Maktoob July 26, 2026 The West Bengal government invoked the Goonda Act for the first time after clashes during the Kolkata NEET protest, with police arresting 11 people, including 10 Muslims, while student leaders alleged BJP-backed provocateurs triggered the violence. The West Bengal government on Saturday said it had invoked the West Bengal Public Safety and Control of Anti-Social Activities Act, 2026, commonly known as the Goonda Act, against those accused of orchestrating violence during Friday’s protest march in Kolkata over the failures in the education sector under the Narendra Modi government, including the NEET-UG paper leak. Making a statement in the Assembly, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said around 70 persons identified from the Dharmatala protest had “nothing to do with the student movement” and would face action under the law. “They are not students, nor are they members of the organisation that called the programme. They came only to create disorder,” he alleged. The law, invoked for the first time since its enactment, allows for the preventive detention of persons classified as “anti-social” for up to one year. Its constitutional validity is currently under challenge before the Calcutta High Court. Adhikari said seven FIRs had been registered in connection with the violence. Police have arrested 11 persons, including 10 Muslims, from Kolkata and adjoining areas. According to police, Md Afroz, a resident of Metiabruz, was arrested from Andal, while nine others were also detained. Condemning the alleged attacks on journalists during the protest, Adhikari said the Goonda Act had been invoked to ensure exemplary punishment. “I censure the attack on our journalist friends on behalf of the entire House. An attack on journalists is unacceptable. We will take such action under the Goonda Act that these goons and even their next three generations will remember it. This is precisely why this law was enacted,” he said. According to the chief minister, as the procession reached Esplanade, shoes and water bottles were first thrown at police personnel and later at journalists covering the demonstration. He alleged that protesters wanted to provoke a police lathicharge and the use of tear gas but claimed Kolkata Police had exercised restraint. The march, organised by Left student organisations with support from the Kolkata unit of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), began at Sealdah and proceeded towards Dorina Crossing amid heavy security deployment. Police alleged that some participants hurled slippers and sticks at security personnel and attacked journalists during the rally. Students’ Federation of India (SFI) state secretary Debanjan Dey condemned the attacks on journalists but alleged that the BJP had planted “agent provocateurs” to malign and derail the protest. Dey also accused the Kolkata Police of using tear gas shells and batons against peaceful protesters, drawing parallels with police action against demonstrators in other states. He claimed several members of Left student and youth organisations were injured and were undergoing treatment at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. Alleging BJP involvement in the violence, Dey said video footage showed “saffron-clad BJP workers” throwing stones from atop a fire brigade vehicle and from the Moulali Yuva Kendra, where a BJP workers’ meeting was being held. “When the students occupied Dorina Crossing, these agent provocateurs started throwing stones, shoes, sticks and bottles, molested girl students, and assaulted journalists,” Dey alleged, urging the administration to conduct an investigation and identify those responsible instead of “making hate speeches.” The West Bengal Public Safety and Control of Anti-Social Activities Act, 2026, popularly known as the Goonda Act, allows authorities to detain individuals without trial for up to one year, issue externment orders requiring suspected offenders to leave specified districts, and attach properties linked to unlawful activities. The legislation has been criticised by Opposition parties and civil rights groups, who argue that its sweeping preventive detention powers are vulnerable to political misuse and could be used to target critics and suppress dissent. Its constitutional validity is currently under challenge before the Calcutta High Court. Responding to the news, Ratna Singh, spokesperson of the Cockroach Janta Party, which spearheaded the protest in Delhi, said: “We have received reports that protesters have been detained by the Assam Police and West Bengal Police. It is also being alleged that many of those detained are Muslims. If these reports are accurate, any targeting of individuals on the basis of religion would be unlawful and deeply concerning.”

By Abeer Salman, Kara Fox, Eugenia Yosef and Ibrahim Dahman July 24 2026 Smoke billows after settlers set fire to homes and businesses in the West Bank village of Faraata on Friday. *Obtained by CNN The Israeli military began preparations for a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank on Friday after four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes there. The military said a group of settlers entered an area of the West Bank restricted to Israeli civilians Friday for an “unauthorized and uncoordinated hike.” As the group approached the Palestinian village of Tell, clashes broke out between the settlers and residents of the village. In the ensuing gunfire, four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers – one of whom was also a settler – were killed, part of a surge of violence across the West Bank. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the demolition of Palestinian villages in the area in response to the killings. “The population must be evacuated for its own protection, and these villages must be cleared of terrorist infrastructure and terrorists in order to restore deterrence and security to the area,” he said Friday. Video of the incident shows soldiers and armed Israeli settlers appearing to force Palestinians from the area, with calls for “revenge” in Hebrew heard in the background. An armed settler approaches two Palestinian men, apparently trying to use his rifle to push them away. One of the Palestinians can be seen grabbing the strap of the weapon. Several seconds later, after the video refocuses on the incident, one of the Palestinian men is seen holding the weapon. The sound of at least a dozen shots rings out from what appear to be several different locations. The military said the Palestinian man took the weapon from a security officer from the nearby Havat Gilad settlement. The officer was killed in the incident, it said. The military said a second soldier was also killed during the incident. It is not clear if the incident captured in the video shows the precise moment the officers were killed. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the four Palestinians who were killed were shot by Israeli soldiers. Walid Zeiden, leader of the Tell village committee, said they were all members of the same family, including two brothers and two cousins. At least three others were wounded by Israeli gunfire, the health ministry added. The UN called for “urgent action” to end the escalating violence in the West Bank amid “unabated” Israeli settler attacks against Palestinian communities. “Israel must take immediate steps to prevent settler violence, protect Palestinian communities, and ensure that those responsible for attacks are held accountable,” said Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, in a statement. “Palestinians must unequivocally reject violence and incitement and take immediate steps to prevent attacks against Israelis.” The Palestinian Authority condemned the settler attacks and criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz for “accelerating the establishment and legalization of colonial outposts” and reinforcing the IDF’s presence in the West Bank. It also called on the US to intervene and “compel Israel to halt its escalation and the crimes committed by Israeli colonists,” according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it had imposed a curfew on the Palestinian villages of Tell and Bureij, as well as the nearby Jewish settlement of Shiloh. Despite video of the incident showing an altercation that escalated and the Israeli military acknowledging that the killing of the Israelis was not planned in advance, the IDF is treating the event as a terror attack and announced a “large-scale” operation in the area to go after “dozens of Palestinians” involved in the incident. The IDF said it had cancelled leave for soldiers operating in the area and was preparing to send in reinforcements. Amid reports of settler attacks and raids on Palestinian villages in the area, the IDF said it was concerned by the possibility of settler violence. Settler attacks continued in nearby areas in the West Bank, including in the towns of Faraata, Imatin, Jit, Iraq Burin, and the Masafer Yatta area in Hebron. Video and photos obtained by CNN from Faraata residents show settlers setting fire to homes, cars and businesses in their village. In one area of the town, settlers sprayed the word “revenge” on the walls and uprooted an olive field with two bulldozers. The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Friday afternoon that 8 people had been injured the Faraata attack, with six of them in hospital with gunshot wounds. In a statement after the Tell incident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to accelerate the establishment of more settlement outposts or farms in the area and the legalization of existing ones. West Bank settlements are considered illegal under international law and by most of the international community and the United Nations, but settlers have successfully established dozens of unauthorized outposts in recent years and eventually secured Israeli government approvals. Friday’s incident comes amid a marked escalation in settler violence across the occupied territory. Two Palestinians were fatally shot by Israeli forces in Beit Furik on Thursday after settlers reportedly set fire to Palestinian-owned fields and vehicles, according to local accounts. Two more Palestinians were killed days earlier in the village of Deir Jarir, near Ramallah, during a settler raid, according to Palestinian health officials. © 2026 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.

