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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

The secret musicians of Afghanistan

The secret musicians of Afghanistan

Amanda Florian and Abdul Wahab Siddiqi write: Day breaks in western Afghanistan. Outside, gunshots fired by the Taliban pierce the hazy sky. A loudspeaker plays a cappella chants — or taranas — that demand the attention of citizens. Emergency vehicles transferring bodies broadcast recitations from the Quran. As children fight and play on unpaved roads, the chant-like prayers of mullahs reverberate across the city five times a day. There’s only one sound that’s missing — music. Under the Taliban’s regime,…

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Why Israel must reconsider its Gaza evacuation order

Why Israel must reconsider its Gaza evacuation order

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, writes: Thursday night’s order by the Israel Defense Forces to Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate their homes within 24 hours was dangerous and deeply troubling. Any demand for a mass evacuation on extremely short notice could have devastating humanitarian consequences. The evacuation order applies to approximately 1.1 million people. It applies to a territory that is already besieged, under aerial bombardment and without fuel, electricity, water and food. It applies to…

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What more must the children of Gaza suffer?

What more must the children of Gaza suffer?

Fadi Abu Shammalah writes: The bomb exploded a few hundred feet from where I was sitting with my wife, Safa, and my three children, Ali, Karam and Adam. Ali, 13, screamed; Karam, 10, buried his face in my chest; and Adam, 5, burst into tears. We were in the outdoor area at the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Tuesday morning. I had been lucky enough to obtain permits for my wife and kids to cross into…

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Israel has dropped a staggering 6,000 bombs on Gaza in less than a week

Israel has dropped a staggering 6,000 bombs on Gaza in less than a week

Dozens of fighter jets and helicopters attacked a series of terrorist targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip. So far, the IAF has dropped about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets. pic.twitter.com/3Xm1vxvq7D — Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) October 12, 2023 The Washington Post reports: The Israeli air force on Thursday said it had dropped 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets so far — a staggering number over the course of six days, according to warfare experts. “Israel is dropping…

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Stunning State Department memo warns diplomats: No Gaza ‘de-escalation’ talk

Stunning State Department memo warns diplomats: No Gaza ‘de-escalation’ talk

HuffPost reports: As Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza, the State Department is discouraging diplomats working on Middle East issues from making public statements suggesting the U.S. wants to see less violence, according to internal emails viewed by HuffPost. In messages circulated on Friday, State Department staff wrote that high-level officials do not want press materials to include three specific phrases: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm.” The revelation provides a stunning signal about the Biden administration’s reluctance to…

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Israeli president says there are no innocent civilians in Gaza

Israeli president says there are no innocent civilians in Gaza

HuffPost reports: As Israel engages in a massive air campaign ahead of an anticipated full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Friday that all citizens of Gaza are responsible for the attack Hamas perpetrated in Israel last weekend that left over 1,200 people dead. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said at a press conference on Friday. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not…

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Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens as Israel prepares a possible invasion

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens as Israel prepares a possible invasion

The New York Times reports: Six days of Israeli airstrikes have left more than 300,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip homeless, with two million residents facing critical shortages of food, water and fuel, while Israeli troops prepared on Thursday for a possible ground invasion after Hamas’s deadly weekend assault. Retaliating for the bloodiest attack on Israel in 50 years, Israel is pummeling Gaza with a ferocity not seen in past conflicts and has cut off vital supplies to the coastal…

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Biden accused of betrayal of Khashoggi over push to deepen Saudi ties

Biden accused of betrayal of Khashoggi over push to deepen Saudi ties

The Guardian reports: Joe Biden is facing accusations of betraying a pre-election promise to re-evaluate ties with Saudi Arabia over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in favour of pursuing a rapprochement with the kingdom aimed at repelling a challenge from China to US primacy in the Middle East. The charge, from human rights campaigners and some Democrats, follows the fifth anniversary of Khashoggi’s death at the hands of Saudi regime agents and comes amid mounting criticism of a proposed new…

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Saudi Arabia sentences schoolgirl to 18 years over tweets, says rights group

