“The violence against journalists in Sweida — including injuries, intimidation, and the ransacking of media offices — along with the attack on a media outlet in Damascus, signals a dangerous escalation in threats to Syria’s press,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Authorities must investigate these incidents and ensure accountability. Journalists should not face violence or obstruction for doing their work.”

Fighting in Sweida governorate began on July 13, 2025, after a Druze merchant was assaulted by Bedouin tribesmen. The confrontation escalated into armed clashes between Druze groups and Bedouin fighters, drawing in Syrian government forces. Israeli airstrikes on July 15 and 16 followed in Sweida and Damascus, with Israel citing the protection of Druze communities. A U.S.-brokered truce temporarily halted fighting, but conditions on the ground remained unstable.

• On July 15, Nadim al-Nabulsi, a reporter for Ahrar Horan, a local media collective, sustained minor injuries while covering events in Sweida after an Israeli drone strike. “I was reporting near the entrance of the city, following a [Syrian government] General Security Forces vehicle on my motorcycle,” al-Nabulsi told CPJ. “The vehicle was hit by drone-dropped explosives. I was around 25 meters (82 feet) behind and tried to hide, but some shrapnel hit my lower back.” He said he was wearing a “Press” vest at the time.

• Also on July 15, freelance journalist Muhannad Abu Zaid was wounded during clashes. He said he was following a General Security Forces convoy into Sweida when gunfire broke out. “I took cover and started filming, but a sniper fired and hit my hand,” he told CPJ. “I think the bullet was meant for my chest, but a car shielded me.”

• On July 16, an Israeli airstrike In Damascus, targeting the Syrian army’s general staff headquarters damaged Al-Hadath TV’s office. According to a video posted by the channel on X, no one was injured.

• On July 19, four journalists wearing “Press” vests — freelance photographer Ali Haj Suleiman, a Getty Images contributor; photographer Bakr Alkasem, who contributes to Agence France-Presse; NoonPost reporter Hamza Abbas; and NoonPost camera operator Qusay Abdulbari — were beside their car in Sweida when it was struck by bullets. “We were covering events in Sweida, entering at the Omran roundabout,” Haj Suleiman told CPJ. “Druze armed factions appeared to counterattack, and gunfire came from three directions. We took cover behind our car as snipers and RPGs fired. After 10 minutes, the shooting stopped.”

• Also on July 19, Karam Nachar, editor-in-chief of the privately owned outlet Al-Jumhuriya, posted that one of the outlet’s journalists, who asked not to be named for his own safety, was robbed and threatened in his home in Sweida by what the journalist said “appeared to be newly recruited members of the ministry of defense.” CPJ spoke with the journalist and confirmed that he is now safe in Damascus. “The four gunmen took $1,600 in cash, my phone, and a camera worth around $2,000,” he said, adding that he managed to escape the raid after another journalist intervened.

CPJ contacted Mohammad Al-Saleh, the Syrian ministry of information’s spokesperson, via messaging app. He said authorities had not blocked journalists from working but warned them that Druze snipers were active in the area, and advised them to evacuate to avoid kidnapping or crossfire. Al-Saleh said the government holds its institutions accountable for any misconduct but currently lacks the means to pursue armed groups operating outside the law — “though that time will come.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Soran Rashid.

“The violence against journalists in Sweida — including injuries, intimidation, and the ransacking of media offices — along with the attack on a media outlet in Damascus, signals a dangerous escalation in threats to Syria’s press,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Authorities must investigate these incidents and ensure accountability. Journalists should not face violence or obstruction for doing their work.”

Fighting in Sweida governorate began on July 13, 2025, after a Druze merchant was assaulted by Bedouin tribesmen. The confrontation escalated into armed clashes between Druze groups and Bedouin fighters, drawing in Syrian government forces. Israeli airstrikes on July 15 and 16 followed in Sweida and Damascus, with Israel citing the protection of Druze communities. A U.S.-brokered truce temporarily halted fighting, but conditions on the ground remained unstable.

• On July 15, Nadim al-Nabulsi, a reporter for Ahrar Horan, a local media collective, sustained minor injuries while covering events in Sweida after an Israeli drone strike. “I was reporting near the entrance of the city, following a [Syrian government] General Security Forces vehicle on my motorcycle,” al-Nabulsi told CPJ. “The vehicle was hit by drone-dropped explosives. I was around 25 meters (82 feet) behind and tried to hide, but some shrapnel hit my lower back.” He said he was wearing a “Press” vest at the time.

• Also on July 15, freelance journalist Muhannad Abu Zaid was wounded during clashes. He said he was following a General Security Forces convoy into Sweida when gunfire broke out. “I took cover and started filming, but a sniper fired and hit my hand,” he told CPJ. “I think the bullet was meant for my chest, but a car shielded me.”

• On July 16, an Israeli airstrike In Damascus, targeting the Syrian army’s general staff headquarters damaged Al-Hadath TV’s office. According to a video posted by the channel on X, no one was injured.

• On July 19, four journalists wearing “Press” vests — freelance photographer Ali Haj Suleiman, a Getty Images contributor; photographer Bakr Alkasem, who contributes to Agence France-Presse; NoonPost reporter Hamza Abbas; and NoonPost camera operator Qusay Abdulbari — were beside their car in Sweida when it was struck by bullets. “We were covering events in Sweida, entering at the Omran roundabout,” Haj Suleiman told CPJ. “Druze armed factions appeared to counterattack, and gunfire came from three directions. We took cover behind our car as snipers and RPGs fired. After 10 minutes, the shooting stopped.”

• Also on July 19, Karam Nachar, editor-in-chief of the privately owned outlet Al-Jumhuriya, posted that one of the outlet’s journalists, who asked not to be named for his own safety, was robbed and threatened in his home in Sweida by what the journalist said “appeared to be newly recruited members of the ministry of defense.” CPJ spoke with the journalist and confirmed that he is now safe in Damascus. “The four gunmen took $1,600 in cash, my phone, and a camera worth around $2,000,” he said, adding that he managed to escape the raid after another journalist intervened.

CPJ contacted Mohammad Al-Saleh, the Syrian ministry of information’s spokesperson, via messaging app. He said authorities had not blocked journalists from working but warned them that Druze snipers were active in the area, and advised them to evacuate to avoid kidnapping or crossfire. Al-Saleh said the government holds its institutions accountable for any misconduct but currently lacks the means to pursue armed groups operating outside the law — “though that time will come.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Soran Rashid.

The Fordow site was of particular interest, located some eighty to a hundred metres underground and cocooned by protective concrete. For its purported destruction, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were used to drop GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator “bunker buster” bombs. All in all, approximately 75 precision-guided weapons were used in the operation, along with 125 aircraft and a guided missile submarine.

