“There are already a dozen cases piling up against me,” she said. “I’m a journalist. One murder case is enough to frame me.”

Rupa, a former chief correspondent at privately owned broadcaster Ekattor TV, now faces nine murder cases. Her husband, Shakil Ahmed, the channel’s former head of news, is named in eight.  

A year ago, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of Bangladesh’s interim government after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following weeks of student-led protests, during which two journalists were killed.

Yunus promised media reform and repealed the Cyber Security Act, a law used to target journalists under Hasina. But in a November 2024 interview with newspaper The Daily Star, Yunus said that murder accusations against journalists were being made hastily. He said the government had since halted such actions and that a committee had been formed to review the cases.

Still, nearly a year later, Rupa, Ahmed, Shyamal Dutta and Mozammel Haque Babu, arrested on accusations of instigating murders in separate cases, remain behind bars. The repeated use of such charges against journalists who are widely seen as sympathetic to the former regime appear to be politically motivated censorship.

In addition to such legal charges, CPJ has documented physical attacks against journalists, threats from political activists, and exile. At least 25 journalists are under investigation for genocide by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal – a charge that has been used to target figures linked to the former Hasina government. 

“Keeping four journalists behind bars without credible evidence a year on undermines the interim government’s stated commitment to protect press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “Real reform means breaking from the past, not replicating its abuses. All political parties must respect journalists’ right to report as the country is set for polls in coming months.”

A CPJ review of legal documents and reports found that journalists are often added to First Information Reports (FIRs) – documents that open an investigation – long after they are filed. In May, UN experts raised concern that over 140 journalists had been charged with murder following last year’s protests.

Shyamal Dutta’s daughter, Shashi, told CPJ the family has lost track of how many cases he now faces. They are aware of at least six murder cases in which he is named, while Babu’s family is aware of 10. Rupa and Ahmed’s family told CPJ that they haven’t received FIRs for five cases in which one or the other journalist has been named, which means that neither can apply for bail.

Shafiqul Alam, Yunus’s press secretary, and police spokesperson Enamul Haque Sagor did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. 

Violence and threats

In 2025, reporters across Bangladesh have faced violence and harassment while covering political events, with CPJ documenting at least 10 such incidents, most of which were carried out by members or affiliates of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its student wing, Chhatra Dal. In several instances, journalists sustained serious injuries or were prevented from reporting after footage was deleted or phones seized, including Bahar Raihan, Abdullah Al Mahmud, and Rocky Hossain.

Responding to the allegations, Mahdi Amin, adviser to Acting BNP Chair Tarique Rahman, told CPJ that while isolated misconduct may occur in a party of BNP’s size, the party does not protect wrongdoers. 

Others have faced threats from supporters of different political parties and the student groups that led the protests against Hasina. Reporters covering opposition groups like Jamaat-e-Islami or its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, have come under particular pressure. On June 9, Hasanat Kamal, editor of EyeNews.news, told CPJ he’d fled to the United Kingdom after being falsely accused by Islami Chhatra Shibir of participating in a violent student protest. Anwar Hossain, a journalist for the local daily Dabanol, told CPJ he’d been threatened by Jamaat supporters after publishing negative reports about a local party leader. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to Abdus Sattar Sumon, a spokesperson for Jamaat-e-Islami, but received no response.

Since Hasina’s ouster, student protesters from the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement (ADSM) have increasinglytargeted journalists they accuse of supporting the former regime, which in one case led to the firing of five journalists. Student-led mobs have also besieged outlets like Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to ADSM leader Rifat Rashid but received no response.

On July 14, exiled investigative journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan, who fled Bangladesh after exposing alleged high-level corruption under Hasina and receiving threats from Awami League officials, posted on X about the repression of the media: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Representative.

“It is outrageous that journalist Sneha Barve, who was nearly killed for exposing wrongdoing, has been threatened once again, while the main suspect in her assault walks free,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis must urgently guarantee Sneha Barve’s safety to send a clear message that attacks on the press will not be tolerated and ensure those responsible are swiftly prosecuted.”

Barve told CPJ that on July 24, Prashant Pandurang Morde – who was arrested for his role in the earlier attack on the journalist – accosted her outside her office in the town of Manchar and threatened her, saying, “This time, we should finish the matter for good.”

On July 4, Barve, founder of the Samarth Bharat Pariwar YouTube-based news channel, was attacked by a group of men while reporting on alleged illegal construction on disputed land in Manchar, Pune district. A video of the attack shows a man striking Barwe with a wooden rod before she loses consciousness.

Five suspects were arrested but released on bail three days later.

The man accused of wielding the rod, Pandurang Sakharam Morde, a businessman with alleged political connections, was named in the First Information Report opening the investigation, but has not been arrested.

On July 18, Prashant Morde, son of Pandurang Sakharam Morde, went to Barve’s father’s office and threatened to harm the entire family, the journalist told CPJ. In a complaint to police, reviewed by CPJ, Barve said the three suspects had been collecting information about her family and requested police protection.

CPJ’s WhatsApp messages requesting comment from Fadnavis’ media advisor, Ketan Pathak, did not receive any reply. Pune Rural Superintendent of Police Sandeep Gill told CPJ by WhatsApp that he would reply, but did not immediately respond to queries. CPJ was unable to immediately source contact information for Morde.

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

Pacific countries have emerged relatively unscathed from a restless night punctuated by tsunami warning sirens.

The tsunami waves, caused by a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia, have now rolled on southeastward toward South America.

According to the US Geological Survey, there have been around 80 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or higher around the area, and there is a 59 percent chance of a magnitude 7 or higher shock within the next week.

• READ MORE: Tsunami alerts lifted in several nations after waves hit Russia, US, Japan

“It is most likely that 0 to 5 of these will occur,” it stated.

The Guardian reported that a 6.4-magnitude quake struck around 320 km southwest of the epicenter yesterday about 11am local time (ET).

As such, while there are no longer any formal warnings or advisory notices in the Pacific, the threat of tsunami waves remains.

Metservice said that waves as high as 3 metres were still possible along some coasts of the northwestern Hawai’ian islands.

Waves between 1 and 3 metres tall were possible along the rest of Hawai’i, as well as as French Polynesia, Kiribati, Samoa and the Solomon Islands.

Assessing the damage
In Fiji, an advisory was put in place until 10:15pm local time, though the National Disaster Risk Management Office (NDMO) reminded citizens to remain alert and continue to follow official updates.

The office said people should take this as an opportunity to update their family emergency plans and evacuation routes.

The NDMO also called on citizens to refrain from spreading false or unverified information in the wake of the cancellation.

Advisory notices were cancelled in the early hours of the morning across Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, French Polynesia and the American Territories. Samoa was the last to rescind theirs, at around 4am local time.

No damage or major incidents have been reported.

In the Cook Islands, the Meteorological Service warned residents to anchor their boats and tie down their washing lines.

“A big boss high-pressure system chilling way down southwest is flexing hard — sending savage southerly swells and grumpy southeast winds across the group like it owns the reef,” it said.

“A sassy low-pressure trough is making a dramatic entrance tomorrow, rolling in with clouds, showers, and random thunderclaps like it’s auditioning for a Cook Islands soap opera.”

Evacuation order
In Hawai’i, an evacuation was ordered after 12pm local time along the coast of Oahu, including in parts of Honolulu, before waves began to arrive after 7pm.

As local media reported, intense traffic jams formed across Oahu as authorities evacuated people in coastal communities, and a sense of panic stirred.

Lauren Vinnel, an emergency management specialist at Massey University, told RNZ Pacific that the ideal scenario would have been for people to leave on foot.

“We know that this is where public education and practising tsunami evacuation is really important,” she said.

“We know that if people have identified their evacuation route and have practised it, it’s much easier for them to calmly and safely evacuate when a real event does occur.”

The advisory notice was lifted across Hawai’i at 8:58am local time.

Tonga’s tsunami trauma
Meanwhile, tsunami sirens sounded on and off overnight in Tonga until authorities cancelled the warning for the kingdom at around midnight local time.

Siaosi Sovaleni, Prime Minister of Tonga, during the 2022 volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami, said he was pleased the country’s emergency alert systems were working.

“The population is better informed this time around than the last time. I think it was much more scary [in 2022] . . . nobody knew what’s happening. The communication was down.”

‘We have to be prepared’
Vinnel said that she was satisfied overall with how Aotearoa responded.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal that initially we didn’t think there was a tsunami threat based on the initial assessment of the magnitude of the earthquake. But these things do happen. I’m not sure that there was anything that could have been done differently.”

John Townend, a geophysics professor at Victoria University of Wellington, told RNZ Pacific that these happen frequently around the world,”but one of this size doesn’t really happen more often than about once every decade.”

The last time an earthquake surpassed the magnitude 8 level was the 2011 Tōhoku disaster in Japan, which clocked out at 9.1.

But Townend said that the characteristics of the “subduction zone earthquake,” were largely in line with expectations for it’s kind, a “subduction zone earthquake”.

“They have happened repeatedly in the past along this portion of the Kamchatka Peninsula . . .  these things happen in this part of the world.

“In a New Zealand context, this earthquake was about one magnitude unit bigger than the Kaikoura earthquake and it released about 30 times more energy.”

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

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

“Six years ago, when we first called for an end to de minimis and insisted that no commercial trade should enter without inspection, tariffs, and taxes, the big online retailers and delivery corporations profiting from this dangerous loophole laughed at us and hired more lobbyists, so this is great—if overdue—news.

For the end of duty-free access to also translate into fewer unsafe and deadly imports and end the mass trade cheating hurting domestic producers that de minimis fueled, the administration must also strengthen customs enforcement by requiring more information about imports, boosting inspection, and raising penalties for violations.

If the courts invalidate the Executive Orders based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that implement this executive action to terminate de minimis, we urge the administration to use its ample authority under Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to issue a new Executive Order to effectuate the same global de minimis termination.”

Learn about the president’s authority to end de minimis by executive action here.

Learn more about Rethink Trade here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of Medicare and Medicaid — and nearly one month since President Trump’s federal budget slashed nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid to extend tax cuts for the rich. The cuts could lead to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. “Medicaid has been a lifeline. And without it, people will die,” says Ai-jen Poo, co-founder of Caring Across Generations and the Domestic Workers Alliance, which helped organize a 60-hour vigil last week ahead of the anniversary as part of a broader campaign to fight back against Trump’s cuts. She highlights the role of immigrants, who make up a third of the caregiving sector, and says Trump’s crackdown on immigration hastens the dwindling of care available to the aging and elderly. “We should be adding a trillion dollars in investments in healthcare in this country and in caregiving services in this country,” says Poo. “We need to strengthen these systems and programs for the 22nd century, not gut them.”

