-Gay Pogrom; New York Times, May 3, 2017

Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, New York Times; 

Chechnya’s Anti-Gay Pogrom

"According to the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, more than 100 gay men were rounded up by the police and brutalized in secret prisons, and at least three of them were killed. Many remain in detention.

In fear and desperation, 75 people called in to the Russian LGBT Network’s Chechnya hotline. Of these, 52 said they had been victims of the recent violence, and 30 fled to Moscow where they received help from L.G.B.T. activists...

“Some think they are sadists and we are simply another social group that they are terrorizing,” a Chechen gay man told me, “but in fact, it is part of their new ideology of a ‘pure nation.’ ”

By promoting nationalism and traditionalism, Mr. Kadyrov tries to prove to Chechens that their republic now has more autonomy than separatist leaders ever dreamed of; and this justifies his strong pro-Putin position. But his appeal to tradition is self-serving and spurious. Until now, Chechnya never had any record of organized violence against gays."