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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

What the hell happened to Biden’s human rights agenda?

What the hell happened to Biden’s human rights agenda?

Matthew Duss writes: As president, Donald Trump made no secret of his admiration for repressive rulers around the world. Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to change that. He regularly criticized Donald Trump’s silence about repressive regimes and promised that a Biden administration would “hold to account those who perpetrate human rights abuses.” Since taking office he has repeated the refrain that “human rights will be the center of our foreign policy.” Not only has Biden not honored this promise,…

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Native Americans are major victims of Minneapolis police racism: DOJ

Native Americans are major victims of Minneapolis police racism: DOJ

Mother Jones reports: After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Native Americans stood beside Black protesters in Minneapolis and called for changes to policing. Now, the Justice Department is highlighting how the city’s cops have been racist against them, too. On Friday, the department released a blistering report showing that for years, the Minneapolis police have discriminated against Native Americans as well as Black residents, creating the conditions that led to Floyd’s death. The police are much more likely to stop…

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The Arab Spring is in its death spiral. Does the West still care?

The Arab Spring is in its death spiral. Does the West still care?

Kim Ghattas writes: The past few months have brought despair to millions of Arabs as they’ve watched the rapid and seemingly definitive restoration of an old, dictatorial order throughout a region that was not long ago full of promise. The end of the Arab Spring has been forecast many times already. Now the last stubborn buds have been crushed. Tunisia, the country that started the wave of democratic uprisings in December 2010, served for more than a decade as a…

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Clarence Thomas’s newest opinion would literally bring back child labor

Clarence Thomas’s newest opinion would literally bring back child labor

Ian Millhiser writes: On Thursday, the Supreme Court imposed strict new limits on the Clean Water Act. The Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA is likely to do serious harm to the government’s ability to quell water pollution, including in major waterways such as the Mississippi River and the Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion that would so severely limit Congress’s power to legislate that he might as well have taken several volumes of the United…

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You cannot hear these 13 women’s stories and believe the anti-abortion narrative

You cannot hear these 13 women’s stories and believe the anti-abortion narrative

Michelle Goldberg writes: It’s increasingly clear that it’s not safe to be pregnant in states with total abortion bans. Since the end of Roe v. Wade, there has been a barrage of gutting stories about women in prohibition states denied care for miscarriages or forced to continue nonviable pregnancies. Though some in the anti-abortion movement publicly justify this sort of treatment, others have responded with a combination of denial, deflection and conspiracy theorizing. Some activists have blamed the pro-choice movement…

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Texas forced this woman to give birth to a stillborn son. She’s suing

Texas forced this woman to give birth to a stillborn son. She’s suing

Rolling Stone reports: After multiple miscarriages, Kiersten Hogan thought she would never be able to carry a pregnancy to term. She’d nearly given up hope when in June 2021 she learned she was pregnant. But at just 19 weeks — days after Texas’ Senate Bill 8 went into effect — Hogan woke up at 5 a.m. in excruciating pain. She called 911 and was instructed to unlock her front door and lay on the ground until EMTs arrived. “It was…

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NAACP issues travel advisory for Florida, saying the state is ‘openly hostile toward African Americans’ under Gov. DeSantis’ administration

NAACP issues travel advisory for Florida, saying the state is ‘openly hostile toward African Americans’ under Gov. DeSantis’ administration

CNN reports: Another advocacy group is warning people of color about traveling to Florida – but for different reasons. The NAACP issued a travel advisory for the state “in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools,” the group said in a written statement Saturday. The announcement came days after LULAC – the League of United Latin American Citizens – issued a travel advisory for…

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Russian mercenaries behind slaughter of 500 in Mali village, UN report finds

Russian mercenaries behind slaughter of 500 in Mali village, UN report finds

The Observer reports: First came a single helicopter, flying low over the marshes around the river outside the village, then the rattle of automatic fire scattered the crowds gathered for the weekly market. Next came more helicopters, dropping troops off around the homes and cattle pens. The soldiers moved swiftly, ordering men into the centre of the village, gunning down those trying to escape. When some armed militants fired back, the shooting intensified. Soon at least 20 civilians and a…

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Why a self-described ‘unwavering advocate of abortion rights’ voted for an extreme abortion ban

