The United States was scheduled for its regular review of its human rights violations by the United Nations Human Rights Council on November 7, but it refused to cooperate. As part of the process, activists in the US submitted a shadow report last April called “The Rights to Life and Health: How financing affects the right to health care in the US.” Clearing the FOG speaks with Martha “Marti” Schmidt, a human rights expert and activist, about the findings in the shadow report, the legal basis supporting the human right to health care, the problems with the current healthcare system in the United States and what type of system would honor our right to health care. Schmidt also discusses successful healthcare systems in other countries and the importance of showing solidarity with countries that are targeted by the United States.
For six years, Alternative Jewish Voices has spoken in an aspirational voice. This is intentional. Research shows, the voice that mobilises new political engagement is a voice of moral clarity which invites others to join the work of making a better world.
We ground our voice in facts, and today’s facts are shattering. We share the outrage that we hear. However, outrage alone does not make change. It has to be channeled forward into principled action.
Hope is resistance. AJV met last week to ask where we find that hope now, while grief and anger feel overwhelming.
With unprecedented Western permission and complicity, Israel’s genocide is ongoing. The IDF has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and decimated the built environment of Gaza.
Bombed half a dozen countries
Along the way, Israel has bombed half a dozen countries which are not at war with it.
The silence of governments like ours imagines this dystopia as a new baseline. They will settle for negotiating the speed of Israel’s new crimes against the survivors of Palestine.
We utterly reject their selective amnesia — but each time we call out our complicit government, we need to call them forward and judge them against something better.
We do that by placing the value of human life at the centre of our understanding. People have laboured for a century and a half to embed a rights-based vision of human dignity and equality.
Rights are not an opinion; rights are the basis of international law and institutions. That today’s governments spit on Palestinians’ rights does not invalidate Palestinians’ rights. It raises the stakes.
Now we must fight for the vision even as we wield it.
Our baseline is a world in which people flourish with their basic needs and dignity ensured. We protest the deficits from that standard. We judge Israel and its powerful accomplices against the standard of an accountable, just peace for all who live between the river and the sea.
Daily erosion of our democracy
Even as our allies have taken the step of recognising Palestine, Luxon, Seymour and Peters cosy up to Donald Trump. We are reeling from their daily erosion of our democracy.
Our government’s position on Palestine and the value it places on our own lives follow from a single agenda. This government is harming far more people than it is benefiting. We find hope in the work that brings together a majority for change.
While Palestine has become the cement of a broad global movement, Zionism is shifting. Israel used its years of Zionist-Jewish permission to consolidate new sources of support. It is no longer dependent upon Jewish social licence.
Christian Zionism, long the majority of Zionism, is now an insider shaping American policy. Israel dedicates new budgets to influencing American Christians.
In Aotearoa, Israel’s deputy foreign minister has met with Christian nationalist Brian Tamaki and Alfred Ngaio. There are five rabbis in this country, while 130 Christian Zionist clergy wrote together of their representatives’ time with Winston Peters before Peters declined to recognise Palestine.
In order to lend effective support to the liberation of Palestine, our protest needs to target the evolving structures and financial flows of Aotearoa’s Zionism.
This does not relieve the Zionist-Jewish community of responsibility. Globally, Zionist-Jewish institutions have eagerly wrapped Israel’s violence in the guise of Jewish identity, in order to place Israel’s genocidal actions beyond challenge.
Peace of the graveyard
Aotearoa’s Zionist-Jewish spokespeople still imagine only the peace of the graveyard, after which there might be a nicer Zionism.
A significant segment of Liberal-Zionist Jews seems to have turned against the war — although not against Zionism. That speaks to some capacity for change despite the institutions.
We welcome every effort to end this genocide. However, as principled anti-Zionists our goal is greater than the cessation of firing. In our own community and in Palestine, we must change the conditions that give rise to genocide. We need to decolonise the Jewishness that taught us to stake our future on the oppression and slaughter of others. There is no nicer Zionism.
To realise a liberatory Jewishness, we need new institutions with genuinely new communal leadership. We work for a future without Jewish supremacy or exceptionalism. Two-thirds of Jewish New Yorkers aged 18-44 just voted for Mayor Mamdani in one such act of qualitative, visionary change.
We will not displace this toxic new Right power by emulating their perpetual outrage. That would only turn us into the thing we oppose.
Outrage alone leaves one numb with grief and alienation. It stokes the identity politics which deny that we can live together. It leads to the despair which hardens the status quo.
We will only displace this power with an aspirational, broadly based vision of something better. We learn from the long, great works of our time: the works of peace, Indigenous rights, the common cause of dignified life in the hardest places.
Tangled roots of colonisation
That quality of holistic movement has coalesced around Palestine. We have never heard so many people acknowledge that the change must reach to the tangled roots of colonisation, racism, capitalism and fascism.
AJV brings to this our Jewish inheritance which recognises that social, ecological and material justice are inextricable. Together we will place life and justice at the centre of the work that needs doing, here and there.
In this dark time, hope is resistance and these are our ways forward.
In outrage and in aroha, we are Alternative Jewish Voices of Aotearoa.
Marilyn Garson writes about Palestinian and Jewish dissent. This article was first published by Sh’ma Koleinu – Alternative Jewish Voices and is republished with permission. The original article can be read here.
A recent report by French newspaper Le Monde exposes a stark paradox in Gaza.
Notwithstanding the ceasefire agreement and Israel’s pledge to permit humanitarian aid, the entry of desperately needed items is being blocked.
Toothless humanitarian agreement
Palestinians find themselves trapped between unfulfilled promises and a punishing reality. The west touts the ceasefire as its crowing achievement, oblivious to the conditions of the ground.
The excessive ban — widely perceived as arbitrary, vague, and retributive — has tightened the stranglehold on the Gaza strip.
There are currently two million people living in a besieged city, where the risk of famine and epidemics is more acute than ever.
Le Monde, citing local aid organisations, characterises ‘access denial’ as a tacit strategy.
The newspaper notes that while in full-swing, the ban has not been officially endorsed by Israel’s COGAT apparatus — otherwise known as the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories.
Its ever-expanding scope, many observers note, is justified by the flimsy classification of relief items as ‘dual use’ goods.
The pretext of ‘Dual Use’ strangles Gaza
So what are they? These, as Le Monde reports, include essential daily-use items — tent poles, sterilisation equipment, truck spare parts, greenhouse tarpaulins, vaccination syringes, and potato seeds.
The assumption is items could fall into the wrong hands and used for military purposes. How exactly could a tent or a medical syringe be linked to military use?
This poses a grave threat to the reconstruction effort in Gaza, intentionally obstructed under the pretext of ‘dual use’.
People’s basic needs remain dangerously unmet due to the destruction of critical sectors and public infrastructure. Hospitals urgently need sterilisation equipment to treat serious injuries and surgical complications.
This denial, compounded by winter conditions, exacerbates the suffering of Gazans.
The agricultural sector has nearly collapsed altogether, due to the ban on greenhouse covers and potato seeds. Residents are beholden to aid handouts, limited to what Israel deems acceptable.
War by alternative means
At the same time, construction and supply lines have been severely disrupted. Without spare parts for tanker trucks, fuel and water transport have come to a halt, further damaging basic services and sanitation and impeding their recovery.
Le Monde likens the situation to a slow, attritional war waged through the control of goods entering and leaving the strip.
UN organisations have warned that the ban goes beyond access constraints, which Gazans fear will diminish the prospect of economic self-reliance and increases donor dependency.
Gazans remain caught between a rock and a hard place. They have no protection from violence nor consistent aid to stave off hunger and build their city anew.
In the month of October 2025, there have been 264 settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. This equals an average of eight attacks per day, resulting in material damage and injuries.
This is the highest monthly figure since the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) began documenting settler offences in 2006. OCHA notes that out of the 9,600 settler attacks documented since 2006, 1,500 of occurred this year.
Harvest season turns deadly
The escalation in settler violence coincided with the olive harvest season, which started in mid October.
More than 150 attacks have targeted 77 towns and villages in the occupied West Bank. Settlers have injured around 140 Palestinians, and vandalised more than 4,200 trees and saplings. Zionist settlers are protected by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) many of whom are settlers living in illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
Earlier this week, settlers launched a violent attack in Beita, near Nablus. Al Jazeera correspondent, Mohammad Alatrash was injured while escaping the violence. Speaking of the collusion that underpins settler violence, he told the Canary:
There are clear indications that the Israeli army provides assistance to settlers, helping them complete their attacks, intervening only when there is a real threat to the settlers, and ensuring their safe withdrawal after carrying out these attacks.