Trump was never going to be anything other than optimistic about the result. “Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images,” he blustered. “Obliteration is an accurate term!”

At the Pentagon press conference following the attack, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bubbled with enthusiasm. “The order we received from our commander in chief was focused, it was powerful, and it was clear. We devastated the Iranian nuclear program.” The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, was confident that the facilities had been subjected to severe punishment. “Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.” Adding to Caine’s remarks, Hegseth stated that, “The battle damage assessment is ongoing, but our initial assessment, as the Chairman said, is that all of our precision munitions struck where we wanted them to strike and had the desired effect.”

Resort to satellite imagery was always going to take place, and Maxar Technologies willingly supplied the material. “A layer of grey-blue ash caused by the airstrikes [on Fordow] is seen across a large swathe of the area,” the company noted in a statement. “Additionally, several of the tunnel entrances that lead into the underground facility are blocked with dirt following the airstrikes.”

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, also added his voice to the merry chorus that the damage had been significant. “CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted airstrikes.” The assessment included “new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”

Israeli sources were also quick to stroke Trump’s already outsized ego. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission opined that the strikes, combined with Israel’s own efforts, had “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s view was that the damage to the nuclear program was sufficient to have “set it back by years, I repeat, years.”

The chief of the increasingly discredited International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, flirted with some initial speculation, but was mindful of necessary caveats. In a statement to an emergency meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, he warned that, “At this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage at Fordow.” Cue the speculation: “Given the explosive payload utilised and extreme(ly) vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred.”

This was a parade begging to be rained on. CNN and The New York Times supplied it. Referring to preliminary classified findings in a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment running for five pages, the paper reported that the bombing of the three sites had “set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months”. The strikes had sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities, but they were not successful in precipitating a collapse of the underground buildings. Sceptical expertise murmured through the report: to destroy the facility at Fordow would require “waves of airstrikes, with days or even weeks of pounding the same spots.”

Then came the issue of the nuclear material in question, which Iran still retained control over. The fate of over 400 kg of uranium, which had been enriched to 60% purity, is unclear, as is the number of surviving or hidden centrifuges. Iran had already informed the IAEA on June 13 that “special measures” would be taken to protect nuclear materials and equipment under IAEA safeguards, a feature provided under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Any transfer of nuclear material from a safeguarded facility to another location, however, would have to be declared to the agency, something bound to be increasingly unlikely given the proposed suspension of cooperation with the IAEA by Iran’s parliament.

After mulling over the attacks for a week, Grossi revisited the matter. The attacks on the facilities had caused severe, though “not total” damage. “Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there.” Tehran could, “in a matter of months,” have “a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium.” Iran still had the “industrial and technological” means to recommence the process.

Efforts to question the thoroughness of Operation Midnight Hammer did not sit well with the Trump administration. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt worked herself into a state on any cautionary reporting, treating it as a libellous blemish. “The leaking of this alleged report is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” she fumed in a statement. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets.”

Hegseth similarly raged against the importance placed on the DIA report. In a press conference on June 26, he bemoaned the tendency of the press corps to “cheer against Trump so hard, it’s like in your DNA and in your blood”. The scribblers had to “cheer against the efficacy of these strikes” with “half-truths, spun information, leaked information”. Trump, for his part, returned to familiar ground, attacking any questioning narrative as “Fake News”. CNN, he seethed, had some of the dumbest anchors in the business. With malicious glee, he claimed knowledge of rumours that reporters from both CNN and The New York Times were going to be sacked for making up those “FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong.”

A postmodern nonsense has descended on the damage assessments regarding Iran’s nuclear program, leaving the way clear for overremunerated soothsayers. But there was nothing postmodern in the incalculable damage done to the law of nations, a body of acknowledged rules rendered brittle and breakable before the rapacious legislators of the jungle.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

An image from Maxar Technologies taken on Sunday shows the 5,000 ton naval destroyer at the dock in Raijin, which lies in a special economic zone in the northeastern tip of the country.

The warship fell sideways into the sea during its launch at the Chongjin shipyard on May 21, leaving it partially submerged and stoking the anger of leader Kim Jong Un, who called it a “grave and unacceptable accident” and a “serious criminal act.”

To the surprise of most foreign observers, North Korea managed not only to right the warship last week, but haul it 45 miles (72 kilometers) up the coast to Rajin, also known as Rason.

(Maxar Technology via AP)

State-run Korean Central News Agency said the ship was relaunched last Thursday. Experts will examine the hull for the next stage of restorations, to be carried out at Rajin Dockyard for 7-10 days, the report said.

Kim had attended the botched launch on May 21, which put a dent in North Korea’s ambitions to build a blue water navy. He had demanded the vessel be fully restored before a key ruling party meeting later this month.

State media reported on May 25 that several officials from the Chongjin Shipyard have been arrested over the launch failure.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

A WJZY news vehicle was struck with a stray bullet while two television journalists sat inside working on an unrelated story in Chester, South Carolina, on April 16, 2025.

Reporter Jen Cardone and photojournalist Donald Fountain reported that they were finishing a piece on water runoff issues near the Chester County Fairgrounds at around 3:30 p.m. when gunfire erupted.

“It sounded like firecrackers going on,” Cardone said.

Chester County dispatchers reported multiple armed individuals were seen and that approximately 14 shots were fired, one of which struck the news vehicle, hitting just above the passenger window where Cardone was sitting.

“If I had been leaning forward and not sitting back to edit and work on the story or if that bullet just came down a few inches, I’d probably be dead right now, not talking to you,” Cardone said.

Neither of the journalists was injured, though one individual was struck in the leg and was released following treatment. In a post on social media, Cardone wrote that in 10 years of reporting the experience was a first, adding, “Thankful to be alive and okay but still shaken up.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark maintains that Cook Islands, a realm of New Zealand, should have consulted Wellington before signing a “partnership” deal with China.

“[Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown] seems to have signed behind the backs of his own people as well as of New Zealand,” Clark told RNZ Pacific.

Brown said the deal with China complements, not replaces, the relationship with New Zealand.

• READ MORE: China deal ‘complements, not replaces’ NZ relationship, says Cook Islands PM
• Other China in Pacific reports
• The Joint Centenary Declaration of 2001

The contents of the deal have not yet been made public.

“The Cook Islands public need to see the agreement — does it open the way to Chinese entry to deep sea mining in pristine Cook Islands waters with huge potential for environmental damage?” Clark asked.

“Does it open the way to unsustainable borrowing? What are the governance safeguards? Why has the prime minister damaged the relationship with New Zealand by acting in this clandestine way?”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Clark went into detail about the declaration she signed with Cook Islands Prime Minister Terepai Maoate in 2001.

“There is no doubt in my mind that under the terms of the Joint Centenary Declaration of 2001 that Cook Islands should have been upfront with New Zealand on the agreement it was considering signing with China,” Clark said.

