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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

How a small town silenced a neo-Nazi hate campaign

How a small town silenced a neo-Nazi hate campaign

The New York Times reports from Whitefish, Montana: Richard B. Spencer, the most infamous summer resident in this town, once boasted that he stood at the vanguard of a white nationalist movement emboldened by President Donald J. Trump. Things have changed. “I have bumped into him, and he runs — that’s actually a really good feeling,” said Tanya Gersh, a real estate agent targeted in an antisemitic hate campaign that Andrew Anglin, the founder of the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi…

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Anti-Defamation League head: We were wrong to oppose location of Manhattan Islamic center

Anti-Defamation League head: We were wrong to oppose location of Manhattan Islamic center

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO and National Director of the ADL writes: Around the world Jews are celebrating the High Holy Days. During this time, Jews focus on the need for Teshuvah, or self-examination and repentance. But self-examination need not be limited to individuals. Institutions, especially century-old institutions like ADL, also can commit to the practice of self-examination and Teshuvah. And it is in this spirit that I have been reflecting on a stance ADL took 11 years ago when we…

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Taliban fighters crush a women’s protest amid flickers of resistance

Taliban fighters crush a women’s protest amid flickers of resistance

The New York Times reports: Taliban fighters violently suppressed a women’s protest Saturday in Kabul, while 70 miles to the north ex-Afghan army and militia members battled the Islamist group in Panjshir Province, as pockets of anti-Taliban resistance continued to flare up. Several of the women, who were demanding inclusion in the yet-to-be named Taliban government, said they were beaten by Taliban fighters — some of the first concrete evidence of harsh treatment of women by the group. Since they…

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The lessons of America’s defeat in Afghanistan

The lessons of America’s defeat in Afghanistan

Steve Coll writes: At the end of last week, all of Afghanistan’s airports remained closed to commercial flights. Neighboring countries had shut their borders. Long after the world’s attention turns away, the great majority of the population will “remain inside Afghanistan,” Filippo Grandi, the current U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said. “They need us.” Drought, economic collapse, and covid have left millions of Afghans “marching towards starvation,” David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Programme, warned. On 9/11,…

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The justices are telling us what they think about Roe v. Wade

The justices are telling us what they think about Roe v. Wade

Mary Ziegler writes: The five justices who upheld Texas’s anti-abortion law in the middle of the night this week insisted that their hands were tied: Texas had invoked sovereign immunity, and abortion providers had not proved that the state was wrong. Above all, the majority warned people not to overreact. Women in Texas might not be able to get an abortion anymore, and abortion providers might have already shut down, but worry not. The Supreme Court had not drawn “any…

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All of those ‘hysterical’ women were right

All of those ‘hysterical’ women were right

Laura Bassett writes: Last night, the Supreme Court quietly green-lit the most extreme abortion ban the United States has seen in half a century: a Texas law that prohibits abortions at six weeks from a woman’s last period, even in cases of rape or incest, and that deputizes citizens to spy on women and sue anyone who helps someone obtain a prohibited abortion. The rest of the states now have a road map to ban abortion almost entirely and put…

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There are two real ways to answer the Texas abortion law

There are two real ways to answer the Texas abortion law

Dahlia Lithwick writes: Thinking about a nondecision that never came down via the so-called shadow docket in the middle of the night that allowed the second-largest state in the country to overturn a 50-year-old precedent without the Supreme Court writing a word is a bit like dancing between the raindrops. By doing nothing at all on Wednesday night, the Supreme Court largely evaded top-of-the-fold coverage or glaring headlines even as—for all intents and purposes—abortions after six weeks simply stopped in…

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Taliban urge women to stay home because fighters haven’t been trained to respect them

Taliban urge women to stay home because fighters haven’t been trained to respect them

The New York Times reports: When the Taliban were last in power, Afghan women were generally not allowed to leave their homes except under certain narrowly defined conditions. Those who did risked being beaten, tortured or executed. In the days since the Taliban swept back into control, their leaders have insisted that this time will be different. Women, they say, will be allowed to work. Girls will be free to attend school. At least within the confines of their interpretation…