According to Israel human right advocacy group Yesh Din, since 2004, 94 percent of settler violence cases were dropped without charge. This figure has sharply risen in the past two years since October 7.
Not all Palestinian victims choose to file complaints due to a lack of faith in the system, or fear of retaliation against them and their families. The true figure is likely to be higher.
ICJ ruling: Israeli occupation is illegal
Settlements, and the settlers that live in them are illegal under international law.
The Israeli regime funds these settlements, and arms the settlers who act with impunity and get away with murder. It pours millions into settlement expansion and infrastructure without any regard for international law.
In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Israel’s occupation of Palestine is illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The occupation issued this year alone tenders for 5,667 new housing units, a record high, Israeli advocacy organisation, Peace Now, reports. Overall, 30,000 units have been approved and other controversial projects include the E1 settlement plan.
The Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) not only funds illegal outposts but provides them with equipment. This includes all terrain vehicles, floodlights, generators, night vision goggles and drones, to ‘protect’ from unarmed Palestinians.
UK funds sponsoring the illegal settler movement
Commenting on the material support for settlers, Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich has said:
Today we are equipping these pioneers with the tools that will allow them to protect their homes, maintain the territory, and deepen our hold on the Land of Israel.
The Settlement Division directly manages huge amounts of stolen land in the West Bank on behalf of the State, without public oversight. It transfers this land to settlers, and also finances infrastructure, constructs outposts, and distributes subsidies.
Security Minister and leader of the Jewish Power Party, Ben Gvir, launched a policy of arming Israelis, in October 2023. This includes those living in settlements in the West Bank. Posting on X/Twitter last year, he said.
More than 120,000 weapons have been distributed to eligible citizens, while tens of thousands have received conditional approvals.
Ben Gvir has made it easier for Israelis to obtain personal firearm licenses, particularly since October 2023, along with body armour and helmets. Ben Gvir has said the policy will allow “law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and their community”.
But arming colonial settlers further threatens the lives of Palestinians, and will only sustain these attacks.
Time for government’s to act
Israel’s military and settlers work hand-in-hand, forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land through intimidation, abuse, and terror. Their ethnic cleansing of Palestinian territories is integral to their supremacist state, and delusions of a “Greater Israel”.
Illegal settlers and the IOF have displaced more than 10,000 Palestinians and killed 1,060 in the West Bank, since October 2023. Systematic aggression and government-backed impunity, are erasing entire communities.
The latest surge, part of a longstanding pattern, is fuelled by deliberate system that thrives on state protection and international inaction.
And powerful allies of the Israeli occupation, such as the UK, continue to enable these crimes UK institutions, including British banks and charities finance, continue to trade with illegal settlements — enabling these crimes.
Without accountability and decisive global intervention, these crimes will continue, deepening Palestinian suffering and eroding any prospect of justice or peace.
UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights cites written evidence submitted by Essex Law School academics on immigration detention The UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) recently conducted legislative scrutiny of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Bill) to assess its compatibility with national and international human rights standards. The Bill, introduced to […]
The world’s largest indigenous education conference has kicked off in Auckland, bringing with it thousands of indigenous educators from around the world.
About 3000 people were welcomed by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education 2025 (WIPCE) with a pōwhiri at the city’s waterfront on Sunday.
Around 3800 delegates are expected to attend the conference at the Aotea Centre over the week.
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is hosting the event which is set to be the largest academic conference hosted in New Zealand this year.
WIPCE 2025 attendees fill out Auckland’s Cloud for the beginning of the conference. Image: Tamaira Hook/RNZ
WIPCE 2025 co-chair and AUT vice-chancellor Damon Salesa said it was an honour to host such an extraordinary range of speakers.
“Each kaikōrero brings their unique perspectives and knowledge. This conference is an opportunity to listen, learn and be inspired by those who continue to lead and shape Indigenous education across the world,” he said.
The four-day conference features keynote presentations from a number of Māori academics including educator Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, linguistic and cultural revilitalists Professor Leonie Pihama and Raniera Proctor, legal academic Eru Kapa-Kingi and Māori movie star Cliff Curtis.
There are also a number of break out sessions, guest speakers and panels discussions featuring academics from around the world.
WIPCE 2025 co-chair Damon Salesa (right) at the conference opening. Image: Tamaira Hook/RNZ
WIPCE 2025 co-chair Meihana Durie said the gathering came at a pivotal time for indigenous education and indigenous rights.
“We are immensely grateful for the pōwhiri yesterday hosted by iwi manaaki, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, which highlighted the sheer importance of those themes within the unique dimensions of Indigenous ceremony, language and ritual.”
Professor Meihana Durie . . . “Only educational platform designed specifically for native peoples from around the world to come together to share our stories, our challenges and our successes.” Photo: WIPCE 2025
“WIPCE is the only educational platform designed specifically for native peoples from around the world to come together to share our stories, our challenges and our successes with each other.” he said.
Outside of the conference is the Te Ao Pūtahi, a free, public festival with live performances from Māori artists inlcluding kapa haka rōpu Ngā Tūmanako, Sons of Zion, Corrella, Jackson Owens and Betty-Anne and a number of food and gift stalls.
A public festival with live performances from Māori artists inlcluding kapa haka rōpu Ngā Tūmanako, Sons of Zion, Corrella, Jackson Owens and Betty-Anne and a number of food and gift stalls. Image: Tamaira Hook/RNZ
Twenty-one cultural excursions named Te Ao Tirotiro will also be held across the city, including an onboard waka sailing demonstration and a hāngi.
The conference ends on Thursday.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Home secretary to announce a drastic tightening of rules, including requiring asylum seekers to wait 20 years before getting the right to permanently settle in UK
In her statement to MPs this afternoon Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, is due to set out further details of her proposals to legislate to limit the extent to which courts can use article 3 (protection from torture) and article 8 (right to a family life) of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) to restrict removals.
In an interview on the Today programme, Tony Vaughan, the Labour MP and immigration law KC, explained his opposition to Mahmood’s plans. He is particulaly opposed to the idea that people told they can stay in the UK because they are at risk in their home country should have their asylum status continually reviewed.
The numbers of people who are prevented from return by the Strasbourg court are very, very small.
And we need to be realistic about what those sorts of reforms are going to achieve. We can’t promise the public things which it’s not going to deliver.
The countries that we’ve started with are the ones that we’ve named. We wouldn’t rule it out with anybody else.
The reality is, with most countries, we’ve got much better relationships. We need to see these agreements work, and we’re not going to rule anything out in order to make they do.
University of the South Pacific’s Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, who edited the inaugural edition of Pacific Media journal along with co-editor Dr Amit Sarwal, has responded to the publication with a Q and A.
The new journal has replaced the Pacific Journalism Review, which was founded by Professor David Robie at the University of Papua New Guinea and published for 30 years.
This new publication, supported by Tuwhera Open Access at Auckland University of Technology, was also founded by Dr Robie and the Asia Pacific Media Network and it is hoped that it will offer greater community media access and flexibility.
What does this new publication, Pacific Media, signal?
Dr Shailendra Singh: It signals an ongoing commitment to research on Pacific media, development, and democracy — just when such research is most urgently needed to understand the impact of multiple forces reshaping the region. These include artificial intelligence, misinformation and disinformation, the intensifying geopolitical contest between China and the West, the drugs and HIV epidemic, and the existential threat of climate change. With the world on track for a three-degree Celsius temperature rise, some reports describe this as a “death sentence” for Pacific reefs, food security, and livelihoods.
Yet, even as Pacific media confront one of the most complex and challenging reporting environments in history, they remain financially fragile, due to the impacts of digital disruption and covid-19.
The 2024 Pacific Media International Conference was quite an innovative step — bringing media academics and the industry together. How has that helped the region?
It created greater awareness of the challenges facing Pacific news media and exposed some of the industry’s structural weaknesses. Importantly, it fostered a better understanding — and hopefully, greater empathy — among the public toward the difficult conditions under which Pacific journalists operate. The conference underscored the importance of ongoing research, provided direction for future studies, and demonstrated the power of regional collaboration by amplifying Pacific voices and ideas.