By: Serbeze Haxhiaj Illustration: Igor Vujcic/BIRN. Stigma still cloaks the issue of wartime sexual violence in Kosovo, but even more so for survivors from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian minorities. The Roma woman was 19 years old when she and her cousin were raped by three Serbian policemen on February 25, 1999, at the height of the Kosovo war. They had been waiting for a bus from the southern city of Prizren to their home in Decan/Decani, when a police patrol approached, asked to see their documents, and then told them had to go to the police station. “We got in the car with three police officers,” the woman told BIRN. “They didn’t take us to the police station, but to a forest, where they raped us.” “We arrived home at night. Our family understood what had happened, even though I insisted that they had only beaten us.” Today, she lives in poverty in a village near the western town of Gjakova/Djakovica, an unemployed mother of five who suffers from depression. Only recently did she apply for recognition as a survivor of wartime sexual violence, having worried for years about how to explain to her husband the 230-euromonthly payments she should receive. “He doesn’t know about it,” the woman said of the rape. “How do I tell him about the money?” Her plight will be familiar to many wartime rape survivors from Kosovo’s Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities. BIRN spoke to eight about the neglect and ostracism they face, and how a fear of being rejected by their family, societal stigma, and a lack of awareness about their rights have stopped many from ever seeking help. They all spoke on condition of anonymity. “Reparation, especially justice, remains largely lacking for minority women,” said Bashkim Ibishi, a Roma activist and director of a Pristina-based NGO dealing with minority issues. Excluded from public discourse Shehrije Balaj, the first woman to testify in Belgrade against Serbian fighters who raped her during the Kosovo war, but who died before her application for official recognition as a victim of wartime sexual violence was approved. Photo courtesy of Haxhi Balaj. Survivors of wartime sexual violence in Kosovo were officially recognised in 2018, much later than other categories of war victims and only after years of advocacy by women’s rights NGOs. According to the Governmental Commission tasked with verifying applications for recognition, there are more than 2,100 recognised victims of wartime sexual violence in Kosovo, of whom all but four per cent are Albanians. “The Government Commission does not request data on the ethnicity of victims during the verification process, and there is no discrimination,” Commission head Leonora Selmanaj told BIRN. Minority rights groups say the suffering of ethnic minority victims of wartime sexual violence are often overlooked in public discourse around the issue. “Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian victims of sexual violence are entirely excluded from public discourse,” said Roma activist Diana Shaka. Shehrije Balaj, a Roma woman, testified before a court in Belgrade in 2013 to the rape she suffered on May 6, 1999, at the hands of Serbian forces who went on a killing spree in four villages near Peja/Pec, western Kosovo. Balaj, who was 29 at the time, died in September 2018 before her application reached its destination. In 2019, BIRN reported on her story, and in 2021 she was posthumously decorated for bravery by then Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani. In her application, seen by BIRN, Balaj described being raped a second time by two Albanian men on July 29, 1999, after the war had ended. She and her family fled the next day and spent the next 13 years in Montenegro. Her son, Haxhi, only found out about his mother’s ordeal when she testified before the court in Belgrade. Little support A survivor of wartime rape who recounted the violence she endured in an interview with BIRN. Photo: Serbeze Haxhiaj. A second woman interviewed by BIRN, a member of Kosovo’s Egyptian minority, was 24 years old when she was raped in an empty house in Rahovec/Orahovec by three Serbian policemen. It was June 1998, amid a growing insurgency against Serbian rule by Kosovo Albanian guerrillas. She had been with her husband when they were stopped by police; he was taken away, and she was raped. “I was covered in blood,” she said. Her husband was never found. Her father-in-law’s treatment of her and her three children worsened after he found out what had happened; she eventually took them away and sought help from an NGO. “Exclusion and shame from the community made me leave the city with my children,” the woman told BIRN. Today, she says she suffers from depression, anxiety, and a thyroid condition. The 230 euros she receives from the state as a recognised victim of wartime sexual violence does not even cover her medication. “Most survivors have not had access to employment or economic empowerment public initiatives,” said Roma human rights activist Shpresa Agushi. A third woman told BIRN about being raped in May 1999 in her home in Gjakova/Djakovica by two members of a Serbian paramilitary unit. She tried to hang herself the next day, but her mother stopped her. Two months later, after the war ended, NATO-led peacekeeping troops saved her from another attempted rape, this time by an Albanian man. For more than two decades, the woman had no access to psychological or other healthcare support. She cannot read or write and has struggled to find work. In 2020, she received recognition from the state and is now one of the few survivors from minority communities receiving psychosocial services from an NGO in her hometown. The 230-euro monthly payment she now receives does not cover her and her husband’s medical expenses. They live in a single room with their two children. ‘Nobody mentions us’ Many survivors of wartime rape from minority communities had no access to psychological or other healthcare support. Photo: Serbeze Haxhiaj. Those who fled and never returned often have no means of applying for recognition as survivors of wartime sexual violence. That includes a fourth woman interviewed by BIRN, who was 29 years old when she was raped twice by uniformed men in the police headquarters in Gjakova/Djakovica in March and April 1999. A cleaner in the building, she fled when the war ended out of fear of being targeted for revenge as a former employee of the Serbian state. The woman now lives in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, but does not possess Kosovo documents. “Living in a refugee camp for a long time, we didn’t have food, let alone a psychologist,” she told BIRN. “Sometimes I bought sedatives when I had a few dinars.” When the war ended, ethnic minorities were targeted for revenge by Kosovo Albanian guerrillas and civilians. Speaking to BIRN, an Egyptian woman from a village near Peja/Pec recalled five armed men entering her house on July 27, 1999, one of them in a T-shirt featuring the symbol of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA. Her husband was beaten and she was dragged into the woods. “One of them raped me, and my husband was unable to help.” The men later went next door, where they raped the woman’s neighbour. Three days later, the family left Kosovo. Her case was documented in a 1999 report by the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre. In the report, she says: “When they came, they asked me to find two other women and go with them. I told them I could not find any and begged them to let me go because I was a mother with small children. One of them threatened to kill my husband if I did not comply. Crying, I went there. They left me there, crying and dishonoured.” However, Kosovo’s Law on the Status and Rights of Martyrs, Invalids, Veterans, Civilian Victims, and Victims of Sexual Violence only provides for recognition of survivors of wartime sexual violence between February 1998 and June 20, 1999, i.e. roughly a week after Serbian forces pulled out of Kosovo and the war ended. The woman said she doesn’t “need” recognition. “But I am frustrated that nobody mentions us,” she said. “Egyptian Roma women have also been raped here.” Agushi, the Roma rights activist, said rape survivors from minority communities barely feature in public discourse surrounding the war and wartime sexual violence; those raped after the official cessation of hostilities are doubly discriminated against. “They are even more marginalised, and those who were victims of sexual violence after June 20, 1999, are particularly discriminated against because they are not legally recognised and remain in the shadows.” Campaign of terror No case involving wartime sexual violence against Roma, Ashkali or Egyptian women has ever reached court in Kosovo, and no investigation is currently under way. Photo: Serbeze Haxhiaj. A 2024 study of the long-term consequences of war rape in Kosovo, by Cologne-based Medica Mondiale and Medica Gjakova, found that incidents of sexual violence committed by Kosovo Albanians, while less frequent, occurred in particular after the end of hostilities and mainly targeted women from ethnic minorities. Fatmire Haliti of the Pristina-based Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims, KRCT, said there is “ongoing advocacy to extend the deadline beyond June 20, 1999, as well as to remove the deadline for applications for recognition of the status of victims of sexual violence”. BIRN identified at least three Roma women who were victims of sexual violence twice, first at the hands of Serbian forces and then, after the war, Albanians. Some accounts suggest rape was used as part of a campaign of terror to force Roma families to abandon their homes. “It was a situation in which postwar Kosovo became prey to uncontrollable armed gangs that committed an increasing number of crimes,” said Jean-Christian Cady, Head of Justice at the UN Mission in Kosovo from 2000 to 2004. One, for example, was 30 years old when she was raped on July 3, 1999, weeks after the end of the war, at her in Mitrovica by two men. Her family was forced to leave their home, which was then occupied by other people. She currently lives in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad. Another was 14 when she was raped on June 12, 1999, the day after the war officially ended. She never reported the rape, but in August 2004, a former KLA guerrilla was arrested in Montenegro and extradited to Serbia, where he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for killing two Serbs and a Roma in June 1999 after the war officially ended. Today, the woman has four children and lives in a shelter for displaced people. She suffers from diabetes and depression. After initially being denied, she was finally recognised as a victim of wartime sexual violence. “I was afraid to apply earlier because my case became public during the trial,” she said. Not a single case concerning wartime sexual violence against Roma, Ashkali or Egyptian women has ever reached court in Kosovo, nor is there any open investigation. © Copyright BIRN 2026

