We speak with American neurosurgeon Dr. Abdul Basit Khan in Gaza, where he is volunteering at the Nasser Hospital. He describes treating patients with blast injuries and gunshot wounds from Israeli attacks, all while coping with a lack of basic medical supplies and widespread hunger. “Food insecurity is rampant, from all levels of society. Even the physicians are not eating,” he says. Multiple blasts were heard during the interview, with Dr. Khan describing his patients as people “living in tents being indiscriminately bombed” by Israeli forces. “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life, by far.”

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

Israel continues to detain eight individuals who were captured Monday when Israeli Navy commandos intercepted a Gaza-bound boat carrying humanitarian aid. Four other passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla have been deported, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. We get an update from Sergio Toribio, one of the 12 on board the Madleen, who has just been deported back to his home country of Spain. He describes how Israeli commandos boarded the ship in international waters and held them on the boat for over 24 hours while towing them to Israel. “They kidnapped us,” he says.

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

• Rally at SF immigration court condemns ICE arrests at court
• “Prostitution as Terrorism” report describes conflation of sex work with terrorism to justify expanded surveillance and criminalization
• Sen. Cory Booker to expand record-breaking Senate speech into book “Stand”
• RFK Jr says will ban government scientists from publishing in leading medical journals, will create in-house HHS journal
• Justice Dept official vows “massive lawsuits” against Univ of CA system, says must “bring these universities to their knees”

The post Rally at SF immigration court condemns ICE arrests at courts; Report describes conflation of sex work with terrorism to justify expanded surveillance and criminalization – May 28, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

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

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Environmentalists have long faced harassment, imprisonment and other forms of retribution in some parts of the world. The U.S. has largely been an exception, a place where people and organizations can freely and safely pursue efforts to protect human health and nature — sometimes working hand in hand with the government.

But the treatment of people who fight pollution has palpably changed in recent months.

Nonprofit environmental groups are facing attacks from the Trump administration, subpoenas from criminal investigations, online harassment and industry lawsuits they say are designed to intimidate them into silence. In recent weeks, fears have grown that the administration will seek to revoke the nonprofit status of at least some groups.

Today, on Earth Day, ProPublica is publishing an interview with Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, the country’s biggest public interest environmental firm, about the escalating hostility environmentalists face. Over the past five decades, Earthjustice’s lawyers have helped to establish the first federal limits on mercury and other chemicals emitted by power plants, successfully pushed for bans on toxic pesticides and fought to protect hundreds of endangered species.

But the future of the environmental movement is in peril. The shift has been led in no small part by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is tasked with protecting the public’s air and water. President Donald Trump’s head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, has defunded and sharply criticized some environmental organizations. For eight nonprofit groups that received $20 billion in federal money aimed at promoting clean energy, Zeldin has gone further, working with the FBI on a criminal investigation into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the grant program that funds them.

The EPA moved to cancel the funding in February after Zeldin likened the congressionally authorized grant program to throwing gold bars off the Titanic. Zeldin told Fox News that “the entire scheme, in my opinion, is criminal,” suggesting there was self-dealing and conflicts of interest. A grand jury was launched to investigate his claims. Although a judge has found that the EPA has yet to produce any evidence of wrongdoing, the agency froze the funds and federal authorities sent subpoenas to the organizations that received the money.

Zeldin and Trump have publicly called out environmental activists by name. After Fox News showed a picture of Beth Bafford, the executive director of one group, during an interview with Zeldin, she said she received dozens of messages and threats on her voicemail. On social media, people have responded to Zeldin’s online allegations with calls to imprison the people he is targeting, charge them with treason and even execute them.

Meanwhile, green groups are facing threats from lawsuits they say are designed to intimidate and wear down advocacy organizations. Dozens of states have adopted laws to discourage so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP suits. In March, a jury in North Dakota, which does not have an anti-SLAPP law, found the environmental organization Greenpeace liable for more than $660 million for its role in protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline company, Energy Transfer, argued in court that Greenpeace defamed the company and orchestrated criminal behavior by protestors. Greenpeace has vowed to appeal the verdict.

These events have taken place as the new administration makes energy production a main focus, shifting the EPA’s priorities to include deregulation and “restoring energy dominance,” making the U.S. the artificial intelligence capital of the world and bringing back jobs in the auto industry. The agency claims that, contrary to what a lot of its critics have said, these changes won’t affect its commitment to protecting clean air and clean water.

Dillen sees the Greenpeace case and the increase of lawsuits targeting free speech more broadly, as just one of the growing threats to organizations that work to preserve the environment — and the people who staff them. She spoke to ProPublica about the targeting of nonprofit groups, how the second Trump administration is different from the first and what keeps her up at night. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. ProPublica reached out to the EPA and the White House for comment but did not receive a response.

Yes. I have heard of people being harassed at their homes. This is what happens when the federal government sends a signal that people who have lawfully been granted money by the government are actually scammers and fraudsters. This effort to criminalize people who have properly received government grants has outsized impacts online and in real life.

I can’t remember any instance of the kind that we’re seeing now. It’s not the first time that clients of ours have received threats. Earthjustice has received threats over the years. But it’s a very different thing when the federal government — the EPA administrator, the president himself — are personally targeting people online. That is fundamentally different and it’s having a fundamentally different impact.

SLAPP suits are not new. And in part that’s why we have anti-SLAPP legislation in many states. What’s happened now is the tone that the president is setting from the top, popularizing the idea that people trying to work in the public interest are actually hurting the country. That gives license to big corporations to be deploying highly disfavored tactics like SLAPP suits. I’m concerned that the attitude this administration is projecting about civil society is so negative that it will encourage more hostile activity by the private sector. I also fear that the very notable ruling in the SLAPP suit against Greenpeace will embolden other companies and other big law firms.

I worry about this administration in all ways. But of course, any action of that kind would be illegal. The president cannot weaponize the IRS by directing audits or stripping away tax-exempt status without due process and legitimate reasons. This kind of attack would strike at the core of our democracy and set a precedent that threatens not only environmental groups but all kinds of charitable organizations, from neighborhood churches to disaster relief and medical research institutions.

(Editor’s note: While many experts agree it would be illegal for Trump to instruct the IRS to remove Harvard’s nonprofit status, the president has argued that being tax exempt is “a privilege” that can be revoked. On Monday, Politico reported that Zeldin told reporters he did not think the government should broadly reconsider the nonprofit status of environmental groups.)

Across the board, this administration is deploying federal power and the power of the Justice Department, even the FBI, in ways that make it increasingly frightening for anyone to speak out. Now there is clearly a risk that by doing your ordinary job, you may become a target of the administration. For the recipients of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, that targeting has taken the form of a grand jury inquiry.

In the first Trump administration, you had a very aggressive agenda to roll back environmental protections, but the method was not so different from what past administrations had done. It was largely hewing to the legally mandated process of proposing new rules, finalizing replacement policies and putting in place weaker policies. In retrospect, it looks quite conventional because there was at least an optical compliance with the normal process.

Now you have the administration pushing an even more radical agenda to deregulate and so far they’re dispensing with the usual process. So you have the declaration of the energy emergency, and that is becoming the pretext for making decisions without complying with the usual permitting process. You have this new announcement that regulated industries can apply for presidential exemptions that would relieve them of compliance obligations. Now note that that would apply to even Biden administration regulations that the Supreme Court has declined to stay. This is an end run around regulations that are on the books today.

It has. When I imagined what our first cases would be, I imagined we would be fighting efforts to stay life-saving regulations, that we would be fighting over efforts to pause compliance obligations in federal court. And that certainly has been happening. But I would not have imagined that we would be working around the clock to challenge paused funding for farmers or that we would be fending off immediate efforts by the Trump administration to block congestion pricing in NYC.

I do believe there are remedies in the court for what is happening.

I worry very much about losing the rule of law in this country.

No.

The Trump administration is very significantly bankrolled by the fossil fuels industry. It has been widely reported that the president promised to give many favors to the industry while asking for their financial support. And the president is delivering on those promises by taking aim at climate policies and the groups that have successfully advocated for them. There is, I think, something larger in play, which is that climate solutions are going to drive significant changes in our economy and the president is choosing to throw in with powerful incumbent industries rather than allowing for fair competition in the country. And one part of justifying this approach publicly is to silence groups who are effectively lifting up the reality of climate change and the urgent need to address it.