How does the partnership between the USP Journalism Programme and the Pacific Media publishers, Asia Pacific Media Network, contribute to journalism excellence in the region?
Pacific Media – congratulations from USP Journalism. Image: USP
Research on Pacific media is as scarce as it is vital for the development of Pacific journalism. The USP Journalism Programme and the Asia Pacific Media Network are the only two entities consistently conducting dedicated research on Pacific media, democracy, and development. Historically, both have been vocal about threats to media freedom and the welfare of journalists. They have documented the impact of coups and other forms of repression, while advocating for journalist safety, ethical standards, and media independence through awareness and education.
What next?
The next step is to consolidate and expand research, and training and development. This means deepening partnerships between academia and industry, mentoring a new generation of Pacific media researchers and journalists, and securing sustainable funding for long-term studies.
It also involves strengthening regional collaboration so that Pacific voices lead the global conversation about the region — rather than being spoken to and for. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that Pacific media remain resilient, independent, and equipped to serve their communities in the face of profound social, technological, and environmental change.
The next edition of Pacific Media, edited by Khairiah A Rahman and Dr Rachel Khan, will also be published shortly.
Republished from Pacific Media journal’s website.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
On 14 November 2025, ARTICLE 19 and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) expressed alarm about the arrests of and use of force against human rights defenders and residents who attempted to prevent the demolition of houses in Kampung Jalan Papan, which began on 11 November in the Malaysian state of Selangor. We call on the authorities to immediately release human rights defenders and end investigations into their activities.
On 14 November, two human rights defenders and seven local residents were arrested under Section 186 of Malaysia’s Penal Code for allegedly obstructing public servants from discharging their duties – a clause that carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a maximum fine of RM10,000 (approximately USD 2,410). The two activists are Yee Shan from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and Jernell Tan from the human rights organisation SUARAM. The seven local residents are Than Bee Hooi, Than Kim Kim, Lim Wee Chun, Ser Li Fang, Lim Eng Hui, Teoh Ah Guat, and Ng Ban Ping.
This follows previous arrests earlier in the week. On 13 November, 10 people were arrested, also under Section 186 of the Penal Code: PSM Secretary-General Sivaranjani Manickam, PSM National Treasurer Soh Sook Hwa, PSM activist Aein Aneera Anuar, PSM activist Ramasamy Karupan, PSM activist Tan Ka Wei, PSM activist Hridhay Praveen, activist Wong Kueng Hui from the non-governmental organisation Mandiri, local resident Tang Bing Ai, and activist Fakrurrazzi Khairur Rijal from the advocacy group Himpunan Advokasi Rakyat Malaysia. They were detained at the Pandamaran and Pelabuhan Klang police stations and later released on 14 November .
On 12 November, Deputy Chairperson of PSM Arutchelvan Subramaniam, also known as Arul, activist M. Mythreyar, and M. Logesvaran, a representative for the residents affected by the demolition, were arrested under Section 186 of the Penal Code. They were remanded one day before release on 13 November under police bail.
‘This is a blatant attack against human rights defenders who dare speak out on behalf of local communities living in a climate where forced evictions and development pressures are being used to displace long-time residents. The arbitrary arrests of the activists highlight the risks faced by human rights defenders advocating housing rights. These actions seem intended to intimidate others and discourage efforts to stop forced evictions,’ said Nalini Elumalai, Senior Malaysia Programme Officer at ARTICLE 19. ‘Using such forms of intimidation to silence human rights defenders and the residents not only threatens their safety but also undermines the ability of communities to assert their right to adequate housing and partake in meaningful decisions that affect their lives.’
This case stems from a 1995 agreement between the Selangor government and private limited company TPPT, under which affected families were to be given homes after the state government transferred 95 acres of land to the company. More than 30 years on, the residents have yet to receive their promised homes. Residents, known as Kampung Papan settlers, have lived in the area for decades, since 1939 – before Malaysia’s independence from the British in 1957. Despite a court ruling allowing the eviction, the Selangor government has said that demolition work should only be limited to vacant houses and business premises. Despite this promise, demolition work began on 10 November and as of 13 November, at least 15 occupied houses had been demolished. Residents of 44 out of 83 homes have obtained an interim injunction against the demolition.
The authorities’ actions violate the United Nation’s Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and other related resolutions, including General Assembly resolution 70/161 on human rights defenders in the context of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Among other things, the resolution urged States to ensure the rights and safety of human rights defenders in exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.
On 14 November 2025, ARTICLE 19 and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) expressed alarm about the arrests of and use of force against human rights defenders and residents who attempted to prevent the demolition of houses in Kampung Jalan Papan, which began on 11 November in the Malaysian state of Selangor. We call on the authorities to immediately release human rights defenders and end investigations into their activities.
On 14 November, two human rights defenders and seven local residents were arrested under Section 186 of Malaysia’s Penal Code for allegedly obstructing public servants from discharging their duties – a clause that carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a maximum fine of RM10,000 (approximately USD 2,410). The two activists are Yee Shan from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and Jernell Tan from the human rights organisation SUARAM. The seven local residents are Than Bee Hooi, Than Kim Kim, Lim Wee Chun, Ser Li Fang, Lim Eng Hui, Teoh Ah Guat, and Ng Ban Ping.
This follows previous arrests earlier in the week. On 13 November, 10 people were arrested, also under Section 186 of the Penal Code: PSM Secretary-General Sivaranjani Manickam, PSM National Treasurer Soh Sook Hwa, PSM activist Aein Aneera Anuar, PSM activist Ramasamy Karupan, PSM activist Tan Ka Wei, PSM activist Hridhay Praveen, activist Wong Kueng Hui from the non-governmental organisation Mandiri, local resident Tang Bing Ai, and activist Fakrurrazzi Khairur Rijal from the advocacy group Himpunan Advokasi Rakyat Malaysia. They were detained at the Pandamaran and Pelabuhan Klang police stations and later released on 14 November .
On 12 November, Deputy Chairperson of PSM Arutchelvan Subramaniam, also known as Arul, activist M. Mythreyar, and M. Logesvaran, a representative for the residents affected by the demolition, were arrested under Section 186 of the Penal Code. They were remanded one day before release on 13 November under police bail.
‘This is a blatant attack against human rights defenders who dare speak out on behalf of local communities living in a climate where forced evictions and development pressures are being used to displace long-time residents. The arbitrary arrests of the activists highlight the risks faced by human rights defenders advocating housing rights. These actions seem intended to intimidate others and discourage efforts to stop forced evictions,’ said Nalini Elumalai, Senior Malaysia Programme Officer at ARTICLE 19. ‘Using such forms of intimidation to silence human rights defenders and the residents not only threatens their safety but also undermines the ability of communities to assert their right to adequate housing and partake in meaningful decisions that affect their lives.’
This case stems from a 1995 agreement between the Selangor government and private limited company TPPT, under which affected families were to be given homes after the state government transferred 95 acres of land to the company. More than 30 years on, the residents have yet to receive their promised homes. Residents, known as Kampung Papan settlers, have lived in the area for decades, since 1939 – before Malaysia’s independence from the British in 1957. Despite a court ruling allowing the eviction, the Selangor government has said that demolition work should only be limited to vacant houses and business premises. Despite this promise, demolition work began on 10 November and as of 13 November, at least 15 occupied houses had been demolished. Residents of 44 out of 83 homes have obtained an interim injunction against the demolition.
The authorities’ actions violate the United Nation’s Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and other related resolutions, including General Assembly resolution 70/161 on human rights defenders in the context of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Among other things, the resolution urged States to ensure the rights and safety of human rights defenders in exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.
Israeli prison guards punish the prisoners “by breaking their thumbs” said a released detainee as lawyers speak out about torture, abuse, rape, starving and killings in a notorious underground Israeli prison facility where detainees are held without sunlight, brutalised.
And nobody in New Zealand says a word.
Scores of detainees from Gaza have also been held in a notorious Israeli military detention camp known as Sde Teiman, where reports of killings, torture and sexual violence, including rape, have been rife since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
And Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has not said anything about a new law that Israel just voted for that would impose the death penalty for so-called “terrorism” offences based on “racist” motives against Israelis.
That’s a law exclusively aimed at Palestinians while Israeli settlers are exempt.
Go ahead, terrorise the people living there.
Winston Peters is silent on behalf of you and me. He’s representing us on the world stage.