Child in Gaza. Source: The International Rescue Committee I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era. The New York Times July 21, 2026 By Omer Bartov Dr. Bartov is a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. How do genocides end? In most cases, there are two options. Either the perpetrators accomplish their goal, or a military force stops them, and accountability ensues. In 1904 the Imperial German Army began a campaign that nearly wiped out the Herero and Nama peoples in what was then German Southwest Africa, now Namibia, through fatal expulsions into the desert, incarceration in forced labor camps and outright murder. No one intervened. In 1915 the Ottoman Empire murdered vast numbers of Armenians it sought to remove from the heartland of Anatolia or caused their deaths by forced marches. Feeble efforts to bring former Ottoman leaders to account were quickly abandoned. To this day, Turkey denies the genocide. Conversely, because the Nazi regime was defeated in World War II, its genocide of the Jews and its other mass crimes were adjudicated at Nuremberg. Other genocides that also ended with the military defeat of the perpetrators — such as in Cambodia in 1979, in Rwanda in 1994 and in Bosnia in 1995 — culminated in some sort of reckoning, however belated and incomplete. Denial of what occurred thus became impossible. In the earlier case of genocides that succeeded because of impunity at the time or the absence of subsequent accountability, the perpetrator state went on to benefit from its criminal actions. The invention and codification of the concept of genocide after World War II was meant to prevent the persistence of this dynamic of impunity and profit. What we have seen unfold in Gaza, where Israel stands accused in the International Court of Justice of committing genocide in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, appears to portend a new future for the crime. It is a future in which other nations or leaders may have an incentive to pursue genocidal policies knowing they will not only get away with murder but may even benefit from it. It is a future in which the countries and international organizations that had been committed to stopping and punishing genocide may give license to its recurrence. Since the current cease-fire in Gaza went into effect on Oct. 10 and President Trump’s 20-point plan was endorsed by the Security Council on Nov. 17, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks. The military now controls nearly 70 percent of the Gaza Strip. Two million Palestinians, who previously lived in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, are now confined to a third of it, trying to survive in devastated spaces lacking the most basic humanitarian infrastructure. After the cease-fire and exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, Phase 2 of Mr. Trump’s plan began in mid-January, which intends to bring about the full demilitarization and reconstruction of the strip, to be managed by a transitional technocratic Palestinian body. Overseeing the process is an international Board of Peace chaired by Mr. Trump. His administration has spoken about creating a multibillion-dollar futuristic “New Gaza” in the long term and is reportedly planning to build a major military and personnel base for multinational forces. This will inevitably consign Palestinians in Gaza to the role of construction workers and service providers for the rich inhabiting what used to be their land. How did we get here? The Israeli political and military leadership conducted an operation in Gaza that killed at least 70,000 people (as admitted now by the Israeli military), most of them civilians; wounded close to 200,000; and caused vast numbers to die indirectly because of the utter destruction of medical facilities, housing and infrastructure, as well as the deprivation of food and clean water. As I wrote in July 2025, as a scholar of genocide, I believe this was a concerted attempt to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part, and that the operation therefore reached the high bar of the 1948 Genocide Convention’s definition of this crime. Israel is unlikely to face a reckoning for its actions. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as for a Hamas official, who turned out to have been killed. The United States has tried to undermine the court, and Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly visited the White House to, among other things, reportedly try to persuade Mr. Trump to launch his attack on Iran. Israel may eventually be found guilty of genocide by the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has lodged a separate case against Israel, but the implications of such a ruling are unclear as long as Israel retains U.S. support on the U.N. Security Council, which acts as the enforcement arm of the International Court of Justice. And so Israeli leaders will probably not be held to account, unless they are at some point handed over to the International Criminal Court by a new Israeli government unwilling to bring them to justice in Israel and eager to restore the nation’s international standing. That possibility is remote. Mr. Trump’s 20-point plan would effectively bypass any possible accountability or punishment for the authors of this crime by promising a bright future for everyone involved, although calls for the restoration of a semblance of normality for the Palestinians would be unlikely to gain much sympathy when Israel and its allies would be engaged in constructing an ideal city. What would be the point of stirring up old accusations when a brave new world is about to emerge? It is true that Israel is experiencing increasing global isolation and disapproval among Americans across the political spectrum, but that is precisely what the glossy plans for a new Gaza may attenuate or even reverse: by persuading distracted publics in a troubled world that the issue of Gaza has been settled to everyone’s satisfaction. The Trump plan, if its vision is ever realized, would mean that the U.S. government or American businesspeople working on its behalf would be selling rights for leasing and construction on land expropriated from its residents, whose value is expected to rise sky high. A collection of real estate moguls — possibly including Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Mr. Trump himself — or companies they promote would in that way reap a financial bonanza for businesses and investors, transforming the erasure of the Gaza Strip into an international investment opportunity. While the coastline would be dominated by prime real estate made up of mixed-use towers seemingly for foreign purchase and tourism, providing profits for developers, Palestinians would almost certainly be priced out of housing on what used to be their land. The plan would not only all but eradicate Gaza’s history and society but also transform it into a free-market economy for foreign corporations being offered “amazing investment opportunities,” as Mr. Kushner put it. Building Mr. Trump’s so-called Riviera of the Middle East would depend on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states putting up vast amounts of money on the promise of ensuring even tighter strategic and economic links with the United States. For now, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia, have signaled interest by joining Mr. Trump’s Board of Peace. Israel, as the Board of Peace consolidates control and Gaza is redeveloped, would take another step in its long-term objective of obliterating Palestinians’ hopes for an end to the Israeli occupation of their territories. Other nations, by declining to hold Israel accountable, would also benefit. Germany is Israel’s second-biggest supplier of arms, after the United States, and has signed major contracts purchasing military technology from Israel. Germany is defending itself at the International Court of Justice against accusations by Nicaragua of facilitating genocide in Gaza by funding Israel and cutting aid to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, so it has every political and economic interest in taking the issue off the table. (Germany has denied the allegations.) Britain is believed to have used its military bases in Cyprus to support Israel and is laboring to improve its relations with the United States. France is trying to maintain its political influence in the Levant and to move on from the question of genocide in Gaza, which, according to President Emmanuel Macron, will be determined by “historians, in due time.” Israel, too, is profiting. Even though some European governments have canceled weapons deals and imposed sanctions on Israeli military firms in response to Israeli violence in Gaza, business has remained brisk for Israel’s arms industry. Israeli export arms sales rose by 30 percent last year over 2024, to a record $19.2 billion, according to Calcalist, an Israeli financial news site, and the battle testing of weapons systems in Gaza serves as a selling point, Calcalist reported. In other words, wreaking destruction brings profits. For now, Israel’s impunity will enable its Jewish citizens to continue to ignore the genocide, the consequences of which will be a deepening degradation of Israeli ethics and morality, erosion of the rule of law, internal police violence against the state’s Palestinian and Jewish citizens and