“Cook Islands has opted in the past for a status which is not independent of New Zealand, as signified by its people carrying New Zealand passports. Cook Islands is free to change that status, but has not.”

Missing the mark
A Pacific law expert said there was a clear misunderstanding on what the 2001 agreement legally required New Zealand and Cook Islands to consult on.

Brown has argued that New Zealand does not need to be consulted with to the level they want, something Foreign Minister Winston Peters disagrees with.

AUT senior law lecturer and former Pacific Islands Forum policy advisor Sione Tekiteki told RNZ Pacific the word “consultation” had become somewhat of a sticking point:

“From a legal perspective, there’s an ambiguity of what the word consultation means. Does it mean you have to share the agreement before it’s signed, or does it mean that you broadly just consult with New Zealand regarding what are some of the things that, broadly speaking, are some of the things that are in the agreement?

“That’s one avenue where there’s a bit of misunderstanding and an interpretation issue that’s different between Cook Islands as well as New Zealand.”

Unlike a treaty, the 2001 declaration is not “legally binding” per se but serves more to express the intentions, principles and commitments of the parties to work together in “recognition of the close traditional, cultural and social ties that have existed between the two countries for many hundreds of years”, he added.

Tekiteki said that the declaration made it explicitly clear that Cook Islands had full conduct of its foreign affairs, capacity to enter treaties and international agreements in its own right and full competence of its defence and security.

There was, however, a commitment of the parties to “consult regularly”, he said.

For Clark, the one who signed the all-important agreement all those years ago, this is where Brown had misstepped.

Pacific nations played off against each other
Tekiteki said it was not just the Joint Centenary Declaration causing contention. The “China threat” narrative and the “intensifying geopolitics” playing out in the Pacific was another intergrated issue.

An analysis in mid-2024 found that there were more than 60 security, defence and policing agreements and initiatives with the 10 largest Pacific countries.

Australia was the dominant partner, followed by New Zealand, the US and China.

A host of other agreements and “big money” announcements have followed, including the regional Pacific Policing Initiative and Australia’s arrangements with Nauru and PNG.

“It would be advantageous if Pacific nations were able to engage on security related matters as a bloc rather than at the bilateral level,” Tekiteki said.

“Not only will this give them greater political agency and leverage, but it would allow them to better coordinate and integrate support as well as avoid duplications. Entering these arrangements at the bilateral level opens Pacific nations to being played off against each other.

“This is the most worrying aspect of what I am currently seeing.

“This matter has greater implications for Cook Islands and New Zealand diplomatic relations moving forward.”

Protecting Pacific sovereignty
The word sovereignty is thrown around a lot. In this instance Tekiteki does not think “there is any dispute that Cook Islands maintains sovereignty to enter international arrangements and to conduct its affairs as it determines”.

But he did point out the difference between “sovereignty — the rhetoric” that we hear all the time, and “real sovereignty”.

“For example, sovereignty is commonly used as a rebuttal to other countries to mind their own business and not to meddle in the affairs of another country.

“At the regional level is tied to the projection of collective Pacific agency, and the ‘Blue Pacific’ narrative.

“However, real sovereignty is more nuanced. In the context of New Zealand and Cook Islands, both countries retain their sovereignty, but they have both made commitments to “consult” and “cooperate”.

Now, they can always decide to break that, but that in itself would have implications on their respective sovereignty moving forward.

“In an era of intensifying geopolitics, militarisation, and power posturing — this becomes very concerning for vulnerable but large Ocean Pacific nations without the defence capabilities to protect their sovereignty.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“The deliberate destruction of North Macedonian journalist Blagoj Sersemov’s property is clearly meant to silence him and intimidate other reporters into silence,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities must ensure that journalists can cover critical issues safely, without fear of reprisal, or intimidation for doing their job.”

Sersemov, who serves as editor of the local television and online media outlet M-Net, is facing a defamation lawsuit in connection with his reporting in which the legal team of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia, an independent trade union, is representing him in the Basic Court in Štip. Ivan Breshkovski, a lawyer with the legal team, told CPJ in an email that following Sersemov’s reporting on Facebook, “a debt collector company, one of the largest quick-loan providers in the country” sued him for defamation and damages, which the association considers baseless. Sersemov told local media that he considers the damage to his vehicle “a direct attack on all media, not just on me personally.”

CPJ emailed questions to the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the police, but did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was detained while documenting a protest in New York City on Sept. 10, 2024. New York City police officers slammed her against a wall, damaging her camera, and ripped her equipment bag off her back.

Fedorova told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that a small group of demonstrators in “black bloc” — wearing all black and concealing their identities — gathered in Manhattan to protest a variety of issues, including the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.

In her footage, distributed via FreedomNews.TV, demonstrators are seen pulling trash bins and plastic barricades into the street to block traffic and spraying graffiti on a city bus and on a T-Mobile storefront.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

North Korean nights look darker than usual these days, satellite imagery revealed, leading experts to conclude that damage from floods in July may have damaged the country’s archaic power grid.

The Joint Polar-orbiting Satellite System, a satellite jointly operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, on Aug. 23 photographed the area around the North Korean city of Sinuiju, which lies across the Yalu River from the Chinese city of Dandong.

When compared to a satellite photo taken June 26 of the same area, the North Korean side appears to be much darker, with very little change in brightness on the Chinese side. 

Bruce Songhak Chung, a researcher at the Korean Institute for Security and Strategy, who analyzed the nighttime lighting footage, told RFA Korean on Aug. 28 that the reason the Sinuiju area has become dark could be damaged power lines and facilities from the flood.

“It appears that during the heavy rains, power lines were damaged due to the loss of or damage to telephone poles and wires, including the nighttime barbed wire fences installed along the Yalu River,” he said. 

“So I think they are experiencing a power shortage because the power is not being supplied properly,” Chung said.

The high-voltage electric fences along the Yalu River that were under construction are meant to prevent North Korean residents from escaping.  

Jacob Bogle, a private satellite imagery analyst, told RFA that although the two hydroelectric dams that supply Sinuiju with power are not known to have been damaged, he believes some of the transmission lines and electrical substations were.

“It's possible that the dams, which are operated jointly with China, underwent inspections, with turbines being temporarily shut down one by one leading to less electricity generation,” he said.

Pockets of darkness in Pyongyang

The darkness was not only limited to the Sinuiju area. The Hwasong area of Pyongyang, site of a major housing construction project, was also dark. 

JPSS satellite images taken on June 26 and Aug. 26 show that the bright lights that illuminated the area for nighttime workers were noticeably darker.

“We may presume that the power situation in Pyongyang may have suddenly worsened recently, or perhaps that construction workers may have been mobilized for flood recovery in Sinuiju,” said Chung.