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

Regional military commanders along the 800-kilometer border agreed to halt gunfire, refrain from moving troops and establish direct bilateral communications, according to a Thai army spokesman and a spokesperson from the Cambodian defense ministry.

(Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Vejjayachai on Tuesday accused Cambodian troops of violating the ceasefire. The Thai government said it had filed a complaint about the alleged violation to Malaysia, the U.S. and China.

Cambodia’s defense minister, Tea Seiha, denied the claim, writing on Facebook that Cambodia’s armed forces has been strictly observing the truce. He said the Cambodian defense ministry would lead a delegation of foreign diplomats to observe the border.

Local sources near the border told RFA that gunfire was heard periodically in the predawn hours on Tuesday. An Agence France-Press journalist near the border said the sound of gunfire stopped ahead of the midnight deadline, a quiet that continued into Tuesday evening.

Thailand’s Phumtham and Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia appeared together on Monday to announce the ceasefire, brokered with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, the annual chair of the ASEAN regional bloc.

The announcement came amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said that continued fighting could stall negotiations for a trade deal with the U.S. Both countries face a 36% tariff on their goods unless a reduction can be negotiated. After the deal was announced, Trump said he had spoken with both leaders and told his team to restart talks.

At least 43 people were killed and around 300,000 were displaced during the fighting, which included jets, rockets and artillery.

(Heng Sinith/AP)

Some locals, like Cambodian Soklang Slay, expressed wariness as they returned to their homes on Tuesday.

“I am very concerned that new fighting may break out. Thailand often provokes the fighting first, but then accuses Cambodia. Their aims is that they want to occupy our temples [along the border]. I really don’t want to see any new fighting happen,” he told the Associated Press.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee, an author and former editor of the Nation newspaper in Bangkok who lives in his hometown in Kantharalak district, Sisaket province, was among those displaced. He had to evacuate, he said, and lost his cattle and his chance to harvest ripe durian fruit.

“The recent border skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia was senseless and served no real benefit to either nation. It did, however, serve the interests of the Thai military and Cambodia’s ruling family,” he told RFA, referring to the spat between Hun Manet and suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

“Politically, the conflict has placed the government of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on the brink of collapse. The failure of coherent diplomacy has opened the door to external interventions — most notably by the United States and China — complicating an already volatile situation.”

To resolve their issues long-term, he said both countries must accept the presence of international observers to monitor and verify the truce’s implementation.

“At the same time, they must reactivate dormant bilateral mechanisms to address critical issues of border security and the long-overdue boundary demarcation,” he said.

Includes reporting by RFA Khmer and Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA, as well as Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press, and Reuters.

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

— James Baldwin, “Open Letter to the Born Again” (September 29, 1979). Quoted in Hamid Dabashi, After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization (Haymarket Books, 2025): 159.

Baldwin’s assessment is shared by many others, such as Noam Chomsky, who discussed in his book (The Fateful Triangle, 1999 edition) Israel’s role as a “strategic asset.” (p. 69, 70, 103, 137) However, others, such as Jean Bricmont and Diana Johnstone countered that assessment in a 2024 article, “The Myth of Israel as ‘US Aircraft Carrier’ in Middle East.” They write:

But the crucial evidence, totally missing from their analysis, is the slightest example of Israel actually serving American interests in the region.

If no examples are given, it’s simply because there are none. Israel has never fired a shot on behalf of the United States or brought a drop of oil under U.S. control.

We can start with a common sense argument: If the U.S. is interested in Middle East oil, why would it support a country that is hated (for whatever reasons) by all the populations of the oil producing countries?

Bricmont and Johnstone attribute the unstinting US support of Israel as being influenced by money injected into the US political arena by the Jewish lobby, in particular AIPAC.

The question of which side leads in determining US support for Israel is debatable. What is indisputable is that the US and Israel are in lockstep despite all the violations of international law by Israel (US is a serial violator of international law, as well), despite several massacres carried out by Israel, and despite the mightily ramped up genocide being perpetrated by Israeli Jews against Palestinians currently.

Genocide and the understanding of what unleashes the bloodshirtiest of human actions is the subject of Hamid Dabashi’s After Savagery, scheduled for release by Haymarket Books on 30 September — while the savagery is ongoing. The urgency for a worldwide response calls for informing those unaware or those insouciant to the Jewish Israeli genocide that is being perpetrated on Palestine (It is not just a genocide in Gaza, as a 1 July 2025 Al Jazeera headline makes clear: “Israel has killed 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023.”). After Savagery, however, is not just about the genocide in Gaza, it is about why some humans commit genocide. So After Savagery is also about “before savagery.” What are the conditions that lead to savagery today. And most importantly, how genocide can be prevented from happening.

Dabashi quotes many sources to attest to the genocide that is happening now in Palestine.

“What we are seeing in Gaza is a repeat of Auschwitz,” says the Burmese genocide expert and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Maung Zarni. “This is a collective white imperialist man’s genocide,” he further explains. (154-155)

Asked to describe what he witnessed in Gaza, Dr. Perlmutter replied, “All of the disasters I’ve seen, combined—forty mission trips, thirty years, Ground Zero, earthquakes, all of that combined—doesn’t equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza.” And the civilian casualties, he said, are almost exclusively children. “I’ve never seen that before,” he said. “I’ve seen more incinerated children than I’ve ever seen in my entire life, combined. I’ve seen more shredded children in just the first week … missing body parts, being crushed by buildings, the greatest majority, or bomb explosions, the next greatest majority. We’ve taken shrapnel as big as my thumb out of eight-year-olds. And then there’s sniper bullets. I have children that were shot twice.” (103-104)

“Yes, it is genocide,” has affirmed Amos Goldberg, a professor of Holocaust history at the department of Jewish history and contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: “It is so difficult and painful to admit it, but despite all that, and despite all our efforts to think otherwise, after six months of brutal war we can no longer avoid this conclusion.” (142)

Dabashi traces the roots of Zionism to a longstanding settler-European colonialism. And the author lays bare the insidiousness of Zionism and how this racism impacted Palestinians:

Today, the birth of Palestine as a “question” rather than a nation-state marks precisely the birth of Palestine as a constellation of refugee camps. The land was stolen from Palestinians, the state stealing the land was a European settler colony garrison state that rules over Palestinians with cruelty, the rules for the inscription of life were dictated to Palestinians in draconian terms, and the camps as the fourth inseparable element are precisely where generations of Palestinians are born and raised, before being killed by the Israeli military. (127-128)

Part of this racism towards Muslims, of which the majority of Palestinians are, is the use of term “Muselmann.” Writes Dabashi, “This is perhaps a mini encyclopedia of European ignorance, Islamophobia and antisemitism all wrapped up in an attempt to unpack the word ‘Muselmann,’ but in fact loading it with more racist dimensions.” (120) And the new Muselmann, is the Palestinian, “the Untestifiable, the human animal, as Israeli warlords have said.” (xxvi)

Zionist Israel and its racism and discrimination is compellingly described. My colleague B.J. Sabri and I needed no convincing of Israeli racism.¹

And this racism, not exclusive to Israeli Jews, points to “what ultimately matters for the world at large is the categorical inability to fathom a Palestinian as a human being.” (96) Thus, “Witnessing this savagery in Gaza, we can clearly link the Jewish Holocaust to the Palestinian genocide, and see genocidal Zionism  as the logical colonial extension of European fascism.” (xv)

Before Savagery

Many personages appear in After Savagery, such as, to name a few, Sven Lindqvist, Frantz Fanon, Joseph Conrad, and James Baldwin who opposed racism; Edward Said, Giorgio Agamben, Ghassan Kanafani and his Danish wife Anni Kanafani (née Høver), Mario Rizzi, Mahmoud Darwish who spoke to the beauty of Orientalism and Arab culture; others such as Ilan Pappe and UN special rappateur Francesca Albanese who denounce unflinchingly the depredations of Israeli Jews against Palestinians. Dabashi delves deeply into the Eurocentric perspective on colonialism, borne of Western philosophy and figures like Immanuel Kant, Hegel Heidegger, and others who thinking was impoverished by being shackled by their own racism.

Dabashi writes:

“According to Hegel, Africans, or any other people, can only become civilized to the degree and so far as they abandoned their own cultures and convert to Christianity, founding a state according to Christian principles.” (91)

How are “we” to escape the indoctrination of feted philosophers and the inculcation of Western thought? How do “we” humanize Palestinians? The mere fact that the humanity of Palestinians requires affirmation for so many people points to the pervasiveness of racist Eurocentric narratives.

After the unbridled savagery in Gaza, it is not only European philosophy that reaches its ignoble ends. We need equally to think of the modes of knowledge production about Gaza itself, about Palestine, as the simulacrum of the world outside the purview of the discredited Eurocentric imagination. We no longer need to worry about the critique of Orientalism. We need to think of how to produce knowledge about Gaza and Palestine and the rest of the world. We need to reverse the anthropological gaze, to produce an anthropology of Zionism and Western Philosophy. (105)

The book covers a lot of ground. It delves deeply into ontology, epistemology, semantics, literature, art, filmmaking, poetry, politics, religion, exilism, and — especially — philosophy. After Savagery is not focused solely on the here and now of what is transpiring in historical Palestine. The book goes into the history, background, and philosophy that enables genocide. The book is scholarly and is well footnoted. If that is what the reader is looking for, then Hamid Dabashi’s After Savagery is well worth the read.

NOTE:

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Kim Petersen.

For the second time in as many months, Israel has raided a civilian ship in international waters to stop it from reaching Gaza to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid. The Handala was sailing toward the besieged Palestinian territory with baby formula, diapers, food and medicine on board when Israeli forces boarded it on Saturday and detained 21 crew and passengers. “Their blockade is, by all international standards, unlawful,” says Palestinian American human rights attorney Huwaida Arraf, who was among the activists on board and was just released from Israeli detention. She calls on the international community to hold Israel accountable and says the Freedom Flotilla Coalition will continue organizing aid ships to break the blockade of Gaza.

“Why is it that we had to be at sea in international waters, in a small boat, going to confront one of the most brutal militaries in the world? It is because … our countries are allowing Israel to deliberately starve Palestinians as part of this genocidal campaign that it has been carrying out,” says Arraf.

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

On July 12, X user @SouleFacts shared the images—one showing the two wearing garlands and another of them posing—and wrote that instead of mourning his son, who died five days ago, Shakeel chose to marry his daughter-in-law.

X users @SanataniMuslim_, @Vini__007, @Uday_Yadavji, @Warlock_Shubh and others shared the images with similar claims. The images and claims were also viral on Facebook.

It is worth noting that the same pictures were viral between 2019 and 2021 as well. At the time, the photographs were shared by several Bangladesh-based news outlets, such as Dhaka Post, Bangla TV, amadershomoy.com, news24bd.tv and dailynewstimesbd.com. These outlets had reported that Noor Islam (45) of Cheprajhar village in the Atwari Upazila of Panchagarh district, Bangladesh, married his 22-year-old daughter-in-law, Belal Hossai.