the undermining of whatever is left of Israeli democracy. Beyond being deprived of any justice and accountability for their suffering, the Gazan victims of Israeli actions will continue to live in dire conditions, under military supervision and with very limited prospects. Since Defense Minister Israel Katz reportedly proclaimed last July that Israel was planning to establish a “humanitarian city” in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, conditions on the ground have only deteriorated. It appears conceivable that Mr. Trump’s plan will be facilitated by an international force aided by Palestinian security personnel and the Israel Defense Forces to enclose the population in such cities, from which they will be able to emerge only to service the wealthy residents of the so-called New Gaza. In those extensive parts of the strip remaining under Israeli control, new flourishing Jewish settlements are likely to be planted. Mr. Trump has said that the Board of Peace behind this transformation would at some point collaborate with the United Nations, but many fear that it will undermine the world body. One effect of this shift in the postwar order would be the gutting of international humanitarian law and of the two international courts set up to preserve it, ensuring that any hopes to bring Israeli policymakers to justice would remain nothing more than a pipe dream and signaling to other nations that impunity would be open to them, too. Some may argue that the case of Gaza is singular because Israel enjoys a unique international position, thanks to its tight alliance with the United States and its reliance on the legacy of the Holocaust. Perhaps other states cannot expect to be rewarded and may even be punished for genocide. Yet what we are seeing today sets an extraordinary precedent, one that has the potential of undermining the entire premise of genocide as a crime punishable under post-World War II international law. If the plans that are being elaborated for Gaza go forward, genocide may come to be seen by some nations as the legitimate and lucrative extension of politics by other means. At the least, other nations that benefit in some way from the genocide may be less likely to hold future perpetrators accountable. Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the term in 1944 and fought for the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide four years later, had hoped to prevent exactly this outcome. It may well be the future of genocide. More on Israel Opinion | Omer Bartov I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. July 15, 2025 Opinion | Yonatan Touval U.S. Support Is Israel’s True Weakness June 24, 2026 Opinion | Megan K. Stack Israeli Expansionism Is Shaking the Middle East June 8, 2026 Omer Bartov is a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. Copyright 2026 The New York Times Company

By Pravit Rojanaphruk, Khaosod English This week marks one year since the beginning of the tragic and needless undeclared war between Thailand and Cambodia. Many have been killed—civilians and soldiers on both sides—and their loved ones will continue to miss them dearly. How do we even begin to count the losses? Do we count only the innocent civilians killed in our country? What about the soldiers? And what about those who were displaced, including those who remain vulnerable one year on? Nearly 150 people, including civilians and soldiers from both countries, were killed during the two rounds of fighting. ​Some may want retribution, but where will revenge end? With more death and destruction? As I write, Cambodian authorities say tens of thousands of civilians remain displaced and are waiting to return home. In Thailand, I learned last week from a source in the Labour Ministry that at least 100,000 migrant workers from Cambodia remain in a legal black hole as the government refuses to renew their work permits. Fearing that ultranationalist Thais would be outraged with the government, they are increasing the risk of further labour exploitation. ​Then we have the continuation of the zero-sum mentality among some on both sides of the border who refuse to accept that some form of compromise and accommodation is eventually inevitable if we are to coexist as neighbours instead of nemeses. ​Building bridges instead of walls, one step at a time, one person at a time, is imperative. You don’t need to wait for your government to come to its senses. ​Over the past year, I have maintained channels of communication and moderation with some Cambodians and non-Cambodians on the other side of the border as both nations descended into mutual hatred and destruction. Last week, Cambodian editor Sao Phal Niseiy sent me several questions to mark the first anniversary of the brief undeclared war between our two countries. ​I asked for his permission to reproduce our exchange below: — What does the first anniversary of the July 2025 Cambodia–Thailand border war represent for Cambodia and Thailand? ​It represents a failure by both nations to resolve border disputes peacefully. One year on, it also stands as a stark reminder to reasonable Thais and Cambodians that the unchecked conflict has damaged not only relations between the two countries, but also the economies of both nations and the goodwill between Thais and Khmers. ​Over the past year, have you observed any significant changes in Thai public opinion, political discourse, or nationalist sentiment regarding Cambodia? ​On the Thai side, anti-Cambodian sentiment was unleashed and manipulated to boost the stature of the Thai military and the conservative establishment. They have managed to exploit the conflict to accrue political capital. One year on, Thailand and Cambodia remain trapped in a Cold War mentality. ​Although a ceasefire remains in place, tensions along the border continue and mutual distrust persist. How confident are you that Cambodia and Thailand can avoid another armed confrontation in the coming years? ​I have little confidence, but I do sincerely hope that cool heads will prevail. It is apparent by now to any reasonable Thai and Cambodian that this is a lose-lose scenario for both our nations and our economies. ​What practical measures should Cambodia and Thailand take to reduce the risk of future armed clashes? ​Both governments and their people should exercise restraint and moderation when considering and discussing the conflict. We must think long-term and recognise that, in the end, it is better for both nations and their people to be good neighbours instead of sworn enemies seeking to undermine one another whenever possible. ​When your next-door neighbour wishes you ill, it is difficult for you to sleep soundly at night. This is true for both Cambodia and Thailand. If a third party, such as China or ASEAN, could act as a mediator to help resume normal ties, their impartial involvement should be welcomed. Ordinary citizens can also play a crucial part on the road towards the normalisation of our relations by refraining from excessive nationalist rhetoric and ensuring cordial relations with ordinary people from the other country. ​What would a successful Cambodia–Thailand relationship look like five years from now? ​Reopened borders and the resumption of normal trade, tourism, cultural and people-to-people exchange. Both sides accept UNCLOS results. Disputed land border territories back on negotiating table. People in both nations refrain from spreading hate speech and stereotypes, fully aware of how toxic and viral it can become. Essentially, it would be normal, neighbourly relations, but with an acute awareness on both sides of sensitive issues and impending disputes that must be handled with tact. © 2026 Khaosod English

Volkswagen's New Convictions for Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon July 16, 2026 Saulo de Matos and Heitor Guimarães Picture: Wolfgang Weihs/picture alliance On June 11, 2026, the German automotive company Volkswagen (VW) was convicted in four different lawsuits by the Brazilian Labor Court for reducing people to slavery in the Brazilian Amazon. While this judgment marks the company’s second round of convictions for enslavement within the Amazonian state of Pará, it stands out as a historic first in the form of individual reparations for corporate crimes committed nearly fifty years ago. Although VW may still appeal against the sentences, the thesis that modern slavery implies existential damage and that it is not subject to the statute of limitations (prescrição) opens the way for a new era of reckoning with several other companies that committed similar crimes in the past and to this day have never been brought to justice. To understand the global and domestic weight of this ruling, we must unpack three core dimensions: its legal significance for Brazilian case law, the doctrinal mechanisms that enabled a conviction half a century after the facts, and its broader consequences for the contemporary fight against slave labor in the Amazon. VW’s Legal Reckoning in Brazil Since 2024, VW has faced parallel legal battles in the Brazilian Labor Court regarding its historical treatment of workers during the 1970s and 1980s. The first of these, a class-action lawsuit (Ação Civil Pública) initiated by the Labor Prosecution Office seeking collective moral damages, resulted in a landmark 165 million reais (approximately 32 million dollars) award in August 2025 – the largest of its kind in Brazilian history. Concurrently, four surviving workers have successfully secured 2 million reais compensation each by filing individual lawsuits. These recent convictions not only mark the highest individual reparations ever ruled in Brazilian history in a forced labor scandal. They also assert the right of modern slavery victims to call for justice in court, no matter how long it has been since they endured. Moreover, VW was now found guilty of existential damage (dano existencial). In Brazilian legal doctrine, existential damage is distinguished from more conventional forms of moral damage because it affects a person’s capacity to develop and pursue a meaningful life. In the employment context, it arises when an unlawful practice substantially interferes with a worker’s ability to cultivate personal