Rohingya refugees face monsoon; Journalists punished for doing their job in Turkey; French president buys into China’s rights vision; China tech companies remove gender discriminatory job ads; Witness linked to former Colombian president probe murdered; Local forces in Iraq banish ISIS suspects’ families; Spain’s #MeToo movement; India needs a witness and victim protection law; Mike Pompeo confirmed as US secretary of state.

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Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees living in camps in southern Bangladesh are bracing themselves for monsoon cyclones, wind and rains that could last for months. Since late August 2017, more than 671,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Burma’s Rakhine State to escape the military’s large-scale campaign of ethnic cleansing. On Saturday, a delegation from the UN Security Council will start a four-day visit to Bangladesh and Burma, to examine the situation of the Rohingya refugees.

The 14 journalists, staff, and board members of the Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet sentenced to prison on April 25, are being punished for doing their jobs, and their trial is part of a systematic effort to silence independent media and critical voices in Turkey to prevent public scrutiny of the government.

In August 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron asserted that his country’s diplomatic and economic interests with China “cannot justify cover-up of the question of human rights.” Yet by January Macron’s resolve appeared to weaken, and this week it seemed that his resolve had fully given way to deference

And staying in China, a number of tech companies appear to have deleted many of the ads identified in a major Human Rights Watch report on gender discrimination and sexual objectification in Chinese advertising, released earlier this week. The response by Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, and Tencent has been surprisingly quick.

A witness connected to a criminal investigation of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez was murdered on April 14, and other witnesses have been threatened. The government should redouble its protection of witnesses and their relatives.

Local armed forces in the northern Iraqi district of al-Ba’aj issued an order in February that relatives of male Islamic State members could not return. This collective punishment will prevent hundreds of people, if not thousands, from returning home.

Thousands of people have been protesting in cities across Spain after five men accused of raping a young woman during the bull-running festival in Pamplona were acquitted and convicted of the lesser offence of sexual abuse. Some have described the protests as the Spanish #MeToo movement.

On April 25, Asaram, an Indian multi-millionaire guru who reportedly has 20 million followers, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl in his ashram. But in the course of the trial, which began in 2013, three witnesses were killed, at least five others were attacked, one went missing, and even senior police officers leading the investigation said they were threatened. The case is a reminder that India needs a witness and victim protection law.

The US Senate has confirmed former CIA director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, despite objections that his past support for torture and other positions would undermine the role.

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