Fact Check

Alt News did a reverse image search of the viral images, which led us to a news report in Dainik Bhaskar’s Divya Marathi from November 8, 2017. According to the report, the man in the picture is Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka, a 70-year-old businessman from Assam, who was the managing director of Himatsingka Auto Enterprises Ltd. since 1987.

The report featured the same images that were doing the rounds on social media recently. The report said that Himatsingka was lonely after the death of his wife and remarried. The woman was much younger than him.

The Malayalam edition of The Times of India and Swadesh News also published a report on the same incident in 2017, along with the viral images. These articles also mention that Himatsingka faced much criticism online for marrying the woman, who was 45 years younger than him.

In May 2018, News18 Assam (North East) reported that Himatsingka was hospitalised after he tried to kill himself owing to a property-related dispute.

Thus, we were certain that the images were not of a Muslim man named Mohammad Shakeel from Uttar Pradesh but of someone named Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka.

However, a keyword search with Shakeel’s name and the viral claim led us to a case from the Bansangli village in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, from June 2025. According to reports by NDTV India and Times of India, a 55-year-old man named Shakeel allegedly eloped with his son’s fiancée and married her.

To sum up, the man and woman seen in the viral images are Rajesh Kumar Himatsingka and his younger wife from Assam, not Mohammad Shakeel. The images have been online since 2017 and werencirculated before with different claims. A man named Md Shakeel from Uttar Pradesh did marry his son’s fiancee, according to some media reports, but they are not the ones seen in the viral photos. Also, claims that Shakeel married his daughter-in-law five days after his son passed away are baseless.

The post Viral photos show Assam couple from 2017, not Muslim man from UP marrying his daughter-in-law after son’s death appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on July 24, 2025. It is shared here with permission.

A Trump administration appointee has been going hard after demonstrators in Los Angeles who in recent weeks have been protesting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations—but it seems like he’s having a hard time getting grand juries to go along.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Bill Essayli, who was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this year to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, recently became “irate” and could be heard “screaming” at prosecutors in the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles when a grand jury declined to indict an anti-ICE protester who had been targeted for potential felony charges.

And according to the LA Times’ reporting, this failure to secure an indictment against demonstrators was far from a one-off.

“Although his office filed felony cases against at least 38 people for alleged misconduct that either took place during last month’s protests or near the sites of immigration raids, many have been dismissed or reduced to misdemeanor charges,” the paper writes. “In total, he has secured only seven indictments, which usually need to be obtained no later than 21 days after the filing of a criminal complaint. Three other cases have been resolved via plea deal.”

It is incredibly rare for prosecutors to fail to secure indictments from grand juries, which only require a determination that there is “probable cause” to believe a suspect committed a crime and which do not hear arguments from opposing counsels during proceedings.

Meghan Blanco, a former federal prosecutor and current defense attorney representing one of the anti-ICE protesters currently facing charges, told the LA Times that there’s a simple reason that grand juries aren’t pulling the trigger on indictments: Namely, prosecutors’ cases are full of holes.

In one case, Blanco said she obtained video evidence that directly contradicted a sworn statement from a Border Patrol officer who alleged that her client had obstructed efforts to chase down a suspect who assaulted him. When she presented this video at her client’s first court hearing, charges against him were promptly dropped.

“The agent lied and said he was in hot pursuit of a person who punched him,” Blanco explained. “The entirety of the affidavit is false.”

One anonymous prosecutor who spoke with the LA Times similarly said that ICE agents have been losing credibility when their actions and statements are put under a legal microscope.

“There are a lot of hotheaded [Customs and Border Protection] officers who are kind of arresting first and asking questions later,” they said. “We’re finding there’s not probable cause to support it.”

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, was floored by the failures to secure indictments against the anti-ICE demonstrators.

“Incredible,” he wrote on social media website X. “Federal prosecutors are seeing many cases of people accused of assaulting Border Patrol agents being turned down by grand juries! Los Angeles federal prosecutors are privately saying it’s because CBP agents are just ‘arresting first and asking questions later.'”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) similarly bashed prosecutors for using easily discredited statements from ICE officers to secure indictments.

“I’m a former prosecutor and can confirm that any prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich,” he wrote. “Except the top prosecutor in L.A. Why? Because this article points out ICE AGENTS ARE MAKING SHIT UP. You want your agents respected? Tell them to stop lying.”

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Brad Reed.

The statement also urged Egyptian authorities to drop charges against Omar’s wife, Nada Mougheeth, who was detained after speaking to the media about her husband’s detention and alleged human rights violations surrounding his arrest. Mougheeth was later released on bail pending investigation after she was accused of joining a terrorist organization and spreading false news.

Egypt remains one of the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists, with 17 currently behind bars, according to CPJ’s recent prison census. Seven journalists were arrested in 2024, Omar among them, amid an escalating crackdown tied to the country’s worsening economic crisis.

Read the full letter in English here.

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

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Verite News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

Louisiana passed a new police accountability law following allegations of civil rights violations against a sheriff’s deputy caught on video dragging a Black woman by her hair and slamming her head into the ground.

The woman, Shantel Arnold, sued the deputy and the sheriff, accusing the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office of conspiring to cover up the 2021 assault. The Sheriff’s Office agreed in March to pay Arnold $300,000 after three days of trial but before jury deliberations began, Arnold’s attorney said.

After the incident, ProPublica, in partnership with WRKF, WWNO and The Times-Picayune, published an investigation detailing the long history of excessive-force complaints against Jefferson Parish sheriff’s Deputy Julio Alvarado. Alvarado, a 20-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, was employed by the department as of March.

Arnold’s attorney, state Sen. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans, said he introduced the legislation after it emerged that Alvarado had failed to write a report about his encounter with Arnold despite his department’s policy that officers document each time they use force. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said during his testimony in the March trial over Arnold’s lawsuit that Alvarado’s commanders instructed him against writing such a report after video of his actions spread across social media.

Arnold’s run-in with Alvarado, which was captured in a 14-second video, left the woman with bruises and scratches across her body, a busted lip and recurring headaches, according to her subsequent account to police investigators.

“Had it not been for a bystander capturing how this officer beat up Shantel Arnold, there would be no report, there would be no evidence of it, there would be no indication that it ever happened,” Carter said in a recent interview.

The new law, passed unanimously by state legislators and signed by Gov. Jeff Landry in June, will require all law enforcement agencies to report every time an officer’s use of force results in serious injury. It directs the Council on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which certifies police officers, to adopt a policy on mandatory use-of-force reporting by Jan. 1. Details of how the process will work have not been spelled out, nor has the penalty for failing to comply.

The bill was introduced as “Shantel Arnold’s Law,” but Carter said that name was removed because “Sheriff Lopinto got very upset about that, and that almost killed the bill.”

Neither the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office nor Alvarado’s attorney responded to requests for comment or an interview.

Alvarado came across Arnold in September 2021, when the officer responded to a 911 call about a fight among 25 people in Jefferson Parish. When the deputy pulled up in his patrol car, Alvarado saw Arnold, covered in dirt, walking down the street. Arnold told the deputy she was attacked by a group of boys who frequently bullied her. When Alvarado ordered her to stop, Arnold said she just wanted to go home and kept walking. That’s when the deputy jumped out of his vehicle, grabbed Arnold and slammed her into the sidewalk, according to several witnesses.

In a video taken by a bystander, Alvarado drags Arnold along the pavement, holds her by her braids and slams her repeatedly onto the pavement. Arnold was not charged with a crime and was later taken to a hospital. The Sheriff’s Office did not use body cameras at the time but has since begun using them.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office denied wrongdoing. A 2022 internal investigation by the Sheriff’s Office determined Alvarado’s actions against Arnold were “both reasonable and acceptable.” Alvarado received an “approximately” 40-hour suspension for failing to file a written report, Lopinto said in his March testimony.

Arnold alleged in her 2022 lawsuit that the Sheriff’s Office knew Alvarado had a propensity for violence against Black people and other minority groups yet continued to have him patrol such communities, putting the public in danger.

Lopinto attributed Alvarado’s history of complaints to his working a high-crime beat, according to a 2022 Times-Picayune interview. “It’s not like he’s getting a complaint every month,” Lopinto said. During that same interview, Lopinto dismissed Arnold’s account and accused her of “looking for a paycheck.”

Alvarado’s alleged misdeeds fit a broader pattern in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, as the yearlong investigation into the Sheriff’s Office by ProPublica, WRKF and WWNO found. Between 2013 and 2021, deputies disproportionately discharged guns against Black people. Of the 40 people shot at by Jefferson Parish deputies during that time, 73% were Black, more than double their share of the population. Twelve of the 16 people who died after being shot or restrained by deputies during that time were Black.

Alvarado has been named in at least 10 federal civil rights lawsuits since 2007, all involving the use of excessive force; eight of the plaintiffs were members of minority groups.

The Sheriff’s Office settled three of those lawsuits. Arnold’s $300,000 payout is the third — and largest — settlement involving Alvarado. Five other lawsuits were closed in favor of the Sheriff’s Office, one was dismissed on a legal technicality and one was indefinitely delayed.

The Sheriff’s Office said in filings responding to the eight lawsuits that were not dismissed or delayed that officers’ actions were “reasonable under the circumstances” and characterized the claims as “frivolous.”

Prior to the 2021 incident involving Arnold, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office had settled a 2016 lawsuit accusing Alvarado of grabbing a 14-year-old Hispanic boy by the neck and slamming his head against the concrete as the child screamed, “Why are you doing this to me?” A woman had called the police complaining that the boy and a friend were wrestling in a parking lot. Alvarado then threatened to have the boy and his family deported, according to the suit. The Sheriff’s Office, which paid the boy’s family $15,000, said in court filings that Alvarado’s actions were “reasonable under the circumstances.”

In 2018, another lawsuit claimed Alvarado and three deputies beat Atdner Casco, a Honduran native, and stole more than $2,000 from him during a traffic stop the year before, then conspired to have him deported. Casco claimed Alvarado beat and choked him until he agreed to keep silent about being robbed. The Sheriff’s Office denied wrongdoing but settled that case in 2020 for $50,000.

Both incidents were cited in Arnold’s lawsuit as evidence that Alvarado has exhibited a pattern of behavior throughout his career that made him unfit for duty. Carter, Arnold’s attorney, raised yet another incident during the March trial in which sheriff detectives in December 2019 witnessed Alvarado patronizing a massage parlor that was being investigated for suspected prostitution. Alvarado denied he went there to “have a sexual act performed on him.” He was demoted from sergeant to deputy for “bringing the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in disrepute” and for patronizing an “illegitimate business while on duty and neglecting your responsibilities to detectives under your command,” Carter said during the trial, citing an internal police report.