I hope with every fiber of my being that we are not becoming one of those countries. But do I see it as possible? Absolutely.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Sharon Lerner.

AP (2/4/25) concludes with Elon Musk describing his government takeover as a card game: “If we don’t take advantage of this best hand of cards, it’s never going to happen.”

Associated Press (2/4/25) evidently needed the work of ten reporters to produce “Elon Musk Tightens Grip on Federal Government as Democrats Raise Alarms.”

At first blush, the story might seem to convey concern, but look closer: We see Musk matter-of-factly described as a “special government employee, which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers.”

He’s also described as “in charge of retooling the federal government.” Is that a thing? AP suggests we believe that it is.

The debate, AP tells us, is just between Republicans who “defend Musk as simply carrying out Trump’s slash-and-burn campaign promises,” and Democrats who, “for their part, accused Musk of leading a coup from within the government by amassing unaccountable and illegal power.”  Tomato, to-mah-to, you understand.

Musk locking federal workers out of internal systems, denying them access to their own personnel files, with their pay history, length of service and qualifications: Why, that’s just “Musk’s penchant for dabbling.” He’s been “tinkering with things his entire life,” the wire service says. He learned to code as a child in South Africa, you see, and “now Musk is popping open the hood on the federal government like it’s one of his cars or rockets.”

Popping open the hood of democratic processes to tinker with them? If you rely on reporting from nominally neutral outlets like Associated Press, you might imagine that’s only a concern of partisan Democrats, not regular folks like you and me.

You can send a message to Associated Press here (or via Bluesky @APnews.com).

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Janine Jackson.

“It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza.

Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an “act of annihilation” of the Palestinian people, reports Middle East Eye.

Dr Bartov said that not only had Israeli forces been moving displaced Palestinians around the Gaza Strip but they had also been strategically bombing mosques, museums, hospitals, and anything that served the health or culture of a people — in an attempt to cleanse the entire area of Palestinians.

• READ MORE: Israeli attacks kill 21 Palestinians in Gaza in past 24 hours
• Other war on Gaza reports

Al Jazeera reports that an Israeli drone attack on the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza targeted a group of people gathered at a phone charging and internet distribution point, killing three people.

According to a witness, this was the only point in the refugee camp where people trapped in the area charge their phones and connect to the internet to be in touch with family members who are displaced in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

This was not the first time that the Israeli military has carried out deliberate attacks on such connectivity points.

Houthis ballistic missile wounds 14
Meanwhile, a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen has broken through Israeli defences above and below the Earth’s atmosphere before slamming into Tel Aviv, reports Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

It said interceptors from the Arrow missile defence system were launched into the upper atmosphere after detecting the missile, but missed the target and failed to stop it before it entered Israeli territory.

As captured in numerous videos, two more interceptors were then fired in the lower atmosphere, also failing to shoot down the missile.

At least 14 people were wounded after a failed interception of the ballistic missile.

This was the third incident of its kind just this week. The Israeli army says it was now investigating why it was not intercepted and why this was such a significant failure.

Since the start of the war, the Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles, and more than 170 drones in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthis have said they would continue the attacks until Israel ends its war in the besieged enclave.

In July, there was a drone that evaded all Israeli air defences, no siren sounded, and it was able to detonate in the middle of Tel Aviv and kill one person.

This time, it was just one minute from the time the sirens rang until the moment of impact.

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

In 2016, things became even more dire when her family was saddled with repayment of a loan to a local bank.

So when a neighbor approached her that year with the opportunity to make a higher salary in China, Sok Suosdey - who asked to use a pseudonym for this report to protect her privacy - leapt at the chance.

After making the necessary preparations, she departed to the bustling city of Shanghai, excited with the prospect of becoming financially independent in China and helping her family get free from debt back home.

But around a month after her arrival, the woman who had promised her a job told her she would have to marry a deaf Chinese man and if she refused, she would be on the hook for the costs associated with her relocation to China - a sum far beyond her ability to pay.

Sok Suosdey agreed, but said that after her marriage, she was reduced to “a slave” in her husband’s home.

She was made to take a job to earn money for the family, but her mother-in-law also forced her to do household chores whenever she had a break, and subjected her to relentless physical and mental abuse, she said.

“Every day, my mother-in-law chased me to work from 10 am-11 pm, sometimes until 2 am,” she told RFA Khmer. “I only slept three hours a night, and I worked very hard. When I was at home, I also worked as a seamstress, sometimes as a laborer, or putting springs into children’s water guns.”

Sok Suosdey said that if she needed new clothes, she was made to buy them with her own money.

Her mother-in-law also refused to let her communicate with Cambodian friends she made or with family members back home, as “she was afraid I would run away from home.”

“My Chinese mother-in-law insulted me and made me hurtful and fed up,” she said.

Things were no different after having a child with her husband.

“The most painful thing was that after I gave birth to a son, my mother-in-law kept me away from him and didn’t let him know who I was,” she said. “She wouldn’t let me take care of him and would even call the police when I tried to take him to school.”

Trafficking to China

According to a report by the human rights group Adhoc, in the first nine months of 2024, at least 29 Cambodian women were trafficked to China. Of the trafficked women, 28 were forced to marry Chinese men.

According to the same source, in 2023, 28 Cambodian women were rescued from human trafficking in China.

The NGO said that some of the women who married Chinese men were beaten, abused and forced to work as slaves by their husbands and families. In addition to physically and mentally abusing the women, some families also forced them into sex work, leaving them traumatized, it said.

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‘He told me that if I ran away he would report me to the Chinese police’

Sok Suosdey told RFA that, because she could no longer endure the abuse, she saved enough money to buy a mobile phone and started to seek help via social media.

She started a group on Facebook for Cambodians in China and spent time searching for people she knew lived close to her parents back home. It was through these sources that she was able to contact her mother and get authorities at the Cambodian Consulate to intervene on her behalf.

On July 16, 2024 - seven years after being trafficked to China - Sok Suosdey finally returned home to her family in Cambodia.

Now 35, things have not been easy for Sok Suosdey back home, according to Sun Maly, the head of Adhoc’s Women’s Unit. She is the sole breadwinner of a household with an elderly mother, a father who was blinded during Cambodia’s civil war, and a younger brother with a mental disorder.

But despite the challenges, Sok Suosdey is thankful for her rescue and overjoyed to be reunited with her loved ones, she said.

Assisting victims

When victims of human trafficking return to Cambodia, they receive assistance from the Ministry of Social Affairs' Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation agency, which provides them with mental health treatment and rehabilitation.

However, the assistance is only temporary, and many victims face a long road to recovery.

Once a victim is released from the Ministry of Social Affairs, humanitarian groups such as Adhoc step in to provide additional help.

Adhoc’s Sun Maly said that her NGO now provides victims with sewing machines to help them achieve financial stability by starting their own business following their rescue.

“My case manager has helped to find skilled trainers who can help women victims in tailoring,” she said. “Most villages have tailors, but as they age out, a victim with the ability to sew can replace them by setting up their own garment business.”

Some victims told RFA that the Cambodian government needs to do more to pressure Chinese authorities to investigate claims of trafficking inside China.

Chou Bun Eng, the permanent deputy chair of the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Trafficking Committee, told RFA that she has met with Chinese authorities in the past to highlight the need to investigate such claims.

However, she said that her Chinese counterparts regularly deny that there are any cases of Cambodian women being trafficked and forced into marriage in China - only consensual marriages. Domestic violence they classify as a “family dispute,” she said.

“I’m not saying that all cases involve trafficking - some Cambodian women pay money to be smuggled into China,” she acknowledged.

“But in general, most Cambodian women who go to China already have relatives in China who promise to help them find a husband with a good family. So, if they sign a marriage certificate and then domestic violence occurs, the authorities say it is a family dispute.”

The U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report ranked Cambodia as a “tier 3″ nation - the worst possible ranking - in 2023 and 2024.

In July, the State Department released a report which found that the Cambodian government did not meet international standards in its efforts to eradicate human trafficking, largely due to corruption amongst senior government officials.

Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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

Released detainees described a litany of abuses, from being beaten with iron poles and motorcycle chains and being forced to kneel on sharp objects to being raped or getting their fingernails ripped out.

The violence is yet another example of atrocities committed by the junta since taking over the country in a February 2021 coup d’etat, in addition to those perpetrated on civilians across the country.