Why a self-described ‘unwavering advocate of abortion rights’ voted for an extreme abortion ban

Jezebel reports: Imagine campaigning for a Democratic politician—a thankless, low-paying job, especially at the state level—because you believe in what they stand for. The candidate gives powerful speeches about abortion rights that make you proud. You’re in a purple state, where every single seat in the legislature is critical to protecting abortion access. So you join the fight, help them win, and continue working for them in the legislature. Then inexplicably, in the middle of their term, that politician does…

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‘The forever prisoner’: Abu Zubaydah’s drawings expose the CIA’s depraved torture policy

‘The forever prisoner’: Abu Zubaydah’s drawings expose the CIA’s depraved torture policy

The Guardian reports: A detainee held in the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay who was used as a human guinea pig in the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program has produced the most comprehensive and detailed account yet seen of the brutal techniques to which he was subjected. Abu Zubaydah has created a series of 40 drawings that chronicle the torture he endured in a number of CIA dark sites between 2002 and 2006 and at Guantánamo Bay. In the absence of a…

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Gunman in Texas mall shooting may have had neo-Nazi beliefs

Gunman in Texas mall shooting may have had neo-Nazi beliefs

The Washington Post reports: The gunman who opened fire on an outlet mall in a Dallas suburb Saturday, killing at least eight people, was a man in his early 30s who may have had white supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs, people familiar with the investigation said Sunday. Mauricio Garcia, a local resident, had multiple weapons on him and in his nearby car, said people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe. Authorities…

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Middle Eastern autocrats are abetting China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs

Middle Eastern autocrats are abetting China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs

Bradley Jardine writes: In a display of China’s growing political influence in the Islamic world, leaders from 32 Muslim-majority countries flew to Xinjiang last year, in northwestern China, for a conference showcasing the region’s supposed economic and social development. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the attendees expressed that “freedom of religious belief and various rights of Muslims are duly guaranteed” and that the reality in Xinjiang “is completely different from what some Western media reported,” a veiled reference…

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Rights groups condemn ‘alarming’ police arrests of coronation protesters

Rights groups condemn ‘alarming’ police arrests of coronation protesters

The Washington Post reports: Human rights groups and politicians in Britain are criticizing the law enforcement response to King Charles III’s coronation, following the Metropolitan Police’s arrests of dozens of demonstrators during Saturday’s pageantry. Republic, an anti-monarchy group that organized a protest in central London during the coronation, said police arrested six of its members, including leader Graham Smith, and seized hundreds of placards even before its event began. Smith, who said he was released from police custody later that…

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E. Jean Carroll’s quest for justice and the carnage of Donald Trump’s misogyny

E. Jean Carroll’s quest for justice and the carnage of Donald Trump’s misogyny

Molly Jong-Fast writes: Last week, my friend, 79-year-old writer E. Jean Carroll, began testifying in her civil case against the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump. She was able to bring these accusations of rape to court because of a new New York state law, the Adult Survivors Act, which gave Carroll a yearlong window to sue despite her case being out of the statute of limitations. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the law in 2022; it’s hard to…

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Harry Belafonte: ‘This country reveals its moral decay every day of its existence’

Harry Belafonte: ‘This country reveals its moral decay every day of its existence’

  Following Harry Belafonte’s death at age 96, Rolling Stone‘s obituary recounts: Born in 1927 in Harlem, Harold Bellanfanti was the son of immigrants from Jamaica. His first creative love was the theater. He and Poitier got into acting together, which spun off into Belafonte’s music career. Before he became known, he was once backed by a band including Charlier Parker and Miles Davis; a switch to Caribbean music followed as Belafonte became entranced by the folk music of his…

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With a heavy weight on his shoulders, Evan Gershkovich is standing tall

With a heavy weight on his shoulders, Evan Gershkovich is standing tall

Jason Rezaian writes: As Evan Gershkovich appeared in a Moscow courtroom, everything about the stage-managed proceedings was designed to elicit a specific response. He was placed in a glass cage where cameras flashed around him. Local Russian journalists covering the appearance yelled words of encouragement to him. Courtroom security guards admonished them for doing so. And the judge presiding over Gershkovich’s case rejected his appeal to be released on bail. In short, everyone played their part. Everyone, that is, except…

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