Carter said in an interview that Lopinto’s continued defense and employment of Alvarado represented a permissive attitude toward questionable behavior.

“He stood by” Alvarado, who “shows no contrition, no remorse,” Carter said.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Richard A. Webster, Verite News.

The top-ranked show on late-night television, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has been canceled, just days after Colbert skewered Paramount, the parent company of CBS, for settling a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. The lawsuit accused another CBS show, 60 Minutes, of biased editing in an interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. Its settlement comes as Paramount works to finalize a lucrative merger with Skydance Media that must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. On his show, Colbert called the settlement “a big fat bribe.”

“So many media conglomerates had already given thinly disguised bribes to Trump to settle lawsuits they could not possibly lose in court,” explains Jeff Cohen, co-founder of the online action group RootsAction and the media watch group FAIR, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. Cohen says he suspects Paramount agreed to cancel Colbert’s show — and will likely remove other programming critical of Trump — as part of a deal with the administration to win favorable conditions for its merger. But Cohen emphasizes that the erosion of a free press did not start under Trump. “Over a period of several decades, both Democratic and Republican administrations have placed our media and information system in the hands of giant media conglomerates who have only one value. It’s not freedom of press. It’s not free flow of information. It’s profit maximization.”

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

On June 30, the men abducted Yormie while he was on his way back to the community-based Lar-Wehyi radio station, shortly after he read on air a government order suspending activities of the Poro society, the journalist told CPJ.

The Poro is a centuries-old men’s society that traditionally enforces community laws. Their rituals still shape lives in rural areas, although they have been criticized for human rights abuses.

“The abduction and brutal attack on journalist Alex Seryea Yormie are grave reminders of the dangers the media face in Liberia from powerful non-state groups,” said CPJ Regional Director Angela Quintal. “Authorities must continue to investigate the incident and guarantee the safety of the press to report on sensitive subjects without facing retaliatory attacks.” 

Yormie told CPJ that nine assailants carried him to their office, where about 30 members of the group beat him with their hands, before taking him to another location, where they beat him with sticks, stripped him naked, and tied his genitals with ropes. 

After two hours, the men took Yormie to another location where they beat him for a further two hours, and then took him to a fourth site, where police intervened and rescued him, the journalist said. 

Yormie told CPJ he received medical treatment for cuts all over his body.

On July 1, a Poro leader, Melvin Duo, was arrested. On July 14, Duo was charged with “recklessly endangering someone, simple assault and felonious restraint,” the journalist told CPJ, but the case was adjourned because Yormie was injured in an unrelated accident and will resume once he recovers.

CPJ’s calls and text messages to request comment from Duo and police spokesperson Cecelia Clarke received no response.

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

As the federal government begins to implement some $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts called for in President Trump’s budget bill passed by the Republican-led Congress, a new investigative documentary, Life After, examines the moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying that could increasingly confront members of the disabled community. Reid Davenport, who directed the film, notes the “film is not about suicide. It is about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in a world that perpetually rejects them.” People with disabilities “already experience huge health disparities,” adds Colleen Cassingham, who produced the film. “When you introduce a policy like assisted suicide, it takes a group of people who are already incredibly marginalized by our system and gives the institutions and the people with power a profit motive for denying those people care.” Life After is now screening in person at select theaters and virtually online.

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

A major rift has formed within Donald Trump’s MAGA base over his reversal of a campaign promise to release the “Epstein files” to the public. Many supporters see his denials of the existence of a “client list” belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, the powerful and well-connected investor who was charged with the sexual trafficking and assault of numerous teenage girls and young women before his death, as a betrayal of Trump’s promises to “drain the swamp” and expose what many supporters believe is proof of criminal corruption among primarily Democratic “elites.” Trump’s insistence that his supporters drop their fixation on Epstein-related “conspiracy theories that his people have long nurtured” is “making it exceedingly difficult for some of his biggest supporters and boosters to not start at least suspecting that he has something to hide,” says Rolling Stone's Asawin Suebsaeng, who has been reporting on the fallout from Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the Epstein case.

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

Lucas and her husband live over 100 miles away in New Braunfels, but they drove to the unincorporated riverside town of Hunt to “put a good 12-hour day in and try to put a dent in any of this,” in Celbi’s words. The work was personal: She lost a second cousin, Reese Manchaca, to the floods. Manchaca, a 21-year-old college student, was visiting Hunt for the holiday with three of her friends when floodwaters overwhelmed the cabin they’d rented. In the disaster’s solemn aftermath, Texas officers arranged a procession to escort Manchaca’s body back to her hometown in Montgomery County, 300 miles away, so she could be laid to rest.

Another volunteer, Bryan Hill, has been driving two hours each way from his ranch in nearby Kimble County to volunteer. Hill, who is a road construction worker for the city of Austin, felt compelled to help after watching news coverage; he was helping operate heavy equipment to clear debris. 

“I’ve just seen everything on TV,” he said. “It bothers me. If I see somebody in need or something, I want to help.”

At least 134 people lost their lives in the flash floods that overwhelmed Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, and other communities along the Guadalupe River earlier this month. Those who survived tell harrowing stories of clinging to electric poles, trees, and rooftops as the river raged around them. The camera crews may have left, but helicopters continue to buzz overhead, an army of volunteers is traversing the river banks, and the county is considering draining a lake in an effort to find the more than 160 people who have been reported missing.

Volunteer efforts were delayed by more rain and a flash flood watch over the weekend. For about two days, the county ordered that all volunteer search and rescue operations halt as river levels rose yet again. On Monday, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said the search for the missing could take up to six months. 

The larger rebuild and recovery process will likely take much longer. Several river crossings on the roads in and out of Hunt have been ripped apart by fast-flowing waters. The trees along the river banks are bowed, having succumbed to the force of the river, and littered with blankets, clothes, and the wreckage of people’s lives. Mattresses, refrigerators, debris, and other belongings from flooded homes are piled all along Highway 39, the main road that runs along the Guadalupe and through Hunt. 

Hunt is an unincorporated town of roughly 1,100 people in the heart of Texas’ Hill Country in western Kerr County. The region is so named because of its rolling hills, rugged terrain, and dramatic escarpments. While the community of permanent residents is small, the population of the town increases over the summer when vacationers camp and hike along the river. RV parks and cabins dot the river banks, and the region relies on tourism and recreation for revenue. Many residents of nearby Austin and San Antonio maintain second homes in the area. In fact, officials have had a difficult time estimating the number of missing people in part because many were visiting from out of town. 

Although the region has been in a severe drought for the past several years, it’s no stranger to flash floods. In 1932, about 20 years after the town’s founding, the river rose 36 feet and Hunt “was washed away in a flood,” according to a webpage maintained by the Kerr County Historical Commission. The Guadalupe has flooded several times since then — including in 1987, an event locals refer to as “the big one.” 

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Nevertheless, the conditions that powered the recent floods had all the hallmarks of a changing climate. As the Gulf has warmed, it has increased the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, and with it the potential for intense rainfall. The storm that caused the floods dumped 2 to 4 inches of rain over Kerr County every hour; given the region’s limestone deposits, which don’t absorb water, the rainfall had nowhere to go but down. The region’s extended drought, which had left the soil dry and compacted, didn’t help either. Hillsides turned into runoff channels, and the Guadalupe swelled up and outward, hundreds of feet beyond its banks. 

Many of Hunt’s part- and full-time residents have left the devastated town, but some have stayed — or returned — to assess the damage. On Wednesday afternoon, LeAnn Levering was spraying a wooden table with vinegar in a desperate attempt to save it from mold. The table, built by her ex-husband and cherished by her children, sat on the front porch along with all the salvageable possessions from her cabin. The house had been inundated with five feet of water as the Guadalupe swelled in the early morning of July 4. The river rose furiously, climbing several dozen feet up a hill before spreading another 300 or so feet across the land to reach the cabin. Levering, a psychotherapist who primarily lives near Austin, was fortunate not to be staying in the cabin that weekend. When she and her son arrived a couple of days later to assess the damage, she found dead fish and sewage backflow amid the wreckage. 

“We’re so high up this hill — it should never have happened,” Levering said. “I understand we’re in a flash flood alley but not this high. This is just bizarre.”

The floods arrived too quickly for many of those present to evacuate. Douglas Bolduc’s family, which owns three of the neighboring cabins and was staying in one of them, retreated to a loft as the floodwaters overwhelmed the home. They were eventually rescued and taken to higher ground. Another one of the family’s cabins was pulled off of its foundation and into the raging river.

“It’s a pile of rubble over there in the field,” Bolduc told Grist, pointing to a large open meadow.

While the flash flood itself was unavoidable, the region’s devastating death toll was exacerbated by the limits of cell-phone-based warning systems. Unlike neighboring communities, Kerr County was not equipped with sirens or other alarm systems to alert residents when the river rose in the middle of the night. The county sent phone alerts to those who had signed up through its CodeRED initiative, but it did not use FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, which sends blaring alerts to all cell phones in a region, until after the most devastating flooding. 

Read Next

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Rebecca Egan McCarthy

Bolduc himself was in Colorado during the floods, but he returned to help rebuild the homes with his sister. Volunteers had helped empty out the homes, power wash the floors, and set up blowers to dry them out.

“We didn’t lose anybody,” Bolduc said of his family. “All we lost was stuff. And stuff can be replaced.”

Levering and Bolduc, who do not have flood insurance to cover their homes in Hunt, will be shouldering the cost of rebuilding their cabins on their own. (Nationally, only 4 percent of homeowners have flood insurance; in Kerr County, that figure is only 2.5 percent.) Bolduc’s family plans to dip into savings to rebuild, while Levering is planning on looking into low-interest loans. She estimates rebuilding will cost at least $100,000 and hasn’t yet investigated if any form of assistance might be available from FEMA or any other government entity.

“I have no idea,” she said. “I haven’t had time for paperwork.”

Grist has a comprehensive guide to help you stay ready and informed before, during, and after a disaster. Explore the full Disaster 101 resource guide for more on your rights and options when disaster hits.

Are you affected by the flooding in Texas and North Carolina? Learn how to navigate disaster relief and response.

Get prepared. Learn how to be ready for a disaster before you’re affected.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline After deadly flash floods, a Texas town takes halting, painful steps toward recovery on Jul 17, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Naveena Sadasivam.

The video went viral after many claimed that Congress leaders Pappu Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar were snubbed at a rally in Bihar on July 9. The two were reportedly stopped by security personnel from joining Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav in his vehicle. Yadav later clarified that it was not an ‘insult’ but part of security protocols.