The number of deaths in custody amounts to an average of four people dying every day for over three years, representing 35% of 5,350 total verified civilian deaths since the coup, said the report, published Tuesday by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report found that, within the context of raids or ground operations, killings generally occurred within the initial 48 hours of detention, listing “point-blank headshots, executions of handcuffed individuals, and burning of people” as the most common causes of deaths.

A lack of access, communications restrictions and possible military attempts at concealing deaths mean that the number could be higher, it added.

In formal places of detention, most deaths resulted from ill-treatment or lack of adequate healthcare, it said, adding that numerous interviews confirmed deaths of detainees during interrogation, and noted that officials had cremated bodies, “which could conceal the fact of death and destroy other evidence.”

Gruesome list

The U.N. Human Rights Office found that torture and ill-treatment in military custody “has continued to be pervasive,” including both physical and psychological abuse, by officials attempting to obtain information or as punishment.

“Detainees interviewed by our Office described methods, such as being suspended from the ceiling without food or water; being forced to kneel or crawl on hard or sharp objects; use of snakes and insects to instill fear; beatings with iron poles, bamboo sticks, batons, rifle butts, leather strips, electric wires and motorcycle chains; asphyxiation, mock executions; electrocution and burning with tasers, lighters, cigarettes, and boiling water; spraying of methylated substances on open wounds; cutting of body parts and pulling of fingernails,” the report said.

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RFA Burmese spoke with Ah Hla Lay Thuzar, a freelance journalist who was arrested and imprisoned for two years after the coup, who detailed his own torture in detention at the hands of his junta captors.

"I was beaten five times on both thighs with bamboo sticks,” he said. “The pain from the beatings was so intense that I can’t even recall their threats. The strikes with the bamboo sticks still hurt, as my thighs have become too swollen and stiff to touch."

Sexual violence is also common in detention, the U.N. report said, “including rape, and sexualized torture or ill-treatment, including forced nudity in front of others.”

“Vaginal and anal rape, whether committed by an individual or multiple perpetrators, penetration with foreign objects, invasive vaginal searches of women detainees, threats of sexual violence, and sexual humiliation were commonly reported,” it said.

Brutal conditions

In addition to the daily threat of abuse, released prisoners regularly reported “deteriorating conditions and deplorable treatment” in detention centers.

Interviewees released from 12 prisons across nine states and regions described poorly ventilated cells, often at double capacity with no space to lie down or move around.

Detainees were denied the ability to maintain personal hygiene, physical exercise or religious observance.

“Numerous interviewees described having to eat rotten or half-cooked food, and drink contaminated water, including from toilets containing feces and insects,” the report said.

Additionally, prisons lacked medical supplies, qualified medical staff, and only stocked basic medicines, “which often could only be obtained through payments or bribes to guards.”

Zu Zu May Yoon, the founder of the Women's Organization of Political Prisoners, told RFA that during the COVID-19 pandemic her elderly aunt died in a prison hospital from a heart attack “because she did not receive the timely and effective treatment she urgently needed, especially oxygen.”

Another woman, suffering from kidney disease, died in the hospital ward of the same prison “because she was denied proper treatment, even though she showed symptoms requiring an urgent CT scan.”

And in another case, she said, a pregnant political prisoner “lost her baby in the womb due to delayed care after her water broke during labor."

Call for accountability

In a statement accompanying its report, the U.N. Human Rights Office called for those responsible for gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law to be held accountable.

“The lack of any form of accountability for perpetrators is an enabler for the repetition of violations, abuses and crimes,” the statement said. “It is essential that such behavior be clearly identified and deterred. Accountability for such violations must apply to all perpetrators.”

Based on the findings in the report, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk renewed his recommendation to the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all those arbitrarily detained.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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

When a group of volunteer doctors with the Palestinian American Medical Association traveled to Gaza last month, they were prepared to treat some of the most horrific injuries caused by Israel’s relentless assault on civilians in Gaza. But they were not prepared to be stranded under the bombardment for over a week after the Israeli military seized and closed the border crossing into the southern end of the besieged region, preventing people and supplies from getting in or out. Dr. Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon and Army veteran from New Jersey, has now evacuated Gaza after he was trapped at European Hospital in Khan Younis with dwindling supplies. Hamawy, who previously treated Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth for a life-threatening injury while both were in the Army, was offered evacuation along with another group of American doctors days earlier, but refused to leave without first securing the release of his entire volunteer medical team. He now emphasizes that he and his colleagues must be immediately replaced with additional humanitarian relief workers. “It was never a condition for our exit to have other people come in — it was an expectation,” he says. “A hospital cannot run on just a few doctors alone. It also needs nurses, it needs staff.”

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

Al-Kahlout is one of more than two dozen Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since it launched a widespread bombardment of Gaza following the Hamas October 7 raid on Israel. After his release, Al-Kahlout made the “unbearable” decision to leave Gaza for Egypt, from where he spoke to CPJ about his experience covering the war, his detention, and the journalism environment in Gaza. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you manage to report at the beginning of the war, before your arrest?

For the first time, I faced problems covering a war. I had prepared my home for emergencies and wars, like installing solar power, allowing me to work normally in such situations. I lived in a relatively safe area in Beit Lahya. By the third or fourth day of the war, I started losing my journalistic tools like electricity, my phone, and laptop and primarily relied on my mobile phone. We had to buy an Israeli SIM card at a very high price because everyone needed it. This was the first time this happened in any war, but despite this, I continued to work day and night for 61 days, despite the difficult conditions — and this was before being arrested.

At the start, there were many journalists in the north, but in the second month of the war, I became one of the important sources. I was shooting videos and sending them for publication without compensation; I was helping everyone, including major channels. People in Gaza were very cooperative because they knew I was a journalist, so they gave me priority to charge my phone so my coverage could continue.

You manage a team of journalists. How did the hardships you describe affect that?

My colleagues are also my friends, as we have a personal relationship from years of working and collaborating on coverage from Gaza. Within days, communication with them was almost completely cut off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play my usual role in assigning tasks, editing stories, and verifying the materials [and had to leave this to colleagues in regional offices]. With great difficulty, we managed to continue our work, although there was no problem finding stories. As a journalist in Gaza now, you find stories everywhere you go, and a thousand stories can be told in a thousand ways.

After about two months of covering the war, Israel detained you for 33 days. What happened?

At about 7 or 8 a.m. on December 7, 2023, the Israeli army ordered all the men in our area to come down from their houses and gather in a nearby area. They stripped us of our clothes, leaving us only in our underwear in the cold, handcuffed us from behind, and blindfolded us. Even so, we were not afraid at all. We are civilians and were taken out of our homes.

We stayed at Zikim base [in Israel], where we were interrogated and I was asked about my journalistic work. I was interrogated twice, once by the Israeli army and once by the Shin Bet [Israeli security service]. In the latter, the interrogator asked me about a report published in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed in 2018 about a failed Israeli unit operation in Gaza. [Al-Araby Al-Jadeed published several reports about the botched Israeli operation.]

I was blindfolded and forced to sit in a squatting position on a sand hill, with the soldier behind me continuing to hit me. During the interrogation, they also asked why I was in contact with leaders in Hamas. I answered that I speak with various personalities due to my work and request statements for publication. Their response was, “You’re a terrorist, you son of a dog,” and they started mocking and bullying me, then put tape around my mouth because I was arguing with them.

After about 12 hours, we were moved by a bus to the Sde Teiman military base belonging to the Israeli army. I stayed in this detention center, moving between several barracks, for 33 days. They assigned me the number 059889. Of course, no one called us by our names, we all had numbers called out in Hebrew, which we do not speak.

Every day in detention, they would separate us and move us between barracks. The food consisted of moldy bread. I spent almost the entire time in a squatting position on my knees, which caused me inflammation and severe pain. When I was arrested, my weight was 130 kilograms [286 pounds], and I lost 45 kilograms [99 pounds] in detention.

During the detention period, I was interrogated three times in the same manner, focusing on [my work with] Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and on Al-Jazeera [where I did not work] with questions about why I was in contact with Palestinian leaders in Gaza, and about my sources that I relied on to publish my journalistic reports in the newspaper. I told them I was a known journalist, that leaders would send us reports for publication, and that we did not publish everything we received but only what we could verify.

