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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

How Israel entrenched apartheid rule during Gaza war

How Israel entrenched apartheid rule during Gaza war

+972 reports: For over two years, Israeli public life has been shrouded in a heavy, disorienting fog. There has been an unending churn of crises, conflicts, and anxieties at home and abroad: the shock of the Hamas attack of October 7 and Israel’s genocidal campaign of revenge on Gaza, the fight to bring back the hostages and against the state’s vilification of their families, the reckless confrontations with Iran. Together, these have left Israeli society suspended in a collective stupor,…

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Flock uses overseas gig workers to build its surveillance AI

Flock uses overseas gig workers to build its surveillance AI

Wired and 404 Media report: Flock, the automatic license plate reader and AI-powered camera company, uses overseas workers from Upwork to train its machine learning algorithms, with training material telling workers how to review and categorize footage including images people and vehicles in the United States, according to material reviewed by 404 Media that was accidentally exposed by the company. The findings bring up questions about who exactly has access to footage collected by Flock surveillance cameras and where people…

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Trump regime ends temporary immigration protections for Haitians

Trump regime ends temporary immigration protections for Haitians

Miami Herald reports: The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced the end of temporary immigration protections for Haitians, adding them to a growing list of immigrant groups seeing their protected status revoked by the Trump administration. The decision, which becomes effective on Feb. 3, 2026, could affect more than a half million Haitians living in the U.S. under what is known as Temporary Protected Status. The designation was granted to Haiti after a string of natural and political disasters,…

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A short history of the long war on drugs in Latin America

A short history of the long war on drugs in Latin America

Greg Grandin writes: Today, Donald Trump presides over his own Murder Incorporated, less a government than a death squad. Many brushed off his proclamation early in his second term that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be called the Gulf of America as a foolish, yet harmless, show of dominance. Now, however, he’s created an ongoing bloodbath in the adjacent Caribbean Sea. The Pentagon has so far destroyed 18 go-fast boats there and in the Pacific Ocean. No evidence has…

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Trump’s immigration forces deploy ‘less lethal’ weapons dangerously, skirting rules and maiming protesters

Trump’s immigration forces deploy ‘less lethal’ weapons dangerously, skirting rules and maiming protesters

By A.C. Thompson, ProPublica and FRONTLINE, and J. David McSwane, ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica As the Trump administration’s immigration dragnet intensified in June, a nurse in Portland, Oregon, left work one midafternoon and drove to a nearby detention facility to voice his opposition. Federal agents had set off smoke grenades, driving away many protesters at the front of the facility, but Vincent Hawkins lifted his megaphone anyway. “You should stop and think about what you’re doing!”…

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Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

Trump regime’s threat to refugees in U.S. viewed as ‘unspeakably cruel’

CNN reports: The Trump administration is moving to reinterview certain refugees who were admitted to the United States under former President Joe Biden as part of a comprehensive review of their cases, according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the plans. The effort marks an unprecedented step in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown — this time, targeting one of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Refugees must show that they were persecuted or face persecution in their home…

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ICE: The secret police reveal nothing after one of their targets disappears

ICE: The secret police reveal nothing after one of their targets disappears

  David Noriega, MS NOW National Reporter and Lindsey Toczylowski, President and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center join Alicia Menendez in for Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House to tell the story of an undocumented immigrant who has been caught up in Trump’s immigration crackdown, who after suffering a medical emergency while ICE custody has disappeared and his family and lawyers have been unable to locate him.   Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is operating in an unprecedented way…

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In the face of strong resistance, Border Patrol withdraws from Charlotte and heads for New Orleans

In the face of strong resistance, Border Patrol withdraws from Charlotte and heads for New Orleans

The Charlotte Observer reports: The U.S. Border Patrol is leaving the Charlotte area after arriving Saturday, making arrests by confronting and questioning Latino people in public places, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday. There would be no further Border Patrol operations on Thursday, a press release from Sheriff Garry McFadden said, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement will continue working in Charlotte. Even as local officials said that Border Patrol was finished in the Queen City, U.S. Department…

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Law-abiding immigrants in ICE detention, stripped, shackled, and starved

Law-abiding immigrants in ICE detention, stripped, shackled, and starved

  We heard it over and over on the campaign trail: Donald Trump’s promise of a crackdown on criminals and undocumented immigrants at a scale and breadth this country had never seen before. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE, has swept into American cities and is detaining more people than ever before. However, 71 percent of those held in immigrant detention by the end of September did not have criminal convictions, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a…