We not only do not condemn this, we don’t even mention it. New Zealand doesn’t care.
They are not us, they are not “we”.
Gerard Otto is a digital creator, satirist and independent commentator on politics and the media through his G News column and video reports. This article is an excerpt from a G News commentary and republished with permission.
In a cavernous conference hall at the edge of the Dubai desert, a retired military officer fronting the Australia pavilion will offer “the key credibility of being in uniform” for defence companies spruiking their wares.
“A unique advantage in attracting and engaging with visiting military delegations,” is how briefing notes, shared by the head of Team Defence Australia, describes it.
On 12 November, popular 79-year-old author Michael Rosen posted on Twitter that the Freedom Pass didn’t work. For anyone outside of the London bubble, a Freedom Pass provides free or discounted public travel for London residents who have a disability or are aged over 60. Unfortunately, when Rosen went to renew his pass, they wouldn’t let him… because he didn’t have an active Freedom Pass.
The situation is familiar in its Kafkaesque nature, frustrating and quite dull. ‘Why are you writing this?’, I hear you think loudly at your phone screen. ‘Why am I reading this?’ you think, as you carry on reading it, such is the power of compulsive scrolling and/or the friendly and approachable writing style of the Canary.
Freedom Pass — Don’t you hate it when old people get free shit?
Well I would have agreed with you, had Kirstie Allsopp – everyone’s favouriteChannel 4 overpriced property show presenter – not chosen to tweet:
A writer so successful that today is a day dedicated to him in schools all over the country thinks it is reasonable that he travels for free due to his age. People have to stop taking things they do not need, it is wrong and it is bankrupting our country. https://t.co/emkggnFVpr
So now, because my editors are in a good mood (or distracted writing something infuriating about Your Party internal politicking or summat), I get to have a rant about this absolute fucking shower [we are the Canary editors and we approve this message]. I don’t even want to have a go at Allsopp in particular. Partially, that’s because I’ve seen some of her Kirstie’s Homemade Home-type programming. It’s reassured me that we live in two entirely separate worlds. Likewise, Twitter has already laid into her for it:
I have an over 60s Oyster card and an over 60s train pass / I think I deserve these considering the massive amounts of tax I have paid during the making hay years – I live on one of London’s finest bus routes and use it as much as possible- because I’m worth it!
The embodiment of miserly British decline in a tweet. We must expenditure all energy and resource into taking things away from people. https://t.co/cPa3UKmlgn
— Kaos Kith Keith Ktarmer KC, KC (@chaoswithkeith) November 14, 2025
Actually, I want more people to get free shit
Rather, it’s the whole miserable fucking crab-bucket mentality embodied by Allsopp’s tweet that I want to highlight. Never mind that the problem Rosen was highlighting would be the same for someone without the author’s fame.
So, to get the important bit out of the way. I want public transport to be free for everyone. Failing that, I want it to be cheap for everyone. If that’s out the question, I want it to be free or cheap for people who don’t have as much chance of getting around under their own steam. That goes double for people in London, a city which It was created to punish even the idea of being a pedestrian. Not to mention that we have the most expensive public transportation in the world.
When I say I want this shit to be free, I mean it. Along with that, central to it even, I don’t want people to have to jump through hoops to get it. If someone turns up and says ‘I need a new Freedom Pass please’, I want them to be handed a Freedom Pass.
Freedom Pass — Yes, even if they’re fucking jerks
Note, also, that that isn’t an “I don’t mind if some rich people get free shit so long as poor people also get it”. It’s not a begrudging acceptance that some rich people will get free shit. I want even a sucking moral black hole in the shape of a man like Nigel Farage to get his free bus pass. He can use it to ride around London, where he lives, while he doesn’t visit Clacton, where he’s meant to be an MP.
Partially, this is a practical consideration. Means-testing benefits costs more. If we’re paying some team of witch-finders to root out the undeserving poor, there’s less money to go around. The logical endpoint of the desperate British obsession with benefits cheats is the DWPcalling up amputees to see if their limbs grew back yet.
I’ve seen too many friends who desperately needed help fucked over by their inability to prove it in the eyes of the government. I think that the impulse to humiliate people who need help is, in fact, sickening. I’m tired of pretending that it’s not.
I want to live in a place that cares for people
But also, even beyond the question of means-testing, I don’t want people to voluntarily forgo their use of free shit even if they’re rich. Mind you, I won’t object, but also (and more importantly): I just don’t care. It’s not that I think they deserve it, or don’t deserve it for that matter. I don’t think that ‘deserve’ factors into the equation.
I want to live in a society that takes care of people. Part of that care is wanting people to receive help when they ask for it. If that means that rich people receive help too: good. They’ll already have paid for their free shit, because I also want them to pay fair taxes.
If you agree with the above, roughly, even if you think it’s overly utopian or whatever, that’s good. I hope that we can work together to build a world that cares for people. If you don’t agree with it, I can’t really do anything to stop you. We just see the world in fundamentally different ways. And I still want you to get a free bus pass.
On 14 November 2025, Scilla Alecci of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ) wrote about a parliamentary report which identified China and other authoritarian regimes as harassing and attacking dissidents abroad, echoing findings from ICIJ’s China Targets.
European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution urging member states to confront efforts by authoritarian regimes to coerce, control or silence political opponents and dissidents living in Europe. “Human rights defenders are a key pillar of democracy and the rule of law, and they are insufficiently protected,” a statement from the parliament said.
The resolution, adopted with a majority of 512 votes (to 76 against and 52 abstentions), called for targeted sanctions against perpetrators, market surveillance of spyware and better coordination among European authorities to counter what lawmakers labeled “transnational repression.”
The resolution is not legally binding but signals that European lawmakers want to take a clear position on the issue and draw attention to it, Elodie Laborie, a spokesperson for the Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in an email.
It confirms findings by ICIJ’s China Targets investigation, which revealed how Beijing continues to use surveillance, hacking and threats against Chinese and Hong Kong dissidents, Uyghur and Tibetan advocates and their families to quash any criticism of the regime abroad.
On 14 November 2025, Al Jazeera (Mariamne Everett) and other media reported that international NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have decried a sharp decline in civil liberties and a pervading “injustice” in Tunisia since President Kais Saied came to power in 2019, as authorities escalate their crackdown on the opposition, activists and foreign nongovernmental organisations.
“Tunisian authorities have increasingly escalated their crackdown on human rights defenders and independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through arbitrary arrests, detention, asset freezes, bank restrictions and court-ordered suspensions, all under the pretext of fighting ‘suspicious’ foreign funding and shielding ‘national interests’,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday.
Tunisia’s crackdown on civil society has reached an unprecedented level, according to Amnesty, as six NGO workers and human rights defenders from the Tunisian Council for Refugees are “being criminally prosecuted on charges solely related to their legitimate work supporting refugees and asylum seekers”. The trial’s opening session, initially scheduled for October 16, has been adjourned to November 24.
Within the past four months, Tunisia has temporarily suspended the activities of at least 14 Tunisian and international NGOs, said Amnesty, including the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women and the World Organisation against Torture.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday that Tunis’s Court of Appeal will hear on November 17 the appeal of more than 30 people “unjustly sentenced to heavy prison terms in a politically motivated ‘Conspiracy Case’” mass trial in April.
“Four of those detained are on hunger strike, including one who, according to his lawyers, was subjected to physical violence in prison on November 11.”
The defendants were charged with plotting to destabilise the country under various articles of Tunisia’s Penal Code and the 2015 Counterterrorism Law. Human Rights Watch, which reviewed the judicial documents, said the charges are unfounded and lack credible evidence. The NGO has called on the court to immediately overturn the convictions and ensure the release of all those detained.
The 37 people detained include opponents of Saied, lawyers, activists and researchers. Their prison terms range from four to 66 years for “conspiracy against state security” and terrorism offences. Jawhar Ben Mbarek – cofounder of Tunisia’s main opposition alliance, the National Salvation Front – began a hunger strike on October 29 to protest his arbitrary detention. Ben Mbarek was sentenced to 18 years behind bars on charges of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”.
An Australian author whose award-winning book about Israel’s military and surveillance industry has swept the world is scathing about a controversial Gaza transit company.
Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, a book about how Israel tests arms and surveillance technologies in the illegal occupation of Palestine, says the shadowy scheme carrying Palestinians to South Africa or other countries was waging “disaster capitalism”.