relationships, pursue educational, professional, or social aspirations, and organize a life beyond the demands of work. In cases of modern slavery, the relevance of existential harm is particularly evident: the extreme restriction of freedom, the degrading conditions imposed upon workers, and the disruption of their personal and social lives do not necessarily cease to produce effects at the moment of liberation. Given the gravity and duration of such violations, formerly enslaved workers may continue to face significant obstacles to rebuilding their lives, restoring social and family ties, and formulating or pursuing a viable life project. The Legal Anatomy of Contemporary Slavery The factual background of these new sentences was pretty much the same as in VW’s previous conviction in 2025, which has already been addressed on this blog by Danielle Pamplona and Hartmut Rank. The case took place at the Vale do Rio Cristalino cattle ranch run by one of VW’s subsidiaries from 1974 to 1986. Funded by the Brazilian military dictatorship of the era, the project employed around 300 direct workers trafficked from neighboring states such as Goiás, Mato Grosso, and Tocantins. Evidence compiled from the Pastoral Land Commission, historical parliamentary reports, police investigations, and survivor testimonies demonstrated that these workers were subjected to a classic “package” of modern extractive exploitation: armed surveillance, debt bondage, violent confinement, and severe degradation under unsafe conditions. Drawing heavily on proof presented by the Labor Prosecution Office (MPT) in the class-action, the four lawsuits also brought additional evidence as the workers provided personal reports on how they were deceitfully recruited, transported and locked down in the estate. Two of them were taken to Cristalino in early 1983, and the other two (who were brothers) in mid-1986, thus shortly before the ranch was shut down and sold to the Matsubara Group. The first group revealed that they only managed to be liberated when they told the gunman that they had to attend military service in their home cities, while the second group was resold and enslaved again in another ranch after Cristalino’s demise. Statutorily, the framework for VW conviction is anchored in Article 149 of the Brazilian Penal Code and Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) Normative Instruction No. 02 of 2021. The main distinction between Brazilian legislation and international treaties on the subject is that the country’s national law defines modern slavery disjunctively: it may be established if any of six different circumstances are present, which include exhausting working hours, degrading laboring conditions and overt surveillance, in addition to forced labor. Crucially, the use of the word “or” in the statutory definition means that a finding of enslavement can be legally established solely based on degrading conditions – such as a lack of access to drinking water or basic sanitation – without requiring absolute physical confinement. As there was no way to deny the fact of enslavement itself, Volkswagen’s legal defense rested on two traditional statutory arguments: that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations (prescrição) and that applying modern standards constituted an impermissible, retroactive application of labor laws. While ordinary Brazilian civil law does not permit actions for unlawful acts that occurred 50 years prior, the court overrode these limitations by integrating international human rights law into domestic jurisprudence. The turning point in this doctrinal shift stems from the domestic absorption of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) landmark decision in Fazenda Brasil Verde v. Brazil. The IACHR established that when a state fails in its fundamental duty to investigate and punish enslavement, traditional statutes of limitations cannot be used to foreclose justice. That goes hand in hand with the idea that the prohibition of slavery constitutes a peremptory norm of international law (jus cogens), it is irrevocable and independent of domestic statutory shifts over time. Though the Superior Labor Court of Brazil (TST) had previously issued at least two opinions with a similar scope regarding the statute of limitations in 2023 and 2026 (only available in Portuguese), the June 11th ruling against VW was the first to assert that the same understanding can reach as far as four decades in the past in an individual lawsuit. Therefore, further cases of this kind are likely to be brought before the courts. This prospect arises not only from the significant presence of multinational corporations in the Brazilian Amazon during the military dictatorship, but also from the fact that researchers affiliated with the Contemporary Slave Labor Research Group (GPTEC) are currently examining documentary records comparable to those uncovered in the Volkswagen case. The Call for Reparations What makes this case groundbreaking is its explicit framing as historical reparations. By holding a major transnational corporation liable for systemic societal harms inflicted decades ago, the rulings set a powerful judicial precedent. If upheld by the TST, it would open the door to accountability claims spanning the entire 20th century, dating back to the codification of the crime in the 1940 Penal Code. In this regard, the June 11th sentences stand out for their reparative justice framework. Quoting Orlando Patterson’s seminal volume Slavery and Social Death, the judge wrote that VW’s violation “is not limited to the financial sphere or even to momentary emotional distress; it extends to the individual’s very ability to freely shape the course of their life, develop meaningful interpersonal relationships, and express their personality autonomously”. Critics of VW’s first conviction, like Dimitri Dimoulis, consider it to be but an instance of meaningless acts that “have no preventive effect and cannot change reality”. But the recognition of the existential harm of the latest sentences may change the tide in favor of thousands of modern slavery survivors whose lives could be changed by a successful reparatory lawsuit. Symbolic Victory vs. Structural Erosion The victory against Volkswagen carries immense symbolic and material value. It provides tangible financial resources to fund contemporary anti-slavery initiatives, offers direct restitution to survivors, and forces multinational corporations to exercise stricter due diligence over their supply chains in Brazil. Furthermore, it mirrors the broader push from the Global South for historical justice, aligning with recent UN resolutions that frame the transatlantic slave trade as an imprescriptible crime against humanity requiring systemic reparations. Yet, this landmark ruling lands amidst a troubling institutional reality: the ongoing erosion of Brazil’s contemporary anti-slavery framework. The actual, long-term impact of such judicial victories remains constrained by three structural countercurrents: First, a rising faction within the labor courts seeks to minimize the nexus between degrading conditions and human dignity. This position argues against holding rural operations to standard occupational protection, claiming that the harsh realities of the remote Amazonian interior preclude basic amenities like proper restrooms or potable water. Second, the Amazon remains the historical epicenter of 21st-century slave labor, yet massive geographic distances, a chronic shortage of active labor inspectors, and a lack of political will at both federal and state level severely hamper mobile inspection operations. Third, the statutory framework faces existential challenges from pending bills explicitly designed to excise “degrading work” and “exhausting working hours” from the definition of contemporary slavery – a legislative threat likely to intensify depending on legislative election outcomes. Towards a Collective Consciousness Brazil formally recognized the persistence of modern slavery within its territory in 1995 and has been struggling to solidify an efficient anti-slavery policy ever since. While court-ordered historical reparations against VW expose the structural links between transnational corporate exploitation, socio-environmental injustice, and the rule of law, they cannot serve as a complete substitute for day-to-day regulatory enforcement. The long-term, transformative hope is that these decisions will help build a collective consciousness regarding the exploitative treatment of workers in the Amazon. True progress requires ensuring that the dignity of the individual remains the baseline of economic development, preventing the errors of the past from continuing under quieter, modern guises. Copyright © Saulo de Matos and Heitor Guimarães. Originally published by Verfassungsblog. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). Original article: The Past is Never Past: Volkswagen's New Convictions for Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon, Verfassungsblog, 16 July 2026: https://verfassungsblog.de/brazil-volkswagen-slavery/