Jiro Ishimaru, the founder and chief editor of the Osaka-based Asia Press news outlet that specializes in North Korea, told RFA that authorities are making an all-out flood recovery effort.

“Even in areas where flood damage is not as severe, each company is organizing stormtroopers and sending them to the flood sites,” he said, using the term by which North Korea calls its soldiers assigned to construction work.

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Seo Hye Jun for RFA Korean.

Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was arrested by Chicago Police Department officers Aug. 20, 2024, while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest planned to coincide with the nearby Democratic National Convention. Law enforcement also confiscated her press credentials and cracked her camera lens.

A small gathering of protesters, unaffiliated with and more militant than other groups that had organized larger demonstrations earlier in the week, converged around 7 p.m. outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago’s West Loop section. The demonstrators and police, who far outnumbered them, clashed repeatedly. The protesters were later ordered to leave the area and police began arresting them, Block Club Chicago reported.

Other journalists besides Fedorova were among the dozens detained, according to the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. CBS News reported that Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said three journalists were arrested for not complying with officers’ orders when police began moving in to arrest protesters who had attacked police.

Independent photojournalist Josh Pacheco, one of those arrested, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the scene was chaotic, with officers issuing conflicting, often inaudible commands to the crowd, and pushing people onto the sidewalk, which was already crowded with police bicycles. Pacheco said that members of the press were caught between protesters and police as officers tried to keep demonstrators out of the roadway and intersections.

Amid the chaos, Fedorova was arrested. Journalists Talia (Jane) Ben-Ora and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel both reported on social media that at the time of her arrest Fedorova was wearing Chicago–issued press credentials, which the police confiscated, and that her camera lens was cracked by the police.

Fedorova’s attorney Steven Baron confirmed to the Tracker that Fedorova was “swept up in the mass arrest and detained for many hours at the Area 3 Chicago Police headquarters.” She was released the following morning and her press credentials were returned to her later in the day.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that Chicago police returned Fedorova’s credentials after NPPA and the journalists’ attorneys notified them “that such seizures were improper.”

Osterreicher also said that in advance of the DNC, he had offered the Chicago Police Department a training on interacting with the press similar to one he gave the Milwaukee Police Department before the Republican National Convention in July.

“They told me that they had been providing First Amendment training and they didn’t need anything from NPPA,” Osterreicher said. “Given the events of last night, I would have to say that that alleged training was an abysmal failure.”

The DNC’s Public Safety Joint Information Center confirmed that Fedorova had been cited for disorderly conduct — failure to obey police. It did not respond to an additional question about why she was arrested.

“Olga and the others were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for simply doing their jobs as reporters,” Baron told the Tracker. “We are disappointed that the City of Chicago chose to sweep the First Amendment under the rug with its heavy-handed tactics against working journalists.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Reporter Cam Higby said he was assaulted while attempting to report on the occupation of a building on the University of California, Los Angeles, campus on May 23, 2024.

UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters staged a sit-in at an academic building after law enforcement officers cleared a second pro-Palestinian encampment on campus.

Higby told the Tracker he was blocked from entering the building through the front doors but was able to find a way in through a side entrance. “I was just filming and kind of walking around, taking pictures of the graffiti they had spray-painted inside the building,” he said.

Shortly after, someone recognized him and called out, “This guy’s a Zionist!”

Multiple individuals then surrounded him near the top of a set of exit stairs, jeering at him and challenging his status as a journalist. Higby confirmed with the Tracker that he was wearing a press credential from Today Is America, which he described as a digital news media and commentary site.

Higby said he started to walk away from the individuals, but someone came from behind and struck his camera with what he believes was a closed fist.

In his footage of the incident, a voice can be heard asking Higby, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Investigative journalist Kate Burns was beaten and had gear damaged and stolen while documenting clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters in Los Angeles, California, on June 23, 2024. At least nine journalists were assaulted while covering the violence that day.

The conflict began after the Southern California chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement called for demonstrators to meet at noon outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood in west LA to protest the alleged sale of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Multiple journalists told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that scuffles, brawls and exchanges of pepper spray broke out in the streets nearby between the protesters and counterprotesters.

Individuals from both sides — including a rabbi and security volunteers from the Jewish community — attempted to intervene and prevent the violence from escalating. CNN reported that Los Angeles Police Department officers established a perimeter around the synagogue.

Burns, who was posting live updates from the protest to social platform X for the investigative journalism outlet Left Coast Right Watch, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was clearly identified as a journalist with a press pass on a lanyard and a camera around her neck.

Burns said that several times she was surrounded by protesters who shouted misogynistic expletives and threats. Pro-Israeli protesters called her a terrorist and threatened to rape, behead and burn her at the stake, she recounted.

They also said they wished she had died of cancer, added Burns, a cancer survivor who wears a face mask because she is immunocompromised.

When, near the end of the protest, Burns went to the aid of a journalist who was being assaulted, a protester stole her iPhone and ran off. Another protester snatched her hat and mask and tripped her, she told the Tracker.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

As videos of the incident went viral on social media, several users started claiming that the perpetrators were Muslims. Sagar Kumar, who is a ‘journalist’ associated with Right-wing propaganda outlet Sudarshan News, tweeted two videos — one of the incident and another of the alleged perpetrator — claiming that the ‘terror of angry driver Mohammad Sajid Ali was on display’ when he was asked to pay toll tax. (Archive)

Right-wing influencer MeghUpdates also tweeted the same videos and claimed that UP police had given ‘proper servicing’ to the perpetrator Sajid. (Archive)

‘Journalist’ Ashwini Shrivastava, who claims to show his audiences what ‘mainstream media’ doesn’t, also claimed that the perpetrator in question was a Muslim man named Mohammad Sajid Ali. (Archive)

Several other Right-wing users tweeted the same videos with the claim that the accused in question was a Muslim. (Archives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

Fact Check

After the claims went viral, Hapur Police issued a video statement. According to SP Abhishek Verma, the JCB driver was arrested after the incident and the JCB was seized. The man was charged under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. SP Verma also informed that when the driver was trying to flee the scene of the alleged crime, other cars were also damaged. Written complaints had been received from the concerned drivers and a case was registered against him under the relevant section at the Garhmukteshwar police station. The JCB driver was under the influence of alcohol.

थाना पिलखुवा क्षेत्रान्तर्गत छिजारसी टोल प्लाजा पर एक जेसीबी चालक द्वारा जेसीबी से टोल बूथ में तोड़फोड़ करने वाले जेसीबी चालक को अल्प समय में घटना में प्रयुक्त जेसीबी सहित गिरफ्तार करने के संबंध में पुलिस अधीक्षक @vermaabhishek25 महोदय की बाइट..!@Uppolice pic.twitter.com/NbDJgHGeBt

— HAPUR POLICE (@hapurpolice) June 11, 2024

In a later statement, SP Verma informed that the driver’s name was Dheeraj, son of Vidyaram. The perpetrator hails from Janpath Badaun and is 23-24 years old. He works as a labourer and was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.