He said the Al-Majd Europe outfit that reportedly flew 153 people from Gaza to South Aftica could have been operating for weeks or months before being noticed.
The Palestine Laboratory author Antony Loewenstein in a previous Al Jazeera interview . . . “This is the concept of people making money out of other people’s misery.” Image: AJ screenshot APR
Commenting on this mysterious flight carrying people from Gaza that transited through Kenya’s capital Nairobi and ended up in South Africa, Loewenstein told Al Jazeera from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta that there had been rumours about companies making such flights.
He said such flights apparently “requires Israeli permission as well as other countries’ permissions”.
“South Africa was apparently the final destination, considering it is one of the most pro-Palestine countries on the planet,” he said.
Lowenstein said there were “no names or associations” on the “incredibly strange” company website, which “almost looks like it was created by AI”, calling what it does “disaster capitalism” – a theme of one of his earlier books.
‘Making money out of misery’
“This is the concept of people making money out of other people’s misery,” Loewenstein said.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry has warned against groups exploiting Gaza’s humanitarian crisis for human trafficking in the wake of the mysterious arrival of 153 people from Gaza in South Africa this week.
The ministry warned that “companies and entities that mislead our people, incite them to deportation or displacement or engage in human trafficking and exploit their tragic and catastrophic humanitarian conditions will bear the legal consequences of their unlawful actions and will be subject to prosecution and accountability.”
In a statement, the ministry also urged Palestinian families in Gaza “to exercise caution and avoid falling prey to human trafficking networks, blood merchants, and displacement agents”.
The departure of people from Gaza to South Africa was closely coordinated with Israeli authorities.
Everything started with an advertised post from the Al-Majd Europe organisation promising to safely evacuate Palestinian families outside the Gaza Strip, so many Palestinians filled in their applications and were waiting for a call from the organisation.
The situation in Gaza has pushed Palestinians to pay whatever they could to leave the Strip.
‘They lost everything’
“They have lost everything. They lost their houses, and they believe that they do not have any future here,” an Al Jazeera reporter said.
The television channel also said Gazans who used the transit company were forced to pay up to US$5000 to enable them to cross the so-called “yellow line” and be driven from Karem Abu Salem crossing to Ramon airport in southern Israel.
This is a risky move because at least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the October ceasefire for crossing the yellow line. So the operation would have required Israeli military cooperation.
The Gazans were then flown to Nairobi in Kenyan on a Romanian aircraft and transferred to a flight to Johannesburg where border officials held them for 12 hours because they reportedly did not have Israeli exit stamps in their passports.
While Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian children in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the news broke in Aotearoa New Zealand that our government had been advised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) in September to recognise a Palestinian State now — before it was too late forever.
“The tide of international thinking on Palestinian statehood has shifted markedly . . . Israel’s actions are rapidly extinguishing any prospect of realising a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict,” the draft paper read.
“This leaves recognition of Palestine as the only viable option to maintain New Zealand’s long-standard support for a two-state solution.”
This is what Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour were told by MFAT, but these politicians had predetermined they were going to suck up hard to US President Donald Trump and Israel.
Seymour had to be served and so did Peters, as Luxon did their bidding again.
The way to do it with as little local public backlash and media attention was to say it was “complicated” to the press and the public, to be very secretive and let NZ First staff write a cabinet paper of their own — with a couple of options in it, and then bury the Cabinet outcomes until Peters announced it at the UN General Assembly.
The horror of a nation’s collective groan as Winston Peters read that speech still echoes over this naked complicity with genocide and colonisation, making most people feel wild and revolted, laced with the way they were being ignored and trampled on back here at home.
Disgusting business
The horror of Aotearoa aligning itself with this disgusting business sickens many but it was only The Post which published the news last night because as per usual this sort of thing is never really news in our newsrooms.
How many New Zealanders know how many Palestinians Israel have killed since the ceasefire thanks to our media?
The way New Zealand backed Israel over the two-state solution for Palestine has weak leadership stamped all over it — and that is galling but it’s gaslighting the nation to then boast of a win over a photo op with Trump.
New Zealand companies complicit with Israel’s genocide in Gaza were highlighted in today’s pro-Palestinian rally in Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report
Gerard Otto is a digital creator, satirist and independent commentator on politics and the media through his G News column and video reports. This article is an excerpt from a G News commentary and republished with permission.
OBITUARY:By Robert Luke Iroga, editor and publisher of Solomon Business Magazine
In June 2000, I travelled to Port Moresby for a journalism training course that changed my life in ways I did not expect. The workshop was about new technology—how to send large photo files by email, something that felt revolutionary at the time.
But the real lesson I gained was not about technology. It was about people. It was about meeting Bob Howarth.
Bob, our trainer from News Corp Australia, was a man whose presence filled the room. He was old school in his craft, yet he embraced the future with such excitement that it was impossible not to be inspired.
He was full of energy, full of stories, full of life. And above all, he was kind. Deeply kind. The sort of kindness that stays with you long after the conversation ends.
He had just returned from East Timor and knew what life was like in the developing world.
In just one week with him, we learned more than we could have imagined. It felt like every day stretched into a month because Bob poured so much of himself into teaching us. It was clear that he cared—not just about journalism, but about us, the young Pacific reporters standing at the start of our careers.
That week was the beginning of his love affair with the Pacific, and I feel proud to have been a small part of that story.
Before we closed the training, Bob called me aside. He gave me his email and said quietly,
“If anything dramatic happens in the Solomons, send me some photos.”
The Timor Post mourns journalist and media mentor Bob Howarth who died on Thursday aged 81. Image: Timor Post
I didn’t know then how soon that moment would come.
I returned home on Sunday, 4 June 2000. The very next morning, June 5th, as I was heading to work at The Solomon Star, Honiara fell into chaos.
The coup was unfolding. The city was under siege. I rushed to the office, helping colleagues capture the moment in words and images. And just as Bob had asked, I sent photos to him. Within hours, those images appeared on front pages across News Corp newspapers.
Bob wrote to me soon after, saying, “You’re truly the star of our course.”
That was Bob—always lifting others up, always encouraging, always giving more credit than he took.
From that week in PNG, we became more than just colleagues. We became friends—real friends. Over the years, whenever I travelled through Port Moresby, I would always reach out to him.
Sometimes we shared a drink, sometimes a long talk, sometimes just a warm hello from his home overlooking the harbour. But every time, it felt like reconnecting with someone who genuinely understood my journey.
Asia Pacific Report publisher David Robie’s tribute to Bob Howarth on Bob’s FB page.
Bob was the person I turned to for advice, for guidance, for perspective. He believed in me at a time when belief was the greatest gift anyone could offer. And he never stopped being that voice in my corner—whether I was working here in the Solomons or abroad.
This morning, I learned of his passing. And my heart sank.
It feels like losing a pillar. Like losing a chapter of my own story. Like losing someone whose kindness shaped the path I walked.
To his wife, his children, and all who loved him, I send my deepest condolences. Your husband, your father, your friend—he touched the Pacific in ways words can barely capture.
And he touched my life in a way I will never forget.
RIEP Bob. Thank you for seeing me when I was still finding my footing.
Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for being my friend.
Robert Luke Iroga is editor and publisher of Solomon Business Magazine and chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum. He wrote this tribute on his FB page and it is republished with permission.
People held at the Core Civic-run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jail in Kern County, California are denied medical care, access to their attorneys, and, for disabled detainees, the most basic accommodations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others this week in the the U.S. District Court for Northern California.
252 Venezuelan immigrants in the United States were flown to El Salvador in the dead of night and indefinitely imprisoned at the Salvadoran mega-prison CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center. The detainees had no ability to communicate to the outside world before they were finally released to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange. The men were “subjected to beatings almost daily upon arrival…
The country’s government is upbeat about the economic prospects of the growing number of windfarms, solar parks and industrial complexes but others warn of ‘green colonialism’
For generations, Alfonso Campos’s family has raised sheep in the grasslands of San Gregorio, a tranquil area in Magallanes province, in the far south of Chile’s Patagonia region. Now, he says, his farm will be encircled by three massive containers of ammonia, a desalination plant, a hydrogen plant, gas pipelines and hundreds of wind turbines.
“If the ammonia leaks, it will poison everything,” he says. “The noise of the windmills will also upset the animals, and the landscape will be turned into an industrial desert.”