By Cassandra Vinograd and Marc Santora July 19, 2026 Damage after a night of Russian missile strikes on Sunday in Kyiv. (Credit. Thomas Peter/Reuters) Russia bombarded Ukraine’s capital with one of the largest ballistic missile assaults of the war before dawn on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, the third major attack on the capital, Kyiv, in the past 35 days. As smoke still hung over the city and rescue teams raced to strike locations, city officials said one person had been killed and more than 15 had been injured. The attack was part of a broader barrage across Ukraine that included at least 41 missiles and 125 drones of various types, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement. The sustained campaign aimed at Kyiv has coincided with Ukraine’s own increasingly successful targeting of Russian oil and gas facilities — which has prompted fuel shortages across the country — to take the war closer to Russia. Over the weekend, Ukraine expanded that campaign, striking two warehouses belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries. “A terrible night, terrible events for our company and for our country,” said the Wildberries chief executive, Tatiana Kim, in a statement. “It is a pain that cannot be put into words.” Russian authorities said at least eight people were killed and 62 injured in the strikes. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that the warehouses functioned as “major logistics facilities” that had been used to “supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment.” Ukraine also continued its campaign to isolate Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, targeting facilities across the peninsula and ships in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The effort is aimed at both driving up the cost of the war for Moscow and undermining its ability to sustain its occupation forces in southern Ukraine. With movement on the front line mostly stalled — as both armies are largely unable to maneuver under skies swarming with drones — the air war on targets both inside Russia and Ukraine has intensified. In addition to the attack on Kyiv on Sunday, at least two people were killed on Saturday in Odesa, including a child, when a Russian missile hit an amusement park in the seaside city, according to Ukrainian officials. In a statement, Mr. Zelensky said that over the past week, “Russia has used around 1,450 attack drones, more than 1,640 guided aerial bombs, and 99 missiles of various types against Ukraine.” Ukrainian air defenses destroyed or suppressed 18 missiles and 108 drones, the air force said. The roar of Patriot interceptor missiles being fired into the skies during the bombardment could be heard across Kyiv, but the authorities did not make public any information about how many of the interceptors, which are part of the American Patriot air-defense system, were used. The mobile, surface-to-air defense system consists of advanced radar, a control van and missile launchers, which fire the interceptor missiles. Mr. Trump announced this month that the United States would grant Ukraine a license to domestically manufacture Patriot interceptor missiles. But it will most likely take many months for production to begin. Mr. Zelensky said the attack underscored the urgent need for more interceptor missiles. “Interceptors are needed every day, and I am grateful to everyone who takes our agreements seriously and ensures the delivery of antiballistic capabilities,” he said. “Right now, these packages are literally saving lives during every massive Russian attack.” © 2026 The New York Times Company

Security Threat Spurs Crackdown on Political Opposition, Civil Society, Media Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani of Niger attends the Alliance of Sahel States second summit on security and development, in Bamako, Mali, December 23, 2025. File Photo: 2025 Mali Government Information Center via AP. (Nairobi) – Niger’s military junta has entrenched authoritarian rule, dismantled democratic institutions, and intensified repression since seizing power three years ago, Human Rights Watch said today. On July 26, 2023, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani and other Nigerien army officers overthrew the elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum. Since then, the junta has consolidated sweeping and unchecked powers, systematically weakening institutions capable of holding the military authorities to account. In the past year, the military authorities have dissolved all political parties and several independent unions, suspended dozens of civil society groups, detained journalists under a broad cybercrime law, stripped political opponents of their nationality, criminalized consensual same-sex relations, announced Niger’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), and prolonged the country’s political transition without any roadmap toward democratic elections. “Three years after the coup, Niger’s junta has broadened its assault on human rights,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The military leaders have expanded their own authority while closing civic space and shutting off pathways to justice for victims.” The junta continues to arbitrarily detain former President Bazoum, his wife, the former Interior Minister Hama Amadou Souley, and Moussa Tiangari, a prominent human rights defender. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in opinions issued in February 2025 and May 2026, found that the detentions of both Bazoum and Tiangari were arbitrary, in violation of international human rights law, and called on authorities to release them. In March, the junta adopted a new criminal procedure code setting pretrial detention in terrorism cases at 12 months, renewable once. As Tiangari has been detained since December 2024 on terrorism-related charges, his lawyers filed an application for his release with the court of appeal on June 19. Although the law requires the court to rule within three days, no decision was issued. A week later, the authorities amended the law, extending the maximum pretrial detention period to four years, renewable once. “The coincidence is too serious to be ignored,” Hamid Amadou N’gadé, former communication adviser to President Bazoum, said on social media. “A justice system worthy of the name doesn’t change the rules to keep a citizen in prison.” Tiangari’s lawyers contend that the revised provision cannot be applied retroactively to justify his continued detention. The military authorities have also taken a series of actions that restrict media freedom and civic space. They have targeted journalists for reporting on or sharing matters of public interest under sweeping cybercrime legislation. In October 2025, police in Niamey, the capital, arrested the journalists Moussa Kaka, Abdoul Aziz Idé, Ibro Chaibou, Souleymane Brah, Youssouf Seriba, and Oumarou Kané after they shared on social media an invitation to a media briefing about a solidarity fund to raise money for the state security forces. The authorities charged them with “complicity in distributing documents likely to disturb public order” under the cybercrime law. In November, a court released Kaka, Idé, and Brah on bail, and retained Chaibou, Seriba, and Kané in custody, ordering their transfer to Kollo prison, outside Niamey. Seriba and Kané were released on July 15, while Chaibou remains in detention. The cybercrime law, which the junta amended in 2024, reintroduced prison sentences and fines for broadly defined public order offenses. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which Niger ratified in 1986, guarantee the rights to freedom of opinion and expression. The authorities have also sought to suppress criticism beyond Niger’s borders. Since late 2024, the authorities temporarily stripped at least 18 exiled opposition figures of their Nigerien citizenship based on a 2024 order that created a national database of people suspected of terrorism. In June 2026, the authorities revoked the Nigerien citizenship of Mariama Djibrine, president of a coalition of Nigerien, Malian, and Burkinabè diaspora opposition groups advocating for a return to constitutional rule in the three Sahel countries. That month, the foreign affairs minister instructed Nigerien diplomatic missions to monitor online criticism of the military authorities, signaling an effort to discourage the diaspora from discussing the country’s human rights situation. In March, Niger adopted a new penal code that punishes consensual same-sex relations and broadly defined Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) practices with 5 to 10 years in prison and heavy fines. Same-sex marriage is also punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison, and the same penalties apply to people who facilitate, support, finance, organize, or participate in organizations and events for LGBT people. International media reported that in June, security forces detained at least 16 people, including senior police officers, under the revised legislation. In Niger, where LGBT people already face stigma and discrimination, the criminalization of same-sex conduct is already having consequences far beyond the courtroom. Several community health workers told Human Rights Watch they have suspended outreach and support activities for men who have sex with men due to fears of harassment or abuse. The junta’s criminalization of consensual same-sex conduct contravenes its obligations under regional and international human rights law. The security situation in the country has continued to deteriorate. Islamist armed groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State have repeatedly carried out deadly attacks against civilians in the western Tillabéri region. Niger’s security forces have responded with abusive counterinsurgency operations. In January, a Nigerien military drone strike killed at least 17 civilians at a crowded market in western Niger in violation of laws-of-war prohibitions against indiscriminate attacks. Niger’s withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States in 2025, coupled with the withdrawal from the ICC in June, reflects a broader effort by the junta to restrict avenues for regional and international accountability. International engagement with Niger’s military authorities has often come at the expense of human rights. Some governments including the United States, Russia, Türkiye, and Italy have prioritized security cooperation without conditioning assistance on adequate human rights benchmarks, despite the junta’s worsening abuses. The UN has not consistently denounced human rights violations by Niger’s military authorities. As the UN reviews its approach to the Sahel region, including through the assessment commissioned by Secretary-General António Guterres of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), UN member states should ensure that accountability and protecting human rights are central pillars of any future UNOWAS engagement with Niger, Human Rights Watch said. “Niger’s international partners need to reengage to address the junta’s escalating repression in the pursuit of security,” Allegrozzi said. “They should press the authorities to respect fundamental rights, release those arbitrarily detained, stop targeting political opponents and critics, and set out a credible path to civilian rule.”