#WATCH | Hapur, Uttar Pradesh: On the incident of a toll booth vandalized by a JCB driver, SP Hapur Abhishek Verma says, “JCB driver has been arrested by Hapur police. JCB driver’s name is Dheeraj and he hails from Budaun district…He works as a labourer and was drunk…The JCB… pic.twitter.com/ZBWt4DsbEd

— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) June 11, 2024

The name of the accused was also clarified in a press note.

थाना पिलखुवा व थाना गढमुक्तेश्वर पुलिस टीम ने संयुक्त कार्यवाही कर छिजारसी टोल प्लाजा पर एक जेसीबी चालक द्वारा जेसीबी से टोल बूथ में तोड़फोड़ व सडक दुर्घटना में लोगों को घायल करने वाले जेसीबी चालक को अल्प समय में घटना में प्रयुक्त जेसीबी सहित किया गिरफ्तार।
.@Uppolice pic.twitter.com/JcqfmnUQxl

— HAPUR POLICE (@hapurpolice) June 11, 2024

We also spoke to SHO Pilkhuwa who informed us that the owner of the JCB was a man named Sajid Ali. He also owned a brick kiln. The accused, Dheeraj, took the JCB without his knowledge.

Hence, the claims by the Right-wing influencers that the perpetrator in the Hapur incident was a Muslim are false. The inebriated JCB driver, who destroyed toll booths when asked to pay toll, was identified by police as Dheeraj, son of Vidyaram.

The post JCB driver who damaged Hapur toll plaza is not a Muslim; false claim by the Right Wing appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.

Independent photojournalist Peter Hambrecht was shoved into a bus mirror by a New York City police officer, damaging his microphone, while he was covering a pro-Palestinian protest near the Manhattan Bridge on May 11, 2024.

Hambrecht told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protest began in downtown Brooklyn near Barclays Center before demonstrators marched up Flatbush Avenue. The protest broke into separate groups following rounds of arrests by police, with a large group walking beside and attempting to enter the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

He said that he was walking behind officers from the New York City Police Department’s Strategic Response Group, a heavily armored unit used for crowd control, and higher-ranking officers wearing white shirts when they arrested a demonstrator who had been drumming.

“They grabbed someone and pushed them against the school bus that’s right next to me,” Hambrecht said. “I’m trying to back up a little bit and then I get shoved by a white shirt, ramming me into the front mirror and it ends up cutting my shoulder open and pinning my microphone, which damaged it.”

In Hambrecht’s footage of the drummer’s arrest, an officer can be seen pushing a second individual against the bus in front of Hambrecht. Within seconds and without warning, a commanding officer shoves Hambrecht backward into the mirror extending from the hood of the bus and the sound on the footage cuts out. When sound resumes, the officer can be heard saying, “On the sidewalk.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Independent photojournalist Michael Nigro was shoved and his camera equipment damaged by a New York City police officer while documenting a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Brooklyn on May 18, 2024.

Brooklyn Paper reported that the rally marking Nakba Day — which commemorates the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 — has been held in the Bay Ridge neighborhood for years without incident.

Nigro told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he has documented the rally six or seven times in years prior and described the demonstration as a generally family-friendly, community event. He said that the police response was markedly different this year, with officers in riot gear and from the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, a heavily armored group used for crowd control, present from the beginning.

Shortly after protesters took to the street, Nigro said, officers made the first arrest of the day. Nigro said he filmed the detainment and had complied with orders to step back when an officer assaulted him.

“I didn’t see him coming,” Nigro said, “he just came over and smacked my camera. With the vibration in the camera and the sound that I heard, I thought, ‘He just broke my lens.’ Then I saw that the hood was cracked and thankfully the lens was not.”

In footage of the incident captured by another photojournalist, a commanding officer can be seen grabbing Nigro’s camera and using it to shove him back and to the side, striking the camera against another photographer in the process. As the first officer walks away, a second can be seen pushing Nigro backward.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

• Japanese officials report that a series of earthquakes that struck western Japan on Monday killed at least 57 people and damaged thousands of buildings, vehicles, and boats.
• Nearly 400 people escaped a burning plane in Tokyo after a Japan Airlines flight collided with a Coast Guard aircraft on the runway of Haneda Airport. Five people on board the smaller Coast Guard airplane died in the incident. They were part of the aid effort underway following the earthquake in Japan.
• Hamas and Hezbollah officials say top Hamas official Saleh Arouri has been killed in an explosion in a southern Beirut suburb.
• The Israeli military has announced that it is withdrawing thousands of troops from the Gaza Strip, despite ongoing fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.
• As Israel’s war in Gaza continues, a spillover conflict is heating up in the Middle East as the United States fights Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, and Iran vows to continue to support them.
• Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul.
• California water regulators’ first mountain snowpack measurement of the season coming in far below average for this time of year in the state’s first snow survey. But water officials say there’s still plenty of time left to make up the difference.
• The beginning of the new year in California brings new state laws into effect, some of which could impact state residents.
• BART trains on the transit system’s Yellow Line were running on time today, a day after a derailment and fire on a train near the Orinda Station caused widespread delays in the East Bay on New Year’s Day.

Bystanders look at damages somewhere near Noto town in the Noto peninsula facing the Sea of Japan, northwest of Tokyo, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, following Monday’s deadly earthquake. A series of powerful earthquakes that hit western Japan have damaged thousands of buildings, vehicles and boats. Officials warned that more quakes could lie ahead. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

The post A series of earthquakes that struck western Japan on Monday killed at least 55 people and damaged thousands of buildings – January 2, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

Democracy Now! speaks with two researchers who lead the Decentralized Damage Mapping Group, a network of scientists using remote sensing to analyze and map the damage and destruction in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s attacks began on October 7. Radar technology shows that Israel’s bombing campaign has left about half of all buildings in northern Gaza damaged or destroyed since October 7, with at least 56,000 buildings in Gaza damaged overall. Doctoral researcher Corey Scher explains how researchers use open data to bring consistent, transparent assessments of the rapidly expanding damage in Gaza. “We’ve all been surprised at the speed of this,” says Jamon Van Den Hoek, lead of the Conflict Ecology lab.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“We have opened diplomatic discussions with the Chinese and also we have started cooperation with Chinese authorities,” Orpo told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Nordic countries in Oslo on Tuesday.

His comments come as the suspected ship changed its operator.

Finnish police last week named the Hong Kong-flagged container vessel Newnew Polar Bear as their main suspect in the incident which took place on Oct. 8, 2023 when a major gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was severely damaged by a “dragging anchor.”

