A student lays at the feet of riot police at a march of over 50,000 people held by Mexico's upstart student movement Yo Soy 132 in Mexico City, June 30, 2012. The movement has caused a stir in Mexico recently by taking to the streets to condemn the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) and Mexico's two main media conglomerates, TV Azteca and Televisa.
Digital Protest – The Washington Post analyzes the chance of success of the emerging student movement contesting the results of the Mexican presidential election. Dubbed “#YoSoy132,” after a viral video and a Twitter hashtag, the social media-led student movement, critical of the “heavy hand of corporate media and alleged fraud at the ballot,” is seen as “one of the few spontaneous moments in a staid election dominated by scripted rallies and canned TV events.” However, it could be hampered by the relative lack of young people in higher education in Mexico.
People Power – The South China Morning Post reports that three days of violent rioting in the Sichuan city of Shifang has forced authorities there to scrap plans to build a heavy-metal factory. “People were defying a heavy security presence and an unusually harsh warning issued by the city government earlier in the day that protesters would be ‘severely punished’ if they sought to continue the ‘illegal’ protests,” it said of Tuesday’s protests–the biggest yet.
Malaysia Elex – The Financial Times interviews controversial opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim amid speculation a general election will be called in the next few months. “This will be a different election,” he told the paper. “We are changing the entire political landscape of the country. I think a growing number, particularly the younger Malaysians, want Malaysia to evolve as a mature, vibrant democracy.”
Rise and Fall – Reuters examines whether South Africa’s union mine revolt puts the future of the ruling African National Congress party (ANC) in jeopardy. The ANC’s sweep to power in 1994, following the end of Apartheid, was aided by an alliance with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). However the upper tiers of the NUM, “which remains a buttress of political and electoral support” for the ANC, have been accused of becoming “fat cats” who are “getting rich from the sweat of the workers.”
Lost in Translation – Police have fired tear gas on hundreds of protesters gathered in Kiev to express their anger “over a new language law that boosts the status of Russian,” the BBC writes. The new law, proposed by President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions, grants “regional language” status to Russian, which is the mother tongue for much of the south and east of Ukraine. Critics fear it could “help return Ukraine to Moscow’s sphere of influence.”
Reading the Weather – Writing on the Truthdig website, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman argues the world’s increasingly extreme weather — over 2,000 heat records were broken last week across America — results from climate change. “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) … reported that the spring of 2012 ‘marked the largest temperature departure from average of any season on record for the contiguous United States,’” she wrote.