I was subjected to torture called “ghosting” daily, which involves being handcuffed with the hands upward or behind the back while blindfolded, in addition to significant psychological torture alongside physical torture. Even going to the bathroom was on their schedule.

Twenty days after my detention, a new person was detained and told me about the statements issued about me [by my outlet and rights groups] — and I learned that these statements were issued the same days I was tortured.

On the 32^nd day, the chief prison officer, prison officials, and Shin Bet came with prisoners from a prison in the Negev [in southern Israel]. They started calling out numbers, and the last name — or rather, number — on the list was mine. They gave us medicine to relax our bodies from the exhaustion of detention, and if they found anyone called out was injured or sick, they would not release them.

On the 33^rd day, we were transferred to a bus that roamed around before they removed the blindfolds and unshackled us, and I found myself in front of the Kerem Shalom crossing [into Gaza].

Detention left its mark on me, both psychologically and health-wise. The most significant issue I face is with my vision, as I cannot see well due to being blindfolded for 33 consecutive days and nights. My vision was excellent before my arrest. In detention, we were beaten and “ghosted” if any part of our eyes showed. I have severe chest inflammation and acute vertebral inflammation, resulting in leg pain, in addition to malnutrition, and lack of sleep. Before my travel, the cracks in my skin caused by detention conditions resulted in pus and severe pain. In addition to the bruises still on my body, I can’t sleep or rest normally since my release. I behave as if I were still in prison; even my sleep was affected by the prison experience and what I suffered. I would sleep in the same position we were forced into during detention.

After my release, I stayed in the journalists’ tent [a designated area for the press] in [the southern Gaza city of] Rafah for two months, where I tried to get back to work and to make sure my family is okay, but that was hindered by the blackouts and the lack of journalistic devices. I was hoping to get back to the north to my family, but day after day I lost hope that the war would end and I decided to leave for Egypt, which happened on March 10, and my family joined me on March 13. They arrived tired and sick, and we began the journey of treatment.

[Editor’s note: CPJ could not independently verify Al-Kahlout’s description of torture, but it is in line with human rights groups’ descriptions of the treatment of some Palestinians in Israeli custody. Reached by CPJ’s New York headquarters about Al-Kahlout’s allegations of mistreatment, the Israeli military’s North America spokesperson said: “The individuals detained are treated in accordance with international law. The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists. The IDF protocols are to treat detainees with dignity. Incidents in which the guidelines were not followed will be looked into.” CPJ in New York also emailed the Shin Bet about Al-Kahlout’s interrogation over a 2018 article, but did not immediately receive a reply.]

Have you returned to work? What are your plans?

Mentally, I am not capable of resuming work. I am still pursuing treatments and medications, and monitoring my health condition and that of my family. I don’t even have the basic work tools like a laptop.

We are currently waiting for visa procedures and to travel to [the Qatari capital of] Doha. But Doha will also be unknown to us. I hope my family and I can adapt to the new situation. My media institution supported me, but the situation in Gaza and the constant worry for the rest of my family in Beit Lahya kept me in perpetual terror. I feel anxious and tired.

I lost all my possessions; my house and my family’s house were destroyed, I lost my new car, and my small piece of land. Suddenly, we lost everything.

How do you compare covering this war to previous ones?

From the first day, it has been impossible to comprehensively cover the war. We lost our main sources of information [as blackouts hindered reporting and official sources became harder to reach] and no one can document all this destruction. Unfortunately, there is a significant lack of information and an inability to grasp the extent of the bombing and strikes happening in Gaza. This has prevented journalists from fully performing their jobs.

Dozens of very important stories of victims have been missed amid the killings and madness. The truth is, that the outside world sees only 10% of the actual reality in Gaza, and what we see is unimaginable. As journalists, we should simply apologize because we can’t cover everything. I used to be able to get all the news, and today, many significant stories haven’t been covered.

Given the scale of the genocide, the lack of empathy has been striking. I’ve been working in journalism since 2004 and have never seen this level of destruction in any war I covered, and I have covered all the wars on Gaza since then. In the past, we treated the killing of five people as a massacre, but today in Gaza, a massacre means 100 and more. People have become numbers and we don’t know the details of their stories, that is if we even know of their deaths.

Unfortunately, the absence of the internet and the lack of quick alternatives pose a real dilemma, and a journalist who loses his equipment cannot replace it. Almost all press offices were lost, and hospitals have become the main headquarters for journalists.

Journalists in Gaza have found no respect. Amid all these difficulties in covering and reporting events, there was another challenge: trying to survive, securing food and drink, and protecting the family. Moving even an inch in Gaza now is madness.

The Palestinian journalists couldn’t fully deliver the picture due to the massive bombings and communication blackouts that stopped stories from getting out. What was shared were just bits of breaking news, and the deeper stories were lost or silenced because journalists were targeted, there was no security, and essential supplies like electricity and the internet, and work tools like laptops were missing.

The people of Gaza and the journalists there suffered injustice in this coverage, which was made worse by the absence of foreign journalists who could have helped complete the story.

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

As Israel continues its relentless assault on Gaza, causing mass famine, injury and death, we get an update on the malnutrition and mental health crises in Gaza from Dr. Nahreen Ahmed, a pulmonary and critical care doctor and the medical director of the humanitarian aid group MedGlobal. She is recently back from a two-week volunteer trip to Gaza, where she says these crises are growing so rapidly “that even if aid was increased tomorrow, we would still be in a severe situation where the amount of food would not be enough in the immediate term.” It is a “horrific experience for all involved,” she concludes.

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

We speak with British surgeon Dr. Nick Maynard, who recently led an emergency medical team at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital, about Israel’s ongoing attacks on healthcare infrastructure and the worsening humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory, where Israel’s brutal assault has killed about 32,000 Palestinians since October 7. Maynard is part of a group of international doctors with experience in Gaza who met with officials at the United Nations and in Washington, D.C., this week to express alarm over civilian suffering. Medical workers in Gaza are “working under extremely challenging conditions with a huge lack of resources and working in a healthcare system that is being systematically dismantled by the attacks on it,” he tells Democracy Now! “It’s very, very clear to all of us who have been on the ground in Gaza that the only way to try and stop this humanitarian catastrophe is for an immediate ceasefire.”

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

As the death toll in Gaza tops 29,000, we get an update on one of the largest hospitals in southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which is no longer functional amid a dayslong raid on the facility by Israeli forces. About 200 patients remain trapped there, with Israel preventing the WHO and the U.N. from delivering aid or evacuating the patients. The Gaza Health Ministry says at least eight people died in the hospital after Israel cut off electricity and oxygen supplies, and that soldiers also arrested many hospital staff. Dr. Ahmed Moghrabi, a surgeon who worked at Nasser, sent Democracy Now! a video on Sunday describing what happened when it was stormed by Israeli troops. “They arrested all the medical team who remained at Nasser Hospital. We don’t know the fate of my colleagues,” said Moghrabi, who had to walk for miles with his family in the night. “Nothing remains in Khan Younis. Nothing. It’s like horror movies. No streets, no buildings are there. Only dead bodies.”

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

As Israel continues to threaten to invade Rafah, where over a million Palestinians have sought refuge, we speak to a surgeon who recently returned from a humanitarian mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza. “What I saw in Khan Younis were the most horrific scenes in my entire life,” says Canadian ophthalmologist Dr. Yasser Khan. He describes the dire conditions of injured civilians in Gaza, the majority of whom are children. “The genocidal intent of Israeli politicians, the Israeli army, is really clear. What is really bizarre is that they haven’t hid it,” says Khan. “The killing machine that Israel has unleashed on the healthcare system, I think, is unprecedented. … If the bombings are not going to get you, then disease will surely get you.”

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

RAFAH, GAZA — For more than two weeks, Israeli forces have laid siege to Al-Amal Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, blocking all roads to the facility and deepening an already dire humanitarian crisis. 

The hospital is run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which has been raising alarm about the 18-day siege, during which at least one Red Crescent volunteer was killed. On Tuesday, Israeli forces ordered thousands of people to evacuate the hospital, most of whom were displaced from other parts of Gaza throughout the monthslong war. Hundreds of medical workers and wounded or disabled patients remain stranded inside.