They said an anchor, believed to belong to the Newnew Polar Bear, was found on the seabed, just meters away from the pipeline.

The Chinese ship and a Russian nuclear-powered vessel, Sevmorput, were the only ships seen at the location when the pipeline was reportedly broken at around 1:20 a.m. local time.

Norwegian seismology institute NORSAR reported blast-like waves in the area at the time.

“We have to get a clear picture of what has happened before making any conclusions,” Orpo was quoted by news agencies as saying.

The prime minister said he hoped “the next few days will show how it goes.”

Earlier the Estonian government said that the pipeline incident is “related” to the damaging of two undersea telecoms cables linking Estonia with Finland and Sweden on Oct. 7 and Oct. 8.

“We have reason to believe that the cases of Balticconnector and the communication cables are related," Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in a statement.

NATO, of which Estonia and Finland are members, has stepped up patrols in the Baltic Sea following the incidents.

Changed operator

Meanwhile the container ship under suspicion - Newnew Polar Bear - has changed its operating company.

Sailing permissions by the Northern Sea Route Administration under Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosatom, which provides icebreaking support to shipping lines in the Russian Arctic, seen by RFA show that the Newnew Polar Bear is now operated by Torgmoll, a Chinese logistics company with offices in Shanghai and Moscow. 

Previously, the container ship was operated by its owner Hainan Xin Xin Yang Shipping Co. Ltd, also known as Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping Co.

The ship’s owner so far has not responded to Finnish police inquiries.

Torgmoll, the new operator, is well connected with Moscow and has a long history of working with Russia, its company profile said.

“If there’s now a Russia connection and given the alleged circumstances of what happened I think it’s unlikely it would be co-operative [with Finland’s investigators],” said Keith Wallis, an independent shipping specialist.

“For the investigation into the pipeline breakage it would be interesting to see if the new operators have changed crew,” he added. 

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is one of the strategic priorities for cooperation between Russia and China and a much quicker logistics alternative. It can reduce the transit time between Russia’s St. Petersburg and China’s Shanghai to less than a month, compared to 45-50 days if traveling through the Suez Canal.

According to Chinese shipping sources, Newnew Shipping wants to operate five ships on the NSR this year and add eight to 10 more in 2024.

“The NSR has been used commercially since at least 2010 but it is only open for a specific season because of the ice,” said Keith Wallis. “The ability to use the NSR is also limited to a certain size of ship.”

“The entire route is under Russia’s control so if the operator wants to put ships of similar size to the Newnew Polar Bear [on the route] it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

Some Russian analysts such as sinologist Nikolai Vavilov said China wanted to redistribute “traffic from the Indo-Pacific to the Northern route.”

The traffic can increase massively in the near future from the Baltic and along the Northern Sea Route, Vavilov wrote on the Telegram social media platform.

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

A photographer for WLS-TV was assaulted and robbed while preparing to cover a press conference in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 8, 2023.

CWBChicago reported that the photographer was approached at approximately 2 p.m. by two men asking for money. When the journalist replied that he didn’t have any, one of the men tried to grab his phone. The photographer pushed the man away and put his phone into a vehicle from the news station’s fleet, but the man then shoved him to the ground.

The Chicago Police Department told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the victim, who they did not identify, was able to run away. The second man broke the vehicle’s window and took two phones from inside before both men fled the scene.

WLS confirmed that one of its photographers was assaulted and robbed, reporting that he was “fine and suffered only minor scrapes.” The station’s general manager did not respond to an emailed request for additional information.

The Chicago police said that the incident is classified as an attempted strong-arm robbery with theft, simple battery and criminal damage to a vehicle, and is still under investigation.

Less than three weeks later, a Univision Chicago news crew was also robbed, this time at gunpoint, and one of the station’s cameras was taken.

Raza Siddiqui, president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents TV photographers in Chicago, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the union is arranging a safety meeting for members to voice concerns about the dangers they are increasingly facing.

“We want to make sure that we provide a longer-lasting solution, that we work not only with management but our members, and make sure that we read some protocols that everyone is happy with and feels can be a workable solution,” Siddiqui said.

Some Chicago news stations have begun to implement additional security measures in the meantime, Siddiqui added, including hiring security for some TV crews.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The post Native Hawaiian Sacred Sites have been Damaged in the Lahaina wildfires appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Rosalyn R. LaPier.

Michael G. Seamans, staff photojournalist for the Morning Sentinel in Maine, was assaulted and his camera damaged while photographing a high school drama competition in Skowhegan on March 11, 2023.

Seamans told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at Skowhegan High School at about 6:30 p.m. and identified himself as a journalist to a woman in a hallway near the stage. She told him that photography wasn’t allowed. Seamans responded that he was confused why that would be the case, when high school sports are routinely photographed. He said she threw up her hands, told him to do whatever he wanted and then walked away.

Seamans then connected with the director of the Madison High School drama program, his primary focus. Seamans said the director and the Skowhegan vice principal both authorized him to photograph the Madison students in the pre-show area in the cafeteria where they were getting ready to perform.

“At this point I’m no longer photographing anything and only getting identifications of kids in my pictures,” Seamans said. “And now I hear the first person that I encountered, this woman, yelling at the Madison director about me.”

Seamans said he tried to intervene in order to diffuse the situation, saying that he was done and could leave the premises, but she kept yelling over him. He took a step back and made the gesture for a timeout.

“A man, who I later came to learn was her husband, was standing behind be and he points at me and yells, ‘You’re not going to tell her to shut up!’” Seamans said. “That’s when his finger turned into his fist. And his fist opened up, grabbed me by the throat and threw me into a wall. At this point, I’m on my tip-toes, he has me almost elevated off my feet.”

Seamans said that the man continued to hold him there for nearly a minute as he held his hands up and asked for the man to let him go and for someone to call the police. He said the man only released him when a principal from the Skowhegan school system arrived, by which point Seamans’ vision had started to darken from the periphery and he had become disoriented.

Seamans said that one of his cameras struck the wall during the altercation and was damaged.

The school officials then led Seamans to an office where they questioned him for nearly 30 minutes before consenting to his repeated requests for someone to call police. Seamans filed a police report and went to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with a concussion and significant bruising of the neck and throat. Seamans said his primary care physician instructed him during a follow-up visit to remain on leave from work until March 27.

“In nearly two decades of working in this industry, from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the locked-downed districts of Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic to the front lines of Ukraine, I’ve never been attacked so suddenly and abruptly before,” Seamans told the Tracker. “It’s a difficult scenario to articulate.”