Egyptian authorities prevented Alaa Abd el-Fattah from attending human rights awards in London
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian writer and human rights campaigner who was freed from jail in September, was stopped from flying to the UK by Egyptian passport control, his family has said.
Abd el-Fattah was pardoned after more than 10 years in jail but his status, including his right to travel back and forth between Britain and Egypt, was left unclear and subject to discussion between the family and authorities.
I sat in a cafe listening to one man telling another how to get more out of his workers — “his team”, kind of the way people talked about workhorses until some of us read Black Beauty and learned that sentient creatures have feelings, both animals and people.
I hope that people will wake up to the need to unite, to pull together. The best decluttering is decolonising.
Maybe Zohran Mamdani’s win is a sign that will herald a new era, an era when socialists can beat “the money men”. Maybe it’s time when we will all wake up to a different possibility. Maybe other values will be recognised.
Virtues do not come from wealth. Capital, capitalism (the key is in the word) is a system of exploitation. It was designed by merchants to make some rich and keep others poor. That’s the system.
Maybe you were not taught that? Of course you were not taught that. Think about it.
I listened to William Dalrymple being interviewed by Jack Tame last Sunday and I thought Jack — who I used to respect a lot before he failed to tackle genocide with Israel’s representative for genocide here in Aotearoa — I thought he, Jack, looked like a possum in the headlights when Dalrymple said that Donald Trump had a precursor in Benjamin Netanyahu and called genocide a genocide.
I like to think Jack and others like him (because I have been like them too) will learn to learn about the history of all people and not view history as an inevitable story of winners and losers.
Winners are exploiters
The winners are exploiters and if we want to save the planet we need a massive game change.
The legacy of colonisation. Video: TVNZ Q&A
Look at the stats of the land that was taken for expansion and how that expansion was used to justify the extermination of one people to prop another people up. The stats, the real statistics show who was there before, show people lived on the land with the land and the waters.
Capitalism is a system of expansion and exploitation. It flourished for a while on slavery and it flourished for a while on settler colonialism, and it flourished for a while on keeping workers believing the story that they were working for greater glory when their take home pay did not equal the value of their labour.
And there is a difference between guilt and remorse. We can learn from the latter. The former, guilt, stagnates, it leads to defence and offence.
We need to recognise that we don’t need to prop up a dying system that flourishes on making some weak and others stronger.
We need to learn to change — those of us who were wrong can admit it and go forward differently. We can realise that they system was designed to make us fail to see the threads that connect all people. We can wake up now and smell the manure among the roses.
Good shit helps things grow, bad shit is toxic contaminated waste that turns things inwards, makes them gnarly.
Monsters are connected
Unfortunately, those who behave like monsters are connected not just to some of us but all of us.
We need to open our minds and our hearts to a different our value system. We need to decolonise our senses.
If you defend a bad system because right now you are one of the few on a decent pay scale then you are part of the problem. You are the problem. You have been conned. A system is only fair if it is fair for all people.
Learning history gives us a map said Dalrymple (author of The Golden Road which tells the story of how great India was BEFORE it was stolen by Britain — how that country gave the world numbers and so much more) and we need to learn how the map was drawn.
As someone who reads history to write history, I encourage us all to read widely and deeply and to research so that we do not stop thinking and analysing, and so we can tell wrong from right.
Do not be neutral about wrongs as some historians would suggest. It is more than OK to call a wrong a wrong. In fact it is vital. Take a new lens into viewing history, not the one the masters have given you.
We miss seeing the world if we look fail to think about who drew the map, how it was drawn up by men who carved up the world for the Empires intent on creating a golden age by enslaving most of the people to prop up those at the top.
World map’s curling edges
We need to look under the curling edges of the world map drawn up by the exploiter. We need to find find the stories of those who were exploited and who had been part of the creation story of this planet before they were exploited.
Those of us who are descendants of colonisers also — many of us — descend from those who were exploited.
The stories of British workhouses, of the system of exile via banishment, of the theft of women’s rights, of the extreme brutal forms of punishment, the stories of the way the top class pushed down and down on the people of the fields and forests and forced them to serve and serve, these real stories are less well known than the myths.
Myths like the story of King Arthur are better known.
Some myths have been created as a form of propaganda. We need to unpick the stories that were told to keep us stupid, to keep us ignorant.
It is time to stop following the trail of crumbs to Buckingham Palace, or at least to see where the trail really leads — to pedophiles who preyed on others, to predators — not just one but many, to people brilliant at reconstructing themselves — creating some fall guys and some good guys and making some people villains.
That story is a lie that protects and processes dysfunction.
Acting on the truth
Blaming one part of the system prevents us from realising and acting on the truth that the whole system is one of exploitation.
This was always a horror story disguised as a fairy story. One crown could save so many poor. The monarchy is not a family that produced one disfunctional person it is the disfunction.
It promotes the lie that one group of people deserve wealth because they are better than another. What a sick joke.
So let’s back away from societies made by men who want to profit from others and get back to nature.
Let’s look on nature as a sister or mother — a sister or mother you love.
Let’s look at the so called natural disasters like climate change. Look at how they have been created by “noble men” and “noble women” and ignoble ones as well. Disasters that can be averted, prevented.
Who suffers the most in a natural disaster? Not the rich.
How do we heal?
So how do we hope and how do we heal? We see the change. We be the change.
Personally, for my mental and physical health I’ve been sea bathing, dipping in the sea. I join a group of mainly women who all have stories, and who plunge into nature for release and relief, to relieve ourselves from the debris. Uniting in nature.
I’ve learned that every day is different. The sea is always changing. No two waves are the same and they all pull in the same direction.
We are part moon, part wave, part light, part darkness. We are the bounty and the beauty.
I do have hope that we will all unite for common good. Sharing on common ground. The word Common is so much better than Capital.
If you are working for the kind of people that are discussing how to get more out of you for less, then unite.
And if you know people who are being exploited in any way at all unite with them not the exploiter. Be the change.
By helping each other we save each other. And that includes helping our friend and exploited lover: Nature.
Saige England is an award-winning journalist and author of The Seasonwife, a novel exploring the brutal impacts of colonisation. She is also a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Human rights lawyer who helped to expand Britain’s Race Relations Act and investigated apartheid in South Africa
It is still shocking to recall that until the UK’s first Race Relations Act was passed in 1965, people could perfectly lawfully be refused accommodation or refreshment on the grounds of their race or nationality. Through the work he did to start putting this right, Geoffrey Bindman, who has died aged 92, stood out both in his profession of solicitor and the political world that surrounded it as a principled, committed and scholarly jurist, and a fundamentally decent man.
Quietly spoken, attentive and humorous, he lent his voice and his talents to the movement for racial equality and to the cause of justice for all. He did this at first as a partner of Lawford & Co, a north London firm of trade union lawyers (1965-74), and as legal adviser to the Race Relations Board (1966-76) and its successor, the Commission for Racial Equality (1976-83).
On July 13, 69-year-old Willem Van Spronsen used incendiary devices to attack a number of vehicles belonging to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. The attack came just hours after an anti-ICE protest outside of the facility. Van Spronsen was fatally shot during an ensuing confrontation with the police. He had been involved in social struggles for over a decade and actively involved in a long-standing battle against the Northwest Detention Center; he was arrested in 2018 at a protest outside of the facility while attempting to prevent police from arresting a 17-year-old demonstrator. As news spread of Van Spronsen’s death and final acts, many were appalled by his actions, while others celebrated them online. Very few, however, were surprised. Though he acted alone, his actions are part of a long collective history of struggle at the Detention Center.
The Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), built in 2004, sits about forty minutes south of Seattle, just blocks from Commencement Bay, a former superfund site and one of the most active commercial ports in the world. Amid this bustling locus of commerce, stands one of the largest immigration detention centers in the United States, generating $57 million annually for the private corrections company GEO Group.
Listen here, and I try to yammer on around 13:13 in the video:
I mention the pigs at the end of my 2 minutes: And, remember, Willem Van Spronsen, was found dead after four police officers arrived and opened fire, authorities said.
The Tacoma Police Department said the officers responded about 4 a.m. to the privately run Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security detention facility that holds migrants pending deportation proceedings. The detention center has also held immigration-seeking parents separated from their children under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, an effort meant to deter illegal immigration.
Then try and not shed a tear for the young Latinx woman, around 17:00!
Abril Almada, 14, gave tearful testimony about how her father was detained by ICE and is now in a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington. She described the difficulty this has had on her family and her own mental health.