By AP and Reuters July 17, 2026 Kashmir clashes have killed 31 since June, leading UN rights chief Volker Turk to appeal for calm Protesters on the march in Pakistan-administered Kashmir during a strike called by the banned Joint Awami Action Committee, an alliance of civil society groups in Neelum Valley [File: Naseer ud Din/Reuters] The United Nations human rights chief has called for an independent investigation into deadly unrest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, urged Islamabad to launch “prompt, thorough and impartial investigations” into all civilian and security force deaths. At least 31 people have been killed in clashes since last month, in the run-up to regional elections at the end of this month. The unrest has involved the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), an umbrella group of traders and activists. While the movement initially formed to protest against rising food prices and utility tariffs, the current flashpoint centres on a legal dispute over legislative seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees. The JAAC demands the abolition of those seats, arguing they allow non-residents to alter local political outcomes. UN officials expressed alarm over Pakistan’s decision to classify the JAAC as a proscribed “terrorist” organisation under domestic anti-terrorism laws. The global body warned that utilising anti-terror mechanisms to criminalise peaceful assembly and enforce widespread internet blackouts raises severe freedom of association concerns. The crisis has amplified the long-running diplomatic feud between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, which have both claimed the disputed Himalayan territory in full since their independence in 1947. According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the crisis hit a deadly new peak on July 14 during intense clashes in the Poonch division, where security forces attempted to clear roadblocks ahead of a planned JAAC “long march” to Muzaffarabad. The escalation resulted in nine deaths – seven civil activists and two law enforcement officers. Defending the state actions during the violence, Poonch Divisional Commissioner Waheed Khan told Reuters that protesters had blocked a security convoy and attacked officials. “Police and security officials responded in self-defence.” In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in an official statement released on Wednesday that the unrest was a “direct consequence of Pakistan’s decades-long systemic exploitation” of the region. Turk has appealed for immediate calm, pushing for “meaningful and inclusive political dialogue” over security-led measures to defuse deep-seated grievances regarding regional autonomy and inflation. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

At Least 4 Critics of Beijing at Risk as Thai Prime Minister Visits China July 13, 2026 9:00 PM EDT|News Release Human Rights Watch The immigration detention center at the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok, Thailand, February 27, 2025. © 2025 Narong Sangnak/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (Bangkok) – The Thai government should not forcibly return detained Chinese dissidents to China, Human Rights Watch said today. At least four Chinese dissidents detained at the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok face possible deportation to China. The Chinese government has increasingly pressured Thai authorities ahead of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s scheduled visit to China from July 16 to 20, 2026. “Successive Thai governments have found it easy to cast aside Thailand’s international obligations to please Beijing,” said Sunai Phasuk, senior Thailand adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Thailand is damaging its reputation by complying with Chinese government requests to unlawfully deport Chinese dissidents instead of allowing them to travel to safe third countries.” Human Rights Watch has learned that three known Chinese dissidents and a critical journalist are at risk of deportation: Bai Zhaodong (白兆东), 56, a prominent former investigative journalist at Caixin, China’s leading media outlet, known for his reporting on high-level corruption in rural areas and on the impact of President Xi Jinping’s signature poverty alleviation initiative on vulnerable populations. Tan Yixiang (谭翼翔), 49, a Catholic and vocal advocate for Tibetan and Uyghur rights. He entered Thailand in 2022 and was arrested by Thai police later that year. He was released on bail in mid-2023, but in February 2024 police rearrested Tan and placed him in immigration detention. Zhang Xinyan (张信燕), 56, a practitioner of Falun Gong, a persecuted religious group, and an activist from China who fled to Thailand in 2014. In July 2025, Hong Kong police issued arrest warrants and a HK$200,000 (US$25,000) bounty against Zhang and 14 other activists from the “Hong Kong Parliament” diaspora group, alleging that they had committed “subversion” under the draconian Hong Kong National Security Law. In May 2026, Thai police arrested Zhang for allegedly overstaying her visa. On July 8, Thai authorities reportedly blocked Zhang from flying to Canada for resettlement. Zhou Junyi (周俊义), 54, a member of the banned China Democracy Party. He escaped to Thailand in 2015. In June 2025, Bangkok police arrested Zhou over visa violations shortly after he organized a memorial event for the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. UNHCR has recognized all four of them as refugees. In recent years, successive Thai governments have forcibly returned dissidents and other wanted individuals to China, where they faced persecution, torture, and other ill-treatment. In February 2025, Thai authorities sent 40 Uyghur men to China, where their circumstances remain unknown. In July 2015, Thai authorities forcibly transferred more than 100 Uyghur men to the custody of Chinese authorities, who flew them from Bangkok to China. A Chinese human rights activist, Jian Xing (邢鉴), was arrested in Bangkok in 2019 for overstaying his visa and threatened with forced return to China. But he was allowed to leave and resettle in New Zealand in 2020. In 2015, Thai authorities forcibly returned the rights activists Dong Guangping (董广平) and Jiang Yefei (姜野飞) to China, despite UNHCR having recognized them as refugees and arranged their resettlement to Canada. They were later imprisoned in China for “inciting subversion” and “illegally crossing national borders.” Dong fled China again in 2026 by driving an inflatable boat to South Korea and has since been resettled in Canada. Hu Junxiong (胡俊雄), a Chinese dissident who lived as a refugee in western Thailand for 10 years before resettling in Canada in 2025, told Radio Free Asia in 2023 that the situation of Chinese political refugees in Thailand had worsened due to pressure from Beijing. He said that he had faced “repeated harassment” from Thai immigration police, despite his good relationship with the local community and local police. Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has no refugee law or effective national mechanisms to assess asylum claims. The Thai government is obligated to respect the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture or other serious ill-treatment, a threat to life, or other comparable serious human rights violations. Refoulement is prohibited by the UN Convention Against Torture, to which Thailand is a party, as well as customary international law. The prohibition on refoulement is also incorporated in Thailand’s 2023 Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances. Other countries will review Thailand’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council—of which Thailand is currently a member—during its Universal Periodic Review in November. During its last review, among the supported recommendations, Thailand committed to implement legal measures to protect refugees and asylum seekers. “Concerned governments should press the Thai authorities to protect the rights of people seeking safety in Thailand, rather than sending dissidents back to China and into harm’s way,” Phasuk said. “Thailand should demonstrate that it has earned its membership on the UN Human Rights Council.” © 2026 Human Rights Watch

By Al Jazeera Staff July 19, 2026 Authorities in the disputed region are auditing school, college and public libraries to look for ‘objectionable’ material. A man adjusts a book on a shelf inside a library in Bandipore area near Srinagar, India-administered Kashmir. Credit: Farooq Khan, EPA, Al Jazeera Authorities in India-administered Kashmir are conducting a mass filtering of books at the region’s prominent libraries and educational institutions over allegations that they carry “objectionable” content, including extolling leaders associated with Kashmir’s pro-freedom movement. All educational institutions in the region have been ordered to vet books, journals, dissertations, doctoral theses and digital resources to “prevent the procurement, circulation or retention of any publication containing misleading, factually incorrect, distorted, inflammatory, unlawful or otherwise objectionable material, including any content which directly or indirectly promotes, glorifies, legitimises or justifies terrorism, violent extremism, secessionism, radicalisation, communal disharmony or any activity prejudicial to the sovereignty, unity, integrity and security of nation,” according to an order issued by the government on July 9. Authorities have also ordered an investigation to determine how books with “seditious content” made their way into public libraries and educational institutions in the disputed region. The inquiry, initially ordered only for school libraries, was broadened last week to include not just books, but also research publications, dissertations, journals, and content stored digitally by the universities. Kashmir is controlled in parts by India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both the nuclear powers. In 2019, New Delhi annulled Indian-administered Kashmir’s historic semi-autonomous status and brought it under direct federal control. Since then, the region has reported a widespread crackdown on educational institutions, rights activists and groups, journalists and other pro-freedom groups. When did the Latest Crackdown Begin? It began earlier this month after Sunil Sharma, a politician belonging to the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded a ban on a book titled Personalities and Legends of J&K, authored by regional educationists Hilal Ahmad and Santosh Meena. J&K stands for Jammu and Kashmir, the official name for the region. The 240-page book, of which Al Jazeera has a copy, is