Last month, the World Health Organization reported that more than 600 people had been killed inside health care facilities since Israel launched a retaliatory war on Gaza on October 7. The “ongoing reduction of humanitarian space plus the continuing attacks on healthcare are pushing the people of Gaza to breaking point,” a WHO spokesperson said.

After ordering residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south early on in the war, the Israel Defense Forces have been waging an intense assault on southern Gaza in recent weeks, including in Khan Yunis. The city’s largest hospital, Nasser Hospital, has also been besieged, with only five doctors left to treat the wounded. Just this week, hundreds more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombs, with the death toll since October nearing 28,000.

The Intercept spoke with Saleem Aburas, a relief coordinator with the Palestine Red Crescent’s Risk and Disaster Management Department, who has been trapped inside the Al-Amal Hospital complex since January 21.

“The siege we are enduring within the hospital feels like a never-ending nightmare,” Aburas said. “Even though there are wounded and deceased people right outside the hospital, we are paralyzed, unable to assist them, as the occupation’s snipers and Israeli aircraft target anyone venturing outside the hospital premises.”

The hospital’s ability to care for patients has deteriorated amid the blockade and a shortage of essential medical supplies, a situation made more dire by the lack of drinking water and food. “We face immense challenges in delivering adequate health care services to the injured, hampered by the occupation’s restrictions on the entry of medical supplies into the hospital,” Aburas said.

For those inside the hospital, communications with the outside world have been largely shut off. (To get online using an eSIM, Aburas must climb to the roof of the hospital and risk bombings or sniper fire.) “The communications blackout was another source of terror,” he said. “Everyone trapped in the hospital doesn’t know anything about his family and loved ones outside the hospital. All we know is that the Israeli bombing continues throughout the Gaza Strip.”

Aburas, who is 30 years old and joined the Red Crescent as a volunteer in 2011, said that the current war is unlike anything he has ever seen in Gaza. “Although I have lived through six Israeli aggressions and many escalations, the nature of the injuries that we saw during this Israeli annihilation of the Gaza Strip is unprecedented, to the point that medical teams are unable to deal with such critical cases due to the deterioration of the health situation.”

Israeli soldiers have at times made announcements over loudspeakers to tell people to stay inside the hospital. They have also targeted civilians in the hospital’s vicinity, Aburas said. On January 28, a sniper shot and killed a 40-year-old man named Omar Abu Hatab and then shot a 21-year-old man who tried to rescue him, Ahmed Muhareb. The two were buried on hospital grounds. “The occupation killed these two people, who were civilians, in cold blood,” Aburas said. 

January 30 was the most violent day of the siege, he said. “The Israeli air and artillery bombardment never stopped, causing damage to Al-Amal Hospital, with broken windows and fragments and debris flying into the hospital from the bombings.” That evening, Israeli soldiers stormed the hospital grounds, igniting fires in an area full of tents and ordering the displaced people gathered there to leave, he recalled. “The occupation ordered them to evacuate the garden,” Aburas said, “but there was nowhere to go, as every place in Gaza was targeted.”

Hedaya Hamad, a Red Crescent worker who was killed on Feb. 2, 2024.

On February 2, Israeli forces killed Hedaya Hamad, a 42-year-old Red Crescent employee, who was also buried on hospital grounds. Hamad is one of three Red Crescent workers who were killed at Al-Amal Hospital, Aburas said, and the eleventh who was killed since the start of the war in October, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On Thursday, the Red Crescent reported that one more member of its team was killed, bringing its death toll to 12.

Aburas said that Hamad’s killing “shattered our collective hearts. She had an angelic presence, helping everyone and diligently working to ensure that the work crews got their share of the meager food supplies. To us, she was like a nurturing mother.”

As the siege entered its third week, Aburas said the hospital was at risk of running out of fuel, which powers its backup generators and oxygen supplies. “Just today, an elderly woman perished due to the oxygen shortage,” he said on Wednesday.

Other challenges include a risk of infection due to overcrowding and a shortage of supplies, and the scarcity of food and milk for children. Some medical staff evacuated alongside the thousands of displaced people who left the hospital earlier this week, leaving even fewer health care workers to tend to the wounded. 

An estimated 8,000 people evacuated the hospital earlier this week. They left for Rafah, another area in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinians are now trapped as the Israeli military threatens a full-scale assault. “The displaced people embarked on a journey into uncertainty, a heart-wrenching scene,” Aburas said. “They were forced to travel from Khan Yunis to Rafah on foot, while those remaining in the hospital — hospital staff, Palestinian Red Crescent personnel, and the wounded — are stuck within its confines, deprived of even the most basic necessities of life.”

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Aseel Mousa.

Amid a communications blackout in Gaza, we are able to reach Palestinian journalist Akram al-Satarri in Rafah, where much of Gaza’s population is now displaced near the Egyptian border as Israel intensifies its assault on the besieged territory. The overall death toll in Gaza has now topped 21,000, including over 8,000 children, and Israeli leaders have suggested the war could continue for months. “The situation is dire,” says al-Satarri, who describes continuous airstrikes leveling buildings as Gaza residents live in terror, not knowing when, where or why Israeli bombs will fall. “It’s a continuous struggle to live. It’s a continuous struggle to survive.”

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

"Since his arrival at Prison No. 5, he has been held in cell block K1. It's not a solitary confinement area, but he has had to share the cell with two or sometimes three inmates, some of whom showed signs of mental illness,” his wife, Le Bich Vuong, told RFA Vietnamese shortly after visiting him. 

“They keep swearing, and they often scold him and insult him,” she said. Their behavior is seriously hurting his mental health, she said.

In April, the Hanoi People’s Court sentenced Nguyen Lan Thang, a long-time contributor of blog posts on politics and society to Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese service, to six years in prison and two years of probation.

Authorities arrested him in July 2022 based on allegations that he posted videos on Facebook and YouTube that were said to “oppose” the Vietnamese Communist Party.

He did not appeal the verdict and was transferred to serve his jail term on June 15.

Vuong said that even when her husband is resting, inmates swear at him and incite him to fight with them or to file petitions to denounce prison guards,” she said. When he did not follow their request, these people insulted him with foul language.

Terrorizing other inmates

Vietnamese prison guards are known to use loyal inmates to terrorize others, especially political prisoners. The practice allows them to plausibly deny responsibility for a prisoner’s mistreatment.

After the visit, Thang’s family complained to the prison and requested that management take measures to improve the situation, including moving him to another cell. However, the management responded that he should deal with the situation because the prison has limited facilities.

According to two former prisoners who were held at Prison No. 5, cell block K1 is a temporary place for newly arrived male prisoners. These inmates are usually transferred to other divisions after a few days or a few weeks. Political prisoners are usually held in cell block K3 if they are men and cell block K4 if they are women.

Former political prisoner Nguyen Van Dien, who had been held in K1 for more than four years until his release at the end of February, told RFA that it had the best facilities among all the cell blocks. It even had sports facilities for inmates, he said.

However, not every inmate has access to K1 facilities.

Vuong said she did not understand why her husband had been held in K1 for the past six months.

He was allowed to leave his cell once a month to see his family and always had to stay in the cell at all other times, she said, adding that he hasn’t had access to the sports area.

Thang requested to be allowed to do prison labor to avoid staying in the stuffy cell all the time, but his request was rejected.

Denials

RFA contacted the prison by telephone and a staff member who refused to identify himself denied all of Thang’s claims, saying that his prison stay has been conducted according to regulations and the law. 

The staff member recommended contacting the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Prison Management for detailed responses to questions.

The staff member also said that cell block K1 held prisoners with sentences ranging from eight months to life, and was not a transitory cell block as the previous prisoners claimed.

According to human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, who fled Vietnam this year and currently resides in the United States, it is clear that Thang has been mistreated and retaliated against for his resilience. 

"There are no legal provisions that allow holding normal inmates with mentally ill inmates,” he said. “Banning prisoners who don't violate rules and regulations from coming out of their cells to do physical exercises and plant trees is also illegal. … These [practices] obviously violate not only regulations on prisoner management but also human rights. They should be condemned."

Thang’s treatment in prison was “no surprise” because he is being targeted as a political prisoner, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, told RFA.

“Guards' use of so-called trustee prisoners to terrorize political prisoners is particularly common since the prison officials will then claim they are not responsible,” he said. 

“In fact, everything that goes on inside the prison is strictly controlled by the warden and their guards, which means that what is happening to Nguyen Lan Thang is no doubt international harassment and abuse."