X user @Bitt2DA posted the viral clip on July 9. (Archive)

पप्पू यादव की आँखों में आँसू क्यों है ??

किसने इसकी बेइज्जती की है ? कोई बताएगा pic.twitter.com/MbXLASHUIg

— Hardik Bhavsar (@Bitt2DA) July 9, 2025

The video was also shared by X user @ajeetbharti. At the time this article was written, the post had gathered more than 375,000 views. (Archive)

किस तरीके से ‘मारा’ कि बता नहीं सकते! बाघ का करेजा का ये हाल है बिहार में? pic.twitter.com/a5DZ7F6guZ

— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) July 9, 2025

The video was also shared by BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla. (Archive)

Bahut Bura hua Vro https://t.co/d29UJaigbU

— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) July 9, 2025

Several other users on X, such as @krazyxuser, @voice_of_hindu2 and @PNRai1, among others, also shared the video with similar comments. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the narratives amplified on social media, we broke down the viral video into key frames and did a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to an article published by Zee News on September 6, 2018.

On September 6, 2018, Congress leader Pappu Yadav was attacked by Bharat Bandh supporters in the Sadar area of Khabra village, in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. He alleged that a group of demonstrators stopped his car, questioned him and the others in his vehicle, enquiring about their caste, and then went on to abuse and physically assault them. At the time, too, the video of Yadav in tears over the incident was viral.

Yadav had also posted about the incident on X in 2018. The translated text reads: “During the #SaveWomenMarch in Madhubani, our convoy was attacked by goons in the name of #BharatBandh, and workers were brutally beaten while being asked about their caste. Is there any governance in Bihar, or not!”

#महाजंगलराज का नंगा नाच#नारी_बचाओ_पदयात्रा में मधुबनी जाने के दौरान हमारे काफिले पर #BharatBandh के नाम पर गुंडों ने हमला किया,कार्यकर्ताओं को बुरी तरह जाति पूछ-पूछकर पीटा है। आखिर बिहार में कोई शासन-प्रशासन है, या, नहीं!CM @NitishKumar आप किस कुम्भकर्णी नींद में सोये हैं।

— Pappu Yadav (@pappuyadavjapl) September 6, 2018

Several news articles from that time by NDTV, ABP News, Aaj Tak, The Telegraph, and others also corroborated the incident.

We also found a longer version from which the now-viral clip was extracted. It was uploaded on September 6, 2018.

In this video, Pappu Yadav says that he was abused by the attackers, who may have even killed him if the guards weren’t around. He also claims that his phone calls to the police and chief minister went unanswered. After that, he breaks down in front of the cameras. The portion that is now viral begins around the 0:31-minute mark.

Thus, the video showing Pappu Yadav in tears while speaking to reporters is not recent, but from 2018.

The post After Cong leader Pappu Yadav stopped from entering Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi’s car in Bihar, old video of him crying viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

Collective measures to confront Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people have been agreed by 12 nations after an emergency summit of the Hague Group in Bogotá, Colombia.

A joint statement today announced the six measures, which it said were geared to holding Israel to account for its crimes in Palestine and would operate within the states’ domestic legal and legislative frameworks.

Nearly two dozen other nations in attendance at the summit are now pondering whether to sign up to the measures before a September deadline set by the Hague Group.

• READ MORE: UN expert advocates peacekeeper path to break Israel’s siege on Gaza
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New Zealand and Australia stayed away from the summit.

The measures include preventing the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, military fuel and dual-use items to Israel and preventing the transit, docking or servicing of vessels if there is a risk of vessels carrying such items. No vessel under the flag of the countries would be allowed to carry this equipment.

The countries would also “commence an urgent review of all public contracts, in order to prevent public institutions and public funds, where applicable, from supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory, to ensure that our nationals, and companies and entities under our jurisdiction, as well as our authorities, do not act in any way that would entail recognition or provide aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

The countries will prosecute “the most serious crimes under international law through robust, impartial and independent investigations and prosecutions at national or international levels, in compliance with our obligation to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes”.

They agreed to support universal jurisdiction mandates, “as and where applicable in our legal constitutional frameworks and judiciaries, to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes in the Occupied Palestine Territory”.

This will mean IDF soldiers and others accused of war crimes in Palestine would face arrest and could go through domestic judicial processes in these countries, or referrals to the ICC.

The statement said the measures constituted a collective commitment to defend the foundational principles of international law.

It also called on the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to commission an immediate investigation of the health and nutritional needs of the population of Gaza, devise a plan to meet those needs on a continuing and sustained basis, and report on these matters before the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Following repeated total blockades of Gaza since October 7, 2023, Gazans have been dying of starvation as they continue to be bombed and repeatedly displaced and their means of life destroyed.

The official death toll stands at nearly 59,000, mostly women and children, although some estimates put that number at over 200,000.

The joint statement recognised Israel as a threat to regional peace and the system of international law and called on all United Nations member states to enforce their obligations under the UN charter.

It condemned “unilateral attacks and threats against United Nations mandate holders, as well as key institutions of the human rights architecture and international justice” and committed to build “on the legacy of global solidarity movements that have dismantled apartheid and other oppressive systems, setting a model for future co-ordinated responses to international law violations”.

Countries face wrath of US
Ministers, high-ranking officials and envoys from 30 nations attended the two-day event, from July 15-16, called to come up with the measures. It is now hoped some of those attendees will sign up to the statement by September.

For countries like Ireland, which sent a delegation, signing up would have profound implications. The Irish government has been heavily criticised by its own citizens for continuing to allow Shannon Airport as a transit point for military equipment from the United States to be sent to Israel.

It would also face the prospect of severe reprisals by the US, as would others thinking of adding their names to the collective statement. The US is now expected to consult with nations that attended and warn them of the consequences of signing up.

The summit had been billed by the UN Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, as “the most significant political development of the last 20 months”.

Albanese had told attendees that “for too long, international law has been treated as optional — applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful”.

“This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end,” she said.

Co-chaired by Colombia and South Africa, the Hague group was established by nine nations in late January at The Hague in the Netherlands to hold Israel to account for its crimes and push for Palestinian self-determination.

Colombia last year ended diplomatic relations with Israel, while South Africa in late December 2023 filed an application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide, which was joined by nearly two dozen countries.

The ICJ has determined a plausible genocide is taking place and issued orders for Israel to protect Palestinians and take measures to stop genocide taking place, a call ignored by the Zionist state.

Representatives from the countries arrived in Bogota this week in defiance of the United States, which last week sanctioned Albanese for attempts to have US and Israeli political officials and business leaders prosecuted by the ICC over Gaza.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it an illegitimate “campaign of political and economic warfare”.

It followed the sanctioning of four ICC judges after arrest warrants were issued in November last year for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Ahead of the Bogota meeting, the US State Department accused The Hague Group of multilateral attempts to “weaponise international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas” and warned the US would “aggressively defend” its interests.

Signs of division in the West
Most of those attending came from nations in the Global South, but not all.

Founding Hague Group members Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa attended the Summit. Joining them were Algeria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iraq, Republic of Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

However, in a sign of increasing division in the West, NATO members Spain, Portugal, Norway, Slovenia and Turkey also attended.

Inside the summit, former US State Department official Annelle Sheline, who resigned in March over Gaza, defended the right of those attending “to uphold their obligations under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

“This is not the weaponisation of international law. This is the application of international law,” she told delegates.

The US and Israel deny accusations that genocide is taking place in Gaza, while Western media have collectively refused to adjudicate the claims or frame stories around Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the strip, despite ample evidence by the UN and genocide experts.

Since 7 October 2023, US allies have offered diplomatic cover for Israel by repeating it had “a right to defend itself” and was engaged in a legitimate defensive “war against Hamas”.

Israel now plans to corral starving Gazans into a concentration camp in the south of the strip, with many analysts expecting the IDF to exterminate anyone found outside its boundaries, while preparing to push those inside across the border into Egypt.

Asia Pacific and EU allies shun Bogota summit
Addressing attendees at the summit yesterday, Albanese criticised the EU for its neo-colonialism and support for Israel, criticisms that can be extended to US allies in the Asia Pacific region.

Independent journalist Abby Martin reported Albanese as saying: “Europe and its institutions are guided more by colonial mindset than principle, acting as vessels to US Empire even as it drags us from war to war, misery to misery.

“The Hague Group is a new moral centre in world politics. Millions are hoping for leadership that can birth a new global order, rooted in justice, humanity and collective liberation. It’s not just about Palestine. This is about all of us.”

The Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was asked why Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not take up an invite to attend the Hague Group meeting. In a statement to Mick Hall in Context, a spokesperson said she had been unable to attend, but did not explain why.

She said Australia was a “resolute defender of international law” and added: “Australia has consistently been part of international calls that all parties must abide by international humanitarian law. Not enough has been done to protect civilians and aid workers.

“We have called on Israel to respond substantively to the ICJ’s advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

“We have also called on Israel to comply with the binding orders of the ICJ, including to enable the unhindered provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance at scale.”

When asked why New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters had failed to take up the invitation or send any of his officials, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) spokesperson simply refused to comment.

She said MFAT media advisors would only engage with “recognised news media outlets”.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, as well as a number of his ministers, have been referred to the ICC by domestic legal teams, accused of complicity in the genocide.

Evidence against Albanese was accepted into the ICC’s wider investigation of crimes in Gaza in October last year, while Luxon’s referral earlier this month is being assessed by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office.

Delegates told humanity at stake
Delegates heard several impassioned addresses from speakers on what was at stake during the two-day event in Bogota.

Palestinian-American trauma surgeon, Dr Thaer Ahmad, told the gathering that Palestinians seeking food were being met with bullets, describing aid distribution facilities set up by the US contractor-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as “slaughterhouses”. More than 800 starving Gazans have been killed at the GHF aid points so far.

“People know they could die but cannot sit idly by and watch their families starve,” he said.

“The bullets fired by GHF mercenaries are just one part of the weaponisation of aid, where Palestinians are ghettoised into areas where somebody in military fatigues decides if you are worthy of food or not.”

Palestinian diplomat Riyad Mansour had urged the summit attendees to take decisive action to not only save the Palestinian people, but redeem humanity.

“Instead of outrage at the crimes we know are taking place, we find those who defend, normalise, and even celebrate them,” he said.

“The core values we believed humanity agreed were universal are shattered, blown to pieces like the tens of thousands of starved, murdered and injured civilians in Palestine.

“The mind and heart cannot fathom or process the immense pain and horror that has taken hold of the lives of an entire people. We must not fail — not just for Palestine’s sake — but for humanity’s sake.”

At the beginning of the summit, Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir told summit delegates the Palestinian genocide threatened the entire international system.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote in The Guardian last week: “We can either stand firm in defence of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics.”

Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers, as well as Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, met in Brussels at the same time as the Bogota summit, to discuss Middle East co-operation, but also possible options for action against Israel.