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Charlotte faith leaders view Trump’s immigration agenda as ‘antithetical to the Bible’

Charlotte faith leaders view Trump’s immigration agenda as ‘antithetical to the Bible’

Axios reports: When asked about President Donald Trump’s domestic policies, Charlotte-area pastors often cite Matthew 25:35-40, a Biblical parable that calls for Christians to care for the less fortunate. Why it matters: Christians, particularly conservative evangelicals, have supported Trump in the past. Now, many moderate and progressive Christians across the U.S., including in Charlotte, are challenging the president’s administration around immigration, civil rights and poverty. What they’re saying: The Trump administration’s policies are “antithetical to the Bible,” which calls for people to treat immigrants as neighbors and to…

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NC governor: Charlotte crackdown ‘not making us safer’ — ‘bear witness to what you’re seeing’

NC governor: Charlotte crackdown ‘not making us safer’ — ‘bear witness to what you’re seeing’

I know this is a stressful moment for many across North Carolina. Everyone should follow the law, remain peaceful, and bear witness to what you’re seeing. That’s the North Carolina way. pic.twitter.com/OL9QIdodfG — Governor Josh Stein (@NC_Governor) November 16, 2025 PBS reports: After a surge in Border Patrol activity in North Carolina’s largest city over the weekend, including dozens of arrests, Gov. Josh Stein said the effort is “stoking fear,” not making Charlotte safer. The Trump administration has made the…

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Chicago pushback against immigration crackdown now serves as a model for other cities

Chicago pushback against immigration crackdown now serves as a model for other cities

The Associated Press reports: Baltazar Enriquez starts most mornings with street patrols, leaving his home in Chicago’s Little Village on foot or by car to find immigration agents that have repeatedly targeted his largely Mexican neighborhood. Wearing an orange whistle around his neck, the activist broadcasts his plans on Facebook. “We don’t know if they’re going to come back. All we know is we’ve got to get ready,” he tells thousands of followers. “Give us any tips if you see…

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Chicago-area mayor says Border Patrol terrorized his city. Here’s how to fight back, Charlotte

Chicago-area mayor says Border Patrol terrorized his city. Here’s how to fight back, Charlotte

Daniel Biss, mayor of Evanston, Illinois, writes: When federal agents came to my city of Evanston on Halloween this year, it was scary — and not in a fun way. That morning, we received reports of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in our neighborhoods. Helicopters circled overhead. CBP Commander Greg Bovino himself was in town—suggesting this “operation” was more about a made-for-TV spectacle than any legitimate public safety goal. Then, after a traffic collision apparently caused deliberately…

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Faith leaders violently arrested at Broadview ICE facility protest

Faith leaders violently arrested at Broadview ICE facility protest

Religion News Service reports: In video recorded on Friday (Nov. 14) outside the embattled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, the Rev. Michael Woolf stands alongside fellow protesters, fiddling awkwardly with his backpack as faith leaders and other protesters chant slogans at a line of police officers. A moment later, one officer can be seen walking forward, grabbing Woolf by the wrist and yanking. Demonstrators attempted to hold on to Woolf, who was wearing a clerical collar,…

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Are Israeli-backed human trafficking networks transferring people out of Gaza?

Are Israeli-backed human trafficking networks transferring people out of Gaza?

  A journey of suffering”. That’s how a Palestinian man described his transfer from Gaza, through Israel and Kenya, to South Africa. A journey so desperate that Palestinians paid thousands of dollars to leave their homes without knowing where they were going. A journey forced by more than two years of Israel’s genocide. In February, Israel and the US proposed forcibly removing Palestinians from Gaza. But Arab states rejected calls to take them in and rights groups labelled it ethnic…

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U.S. Catholic bishops take stand against Trump immigration policy, winning praise at churches

U.S. Catholic bishops take stand against Trump immigration policy, winning praise at churches

The Los Angeles Times reports: For the first time in 12 years, U.S. Catholic bishops have issued a unified statement to support the country’s immigrants and oppose the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportations of people.” The move solidified their support for immigrants — long a vital part of the U.S. Catholic Church — amid a year of unprecedented upheaval. It also continues a long tradition of the church as an institution of support for those in the country illegally that…

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