Abril Almada, 14, giving testimony about her experience of her father being detained by ICE in September of this year.
“I did not know what was going on,” she said. “No one deserves to go through what I’m going through and my family is going through. No one deserves to get picked up. My dad was my everything. My mom has been through a lot these past weeks without my dad. My grandma died a few weeks ago and my dad wasn’t here to comfort [my mom]. Everyone is going through a lot of trauma right now.”
Almada’s testimony prompted a response from Kaplan, the mayor: “I want to repeat that this council will do everything that we can do in support and to fight this.”
“Newport is a city built on trust, diverse cultures, and shared responsibility. We will work together, thoughtfully, transparently, and within the bounds of the law to protect those values,” Jan Kaplan, mayor of Newport said.
Ahh, but jobs, man, bus drivers for the round up, wardens at the concentration camp, food services and medical providers. MONEY and HATE = GEO Group.
The GEO Group runs 99 facilities worldwide, including secure facilities, processing centers, and community reentry centers. As of late 2024, these facilities have a total capacity of approximately 80,000 beds and are operated in various countries, including the United States, Australia, and South Africa.
Local leaders can’t get answers from federal government
Newport City and Oregon state leaders say there is a basis to the rumors, although they have been unsuccessful in getting concrete answers from federal agencies.
Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, whose district includes Newport, said they have been able to confirm that the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter that has been stationed there since the mid-1980s has been moved to North Bend.
Besides the helicopter being moved to North Bend, Mayor Kaplan said another clue that the federal government was interested in space at the airport came from a contractor inquiring about a potential lease and the ability to make changes to the site.
Through a records request, KATU identified the contractor as Texas-based Team Housing Solutions Inc.
Oregon Public Broadcasting was the first news outlet to name the contractor.
The vendor has held a number of federal defense contracts, mostly to build military housing.
Also, on Monday, A Lincoln County septic company got an inquiry from another federal contractor asking about costs to pump sewage from the airport area.
Somewhere around 10,000 gallons a day of human waste. Do your math: At the low end (50 gallons per person), 10,000 gallons would be produced by 200 people (10,000 gallons / 50 gallons per person).
There are also reportedly multiple hiring ads for jobs ranging from medical service to detention officers.
Trains, Planes, Buses, Vans, Paddy Wagons, Jets, Helicopters, Drones — that job you wanted man.
So, the trade off is, well, the Oregon coast has TWO fucking helicopters, Coast Guard, along this most beautiful but rugged and isolated coast?
KATU has contacted DHS to confirm all these details but has not heard back.
“We are still figuring out what we can legally do in terms about city land,” he said. “We are not obligated to lease city land to anyone who wants to lease. The city council has to determine whether it is in the public interest if somebody wants to lease land from us. That’s one thing that we know and we have no intention of leasing land for a facility that is going to be an ICE facility.”
Kaplan expects a battle with the federal government over the issue.
“When you get a showing like there was here tonight, someone in Washington is going to take notice,” he said. “We are small. We have a city attorney and she is talking with other attorneys looking at what our options are. We have some legalities to go to court and try to bring the helicopter back.”
Newport Fishermen’s Wives representative Taunette Dixon said
“We don’t have a lot of answers, just like everybody else.” While the Coast Guard has indicated that a helicopter would be stationed in Newport a couple of days each week, community members argue that such an arrangement is inadequate for responding to emergencies that can strike at any time.
Over the past decade, the relationship between Newport and Coast Guard stations has been marked by vigilance and open communication. The community fought to keep the rescue helicopter 11 years ago, launching campaigns and even canceling lawsuits in exchange for assurances that the aircraft would remain in Newport. New changes in policy and statements from officials, however, have left community members uncertain about these guarantees.
“There’s supposed to be a process they have to go through before they can determine that it’s safe enough to remove the helicopter,” said Dixon. This process, they explained, should involve assessing the risk to human life and hosting public forums, but many remain unsure whether the required steps are being followed. For Newport, the Coast Guard helicopter is nothing short of a lifeline. “We are a cold water fleet,” explained Dixon, noting the dangers of winter crab season and the need for immediate rescue during emergencies.
Local fleets, tourists, and even loggers depend on the fast response provided by the Coast Guard crew. “They become a part of our community… It’s so important in so many different ways.”
*****
It all comes down, folks, to White Supremacy:
You can get iced by ICE, or just plain old “never getting another job as an adjunct professor ever again” terminated!
In late September, Jessica Adams, an instructor in Indiana University’s School of Social Work, showed a slide to her class that listed acts of “white supremacy” in the form of a pyramid. At the tip of the pyramid were “overt,” socially unacceptable acts, like “hate crimes” and “swastikas.” Below that were “covert,” socially acceptable acts, like the phrase “Make America Great Again” and the celebration of Columbus Day.
Soon after, Adams was removed from the class, “Diversity, Human Rights, and Social Justice,” while the university investigates whether she violated the state’s controversial intellectual-diversity law, known as SEA 202. The law, passed last year, called on the state’s public campuses to develop disciplinary procedures for faculty who fail to foster cultures of “free inquiry” and “intellectual diversity” within the classroom, among other things. It also forced colleges to develop systems through which students could submit complaints against instructors.
Sonia Lee, another professor associated with the AAUP who has been involved in Adams’s case, said she has no doubt that the graphic could have made someone in the classroom uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean its use should be banned. Lee said many faculty and community members thought SEA 202 might end up being benign, but cases like this make her think otherwise. The student who might have been uncomfortable could have just raised their hand, she said, but the introduction of this bill gives them a nuclear option.
“I think the student could have had a genuine conversation, an intellectual debate about the validity of this pyramid,” Lee said. “But instead of actually talking and thinking about this on an intellectual level, the student knew about SEA 202 and they probably also knew about Senator Jim Banks being somebody that would probably listen to a student who did not like discussions about white supremacy. And so then they filed this complaint.”
Kapos and Stephen GLosser Miller?
And so where do we go? First Latina congresswoman from Arizona starts tenure focused on education, tribal rights and environment — plus she clears the way for an Epstein files vote.
In a speech on the House floor after being sworn in, Grijalva said it was time for Congress “to restore a full and check and balance to this administration.”
“We can and must do better. What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority of this body has failed to do,” she said.
The seating of Grijalva brings an end to a weekslong delay that she and other Democrats said was intended to prevent her signature on the Epstein petition .
Johnson had refused to seat Grijalva while the chamber was out of session, a decision that prompted condemnation from Grijalva, a lawsuit from Arizona’s attorney general and speculation that Johnson was delaying her induction into the House to stall a vote on whether to require the Justice Department release documents related to the late convicted sex trafficker.
Grijalva had said she would join the petition from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., after taking office, giving it the 218 signatures needed. Three Republicans have signed onto Massie’s petition — Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Julie Brown, in her book “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story,” writes that an anonymous woman, using the pseudonym “Kate Johnson,” filed a civil complaint in federal court in California in 2016, alleging she was raped by Trump and Epstein — when she was 13 — over a four-month period from June to September 1994.
“I loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop,” she said in the lawsuit. “Trump responded to my pleas by violently striking me in the face with his open hand and screaming that he could do whatever he wanted.”
Johnson said she met Trump at one of Epstein’s “underage sex parties” at his New York mansion. She says she was forced to have sex with Trump several times, including once with another girl — 12 years old — whom she labeled “Marie Doe.”
Trump demanded oral sex and afterward “pushed both minors away while angrily berating them for the ‘poor’ quality of their sexual performance,” according to the lawsuit, filed in April 26, 2016, in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.
When Epstein learned Trump had taken Johnson’s virginity, he allegedly “attempted to strike her about the head with his closed fists,” furious that he had lost the opportunity.
Trump, she said, did not take part in Epstein’s orgies. He liked to watch while 13-year-old “Kate Johnson” gave him a hand job.
Johnson said Epstein and Trump threatened to harm her and her family if she spoke of their encounters.
The lawsuit was dropped, most probably by way of a lucrative settlement. She has since disappeared.
Dictators are not content with silencing their critics and opponents. They take sadistic delight in humiliating, ridiculing and destroying them.
*****
Yeah, Salem, Oregon, 80 miles away from Newport.
Federal immigration agents detained at least 24 people in the Salem area on Tuesday, according to a coalition of advocates for immigrant rights, marking the highest single-day total for detentions in years.