At the EU–Southern Neighbourhood Ministerial Meeting, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas put forward potential actions after Israel was found to have breached the EU economic cooperation deal with the bloc on human rights grounds. As expected, no sanctions, restricted trade or suspension of the co-operation deal were agreed.

The EU has been one of Israel’s most strident backers in its campaign against Gaza, with EU members Germany and France in particular supplying weapons, as well as political support.

The UK government has continued to supply arms and operate spy planes over Gaza over the past 21 months, launched from bases in Cyprus, while its military has issued D-Notices to censor media reports that its special forces have been operating inside the occupied territories.

Mick Hall is an independent Irish-New Zealand journalist, formerly of RNZ and AAP, based in New Zealand since 2009. He writes primarily on politics, corporate power and international affairs. This article is republished from his substack Mick Hall in Context with permission.

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

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

Clayton Strong pulled up to a tiny hospital in Idaho, walked through the emergency room doors and told a clerk that his wife’s body was outside in their SUV.

A sheriff’s deputy was at the hospital talking to Strong by the time the coroner arrived. This was an “unattended” death: one where no doctor could attest to a medical reason for the person’s demise. That made it the coroner’s job to determine how and why she died.

Strong, a stocky man with white hair and bushy eyebrows, explained that he and his wife lived in an RV park on the edge of the woods nearby. He said his wife had been bedridden for years with Parkinson’s disease. That morning she’d woken up and asked for peanut butter and water, Strong told the deputy. He found her dead some time later.

The coroner looked over Betty Strong’s body. It was thin and frail. He didn’t see a reason to suspect anything other than a natural death for this 75-year-old woman. The sheriff’s deputy seemed to be satisfied with the explanation too. So, the coroner ruled that Betty Strong died around 8:40 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2016, from complications of Parkinson’s, and he signed off on allowing cremation of her body.

Less than five years later, Clayton Strong’s next wife turned up dead, too: shot in the chest in Texas.

It turns out that both marriages had a history of domestic unrest, with visits from police who documented threats to each woman’s safety.

It’s impossible to know whether a different approach to investigating Betty Strong’s death would have uncovered foul play. What is certain is that clues and evidence in the case were lost forever — and Idaho’s system for death investigation let it happen.

Family members of both women believe a more thorough investigation of the death in Idaho might have saved the life of Clayton Strong’s next wife in Texas.

“Someone shows up with a dead body and just says they died of natural causes,” said Amy Belanger, one of Betty Strong’s children. “I mean, really, do you just take their word for it?”

The answer is no, according to five of six national death investigation experts ProPublica consulted. They said the coroner should have obtained medical records to confirm Betty Strong was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, examined the trailer where her husband said she died, or both.

“You can think of all sorts of scenarios — criminal, accidental or natural — that could have occurred there,” said Jennifer Snippen, a death investigator, educator and consultant in Oregon. “But my argument is, if you don’t go to the scene and you don’t look at the medical records, you just don’t know.”

Most of the county coroners in Idaho are part-time elected officials with tiny budgets and no oversight or state funding to support their work. The national experts said that kind of system is more prone to cursory investigations like the one into Betty Strong’s death.

The failure to reform death investigations in Idaho has raised alarms for more than 70 years, according to current and former Idaho coroners and previous ProPublica reporting.

A national magazine called Idaho “the best place in the nation for a criminal to ‘get away with murder’ in the literal sense” because of the state’s “antiquated county coroner’s system,” the Idaho Statesman newspaper reported in 1951.

Asked whether murderers have escaped prosecution in Idaho’s coroner system, Rich Riffle, coroner for the county that includes Boise, said, “My humble opinion? Yes.”

That almost happened in 2019 when one inexperienced Idaho coroner decided to take the word of Chad Daybell that his wife, Tammy Daybell, had died in her sleep after chronic health problems, vomiting and a cough. Her body was later exhumed after his next wife’s children went missing. An autopsy by the Utah medical examiner’s office found what medical records would have shown, had the Idaho coroner requested them: Tammy Daybell was healthy. A jury convicted Chad Daybell of murdering her by asphyxiation and of killing his next wife’s two youngest children. The case is under appeal.

At trial, coroner Brenda Dye said she had regrets. Her voice shaking, Dye told the court she would have ordered an autopsy if she’d known better, but “at that time, with my limited training and being new, I did the best I could.” She declined ProPublica’s interview request, citing the case’s effect on her mental health.

Idaho isn’t the only place where death investigations fall short. Because there is no uniform federal system, the rigor with which your death is investigated depends on where you die. Other states lack enough forensic pathologists to do autopsies. And many local systems like Idaho County’s are squeezed for money.

But even among its short-staffed, underfunded peers, Idaho stands out. One measure is the state’s autopsy rate: third-lowest for autopsies in all deaths, last in the nation for autopsies in known cases of homicide.

Gov. Brad Little said in January that he would support more state resources to help Idaho’s coroners do their jobs. But he never got the chance; coroner-related bills passed by the Idaho Legislature this year contained no funding or other assistance for coroners and death investigations.

So for now, each of Idaho’s 44 coroners will bear costs that other states help cover: driving a body hundreds of miles to an autopsy; paying for some of those autopsies; or trying to recruit one more person to join Idaho’s statewide forensic pathology workforce of three.

“If you don’t care enough about how death investigations are done in your jurisdiction to invest in the people doing it, to provide them with the resources or to have high enough standards for the people that you hire to do this, you’re going to get what you get, what you accept,” said Snippen. “You’re going to get what you allow to happen.”

Betty Brock was a mother of seven who enjoyed singing and art, long bicycle rides, organizing family photos and researching her ancestry.

She was caring for her terminally ill husband in 2010 when Clayton Strong befriended her on the internet, according to Belanger, her daughter. Strong claimed to be “basically destitute and living in his car,” a backstory that appealed to a woman with a soft spot for taking in “wounded people” and trying to heal them with love, Belanger said.

Strong drove hundreds of miles from Southwest Florida and showed up at the Brocks’ property in the Florida panhandle. They agreed he could sleep in his car there as long as he helped with caregiving and housework. Soon he was sleeping in an outbuilding on the property, then in the house.

Betty’s children were puzzled as this newcomer became a fixture in their mother’s life. They wanted to give Strong a chance, but they soon grew suspicious.

Betty Brock’s husband died in August 2010. By January, she was Betty Strong.

After their courthouse marriage, Clayton Strong used their now-shared funds to buy a Ford truck and an Airstream trailer and took his bride on the road, Belanger said. The couple visited national parks that Betty had always wanted to see. They camped and hiked their way across the continent. They bought mining claims and panned for gold in the remote Idaho wilderness.

After that honeymoon, the walls around Betty Strong grew impenetrable, her children said. According to what two of her children told ProPublica and to statements two others made to police, Clayton became the gatekeeper of all communication with their mother, and he padlocked the doors of their Florida home and held the key.

The last time Betty Strong saw her primary care doctor in Florida was in May 2013, according to records her son obtained after the death. Before that, she hadn’t been in since 2010, the year Clayton Strong entered her life. The notes from the 2013 checkup show health issues common in older adults but no Parkinson’s diagnosis, and neither Parkinson’s nor other neurodegenerative diseases were listed in the family history section.

The children watched from afar as the marriage devolved over the next two years. Between January 2014 and February 2015, police went to the couple’s residence for welfare checks and domestic disturbances at least six times, according to police reports that Belanger provided to ProPublica.

Her children told police that Clayton Strong threatened to shoot them if they set foot on the property, threatened to hurt their mother if they didn’t back off, and prevented her from seeing a doctor.

In the first of those police visits, in January 2014, the records show that Belanger’s sister, who lived nearby, called the sheriff while standing outside the Strong residence, a brown house surrounded by oak trees and pines on a winding country road. A deputy arrived to find Belanger’s sister and Clayton Strong in a stalemate, then talked to everyone outside, according to a sheriff’s office report. The deputy then watched as Betty Strong turned to her husband to “ask him for permission” to hug her daughter, and Clayton Strong “removed a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the porch entrance gate so Betty could go in the yard” for the hug.

The report says the deputy made a referral to Florida Department of Children and Families, the agency that investigates possible abuse of vulnerable adults, and that the department opened a case.

A similar scene played out when one of Betty Strong’s sons went to the house to check on her in February 2015. For two years, Clayton Strong turned the son away when he tried to visit, and this time Strong “threatened to shoot him with a gun if he did not leave,” the son told a sheriff’s deputy. Clayton Strong denied that, the deputy’s report says.

The deputy found Betty Strong alone on a bed in an RV parked behind the home, the report says. She said she had Parkinson’s disease and couldn’t get around well. Clayton wasn’t holding her against her will, she told the deputy, but she couldn’t take care of herself without him.

She had a walkie-talkie. The deputy asked: Is Clayton using that radio and telling you what to say? Betty answered “no” while nodding her head “yes.” It was a chilly afternoon, and the deputy noticed Betty had a blanket but no heater.

“Betty’s demeanor, living conditions, and the controlling behavior by Clayton” warranted a referral to the Florida Department of Children and Families, the deputy wrote.

Asked for the outcome of that referral, a spokesperson told ProPublica the department investigates “all allegations of abuse, neglect, or exploitation” but that records of those investigations are confidential under state law.

Days after the referral in February 2015, police were again dispatched to the Florida home. This time, it wasn’t one of Betty Strong’s children who called; it was someone from adult protective services in need of police backup. According to the dispatch log, the worker said Clayton Strong “has threatened before to pull a gun on her and is very anti-law enforcement.”

The couple left town a month later. Betty Strong’s children never heard from her again.

By the time Betty Strong died in Idaho County in December 2016, she hadn’t been seen in Florida in 21 months.

Idaho County’s elected coroner, Cody Funke, had been in the job about as long.

He knew the county well. Its vast forests, mountains and meadows stretch across more land than Massachusetts. Rugged and remote, it attracts people who want to be left alone and who distrust both government and conventional medicine.

Funke, pronounced “funk,” was in his late 20s in 2014 when he learned his part-time job at a funeral home was being eliminated. His boss asked: Had he considered running for coroner? The coroner at the time was retiring and urged Funke to do it. So did Funke’s boss from his other part-time job, as an EMT. What sealed the deal for Funke: As coroner, he would get health insurance.

Funke started the job with a feeling of “good luck, godspeed, you’re gonna need it.” There was no apprenticeship or ride-along to watch seasoned pros, like he’d gotten when he trained to be an EMT. There was a training conference he attended in Las Vegas before taking office, and Funke received more than double the 24 hours of coroner education required by Idaho law. Even so, he isn’t sure it was enough to prepare him.