When reached by phone, a Skowhegan Police Department officer said he could not discuss details from the investigation, but confirmed that the department had referred the case to the Somerset County District Attorney’s Office. DA Maeghan Maloney, in an emailed response to the Tracker, said that her office is reviewing additional footage from the incident and has not concluded its assessment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference has convened here in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. It's called COP27, the 27th Conference of Parties to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the ever-evolving, never-quite-fully-negotiated treaty that, it is hoped, will someday ensure all countries rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to forestall catastrophic climate change. An estimated 30,000 people from around the world have descended on this Red Sea resort on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The summit is hosted by Egypt, a dictatorship propped up by billions of dollars annually in military aid from the United States. This has been dubbed "The Africa COP," to highlight the continent's plight as one of the world's poorest regions, already suffering dire impacts of the climate crisis.

The phrase "Loss and Damage" denotes the devastating climate impacts millions are already experiencing in poor frontline nations—those that have contributed the least to global warming.

"This is not an African COP. Africa is not here," Nnimmo Bassey, renowned Nigerian environmentalist, said on the Democracy Now! news hour. "The poor people who are suffering floods, droughts and all kinds of adverse situations, they are not here. They can't afford to get here. They wouldn't get accreditation. They can't afford the accommodation in this city that is mostly for tourists…The other COPs were exclusive, but this is super exclusive. We are all cordoned into a peninsula, cut off from even the country in which we are supposed to be." Bassey concluded, calling the UN climate process itself "lost and damaged."

While Bassey has been coming to COPs for many years, members of the growing youth climate movement joined more recently. Vanessa Nakate founded the first climate strike in Uganda. "Fridays for Future" grew out of a solo protest by teenager Greta Thunberg in front of the Swedish parliament in August 2018 and blossomed into a global movement involving more than 14 million young people. Students take a school day off to strike, typically on Friday, demanding that the older people in charge take urgent action on the climate emergency.

In December, 2019, at COP25 in Madrid, Vanessa Nakate described her early days as a climate striker in Kampala, Uganda: "People found it very weird that I was on the streets. Some of them threw some negative comments, like I was wasting my time, and the government will not listen to anything that I have to say. But I just kept going."

One month later, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Vanessa was photographed with Greta and other youth activists. The Associated Press published an edited version of the photo, cropping Vanessa out of a group of five. The four remaining in the photo were white. The AP apologized and restored the image.

"Being cropped out of that photo changed me. I became bolder and more direct in how I talk about the climate crisis and racism," Vanessa later wrote in her book, A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis.

Here at COP27, Vanessa said on Democracy Now!, "We have more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists at this COP, and yet so many communities and activists from the frontlines of the climate crisis weren't able to make it here…The climate crisis is pushing so many communities beyond adaptation. You cannot adapt to starvation. You can't adapt to extinction."

She continued, "What will make it an African COP is ensuring that there is an establishment of a Loss and Damage Finance Facility…supporting a just transition to renewable energy while addressing the energy poverty on the African continent."

The phrase "Loss and Damage" denotes the devastating climate impacts millions are already experiencing in poor frontline nations—those that have contributed the least to global warming. These developing countries are demanding that rich, historically high-polluting countries meet their pledges made at COP21 in Paris, in 2015, to contribute $100 billion per year to a fund "for mitigation and adaptation." "Mitigation" refers to investments that lower emissions, like building renewable energy installations. and "adaptation" to building infrastructure and capacity to deal with the impacts of climate change—for example, building seawalls to cope with rising sea levels.

To date, the world's wealthy countries have so far refused to pay for "loss and damage," that is, to admit that they've massively polluted the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gasses—in the case of the United States and most of Europe, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution—and thus must pay climate reparations for the impacts of their pollution.

But those who have been fighting for a just climate transition aren't giving up hope. Hundreds packed into a People's Plenary here as COP27 neared it close. Asad Rehman, lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, offered his assessment of the entrenched fossil fuel interests as he rallied those gathered for the struggles ahead:

"The word they fear the most: solidarity."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan.

Monday saw the Secretary-General give a forthright speech at the opening session, and it became clear that the vexed issue of “loss and damage” – how to compensate developing countries for the damage caused by the climate crisis – is likely to dominate discussion over the next two weeks.

Music: Within the Earth, Ketsa

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by UN News/Conor Lennon.

WCHS Eyewitness News Reporter Bob Aaron was assaulted on Aug. 4, 2022, in Putnam County, West Virginia, while reporting on the sheriff's plan to remove abandoned cars on roads and yards.

According to Aaron, who reported the incident in a newscast, he was nearly run over while filming the abandoned cars stationed along a main county road by a man who did not want him filming.

The reporter said the individual got out of his car and ripped the camera from his hands. Aaron, who did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, reported that the man broke the camera light off and refused to return the camera until Putnam County Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene.

WCHS reported that Putnam County Sheriff Bobby Eggleton announced his intention to enforce a clean-up plan to remove the vehicles from public and private locations, adding that some had not moved for more than 20 years. Eggleton told WCHS the announcement provoked an “emotional response from residents in the county” who feared authorities would take their property. Eggleton said in a video posted to Facebook that it was not a county ordinance but in accordance with state law.

The sheriff’s office could not be reached for comment.

In an article about the altercation, WCHS said Aaron, 75, was doing fine and that there were pending charges against the man who attacked him.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

At around 2:30 a.m. on July 18, unidentified individuals set fire to a car registered under the name of Digiorgio’s partner in Altipiani di Arcinazzo, a town 55 miles east of Rome, according to news reports, a report Digiorgio published in the privately owned news website Informare H24, and the journalist, who corresponded with CPJ via email.

Firefighters extinguished the flames and no one was injured, but the car, which Digiorgio said he had used for his reporting, was badly burned, according to those sources. The journalist told CPJ that he reported the attack to the police, who opened a criminal investigation into suspected arson.

He said he believed the attack was retaliation for his reporting, adding that his girlfriend works as a shop assistant and it was not likely that she would have been targeted in such an attack.

“Italian authorities must conduct a thorough investigation into the recent arson attack on a car used by journalist Francesco Digiorgio, identify the perpetrators, and hold them to account,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Such attacks are clearly meant to intimidate reporters into silence; authorities should ensure that journalists can cover sensitive issues without fear.”

Digiorgio contributes news and commentary to Informare H24, covers cultural issues for the magazine Il Prometeo, and runs the Facebook news page Altipiani di Arcinazzo, which has about 14,000 followers, he told CPJ.

Two days before the attack, Digiorgio published a video on the Altipiani di Arcinazzo Facebook page documenting how farmers had abandoned their livestock, leaving a bull walking in the street of the town and endangering local residents.

“I am sure that this video is behind the attack, because I have been dealing with the problem of abandoned livestock on the roads for years and because farmers have often used these methods with other people, sometimes setting fire to the barns of their rivals,” Digiorgio told CPJ. He said he regularly receives insults, offensive comments, and sometimes threats of physical violence on social media related to his work.

He said he requested a police escort for protection after the attack, but had not received a reply. CPJ emailed the police station in Fiuggi, which is in charge of the investigation, for comment, but did not receive any reply.