Oregon for All said that agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement smashed the windows of a van full of people on their way to work early Tuesday morning. In a separate event, witnesses reported, ICE rammed a car on Ward Drive in Salem near a 76 gas station.
ICE oversaw more than 14,000 placements in solitary confinement between 2018 and 2023. Many people who are detained in solitary confinement have preexisting mental health conditions and other vulnerabilities. The average duration of solitary confinement is approximately one month, and some immigrants spend over two years in solitary confinement.
Shawan Jabarin says US colleagues and funders have distanced themselves from West Bank-based Al-Haq over the sanctions
Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights organization based in the West Bank, is not new to adversity. But since the group was sanctioned by the Trump administration in September, its world has shrunk.
Today, staff work without pay because the group’s banks closed its accounts. US-based funders have pulled away. YouTube has pulled hundreds of the group’s videos documenting Israeli forces’ human rights abuses against Palestinians. Perhaps most upsetting, US-based groups that had long collaborated have gone quiet, fearful that communications with Al-Haq may draw the attention of an administration that has made clear they are a target.
This blog has now closed, you can read more on this story here
PA Media has more on what the monthly performance figures from NHS England show. PA says:
The data shows 180,329 people in England had been waiting more than a year to start routine hospital treatment at the end of September, down from 190,549 at the end of August.
Some 2.4% of people on the list for hospital treatment had been waiting more than 52 weeks in September, down from 2.6% the previous month.
The NHS waiting list is 230,000 lower than July last year, even as the health service ‘approaches its limit’ with A&E and ambulances facing record demand ahead of winter.
The overall waiting list for September was 7.39m (an estimated 6.24m patients) down 15,845 compared to the previous month and 230,000 fewer than July 2024.
Thanks to the investment and modernisation this government has made, waiting lists are falling and patients are being treated sooner …
The past year is the first time in 15 years that waiting lists have fallen. There’s a long way to go, but the NHS is now on the road to recovery.
Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão has paid tribute to the “courageous and determined” contribution of Australian journalist Robert Domm to the struggle of the Timorese people in gaining independence from Indonesia. He died last Friday.
Domm was remembered for meeting in secret with the then Timorese resistance leader Gusmão in an exclusive interview.
“The government and people of East Timor are deeply saddened by the passing of Robert Domm, whose courage and determination helped bring to the world the truth of our fight for self-determination,” Gusmão’s statement said.
“In September 1990, when few in the world were aware of the devastation in occupied East Timor, or that our campaign of resistance continued despite the terrible losses, Robert Domm made the perilous journey to our country and climbed Mount Bunaria to meet with me and the leadership from FALINTIL.
“He was the first foreign journalist in 15 years to have direct contact with the Resistance.
“Your interview with me, broadcast by the ABC Background Briefing programme, broke the silence involving Timor-Leste since 1975.
“He conveyed to the world the message that the Timorese struggle for self-determination and resistance against foreign military occupation was very much alive.
Merchant seaman
“Robert Domm visited East Timor in the 1970s, then under Portuguese colonial control, as a merchant seaman on a boat crossing between Darwin and Dili, transporting general cargo and fuel.
“He returned in 1989, when Indonesia allowed tourist entry for the first time since 1975.
“He returned in 1990, allegedly as a “tourist”, but was on a secret mission to interview me for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
“Robert Domm’s journey to find me took extraordinary courage. His visit was organised by the Timorese resistance with, as he later recalled, “military precision”. He involved more than two hundred people from Timore who guided him through villages and checkpoints, running great risk for himself and the Timore people who helped him.
“He was a humble and gentle Australian who slept next to us on the grounds of Mount Bunaria, ate with us under the protection of the jungle and walked with our resistance soldiers as a comrade and a friend. I am deeply moved by your concern for the people of Timore.
He risked his own life to share our story. His report has given international recognition to the humanity and the resolve of our people.
“Following the broadcast, the Indonesian military carried out large-scale operations in our mountains and many of those who helped them lost their lives for our freedom.
Exposed complicity
“Robert continued to support East Timor after 1990. He spoke out against the occupation and exposed the complicity of governments that have remained mute. He was a co-author, with Mark Aarons, of East Timor: A Tragedy Created by the West, a work that deepened the international understanding of our suffering and our right to self-determination.
“He remained a friend and defender of East Timor long after the restoration of independence.
“In 2015, twenty-five years after his maiden voyage, Robert returned to East Timor to commemorate our historic encounter. Together, we walked to Mount Bunaria, in the municipality of Ainaro, to celebrate the occasion and remember the lives lost during our fight.
“The place of our meeting has been recognised as a place of historical importance.
“In recognition of his contribution, Robert Domm was awarded the Order of Timor-Leste in August 2014. This honour reflected our nation’s gratitude for its role in taking our struggle to the world. Robert’s contribution is part of our nation’s history.
“Robert’s soul now rests on Mount Matebian, next to his Timorese brothers and sisters.
“On behalf of the government and people of East Timor, we express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Robert Domm. His courage, decency and sense of justice will forever remain in the memory of our nation.”
Journalist Robert Domm with Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão, now Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, in a jungle hideout in 1990. Image: via Joana Ruas
Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão has paid tribute to the “courageous and determined” contribution of Australian journalist Robert Domm to the struggle of the Timorese people in gaining independence from Indonesia. He died last Friday.
Domm was remembered for meeting in secret with the then Timorese resistance leader Gusmão in an exclusive interview.
“The government and people of East Timor are deeply saddened by the passing of Robert Domm, whose courage and determination helped bring to the world the truth of our fight for self-determination,” Gusmão’s statement said.
“In September 1990, when few in the world were aware of the devastation in occupied East Timor, or that our campaign of resistance continued despite the terrible losses, Robert Domm made the perilous journey to our country and climbed Mount Bunaria to meet with me and the leadership from FALINTIL.
“He was the first foreign journalist in 15 years to have direct contact with the Resistance.
“Your interview with me, broadcast by the ABC Background Briefing programme, broke the silence involving Timor-Leste since 1975.
“He conveyed to the world the message that the Timorese struggle for self-determination and resistance against foreign military occupation was very much alive.
Merchant seaman
“Robert Domm visited East Timor in the 1970s, then under Portuguese colonial control, as a merchant seaman on a boat crossing between Darwin and Dili, transporting general cargo and fuel.
“He returned in 1989, when Indonesia allowed tourist entry for the first time since 1975.
“He returned in 1990, allegedly as a “tourist”, but was on a secret mission to interview me for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
“Robert Domm’s journey to find me took extraordinary courage. His visit was organised by the Timorese resistance with, as he later recalled, “military precision”. He involved more than two hundred people from Timore who guided him through villages and checkpoints, running great risk for himself and the Timore people who helped him.
“He was a humble and gentle Australian who slept next to us on the grounds of Mount Bunaria, ate with us under the protection of the jungle and walked with our resistance soldiers as a comrade and a friend. I am deeply moved by your concern for the people of Timore.
He risked his own life to share our story. His report has given international recognition to the humanity and the resolve of our people.
“Following the broadcast, the Indonesian military carried out large-scale operations in our mountains and many of those who helped them lost their lives for our freedom.
Exposed complicity
“Robert continued to support East Timor after 1990. He spoke out against the occupation and exposed the complicity of governments that have remained mute. He was a co-author, with Mark Aarons, of East Timor: A Tragedy Created by the West, a work that deepened the international understanding of our suffering and our right to self-determination.
“He remained a friend and defender of East Timor long after the restoration of independence.
“In 2015, twenty-five years after his maiden voyage, Robert returned to East Timor to commemorate our historic encounter. Together, we walked to Mount Bunaria, in the municipality of Ainaro, to celebrate the occasion and remember the lives lost during our fight.
“The place of our meeting has been recognised as a place of historical importance.
“In recognition of his contribution, Robert Domm was awarded the Order of Timor-Leste in August 2014. This honour reflected our nation’s gratitude for its role in taking our struggle to the world. Robert’s contribution is part of our nation’s history.
“Robert’s soul now rests on Mount Matebian, next to his Timorese brothers and sisters.
“On behalf of the government and people of East Timor, we express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Robert Domm. His courage, decency and sense of justice will forever remain in the memory of our nation.”
Journalist Robert Domm with Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão, now Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, in a jungle hideout in 1990. Image: via Joana Ruas