organised into five chapters featuring prominent politicians, activists, authors, poets, and historians from the region such as writers Salman Rushdie and Hari Kunzru, and Farah Pandith, the first-ever special representative to Muslim communities in the United States. However, authorities have objected to the inclusion of key Kashmiri separatists in the book. Among them is Maqbool Bhat, a former separatist leader who was hanged to death on the orders of an Indian court in 1984. The book calls Bhat a “martyr” – one of the many thorny references the BJP has flagged. Also mentioned in the book is Masrat Alam Bhat, another separatist who led rallies during an uprising in 2010 and is currently in jail after his arrest during the 2019 clampdown. An entry on late separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani says he had called Kashmir a “disputed region awaiting political resolution under the aegis of the United Nations”. What are the Officials Objecting to? Ironically, the book, along with another titled Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir – authored by Sushant Giri and published by a New Delhi-based outfit – was provided to public and school libraries in the region under a government-funded programme. But the BJP’s Sharma described their presence as an example of “academic jihad”, invoking a popular Islamophobic dog-whistle and arguing that such books were intended to incite unrest in Kashmir. “These forces are once again trying to poison the minds of young people and children, pushing them back towards separatism and terrorism,” Sharma told reporters, demanding a ban on such books. Police in Kashmir, controlled by a New Delhi-appointed administrator rather than by an elected government in the region, immediately swooped down on the publishers of the two books and arrested three people, charging them with “endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity” of India. How have Kashmiri Residents Responded? For the region’s residents, a sweeping institutional audit of books has brought anxiety. “Writing or even reading about the region’s past suddenly becomes fraught with risk. If you tell the story of Kashmir, you cannot escape the pain, the conflict and the realities of human rights issues,” a senior Kashmiri journalist told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from authorities. “In my own home, I have a collection of old human rights reports and archival books on Kashmir that the authorities would today classify as antinational. Out of anxiety, I am clearing them off my bookshelves. In Kashmir, books have become the new threat.” A bookshop owner in the region’s main city of Srinagar, again on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that people like him are confused about which books to keep and what to discard. “We are unsure what will be considered antinational and what is in the national interest,” he said. The bookseller said a similar situation is under way in the libraries of schools, colleges and universities, especially in departments like law, social sciences and the humanities. A man reads a book inside a library in Srinagar, February 17, 2025. Credit: Mukhtar Khan, AP, Al Jazeera How has Government Defended the Move? The BJP has defended the crackdown, arguing that the inclusion of “seditious” literature amounts to “fanning militant violence” in the restive region. “This is not history or education … The book attempts to revive separatist ideology among the youth,” Sharma said. “It is an attempt to spread hatred against India and its armed forces.” This is not the first time the Indian government has tightened control over Kashmir’s academia and publications. Last year, authorities banned 25 books, claiming they undermined India’s sovereignty, spread false narratives and instigated separatism. The banned titles included those authored by reputed jurists, scholars, journalists and award-winning novelists, including AG Noorani, Sumantra Bose and Arundhati Roy. The police raided more than a dozen bookshops to ensure those books were removed. Before that, the police also banned books written by Abul A’la Maududi, a prominent 20th-century Islamic scholar who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation now banned in Kashmir. Police said their action was “based on credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organisation”. In the process, at least 668 books were confiscated from several bookshops in Srinagar. What do the Authors and Experts Say? They are calling the crackdown “an exercise in intimidation” to criminalise the act of reading a book. “Even if there’s objectionable content here and there, how does that matter? After all, books are not bombs,” journalist and writer Anuradha Bhasin told Al Jazeera. “When was the last time someone read a book and chose to pick up a gun?” Bhasin’s The Dismantled State was among the 25 books banned last year. She said the administration was “going overboard” in its attempt to sift through each and every title that has ever been published on Kashmir. “How many books will you parse through? There are thousands and thousands of them,” she said. “Even using AI to identify such so-called objectionable references entails the risk of flawed reading. I don’t think removing material was ever their motive. It was to criminalise the act of purchasing and reading the books themselves.” Bhasin said the crackdown on books will “create a scare” and force people to “steer clear” of Kashmir-related books that discuss and debate the context behind one of South Asia’s “intractable” disputes. “Come to think of it. The very word ‘objectionable’ is ambiguous. Anything can be potentially objectionable. The libraries will no longer have these books if the staffers are going to be suspended for ordering them,” she said. Political scientist Sumantra Bose, whose two books – Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict” (2021) and Contested Lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka (2007) – were among those banned last year, described the latest orders as “absurd”. “If an authority wants to spend inordinate time, energy and resources looking for needles in not one but a million haystacks, that’s their choice. I personally don’t think it’s a sensible path, nor will it yield the desired result,” he told Al Jazeera. Mohamad Junaid, a Kashmiri anthropologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, called the auditing of books in Kashmir “memoricide”. He said the “overpolicing” of books suggests that Kashmiris were being rendered “incapable of understanding their own condition as the first step towards their physical erasure as a people”. “It is a deliberate attempt to alter facts about the past and forcibly change people’s perception of their own lived experiences. The government wants young Kashmiris to have no way to understand their own condition and to normalise its own control,” Junaid told Al Jazeera. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

By Kristen Gelineau July 16, 2026 An aerial view of a Rohingya refugee camp, home to over a million of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov. 25, 2025. Credit: AP News, Mahmud Hossain Opu, File SYDNEY (AP) — More than 500 people are feared dead after reports that two boats carrying members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority have capsized in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Thursday. According to preliminary information, the two boats left Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in late June carrying mostly Rohingya passengers, including some who had traveled from refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh, according to a statement from the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. One boat, believed to have been carrying around 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure. A second boat, reportedly carrying 280 people, is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on July 8. ″While the incidents and casualty figures have yet to be officially confirmed, UNHCR and IOM are gravely concerned by the potentially devastating loss of life,” the agencies said. Acting police Brig. Gen. Soe Lin Aung, the spokesperson for Myanmar’s Ministry of Home Affairs, declined to comment. Spokespeople for Myanmar’s president and the Ayeyarwady region’s government did not respond to requests for comment. The Rohingya, who have in recent years fled both Myanmar and Bangladesh’s squalid refugee camps by the thousands, typically avoid such boat journeys at this time of year, when monsoons are frequent and conditions at sea are particularly dangerous. The UNHCR and IOM noted this in their statement, saying that recent torrential rain and flooding across the region would have made such journeys especially risky. Around 1.2 million stateless, predominantly Muslim Rohingya remain trapped in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing waves of violence by Myanmar’s security forces. The refugees have no way to safely return to Myanmar, where the military that killed thousands of Rohingya in 2017 during what the United States declared a genocide remains in charge of their homeland. The Rohingya still living in Myanmar face severe restrictions and many are confined to internment camps. Steep cuts to foreign aid by the U.S. and other countries have led to ration cuts in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, while the ruling military and an ethnic armed organization in Rakhine have fought for control of the region. The unrest has led to an increasing number of Rohingya attempting to make the dangerous ocean crossing to Malaysia on rickety boats. Thousands have died in the process, including babies, children and pregnant women. Local maritime authorities have frequently abandoned the Rohingya at sea, often ignoring reports of boats in distress. The IOM and UNHCR said on Thursday that the latest potential tragedy at sea underscores the continued lack of sustainable solutions for the Rohingya, and urged the international community to support those trapped in Bangladesh’s camps. “Stronger regional and international efforts are needed to prevent further loss of life along one of the world’s deadliest maritime routes, including through enhanced search and rescue efforts, access to asylum and protection, and actions against smuggling and trafficking networks,” the agencies said. More than 6,500 Rohingya fled and nearly 900 were reported dead or missing in 2025, the deadliest year for Rohingya who tried to leave by boat. The figure represents the highest mortality rate of any major route for refugee and migrant sea journeys in the world, the UNHCR said. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.