In an editorial for Informare H24 on July 22, Digiorgio vowed to continue reporting on local issues despite what he described as attempted intimidation.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Documentary photographer Joey Scott reported that he was shoved to the ground by police officers while documenting reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022.

Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that morning, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy.

The first protests in LA began outside a federal courthouse around noon, the Los Angeles Times reported, and continued into the night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the assaults of at least six journalists in the city that night.

L.A. Taco reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray told the Tracker that he and Scott had followed protesters as they attempted to get onto the highway. After demonstrators exited the highway, Los Angeles Police Department officers advanced toward them to clear the area.

In a tweet posted at around 7:45 p.m., Scott wrote that he had just been shoved to the ground by an LAPD officer.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

I have a lot of respect for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. After meeting in closed session for nearly a year, interviewing more than a thousand witnesses and gathering more than 100,000 documents, the nine-member committee will begin a series of televised public hearings on June 9 and release their findings later this summer.

“No President has ever come close to doing what happened here in terms of trying to organize an inside coup to overthrow an election and bypass the constitutional order.”

But what, realistically, can we expect to learn that we don’t already know? More importantly, what impact, if any, will the hearings have?

Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, has set an extremely high bar for the panel. “The hearings will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House,” Raskin declared in April at an event hosted by Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice in Washington, D.C.

For Raskin, who is one of seven Democrats on the committee and a recognized constitutional scholar, January 6 is the story of an attempt to overthrow U.S. democracy orchestrated by Donald Trump himself.

“No President has ever come close to doing what happened here in terms of trying to organize an inside coup to overthrow an election and bypass the constitutional order,” Raskin said at Georgetown. And no President, he continued, has ever used “a violent insurrection made up of domestic violent extremist groups, white nationalist and racist, fascist groups in order to support the coup.”

As much as I admire Raskin and consider him a person of measured judgment, it might not matter in the end whether the committee’s hearings blow the roof off or—to invoke a dark metaphor from earlier this century—produce “shock and awe.” The sad truth is that our democracy is so damaged it might be beyond repair.

According to the latest annual report published by Freedom House, a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C., the United States has fallen to a new low in global rankings in terms of political rights and civil liberties, dropping from an aggregate score of 94 a decade ago to 83 today. The new score places the United States alongside countries like Panama, Romania, and Croatia, and behind Argentina and Mongolia, both of which earned scores of 84. The United Kingdom, in  contrast, received a score of 93, and Canada a 98. Sweden, Finland, and Norway topped the list with perfect tallies of 100.

And while a boatload of blame for the decline in U.S. democracy can be attributed to Trump and his incitement of the insurrection, our political rot runs far deeper than the January 6 committee can ever probe or remedy.

According to another Freedom House study, written last year by Sarah Repucci, the organization’s vice president for research and analysis, this trend ia the result of a decade of decline.

“The deterioration was initially marked by harmful new restrictions on voting, legislative gridlock that has made it nearly impossible for the country to address serious public policy challenges, and the growing political influence of well-funded special interest groups,” Repucci maintains. “The downward trend accelerated considerably over the last four years, as the Trump Administration trampled institutional and normative checks on its authority.”

Repucci identifies “three enduring problems that play an outsized role in undermining the health of the American political system: unequal treatment for people of color, the improper influence of money in politics, and partisan polarization and extremism.”

All of these, she argues, are aggravated by the “realities of wealth distribution in the United States [that] determine who can make … sizable [political] donations, and thus gain special access, to government representatives. Income inequality has deepened without interruption since 1980; by one count, in 2019 the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans controlled roughly 84 percent of the assets traded on Wall Street. Black families’ median and average wealth was less than 15 percent that of White families in 2019, while Hispanic families’ wealth was less than 20 percent that of White families. There is also a wealth gap between ordinary citizens and those who represent them.”

Remedying the ills of democracy that Trump exploited will require not only that he and his enablers be held accountable, but a far-reaching transformation of our basic social and economic institutions—a prospect that seems increasingly remote as the midterm elections approach and a possible Republican takeover of Congress looms.

This does not mean, of course, that the January 6 committee’s hearings won’t be worth watching. 

In all, according to a draft schedule obtained by The Guardian, the committee is expected to hold six hearings. Both the opening session on June 9 and the final meeting on June 23 will air on national television and radio stations during prime time. The others will be held during daytime hours on June 13, 15, 16, and 21. 

A select committee member will lead each hearing, assisted by the panel’s attorneys. Witnesses will be called, videos will be shown, and text messages will be displayed in an effort to present a detailed multi-media narrative of Trump’s scheme to overthrow U.S. democracy, stretching over a sixty-five-day period from the time Trump falsely declared that he won the 2020 election until  the insurrection of January 6.

In addition to the physical assault on the Capitol, the committee is expected to cover the Trump White House’s efforts to coordinate the illegal plan to send fake electors to Congress, the plot to seize voting machines, and the unlawful plan to delay the certification of Joe Biden’s win. The Guardian also reports that the panel likely will delve into the origins of the “Stop the Steal movement” and the Trump campaign’s connections to violent groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

Once the hearings are completed, the committee will prepare a report summarizing its findings, recommend legislation to prevent future insurrections, and make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. There is speculation the committee will recommend that Trump be prosecuted for obstruction of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election, but that has yet to be confirmed.

To date, the committee has made four contempt referrals, and the Department of Justice has responded with indictments of former Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro while declining to charge both Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino.

I have no doubt that the committee’s report will be well-crafted and illuminating. What I fear, however, is that it will read more as an epitaph for our democracy than a roadmap toward reckoning and renewal.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Bill Blum.

WKYC 3 Studios photojournalist Craig Roberson was harassed by individuals and his camera damaged while covering an arrest in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 22, 2022.

WOIO 19 News reported that journalists from multiple broadcast stations were covering a tense standoff in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood connected to a viral video of two men pointing guns at a police officer.

Kelly Kennedy, an investigative reporter with the WOIO team on scene, said in a report for the outlet that a few nearby residents were angry that there were journalists filming.

“When we got to the scene, some neighbors were really angry when they saw our cameras and one man actually tried to grab one of our photographers’ cameras and then he actually knocked over another TV station’s camera and broke it,” Kennedy said, referring to Roberson’s equipment.

According to the police report, the $9,000 WKYC camera was destroyed and broken into multiple pieces. The man was charged with felony vandalism, punishable by 6 to 18 months in prison and up to a $5,000 fine.

When reached for comment, WKYC President and General Manager Micki Byrnes confirmed that Roberson’s camera was damaged and that he was unharmed; Roberson did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

WOIO’s Kennedy wrote on Twitter that everyone was OK, and that the incident was just one example of the kind of harassment journalists face daily when just trying to do their jobs.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.