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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

Elon Musk’s destruction of USAID has left massive death and destruction in its wake

Elon Musk’s destruction of USAID has left massive death and destruction in its wake

Bill McKay writes: This decade has seen the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in violent conflicts: in the Tigray War in Ethiopia, in civil war in Myanmar, in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and most recently in the RSF massacres in the Sudanese city of Al-Fashir, to name just a few. Yet the largest act of mass murder of this decade, and of this century so far, was not…

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With foreign backing, Israel’s solar energy boom is powering apartheid

With foreign backing, Israel’s solar energy boom is powering apartheid

Sofia Fani Gutman, Carolina Pedrazzi and Andrey X report: “How do you charge your phones?” we asked. “With the sun,” Ahmad replied, nodding toward the small cluster of solar panels behind him. For 47 years, the tiny hamlet of Naba’a Al-Ghazzal, part of the community of Al-Farsiya, has survived on the northern edge of the Jordan Valley in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Home to around 20 members of the Daraghmeh family — including Ahmad, the community’s informal leader — all…

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Allegations in Epstein files may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ UN experts say

Allegations in Epstein files may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ UN experts say

Reuters reports: Millions of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a “global criminal enterprise” that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, according to a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the U.S. Justice Department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a…

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After my ICE arrest, I learned one crucial way to respond to trauma. We can all take part

After my ICE arrest, I learned one crucial way to respond to trauma. We can all take part

Rümeysa Öztürk writes: It started off as a normal Tuesday. On 25 March 2025 I reviewed applications from university students applying for a summer research position at my lab. I told friends I would bring pastries from Harvard Square for the Friday dinner we were planning. I finalized my schedule for an upcoming child development conference. I worked on my dissertation proposal. The day was busy but not unusual – until I left home after quickly dressing for an iftar…

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The key to defeating Trump? Mass non-cooperation through civil resistance

The key to defeating Trump? Mass non-cooperation through civil resistance

Mark Engler and Paul Engler write: In the wake of two horrifying killings of legal observers in Minnesota, on top of the abduction of countless immigrant community members, the country has reached a turning point. Backlash against ICE’s lawlessness and aggression has reverberated so loudly that even Trump has heard it. But the effects on ordinary Americans contemplating what they would do if they lived in Minneapolis or St Paul is perhaps even more profound. The extraordinary level of grassroots…

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Warehouse owner won’t sell Texas property to ICE for migrant detention center

Warehouse owner won’t sell Texas property to ICE for migrant detention center

The Dallas Morning News reports: The owner of a Dallas County warehouse that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had planned to use as a mega detention center said Monday it will not sell or lease the property to the federal government. “God answered our prayers,” Hutchins Mayor Mario Vasquez said after learning of the company’s decision. Internal ICE documents revealed that the agency had wanted to use the warehouse in Hutchins to house up to 9,500 migrants as the agency pushes…

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Trump’s campaign of violence using ‘less lethal’ weapons against protesters

Trump’s campaign of violence using ‘less lethal’ weapons against protesters

NBC News reports: They batter bodies with rubber bullets and sear eyes with pepper spray. They lob tear gas and explosive flash-bangs at chanting crowds. They smash car windows. They shove people to the ground. They ram vehicles and point their guns. Federal officers carrying out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in cities across the country have shot 13 people with guns. But far more often, they have used harsh tactics to scare or repel those they see as getting…

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Beyond the major cities, ICE is rattling small-town and exurban America

Beyond the major cities, ICE is rattling small-town and exurban America

The New York Times reports: President Trump may be ending the surge of immigration agents in the Twin Cities, but his mass deportation effort has already extended well past large, liberal cities like Minneapolis, to small communities where the national spotlight does not exist but the impact can be at least as acute. In places like Cornelius, Ore., Danbury, Conn., Biddeford, Maine, and Coon Rapids, Minn., where moderation, not partisanship, might predominate, the arrival of Immigration and Customs Enforcement —…

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ICE operations increasingly resemble Israeli occupation. That’s no coincidence

ICE operations increasingly resemble Israeli occupation. That’s no coincidence

Sophia Goodfriend writes: As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have swarmed cities across the United States, American politics has appeared to enter a new phase, one in which armed federal forces turn civilian neighborhoods into active conflict zones. Part of what is driving this political shift is a potent technical infrastructure: ICE operations are now expedited by mobile surveillance and targeting systems, where agents’ most powerful weapon can fit in the palm of their hands. Recent reporting has…

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ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into concentration camps

ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into concentration camps

The Washington Post reports: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the country and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of immigrants, according to documents the agency provided to New Hampshire’s governor and published on the state’s website Thursday. ICE plans to buy and convert 16 buildings across the country to serve as regional processing centers, each holding 1,000 to 1,500 immigrant detainees at…

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DHS sending hundreds of administrative subpoenas to social media companies to suppress political dissent

DHS sending hundreds of administrative subpoenas to social media companies to suppress political dissent

The New York Times reports: The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency. In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials…

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UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule

UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule

The Guardian reports: The co-founder of Palestine Action has won a legal challenge to the home secretary’s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws. The proscription of Palestine Action, which categorised it alongside the likes of Islamic State, was the first of a direct action protest group and attracted widespread condemnation as well as a civil disobedience campaign defying the ban, during which more than 2,000 people have been arrested. From 5 July last year, being a member of…

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The children held in detention in Dilley

The children held in detention in Dilley

By Mica Rosenberg This story was originally published by ProPublica Fourteen-year-old Ariana Velasquez had been held at the immigrant detention center in Dilley, Texas, with her mother for some 45 days when I managed to get inside to meet her. The staff brought everyone in the visiting room a boxed lunch from the cafeteria: a cup of yellowish stew and a hamburger patty in a plain bun. Ariana’s long black curls hung loosely around her face and she was wearing…

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USAID’s demise heralded a dark shift in America’s values

USAID’s demise heralded a dark shift in America’s values

Jeremy Konyndyk writes: Last February, Elon Musk boasted of “feeding USAID into the woodchipper” as President Trump kicked off his second term with an unanticipated assault on the agency. A year later, the brutal fallout is coming into focus. Humanitarian aid last year reached 25 million fewer people than in 2024 despite rising global need. More than 2,000 health clinics have closed in crisis zones around the world. Global food aid funding dropped by 40 percent from 2024 to 2025….

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A genocide against Ukrainians is unfolding right now

A genocide against Ukrainians is unfolding right now

Roman Sheremeta posted on X: A genocide against Ukrainians is unfolding right now. It already has a name: “Kholodomor” (exhaustion through cold) This crime is being deliberately committed by russia. In legal terms, it has a clear definition – genocide. Under Article II of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, one of the defining acts of genocide is: “Deliberately inflicting on a group of people conditions of life calculated to bring about its…

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