In addition, Thang has also been unable to access any outside information.

According to his family, Thang said that he had sent them some letters in July and August, but they had not received them yet. His family also sent him letters and books many times, but due to the prison's time-consuming censorship protocols, he was not updated on his family's information and he has no books to read.

Vuong said that her family was preparing to send a petition to the Prison Management Police Department, the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Procuracy, and Prison No. 5, requesting an investigation into Thang's allegations.

His family also requested the prison to move him to cell block K3, where prisoners are allowed to carry out some activities, including physical exercise and planting trees.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster. 

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

We are joined in Cairo by Fadi Abu Shammalah, the head of Gaza’s General Union of Cultural Centers, who describes the inhumane conditions he was able to escape in Gaza. “Every city in the Gaza Strip is beyond our imagination,” says Abu Shammalah. He notes that in just the last 36 hours, at least 170 civilians were killed. “Witnesses say that the Israeli bulldozers buried the injured people in Kamal Adwan Hospital. They buried them while they are alive,” says Abu Shammalah. “They were still alive. They killed and they buried them.” He calls this a war on Palestinian civilians, meant to destroy as much of Gaza’s infrastructure as possible.

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

Chinese authorities moved quickly to quash the protests, arresting a number of young people for taking part.

Among them was Huang Guoan, a 30-year-old software programmer who had attended a protest in the southern city of Guangzhou, where he was living at the time.

Huang, who had been making plans to leave China, was taken to a detention center where police accused him of spreading an essay criticizing the ruling Chinese Communist Party published on a website run by the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

During his 15-day detention, Huang cooperated with police and "confessed" following repeated interrogations during which he was tortured with sleep deprivation through bright lights, and with pepper spray, he said.

"The light is so strong you can't block it out even if you shut your eyes," Huang told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. "It's still red and dazzling."

The lights also affected Huang's daytime vision, he said.

"It's difficult for your eyes to recover even after a whole day – it's pitch black and very frightening, and you feel like you're blind," he said.

"As for the pepper spray, it's very painful, and you don't recover from it for a long time, even if you drink some water," Huang said.

Starvation diet

Now a political asylum-seeker in New Zealand, Huang said his motivation for joining the "white paper" movement stemmed from the suffering he witnessed and the hardship he endured while under lockdown during the “zero-COVID” era that ended shortly after the "white paper" protests in late November 2022.

Huang, who once pulled in a good salary as a project manager and software engineer for state-owned China Southern Power Grid, said he never thought he would ever be forced to the edge of starvation.

"It was October 2022," he said. "My Health Code had turned red, which happened if your phone had gotten close to someone who also had a red code."

"The pandemic enforcers would use that to lock you up in your own home," Huang said. "I had stored mostly rice, so I eked out a small bag of rice for more than a month."

"By the end of that month, I was eating thinner and thinner congee, and I knew that in just a few days, I would go hungry," he said, adding that calling emergency services or municipal helplines didn't get him anywhere, as the people who answered citing lack of supplies as a reason not to supply him with food.

Huang also remembered witnessing a suicide attempt by a man on the streets of downtown Guangzhou.

"I saw a guy, a white-collar worker, who had jumped straight off the building," he said. "I didn't see him actually jumping – I just saw him lying on the ground covered in blood."

"The police had cleared and cordoned off the area within about 20 minutes, and they were telling people to delete any video or photos from their mobile phones and WeChat accounts."

"Anyone who did post something online would soon have been discovered by the Internet police, and then their account would be blocked," Huang said.

The Chinese health ministry refused in November 2022 to publish statistics on suicides under the country's zero-COVID policy of rolling lockdowns and electronic tracking.

Circumventing the Great Firewall

Despite government information blackouts and constant online censorship, young people in China were finding ways to circumvent the Great Firewall and get a more realistic picture from outside the country's tightly controlled internet content, he said.

Shaken out of his expectation of privilege and comfort by the privations of lockdown, Huang joined a WhatsApp anti-lockdown group that had around 500 members, and started posting any information he found online to the group.

The posts were historical, about the kangaroo courts and political killings of the turbulent Cultural Revolution era from 1966-1976, but also about more recent scandals, including trafficking in children, organ harvesting and forcible demolitions and land grabs by local officials.

As crowds started to gather in the wake of a fatal lockdown fire in Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi, Huang started printing flyers containing links from his posts, and handing them out on the streets of Guangzhou, packaging them as entertainment or gambling websites.

He said online discussions about opposition to Xi's zero-COVID policy soon erupted into real-world action.

"Everyone went out to bang on the locks and break through the fences," Huang said in a reference to the fencing and welding used by COVID-19 enforcers to confine people to their homes and residential neighborhoods.

"The police were very violent at that time," he said. "I watched from behind at a close range."

"The police used iron rods and electric batons to smash people's heads – they fell to the ground," Huang said. "The people at the front must have been arrested on the spot."

One by one, the friends who stood alongside Huang in the back row of the protests fell silent, presumed detained.

Huang started to make plans to leave China, and received his visa for New Zealand in early May, just before he was detained and interrogated, he said.

In July, after his release, Huang boarded a flight to New Zealand. A few days later, police descended on his former home in Guangzhou, searching it from top to bottom and issuing an arrest warrant for him.

The warrant told Huang that they knew he was already in New Zealand, and called on him to come back to China and turn himself in immediately in order to "protect himself and his family."

Since then, Huang's colleagues, friends and younger brother have all been hauled in for questioning, while a bank account containing 380,000 yuan (US$53,600) has been frozen, he said.

Huang's attorney Alan Williams confirmed that his client has submitted an application for refugee and protected status in New Zealand, adding that he will be interviewed before next June. 

Due to a large backlog of applications this year, the approval process could take up to 12 months, he said.

In the meantime, an organization in Auckland has been helping him get set up with rented accommodation and starting to look for a job, he said.

According to Huang, the number of Chinese nationals seeking political asylum in New Zealand has risen sharply since the start of the pandemic, with an approval rate of around 50% currently reported.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Amelia Loi for RFA Mandarin.

Gaza’s two largest hospitals are under a complete siege by Israeli forces and no longer functioning. Palestinian health officials have also accused Israel of using snipers to shoot at people inside Al-Shifa Hospital, where thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge. Israel has claimed Hamas runs a command center below the hospital, though this has been denied by hospital staff and Israel has not publicly released any evidence behind the claim. Dr. Fadel Naim of Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital says surgeons are forced to operate in hospital corridors with limited anesthetic supplies. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t help many of these patients. Many of them died because we couldn’t do anything for them.” We also hear from Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician with Doctors Without Borders who has worked in Gaza and the West Bank. She is a co-founder of the social media account Gaza Medic Voices. “Anyone who tries to leave the hospital is targeted,” says Haj-Hassan. “We have descended into a very dark era for humanity.”

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

Raji Sourani, a leading human rights lawyer in Gaza, joins us by phone after his home was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. Sourani and his family survived the bombing and are now staying with relatives, but he says they refuse to leave Gaza despite Israel’s continuous bombardment. “They want to evict Gaza and create a new Nakba. They don’t want anybody in Gaza. They want us to leave,” Sourani says, “No power on Earth will take me from here. We are the stones of the valley.” Sourani is the director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza. He is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

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

That’s according to Philip Kropf, Head of Communications for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan.

“Dozens of villages have been damaged, some of them completely flattened,” said Mr. Kropf. 

In an interview with UN News’ Cristina Silveiro, he discussed what he’d seen on the ground and outlined the UN’s urgent interagency response.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Cristina Silveiro.

That’s according to Philip Kropf, Head of Communications for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan.

“Dozens of villages have been damaged, some of them completely flattened,” said Mr. Kropf. 

In an interview with UN News’ Cristina Silveiro, he discussed what he’d seen on the ground and outlined the UN’s urgent interagency response.

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Cristina Silveiro.

“Do you hear the bombing?” asks our guest Raji Sourani in Gaza City, as Israel reportedly bombed the Islamic University of Gaza nearby him and intensified its bombardment after it declared war against Hamas. The award-winning human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza describes the situation in Gaza, where Israel has now cut off food and electricity, and responds to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling Gazans to leave, calling it “nonsense,” and asks, “Where to? We don’t have safe passage.”