Funke learned on his first day that he wasn’t getting a vehicle to move bodies from a death scene. If the local funeral home’s vehicle was occupied, Funke had to use his family truck. A year after Betty Strong’s death, the county commission got the coroner a vehicle: a pickup truck the sheriff’s office didn’t need anymore.

The office he inherited also had no camera, and the county hadn’t budgeted to give him one. He’d have to use his phone to take pictures of bodies and death scenes.

There was no morgue.

The Idaho County coroner’s office didn’t even have an actual office.

Funke’s predecessors kept their files on paper, at home, he learned. The previous coroner’s house had flooded, so when Funke took over, all that remained fit in two manila folders.

The coroner’s entire budget this year is $85,651. By comparison, coroner’s offices serving small populations had an average budget of $280,000 in 2018, according to a national study.

Paid $13,000 a year, Funke is on call 24 hours a day and, last year, investigated and ruled on 71 deaths, about one every five days. Papers on an additional 102 deaths of people under a doctor’s care came through needing his signature for cremation.

Funke does the coroner work on top of a full-time job. When a call comes in during business hours, he dips out to go to a death scene. If someone dies at dinnertime, he might not see his family until morning.

He must decide with each death what the circumstances require: a simple phone call; an all-out investigation with autopsy, witness interviews, tissue samples and more; or something in the middle.

To examine a death scene, Funke might have to drive three hours or longer each way. Whenever he orders an autopsy, Funke or his deputies have to take the body to the nearest autopsy center, a trip that takes a full day and usually demands an overnight stay. His current budget can cover 10 autopsies a year.

In those first years as coroner, Funke often leaned on police.

Funke found it strange that Clayton Strong had loaded his wife’s body into their SUV and driven to the hospital. Most people call 911 to report a death and wait for help to arrive, Funke said. But Strong offered an explanation that seemed to satisfy the sheriff’s deputy: He didn’t know many people in town and wasn’t sure what to do.

Strong had said his wife hadn’t seen a doctor because she stuck to homeopathic remedies. That’s not unusual for Funke to hear.

The widower gave Funke the impression a coroner and sheriff’s deputy wouldn’t be welcome inside the trailer where she died. That’s not so outside the norm for Idaho County either, Funke said.

Betty Strong’s death looked like an easy call. So Funke helped move her body to a cot to be taken from the hospital to a local funeral home.

According to a later report from the sheriff’s office, Clayton Strong showed up at the funeral home that day, said he wanted her cremated and paid $2,310 in cash. The way Funke heard it from a funeral home employee a few days later, Strong paid in $100 bills out of a lunch box.

The detail struck Funke as peculiar. But he let it go.

The couple’s Airstream trailer showed up one day in January 2017, parked outside their house in Florida. A neighbor called Amy Belanger with the news, and she dispatched her brother, Daniel, who lived nearby. They’d spent almost two years fearing the worst.

The only person at the house was Clayton Strong.

The family’s matriarch had died a few weeks ago in Harpster, Idaho, Strong said. Then he told his son-in-law to get off the property.

Amy Belanger started making calls the next day. One of the first people she reached was Funke, the county coroner. She was perplexed, she said. Why hadn’t anyone called her or her siblings? Why didn’t he question whether Betty Strong had actually succumbed to a disease or if something else had killed her? Belanger told Funke about the history of police calls in Florida and concerns about their mother’s safety.

Funke thought back to what he’d heard from the funeral home. A lunch box of cash for a cremation? That image never sat quite right. Now he had solid ground for suspicion. Funke told Belanger he’d talk to the county prosecutor and see what could be done.

The prosecutor and the sheriff’s office initially told Belanger they had opened a homicide investigation, according to a detailed timeline she created at the time. But the death scene — the Strongs’ trailer — was long gone, the body cremated. The sheriff’s investigator and prosecutor ultimately didn’t seem to think there was enough evidence for a homicide investigation, Funke told ProPublica.

(The prosecutor and sheriff’s investigator did not return phone calls, emails or certified letters from ProPublica requesting comment on their decisions following Betty Strong’s death.)

Notes from Belanger’s timeline quote a Florida detective saying he was sorry the death had occurred outside his jurisdiction. He explained to her that “in Florida, deputies would have had the medical examiner’s office verify medical records and take a blood sample.”

The year Betty Strong died, 20% of natural deaths investigated by a medical examiner in the part of Florida where she had lived underwent autopsies before the examiner decided the cause of death was natural. About 65% of all deaths taken in by Florida’s medical examiner that year were autopsied. Both numbers dwarf Idaho’s coroner autopsy rates.

It’s not just Florida. Many states have more sophisticated systems for investigating deaths than Idaho’s. In much of the country, centralized state medical examiner offices oversee all death investigations or provide a backstop to elected coroners in each county.

Idaho’s rural neighbor Montana has a hybrid system of medical examiners and coroners, supported by a coroner liaison who works with death investigators to make the process more consistent statewide. And next door in Wyoming, a state board sets rules for coroners to follow. The rules spell out what each death investigation should include: scene investigation, toxicology sample, DNA sample, photographs, external examination of the body and an inventory of property, evidence and medications.

Jennifer Snippen, the death investigator in Oregon, was one of the experts who drafted the National Institute of Justice’s 2024 death-scene investigation guidebook.

She said death investigations are more likely to be thorough when states and counties give their investigators enough funding and education, “so that they have the motivation and the ability to get to as many scenes, and get as much information about every single death, as possible.”

Those who study the work of coroners and medical examiners in the U.S. have learned that the deaths of elderly people are especially likely to be written off as age-related, without considering whether the person may have also been a victim of abuse or neglect.

Snippen’s research in 2023 is one of the most recent studies to confirm that. She reviewed data from thousands of cases. The person least likely to get a scene investigation or autopsy? An elderly woman who dies at home.

Lauri McGivern, a nationally recognized expert in death investigations, said national standards would have Funke verify Betty Strong’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and ask more questions of Clayton Strong as the sole caregiver of a vulnerable adult. McGivern, who coordinates medicolegal death investigations in Vermont, reviewed the facts that Funke was given at the time of Betty Strong’s death and his subsequent report at ProPublica’s request.

To follow national standards, McGivern said, Funke also would have gone to the Airstream trailer or asked law enforcement to examine the death scene and report back to him.

But McGivern and other experts said they understand why Funke didn’t follow those national guidelines — because they’ve seen it happen so many times in places like rural Idaho.

“He’s doing what he was shown how to do,” McGivern said. “And probably doing the best he can, with no budget and no support and no education.”

Frustrated by how little Idaho officials knew and why they hadn’t dug further into her mother’s death, Amy Belanger channeled her grief into trying to find answers on her own.

She followed a trail of public records left by Clayton Strong. Had he harmed other women? Had he been in a relationship with anybody who went missing? “I was looking into his past to see if there was a pattern like that,” Belanger said. Something she could share with officials in Idaho.

Then she stumbled across a document: a recent marriage license.

Three months after depositing Betty Strong’s body at a hospital in Idaho, Clayton Strong wed a woman from Texas.

Belanger needed to warn her.

Shirley Weatherley had a lot in common with Betty Strong. She was a mother and grandmother. She’d been married before. She lived in a small, modest home on a large piece of land in a rural locale, where she’d been caring for a terminally ill former spouse when Strong contacted her on Facebook.

They’d known each other as teenagers in Lubbock. Their reconnection after he arrived at her house in Weatherford, a suburb of Fort Worth, eventually began to worry her children.

“He isolated her,” said Jamie Barrington, Weatherley’s son with a previous husband. “He wouldn’t let grandkids, my brother — anybody’d come over, he just kept them at arm’s length.”

Barrington said he and other members of Weatherley’s family had suspicions about Strong. Then they connected with Belanger and heard what happened in Florida and Idaho.

Belanger urged the family to tell their mother everything they’d heard. She “actually was pleading with us to watch out,” Barrington recalled.

Knowing another family was worried helped fuel Amy Belanger’s quest for the truth about her mother’s death. Her siblings chipped in to help Belanger rent a van and drive across the country in search of clues — anything that could shed light on her mother’s death.

Once she got to Idaho, Belanger spent more than a week investigating. She met with the coroner and sheriff. She went to the mining claims the Strongs had purchased. She stayed at the RV park where Betty Strong died and interviewed the people who’d owned it in 2016; they remembered talking to each other about how “hinky” the death and Clayton Strong’s reaction to it seemed.

Back in Texas, Weatherley’s family tried to warn her.

When they relayed the story about Betty Strong to her, Weatherley chalked it up to a grieving family trying to cope with loss by grasping for an explanation, Barrington said. After all, Strong had a death certificate that listed natural causes.

The details Barrington later learned from family members and police about his mother’s life with Strong were “pretty horrific,” he said. Weatherley had reported that Strong threatened to kill her, but no charges were filed. Then at one point, in the midst of an argument with Strong, Weatherley lobbed the accusations about Betty Strong’s death at him, Barrington said. Strong flew into a rage.

Weatherley called police in July 2021. She and Strong were splitting up, and he shoved her while moving his stuff out of the house, Weatherley told the officer. Strong had “hurt her” in the past, so she called police to make sure it didn’t happen again, the officer’s report says. The officer got Strong’s side of the story — she was “running him off,” but he didn’t push her — and stuck around until Strong agreed to leave.

Police would later document finding two items in the house. The first was a copy of Weatherley’s will that left everything to Strong, on which she’d written “VOID,” the second was a digital camera hidden in their bedroom. The camera contained selfies of injuries to her face and chest and a video of Strong putting his arm around her neck as she screamed for help.

Strong persuaded Weatherley to let him back into their home once more on Aug. 4, 2021, according to police records.

Four days later, Weatherley’s son and grandson found her body wrapped in a gray tarp near the front steps to her home. She’d been shot in the chest. Authorities matched shell casings at the scene to an AK-47-style rifle, which security footage showed Strong ditching in a shopping cart outside a Walmart.

Picked up later by police in Mexico, Strong died of cardiac arrest while awaiting extradition in Weatherley’s killing.

Jamie Barrington, Shirley Weatherley’s son, was reluctant at first to speak publicly about his mother’s death in Texas, even years later. He agreed to talk with ProPublica, he said, because he wants Idaho’s coroner system to improve. He said he never imagined that a death like Betty Strong’s could be ruled “natural” based on what a spouse told authorities.

“I truly believe that if there had been a proper investigation and not taking his word for it,” Barrington said, “that it probably would have made a big difference” in what happened to Shirley Weatherley.

Word of Weatherley’s murder eventually reached Funke, the coroner in Idaho. He said in hindsight, Strong’s actions in Idaho County seem more suspicious than they did at the time to his inexperienced eyes and ears.

Now, after 10 years as coroner, “I would have pushed a little bit harder” to have an officer or deputy follow up or go to the RV park with him. He would have asked police to use a national database — one he didn’t know about at the time — to find Betty Strong’s family members and learn more about her background. “I have trust issues after cases like this,” he said.