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Afghan women’s defiance and despair: ‘I never thought I’d have to wear a burqa. My identity will be lost’

Afghan women’s defiance and despair: ‘I never thought I’d have to wear a burqa. My identity will be lost’

The Guardian reports: In a market in Kabul, Aref is doing a booming trade. At first glance, the walls of his shop seem to be curtained in folds of blue fabric. On closer inspection, dozens and dozens of blue burqas hang like spectres from hooks on the wall. As the Taliban close in on Kabul, women inside the city are getting ready for what may be coming. “Before, most of our customers were from the provinces,” says Aref. “Now it…

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Big Tech’s threat to democracy

Big Tech’s threat to democracy

Matthew B Crawford writes: The convenience of the smart home may be worth the price; that’s for each of us to decide. But to do so with open eyes, one has to understand what the price is. After all, you don’t pay a monthly fee for Alexa, or Google Home. The cost, then, is a subtle one: a slight psychological adjustment in which we are tipped a bit further into passivity and dependence. The Sleep Number Bed is typical of…

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The war on Indigenous rights in Brazil is intensifying

The war on Indigenous rights in Brazil is intensifying

Mark Harris and Denise Ferreira Da Silva write: Indigenous peoples in Brazil are under siege by the Brazilian government, which is waging war on two fronts. New legislation in the form of a bill known as PL 490/2007 threatens to cancel legal protections for Indigenous territories, while a landmark Supreme Court case over the so-called marco temporal, a 1988 cut-off date that threatens to strip the Indigenous peoples of existing land rights. Though not as visible as the effects of…

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Global herd immunity remains out of reach because of inequitable vaccine distribution – 99% of people in poor countries are unvaccinated

Global herd immunity remains out of reach because of inequitable vaccine distribution – 99% of people in poor countries are unvaccinated

A COVID-19 field hospital in Santo Andre, Brazil. The pandemic has killed over 503,000 people in Brazil; just 11% of the population is fully vaccinated. Mario Tama/Getty Images By Maria De Jesus, American University School of International Service In the race between infection and injection, injection has lost. Public health experts estimate that approximately 70% of the world’s 7.9 billion people must be fully vaccinated to end the COVID-19 pandemic. As of June 21, 2021, 10.04% of the global population…

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A deeper look at the history of Black self-liberation

A deeper look at the history of Black self-liberation

Daina Ramey Berry writes: Two centuries ago, a woman named Esther claimed her freedom. The enslaved woman filed a suit against her enslaver, Bernard H. Buckner, on behalf of herself and her two children in federal court. In 1827, Buckner had intended to move the family to his new home in the District of Columbia, but had neglected to heed a local law requiring him to relocate them within a year of establishing residency. It was a technicality, part of…

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Amazon struggles to value its employees as much as its customers

Amazon struggles to value its employees as much as its customers

The New York Times reports: Last September, Ann Castillo saw an email from Amazon that made no sense. Her husband had worked for the company for five years, most recently at the supersize warehouse on Staten Island that served as the retailer’s critical pipeline to New York City. Now it wanted him back on the night shift. “We notified your manager and H.R. about your return to work on Oct. 1, 2020,” the message said. Ms. Castillo was incredulous. While…

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An open letter on U.S. media coverage of Palestine

An open letter on U.S. media coverage of Palestine

An open letter on U.S. media coverage of Palestine: Finding truth and holding the powerful to account are core principles of journalism. Yet for decades, our news industry has abandoned those values in coverage of Israel and Palestine. We have failed our audiences with a narrative that obscures the most fundamental aspects of the story: Israel’s military occupation and its system of apartheid. For the sake of our readers and viewers — and the truth — we have a duty…

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When justice is out of reach

When justice is out of reach

Janine di Giovanni writes: Some years ago, I was given an assignment by Vanity Fair to track down war criminals and former dictators who, despite being ousted from power, hadn’t yet seen justice. As I hunted down their villas on the French Riviera, one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world, or in the cobbled side streets of Paris’s 16th arrondissement, I was reminded, not for the first time, that after war or upheaval, bad guys rarely…

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