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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

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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Boycotts and sanctions helped rid South Africa of apartheid – is Israel next in line?

Boycotts and sanctions helped rid South Africa of apartheid – is Israel next in line?

Chris McGreal writes: Twenty-seven years after the end of white rule, some see the boycott campaign against South Africa as a guide to mobilising popular support against what is increasingly condemned as Israel’s own brand of apartheid. As South Africa showed, building popular support for action takes years – and those who back the campaign face a far more effective opponent in the Israeli state. For all that, significant shifts in attitudes toward Israel, particularly in the US and within…

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Belarus carries out ‘state hijacking’ to seize dissident from European airliner

Belarus carries out ‘state hijacking’ to seize dissident from European airliner

The New York Times reports: The strongman president of Belarus sent a fighter jet to intercept a European airliner traveling through the country’s airspace on Sunday and ordered the plane to land in the capital, Minsk, where a prominent opposition journalist aboard was then seized, provoking international outrage. The stunning gambit by Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a brutal and erratic leader who has clung to power despite huge protests against his government last year, was condemned by European officials, who compared…

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Gaza war deepens a long-running humanitarian crisis

Gaza war deepens a long-running humanitarian crisis

The New York Times reports: The nine-day battle between Hamas militants and the Israeli military has damaged 17 hospitals and clinics in Gaza, wrecked its only coronavirus test laboratory, sent fetid wastewater into its streets and broke water pipes serving at least 800,000 people, setting off a humanitarian crisis that is touching nearly every civilian in the crowded enclave of about two million people. Sewage systems inside Gaza have been destroyed. A desalination plant that helped provide fresh water to…

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Abusive Israeli policies constitute crimes of apartheid, persecution

Abusive Israeli policies constitute crimes of apartheid, persecution

Human Rights Watch reports: Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The finding is based on an overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem. The 213-page report, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” examines Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It presents…

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ICE, CBP to stop using ‘illegal alien’ and ‘assimilation’ under new Biden administration order

ICE, CBP to stop using ‘illegal alien’ and ‘assimilation’ under new Biden administration order

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration has ordered U.S. immigration enforcement agencies to stop using terms such as “alien,” “illegal alien” and “assimilation” when referring to immigrants in the United States, a rebuke of terms widely used under the Trump administration. The change was detailed in memos sent Monday to department heads at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the nation’s chief enforcers of federal immigration laws, according to copies obtained by The Washington Post. It…

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U.S. intelligence report warns of global consequences of social fragmentation

U.S. intelligence report warns of global consequences of social fragmentation

The New York Times reports: U.S. intelligence officials warned in a report issued on Thursday about the potential fragmentation of society and the global order, holding out the possibility of a world where international trade is disrupted, groups of countries create online enclaves and civic cohesion is undermined. The report, compiled every four years by the National Intelligence Council, mixes more traditional national security challenges like the potentially disruptive rise of China with social trends that have clear security implications,…

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‘We are doomed’: Devastation from storms fuels migration in Honduras

‘We are doomed’: Devastation from storms fuels migration in Honduras

The New York Times reports: Children pry at the dirt with sticks, trying to dig out parts of homes that have sunk below ground. Their parents, unable to feed them, scavenge the rubble for remnants of roofs to sell for scrap metal. They live on top of the mud that swallowed fridges, stoves, beds — their entire lives buried beneath them. “We are doomed here,” said Magdalena Flores, a mother of seven, standing on a mattress that peeked out from…

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Amazon counterpunch results in ‘own goal’

Amazon counterpunch results in ‘own goal’

The Guardian reports: Say what you will about the relative merits of the continued existence of Amazon, the humble online bookstore that might end up being the last company in the world at this rate, you might expect all of that accumulated wealth to afford them access to the best and brightest communications professionals in the world. The behavior of the Amazon News corporate account and of executive Dave Clark on Twitter over the past week, lashing out at prominent…

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When Assad’s end comes

When Assad’s end comes

Lina Sergie Attar writes: “Who is the hope for the future of Syria?” A teacher paces in a drab classroom in Syria, asking the young students. “Who is the hope to lead us to a better future?” She adds, “We have the right to choose.” She calls on a few to answer, one by one, later marking them as orphans of the war. They dutifully stand and state the same (and only) answer, “The President, Bashar Hafez al-Assad.” This video…

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Refugee flights canceled as Biden fails to lift Trump cutback

Refugee flights canceled as Biden fails to lift Trump cutback

The New York Times reports: More than 715 refugees from around the world who expected to start new lives in the United States have had their flights canceled in recent weeks because President Biden has postponed an overhaul of his predecessor’s sharp limits on new refugee admissions. Agencies that assist refugees poised to enter the country were notified by the State Department this week that all travel would be suspended until the president sets a new target for admissions this…

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He told the world about his brutal torture in Syria. Then, mysteriously, he went back

He told the world about his brutal torture in Syria. Then, mysteriously, he went back

The Washington Post reports: With his gaunt frame, haunted face and copious tears, Mazen al-Hamada became a poster boy for the suffering of Syrian torture victims. After escaping from Syria to the Netherlands, he traveled widely, sharing with audiences across the United States and Europe stories of the horrors he endured in a Damascus prison. And then, mysteriously, inexplicably and perhaps suicidally, just over a year ago he returned to Syria, to risk once again the cruelties of the government…

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From ‘aliens’ to ‘noncitizens’ – the Biden administration is proposing to change a legal term to recognize the humanity of non-Americans

From ‘aliens’ to ‘noncitizens’ – the Biden administration is proposing to change a legal term to recognize the humanity of non-Americans

If a proposed law passes, this group of immigrants apprehended at the U.S. border near Mission, Texas, would be called ‘noncitizens,’ not ‘aliens.’ Sergio Flores for The Washington Post via Getty Images By Kevin Johnson, University of California, Davis A profound change has been proposed by the Biden administration for U.S. immigration law. Following up on candidate Joe Biden’s promise of immigration reform legislation, the U.S. Citizenship Act would eliminate the term “alien” from the U.S. immigration laws. The country’s…

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Saudi release of prominent activist comes amid effort to rebrand for Biden era

Saudi release of prominent activist comes amid effort to rebrand for Biden era

The Washington Post reports: Saudi Arabia released Loujain al-Hathloul, one of the country’s most prominent women’s rights activists, from prison on Wednesday in the clearest sign yet that the kingdom’s leaders were taking steps to assuage President Biden’s complaints about human rights violations. Hathloul, 31, has been among the most visible faces of an unrelenting Saudi crackdown on human rights advocates, dissidents and civil society activists. Her imprisonment, which lasted 1,001 days, and her allegations that she had been tortured,…

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