Saudi Arabia sentences schoolgirl to 18 years over tweets, says rights group

Middle East Eye reports: Saudi Arabia has sentenced a secondary schoolgirl to 18 years in jail and a travel ban for posting tweets in support of political prisoners, according to a rights group. On Friday, ALQST rights group, which documents human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, revealed that the Saudi Specialised Criminal Court handed out the sentence in August to 18-year-old Manal al-Gafiri, who was only 17 at the time of her arrest. The Saudi judiciary, under the de facto…

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The secret life and anonymous death of the most prolific war crimes investigator in history

The secret life and anonymous death of the most prolific war crimes investigator in history

Ben Taub writes: It was 4:17 a.m. on February 6th in Antakya, an ancient Turkish city near the Syrian border, when the earth tore open and people’s beds began to shake. On the third floor of an apartment in the Ekinci neighborhood, Anwar Saadeddin, a former brigadier general in the Syrian Army, awoke to the sounds of glass breaking, cupboard doors banging, and jars of tahini and cured eggplant spilling onto the floor. He climbed out of bed, but, for…

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Saudi Arabia on ‘relentless killing spree,’ Amnesty International says

Saudi Arabia on ‘relentless killing spree,’ Amnesty International says

Deutsche Welle reports: Authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have executed at least 100 people in 2023, according to human rights watchdog Amnesty International. In a statement on Friday, the activists said they documented several cases in which people had been sentenced to death for social media posts or drug-related offenses in “grossly unfair trials that fell far short of international human rights standards.” “The authorities’ relentless killing spree raises serious fears for the lives of young men on…

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Twitter accused of helping Saudi Arabia commit human rights abuses

Twitter accused of helping Saudi Arabia commit human rights abuses

The Guardian reports: The social media company formerly known as Twitter has been accused in a revised civil US lawsuit of helping Saudi Arabia commit grave human rights abuses against its users, including by disclosing confidential user data at the request of Saudi authorities at a much higher rate than it has for the US, UK or Canada. The lawsuit was brought last May against X, as Twitter is now known, by Areej al-Sadhan, the sister of a Saudi aid…

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U.S. presses Saudi Arabia on reported migrant massacres which could be crimes against humanity

U.S. presses Saudi Arabia on reported migrant massacres which could be crimes against humanity

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration is pressing Saudi Arabia to identify which elements of its security forces are alleged to have slaughtered migrants along the kingdom’s border with Yemen, a step that would mark an advance toward determining responsibility for the reported abuses and help the United States establish if it has provided weapons or training to those units. Riyadh has categorically denied the allegations in last week’s explosive report from Human Rights Watch, which described widespread killing,…

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South Carolina’s all-male Supreme Court upholds abortion law, reversing earlier decision

South Carolina’s all-male Supreme Court upholds abortion law, reversing earlier decision

The New York Times reports: The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the state’s new near-total ban on abortion by a 4-1 vote, reversing a decision it had made in January that struck down a similar ban and declared that the State Constitution’s protections for privacy included a right to abortion. The court’s decision was not unexpected, because the makeup of the bench had changed, and Republicans in the State Legislature had passed a new abortion law in the…

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Government’s own experts found ‘barbaric’ and ‘negligent’ conditions in ICE detention

Government’s own experts found ‘barbaric’ and ‘negligent’ conditions in ICE detention

NPR reports: In Michigan, a man in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was sent into a jail’s general population unit with an open wound from surgery, no bandages and no follow-up medical appointment scheduled, even though he still had surgical drains in place. A federal inspector found: “The detainee never received even the most basic care for his wound.” In Georgia, a nurse ignored an ICE detainee who urgently asked for an inhaler to treat his asthma. Even…

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Montana judge hands young plaintiffs significant victory in landmark climate trial

Montana judge hands young plaintiffs significant victory in landmark climate trial

CNN reports: A Montana judge handed a significant victory on Monday to more than a dozen young plaintiffs in the nation’s first constitutional climate trial, as extreme weather becomes more deadly and scientists warn the climate crisis is eroding our environment and natural resources. In a case that could have legal reverberations for other climate litigation, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that Montana’s continued development of fossil fuels violates a clause in its state constitution that guarantees its citizens…

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