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

From Maui, we hear from a survivor of Hawaii’s historic wildfires, which have taken at least 55 lives to date. Vixay Phonxaylinkham, a resident of California, was on vacation with his wife and five children when they had to jump into the ocean to escape the raging fires and floated on a piece of wood for hours. “We stuck together. We held on. We’re not going to die this way. We’re here. We’re alive,” said Phonxaylinkham.

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

We speak with Jaysin Saxton, one of the witnesses who testified at the Senate hearing Wednesday on Starbucks’ union-busting record. Saxton was a former Starbucks shift manager, fired after leading the union drive at a store in Augusta, Georgia. He tells Democracy Now! he and fellow workers were motivated to organize their store to address the “insane” working conditions, including understaffing and inconsistent schedules. “There’s no stability in how much you’re earning and how many hours you’re getting, so you can’t afford to pay your bills, and you have to choose between gas and food,” says Saxton.

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

Zhang Wuzhou, who was handed a two-year, nine-month prison sentence in March 2021 after she held up a placard in public opposing the law, said she was made to wear as many as 16 heavy manacles and leg irons weighing around 100 kilograms (220 pounds), which forced her into a bent position "like a cooked shrimp" and unable to move. 

"The pain was excruciating," she said.

"It's incredibly hot in there, and there's no attention to hygiene, with 40 people all locked up together in a cell that's 30 meters square, all eating, drinking and going to the toilet in that space. People are packed in close together ... squeezed up against each other," Zhang said.

She also described being beaten by several guards after she stood up and berated them over the claim she had betrayed her country. "The police officers called the prison staff to join in beating me up, crushing my feet," she said. 

Zhang said when she had her period, she was denied permission to go to the bathroom to clean up. "I begged the prison guards, pleaded with them, and promised to be cooperative, as long as I was allowed to go to the toilet to wash," she said. "They were all women officers, but they all ignored me."

"They regarded me as a traitor to the motherland," Zhang said.

Easier to punish protesters

The Hong Kong national security law, introduced in 2020, criminalizes “secession,” “subversion,” and “collusion with foreign forces,” vague offenses that are so broadly defined they can be used by authorities to penalize almost any kind of protester.

Zhang, who served an earlier sentence in prison for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," made headlines in 2015 alongside her sister Zhang Weichu after their brother Zhang Liumao died in police custody.

She said her relatively high profile in the international media was likely one of the reasons she hadn't died in prison.

Zhang said the longest she was manacled and shackled in a bent position for was 12 days and 12 nights, but said she had been tortured in the same way for 24 and 72 hours, as well as one time for six days and six nights.

"It's a miracle I came out alive this time," Zhang said. "I had to survive so I could tell my son that his mother didn't commit any crime, that all of my actions were right, and commendable."

"Justice [in China] depends entirely on the say-so of those in power," Zhang said. "Nobody believes anything if it's said by ordinary people."

Zhang said she was treated like a criminal or a person locked up in a psychiatric institution. 

"You have to keep your spirits up in there or you won't come out alive. I'm pretty pleased with myself to have gotten out of there alive," Zhang said. "I think maybe it's because I am relatively well-known. If it had been someone else they would likely have let them die without even trying to hide it."

Brother died in 2015

Her brother Zhang Liumao died in 2015 while being held at the Guangzhou No. 3 Detention Center, but no explanation of his death was offered to his family. His family reported that his body showed multiple signs of severe physical assault. Relatives and a lawyer who viewed Zhang's body said there were marks on it consistent with torture.

Authorities also have not offered his widow any child support, Zhang said. "The child is innocent, and his mother has no job in the middle of the pandemic.”

"They always find some political excuse to suppress ordinary people, bringing disaster to the country every day under the banner of serving the people," she said in a reference to a Communist Party slogan.

Authorities threatened to arrest her again if she kept “talking nonsense,” she said.

Zhang remains under surveillance, with none of her former friends or fellow activists allowed to visit her. She said she has no plans to engage in further activism for the time being.

Her sister, Zhang Weichu, an experienced gynecologist, has lost her job and been evicted from her home along with her young son since taking up her brother's case with the authorities. She has been unable to secure another job as a doctor since being fired from the Vanke Hospital in Guangdong's Qingyuan city on Aug. 31, 2018.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jenny Tang for RFA Mandarin.

On Friday, October 21, the Tajik service of U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, known locally as Radio Ozodi, published a letter written by jailed independent journalist Abdusattor Pirmuhammadzoda alleging police officers beat, electrocuted, and forced him to record a false confession video.

The journalist’s brother, Abdukarim Pirmuhammadzoda, told CPJ by phone that the letter was in his brother’s handwriting and said the journalist confirmed his authorship during a meeting with relatives.

In the letter, reviewed by CPJ, Pirmuhammadzoda wrote that the mistreatment was so extreme that he “thought [he] would die.”

Radio Ozodi has received information from multiple sources that six journalists currently in detention in Tajikistan have been forced to record confession videos, according to a senior journalist at the outlet who spoke to CPJ by phone on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Radio Ozodi was unable to establish the circumstances under which these recordings had been made, the journalist told CPJ, and CPJ was unable to verify this claim further.

“Allegations of severe mistreatment, threats, and forced confessions by Tajik law enforcement agencies, while nothing new, are deeply concerning and demand a full and convincing answer from Tajik authorities,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “It is high time Tajik authorities stop exploiting the secrecy in which they have shrouded cases against journalists to so egregiously and abhorrently violate their rights, and release all unjustly jailed members of the press at once.”

On July 9, police arrested Pirmuhammadzoda, a former state radio journalist who published his views on social issues and freedom of speech on his YouTube channel with 39,000 subscribers, as CPJ documented. Pirmuhammadzoda interviewed and appeared on the YouTube channels of imprisoned journalists Daler Imomali and Abdullo Ghurbati before their June 15 arrest and was vocal in calling for the pair’s release, which the journalist’s brother told CPJ was likely the reason for his prosecution.

On October 13, Pirmuhammadzoda’s lawyer told independent outlet Asia Plus that his client had confessed but denied that the guilty plea had been made under duress. Pirmuhammadzoda’s lawyer did not reply to CPJ’s calls and messages.

In his letter published October 21, Pirmuhammadzoda said authorities charged him under Article 307(3).2 of Tajikistan’s criminal code for “participation in banned extremist organizations,” which carries a penalty of five to eight years in prison.

The journalist called the accusations “false and concocted” and said that a large part of the evidence against him is based on social media engagement made after police confiscated his phone.

Pirmuhammadzoda also detailed officers’ mistreatment and threats against him and his family for days following his arrest. Pirmuhammadzoda told family members that officers threatened to rape or bring criminal charges against them if he did not confess, his brother told CPJ.

In the letter, the journalist said officers forced him to read a script on camera, where he admits to being a revolutionary and in contact with an exiled leader of an opposition political party.

Multiple human rights bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee, have expressed concern at the alleged prevalence of torture and ill-treatment of detainees to extract confessions in Tajikistan.

In October, Radio Ozodi reported that video journalist Abdullo Ghurbati, sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for participating in banned organizations, was pressured and tricked by police into recording a confession video with promises of release.

In August, Radio Ozodi reported that another detained journalist, Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, retracted a televised confession during her ongoing trial, saying it had been made under duress.

A source close to the family of Zavqibek Saidamini, another former state media journalist arrested after calling for Imomali and Ghurbati’s release, told CPJ on condition of anonymity that the family had not seen or heard from him since his July arrest and that they feared he had been subjected to physical and psychological pressure.

CPJ could not independently confirm the reports of confession videos for the detained journalists or the alleged pressure of Saidamini. CPJ’s calls to the detained journalists’ lawyers went unanswered or did not connect.

The lawyers have reportedly signed nondisclosure agreements with Tajik authorities, and the journalists’ trials have been conducted behind closed doors, according to Radio Ozodi. Journalists’ relatives contacted by CPJ said they did not have information about forced confessions or declined to speak, citing fear of retaliation.

CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the office of the prosecutor general of Tajikistan for comment but received no replies. A representative of the prosecutor general’s office told Radio Ozodi today that the office had not received any official complaints concerning alleged ill-treatment of detained journalists but would investigate complaints if it received them.

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

Russia has announced it will formally annex four areas of occupied Ukraine on Friday, after organizing referendums in the regions widely denounced by Ukraine and its allies as a sham. We speak with Ukrainian journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk, who explains how armed Russian soldiers went to the houses of Ukrainians in the occupied territories, forcing them to vote. She also describes widespread abuses committed by Russian forces, including mass graves and suspected torture chambers. Meanwhile, more than 200,000 Russians have fled the country over the past week following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial military mobilization to draft at least 300,000 people. Gumenyuk says she hopes the draft will “create some disturbance within Russia” now that the war is impacting middle-class Russians.

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

Dr. David Baum, an obstetrician based in Highland Park, Illinois who was attending the Fourth of July parade there on Monday, ended up helping to treat injuries he called "unspeakable" after a gunman killed at least six people and injured 26 others.

The suspect, 21-year-old Robert Crimo III, allegedly used a legally purchased "high-powered rifle," according to the New York Times, in the attack at the Chicago suburb's annual July 4th celebration.

The gunfire caused "wartime injuries," Baum told CNN's "New Day."

"The people who were killed were killed instantly," the doctor said. "The people who were gone were blown up by that gunfire."

Baum noted that he's seen numerous major wounds as a physician, but said "the power of this gun" caused an "evisceration injury" as well as "an unspeakable head injury" in another victim.

"What I saw was just families' lives forever changed because... somebody who shouldn't have had access to a high-powered rifle got up on a rooftop and decided to do what he wanted to do."

The doctor spoke openly about the need for strict regulations to keep people from accessing the type of gun allegedly used by Crimo and other gunmen in recent shootings like the one that killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas in May.

"The horror of what I saw was that this community will never, ever be the same," said Baum. "What I saw was just families' lives forever changed because they were walking down with their kids on their scooters and somebody who shouldn't have had access to a high-powered rifle got up on a rooftop and decided to do what he wanted to do."

He added that he does not understand why Americans can obtain "a weapon that is meant for war." The injuries he saw "are what are seen in victims of war, not victims at a parade," Baum said.

The shooting in Uvalde in May prompted calls from medical professionals and gun control advocates for the release of photos of the injuries caused by AR-15s—the gun used in Uvalde and in a number of other mass shootings in recent years—and similar weapons.

"The problem with this country is the failure to recognize that every week you all are going to a different community with a different Uvalde," Baum told CNN's Jon Berman. "What happened in Texas is horrific. What happened here is horrific."

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

The white supremacist Proud Boys group and the far-right, anti-government Oath Keepers militia played an instrumental role in planning for a violent insurrection on the Capitol, according to the January 6 House committee, which aired new testimony from witnesses and the groups’ leaders in its first public hearing Thursday night. British filmmaker Nick Quested was embedded with the Proud Boys and shared his footage with the committee. As the first of two live witnesses, he said he was “confused” when “a couple of hundred of Proud Boys were marching toward the Capitol.”

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

An internal workplace survey commissioned by the EPA reveals a work environment that agency scientists and other staff describe as “hostile,” “oppressive,” “toxic,” “extremely toxic,” and “incredibly toxic.” After whistleblowers from the Environmental Protection Agency’s New Chemicals Division publicly accused several colleagues and supervisors of altering chemical assessments to make chemicals seem safer, the agency hired consultants to ask employees about their experiences of working in the division, which assesses the safety of chemicals being introduced to the market. A resulting report, completed in January and released in response to a public records request in March, reveals a workforce consumed by internal disputes and torn between the agency’s environmental mission and intense pressure from chemical companies to quickly approve their products on tight deadlines.

For some of the 29 staff members who responded to the survey, those intertwined stressors appear to have turned work into a form of agony. “When I joined the [New Chemicals Division in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics], my expectation was very high because I was standing in the core sector to protect the American public and environment,” one agency employee wrote. “But now I am failing all my excitement for the EPA, my duties, environmental justice for the public, and even as a human being. I am so exhausted and worn out due to the harsh environment.”

“Staff has been told to leave the room when they expressed a scientific opinion which was contrary to management.”

“Most staff believe that they are not protecting the public and decisions favor industry instead.”

Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, speaks during an event at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 20, 2021.

Photo: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Sharon Lerner.

We get an update from a Ukrainian volunteer on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has besieged the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, where Russian troops have targeted civilian areas for shelling. Many Ukrainians are asking European nations and the U.S. to establish a no-fly zone. We speak to Igor Yudenkov in Mykolaiv, a former IT professional who is now helping other residents find shelter, feeding pets left behind, and defending the city. Yudenkov ​​has been separated from his wife and daughter, who are currently in Russian-occupied territory.

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video on Monday to admonish Russia for breaking promises to let Ukrainian citizens evacuate safely through “humanitarian corridors,” as Russian forces have continued to lay siege to civilian centers. We go to western Ukraine to speak with Olena Shevchenko, Ukrainian human rights and LGBTI activist who recently fled the Russian military assault on Kyiv with her parents and has been helping to evacuate others. Vulnerable communities such as disabled and transgender people have a more difficult time fleeing to safety, says Shevchenko.

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

RFA: Why did you defect from the Air Force?

Zay Thu Aung: There is widespread corruption in the air force. Many members of the air force are doing tasks that they are not professionally trained to do. There are unfair practices. Leaders from the air force only fight for power and promotion. The low-ranking officers die in disgrace and live in shame. Their relatives are ashamed to have a military officer in the family. I joined the CDM because I can’t abide by the general conditions in the air force.   

RFA: What is your opinion of the military coup?

Zay Thu Aung: It was planned all along. The evidence supporting [junta] allegations of voting fraud [by the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD)] is not concrete. They just wanted to use it to justify the planned military coup.

RFA: How does the Ukraine conflict impact the military’s use of Russian aircraft?

Zay Thu Aung: Myanmar’s military has purchased several aircraft from Russia. The MiG-35 fighter jet I flew requires being sent back to Russia for maintenance on a regular basis, whenever the engine has been used for 1,000 hours. Because of the armed conflict with Ukraine, it has become difficult to send them back. It is uncertain if the fighter jet can continue to be used after 1,000 hours of flight. If they are still using the jets, there is no guarantee for the safety of the pilots.

Brainwashed or trapped

RFA: What is your view of the military using air raids as part of their offensives [in remote border regions]?

Zay Thu Aung: I don’t like it. I joined the CDM because I don’t approve of the military’s actions. Many other officers are either brainwashed by propaganda or trapped by personal ties. The pilots consider those who taught them how to fly as their commanders. They idolize them as much as they do their parents. They cannot break out of those personal ties. They also must consider what might befall the family members they would leave behind. Officers have been trained with the ideology that the military is defending the country, and everything will fall apart once they step aside. These are the reasons that hold them back [from defecting].

RFA: How have military leaders persuaded Air Force officials that the coup was justified?

Zay Thu Aung: Gen. Maung Maung Kyaw briefed us shortly after the coup. He said NLD officials ignored the advice of the military leaders and made decisions without consulting them. He also said that the NLD had taken a path that would destroy Buddhism. They persuaded us to support the military coup, based on these principles.

RFA: What can you say about the culture of misappropriating fuel in the Air Force?

Zay Thu Aung: All members of the air force rely on revenue from illegal sales of fuel. It has become standard in the air force ... to siphon fuel for illegal sale on the black market [and report longer flight hours]. The revenue from the sales is shared with every single member of the air forces to facilitate their living costs. They can’t survive without this income. A pilot receives between 30,000 and 40,000 kyats (U.S. $17 and $23) on a weekly basis. The commander in chief of the air force is aware of the issue.

Reported by Khin Maung Soe for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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

The United Nations reports more than 800,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia attacked last week, but many foreign nationals trying to escape have described racist discrimination and abuse, saying they were turned away from buses and at the border, while Ukrainians were welcomed with open arms. We speak with one of the African students who documented their experiences on Twitter with the hashtag #AfricansInUkraine. Nigerian student Alexander Somto Orah says the discriminatory treatment he and other African students faced started at the train station in Kyiv and continued at the border with Poland. “We started protesting and telling them they have to let us go, that this is rubbish. They take in like a hundred Ukrainians and then take in like two Africans. It doesn’t make sense, because there are more Africans there than Ukrainians at the border,” Orah recalls. “So we started pushing, and the police cocked their guns and pointed at us guns and told us that they’re going to shoot us.” Orah eventually made his way to Warsaw and is now helping other students to cross.

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