Funke said the story of Betty Strong’s death needs to be told, even if it shows that he and Idaho County made mistakes, because it can help lawmakers understand what is wrong with the state’s system.

Idaho’s coroners need more funding, he said, because right now they’re an afterthought in county budgets. Most counties set a coroner salary at what amounts to less than minimum wage, so it’s impossible for someone like Funke to be coroner without a second, full-time job.

“These offices should be fully staffed,” he said. “Maybe we have one or two people that are here full time to answer questions and respond to these calls, versus, ‘Hey, I’ve got to take time off work, boss.’”

And he believes new coroners who lack experience should be required to learn how to work a case from start to finish before they’re called out to a death like Betty Strong’s.

Daniel Belanger, one of Betty Strong’s children, came away from his interactions with Idaho County officials convinced that the only way deaths like his mother’s will be properly investigated is through legislation forcing coroners and law enforcement agencies to change their approaches.

“They completely dropped the ball,” he told ProPublica.

Amy Belanger said her family has reclaimed very few of her mother’s possessions from the Airstream trailer. Strong emptied the Florida house of family heirlooms after their mother’s death, Belanger said. Most of the family photo albums her mother toiled over are gone.

The brown house on the winding road in Florida is still there. Belanger’s memories of family cookouts and holiday gatherings linger in the house; they weren’t wiped away by the police visits and padlocked doors. But the family home isn’t the family’s anymore. Years later, it is stuck in legal limbo — the deed still in the name of Clayton Strong and Shirley Weatherley, the woman he married after the death of Betty Strong.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Audrey Dutton.

According to a report by the Indian Express, victims Bulu Nayak (52) and Babul Nayak (43), residents of Singipur village in Sanakhemundi Tehsil in Ganjam District, had bought a cow and two calves from Haripur to be given as dowry in a family wedding. While they were taking the cattle to their village in a tempo rickshaw, a group of locals stopped them.

The group accused them of illegally transporting the cows, and snatched their mobile phones and money. They allegedly demanded Rs 30,000 to release the animals. When the duo refused, the group tied their hands and legs and brutally assaulted them. Next, they were taken to a local salon where parts of their heads were shaved. They were then made to walk on their knees for about two kilometres to Jahada village where they were allegedly forced to eat grass and drink water from a drain.

The incident took place in broad daylight on June 22, 2025 at Kharigumma village under Dharakot block in Ganjam district. Both the victims somehow managed to escape from the spot and were provided first aid at a local hospital, after which they lodged a complaint with the Dharakote Police.

After photos and videos of the incident went viral on social media, several social media users, including social activists and politicians, started sharing the visuals and demanding the arrest of the accused and that appropriate action be taken against them.

On June 23, the official X handle of the Ganjam SP reported that eight accused had been arrested and one minor boy apprehended after a case had been registered under the relevant sections of the BNS and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

A case has been registered under relevant sections of BNS and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

During investigation, 8 accused persons have been arrested and one CICL apprehended. All were forwarded to the Hon’ble court. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/LxUFlKkrSX

— SP Ganjam (@sp_ganjam) June 24, 2025

On June 26, the police reported that the main accused in the incident had been arrested A local news portal carried the names of the accused arrested in the case in a report dated June 25. They were identified as Sibashankar Mohanty, Satya Sahu, Bainath Bisoi, Om Gowda, Ganapati Palei, Santosh Dakua, Shankar Das, and Narayan Dakua and a minor.

Another report published on July 3 stated that a total of 16 people had been arrested in the case so far.

Alarming Increase in Cow-Vigilantism Violence

It is pertinent to note that cases of violence related to cow-vigilantism have skyrocketed in the recent past. From 2016 to 2020, lynching or mob violence following suspected cow slaughter or trade has claimed at least 50 lives, according to a report by ACLED, an independent non-profit organisation that tracks and analyses data on violent conflict and protest across all countries and regions.

ACLED recorded a sharp increase in the number of incidents of political violence related to the protection of cows in India in 2018. Compared to 2016, incidents of political violence related to cow protection increased by more than 40% in 2017 and almost doubled in 2018, with this increase in violence coinciding with the establishment of BJP-led governments in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Jharkhand.

The report further revealed that more than 80% of reported incidents of cow protection-related violence were carried out against civilians. The victims of these attacks were usually those involved in the cattle trade and individuals belonging to minority groups, including Muslims, Dalits or Adivasi communities.

The post Dozens arrested in Odisha after 2 Dalit men tortured on false charges of cow smuggling appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week.

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said this week that the city has hired a full roster of prosecutors and is no longer dropping criminal charges due to short staffing. The announcement comes nine months after the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica reported the mass dismissals.

“Public safety begins with accountability — and we cannot hold people accountable if we don’t have prosecutors in court,” LaFrance said in a news release, announcing that Alaska’s largest city has filled all “frontline” prosecutor jobs for the first time since 2020. “This was about more than filling positions. It was about rebuilding the systems that keep Anchorage safe.”

An investigation by the newsrooms, published in October, found that city prosecutors dropped hundreds of misdemeanor cases because there weren’t enough attorneys on the payroll. Between May 1 and Oct. 2 of last year, the city dropped more than 250 domestic violence assault cases and more than 270 drunken driving cases due to an inability to meet the 120-day deadline Alaska sets for upholding a defendant’s right to a speedy trial.

Days after the investigation came out, the state of Alaska announced it would help prosecute city cases to avoid speedy-trial dismissals.

But those state prosecutors are no longer needed. According to the city, the municipal prosecutor’s office now has a full staff of 12 “frontline” prosecutors who take cases to trial, plus a supervisor and an attorney who files motions and appeals. The only vacancy, they said, is a supervisory role: deputy municipal prosecutor.

That amounts to a vacancy rate of about 7% in the prosecutor’s office. In contrast, more than 40% of city prosecutor positions were vacant as of mid-2024, according to a city spokesperson.

At a Wednesday “trial call” hearing at downtown Anchorage’s Boney Courthouse, Assistant Municipal Prosecutor Andy Garbe announced the city was ready to go to trial in case after case, including a drunken driving arrest, weapons charges and domestic violence assaults. It was a far different scene from September, when prosecutors were routinely forced to drop charges in cases nearing the speedy-trial deadline.

“We’re not in the position we were last fall,” Garbe said, referring to the forced dismissals. “That’s not happening anymore.”

City prosecutors said they are still dismissing cases for reasons other than speedy-trial deadlines. For example, on Wednesday, Garbe moved to dismiss two cases, including a domestic violence assault, citing factors such as the weakness of the case and unavailable witnesses. A defense attorney had warned the cases were nearing the 120-day speedy-trial deadline, but Garbe said the timing was not the reason for the dismissals.

In Anchorage, city prosecutors handle misdemeanor cases while state attorneys generally prosecute felonies.

With the most serious felonies, the state has long dealt with problems apart from Anchorage’s mass dismissals. The newsrooms reported in January that some of those cases are delayed as long as a decade before reaching trial. In March, the Alaska Supreme Court issued a series of orders aimed at reducing delays.

District Court Judge Brian Clark cited the Supreme Court orders on Wednesday when asking attorneys if they were ready to go to trial, noting the pending deadline.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

“This incident once again underscores the serious lack of transparency and accountability in how the Indian government issues and enforces orders for the removal of social media content and the blocking of accounts,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “Any action affecting journalists or news organizations must be based on clear legal grounds, be subject to independent judicial oversight, and not infringe on press freedom. India still lacks a credible mechanism to review or challenge these opaque and arbitrary orders.”

On July 5, two of Reuters’ handles, @Reuters and @ReutersWorld, were blocked, with X saying the accounts were obstructed “due to legal demands.” Several reports also suggest that accounts of Turkish broadcaster TRT World and the Chinese state media outlet Global Times were censored. The accounts were restored the next day. A government official speaking on condition of anonymity told CPJ that the authorities had not issued any orders to block the accounts and that they were engaging with X to get them restored. 

However, in a July 8 post, X countered the Indian claim and said that on July 3, the Indian authorities had ordered the platform to block 2,355 accounts. X also expressed concerns about “ongoing press censorship in India due to these blocking orders.” X has already sued the Indian government over a new official portal that it says grants “countless” government officials expanded powers to issue takedown orders.

The Indian government denied issuing any recent blocking order against Reuters and others and said the accounts were unintentionally restricted due to a previously issued directive that was part of broader digital enforcement measuresimplemented in the wake of heightened national security concerns. 

Authorities said they’d asked X to restore access immediately and blamed a 21-hour delay on the platform for the continued impediment.

In May 2025, X expressed concern about the Indian government’s demand to block over 8,000 accounts, and asked for such executive orders to made public.

X and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not reply to CPJ’s emails seeking comment. 

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

Disasters can feel overwhelming if you’re an immigrant, whether it’s because of your citizenship status, language barriers, or confusion around your rights. It’s important to remember that trusted community networks exist, along with other helpful resources. This guide offers up-to-date information on some of those resources, as well as examples of community organizing and policy work that have made it easier for immigrants to find help. It also includes best practices for navigating disaster relief and recovery at a time when there is a heightened risk of deportation for certain immigrants. This information is fact-checked and will be updated periodically as laws, practices, and resources change.

Jump to:

↓ Finding reliable information
↓ Government services in your language
↓ How federal disaster aid works
↓ What to do if you encounter ICE
↓ Best practices for staying safe
↓ How to advocate for better resources

Finding reliable information

Vetted federal, state, and community resources can help you find accurate, trustworthy information in the event of a disaster.

Dial 211

When you dial 211, you will be referred to the Federal Communications Commission’s free community services directory. This can be a key step in accessing public services. It works similar to 911, where an operator will answer the call and assist you in finding what you need, including services for non-English speakers.

Independent news outlets

News publications that serve non-English speaking individuals often provide emergency resource guides that don’t exist in traditional media. Look for an outlet published in your language in your area. Here are some examples:

• El Tímpano in California offers an emergency resource guide in Spanish.
• To prepare for this year’s hurricane season, Enlace Latino NC published an article in Spanish on how to obtain free National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, radios through the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Radio is a primary means of communicating emergency alerts and weather information in the U.S. and can be especially useful during power outages.
• Grist published a guide in Spanish and Haitian Creole for Florida farmworkers during the 2024 hurricane season.

Immigrant rights organizations

Across the country, immigrant rights organizations offer an array of services and tips that can be helpful in disaster situations. These are trusted groups who offer support and advocate for change year-round, not just during disasters. Searching online for local organizations that focus specifically on immigrant and labor issues — by typing in the name of your state and the phrases “immigrant rights” or “worker rights” — is a great way to begin looking for support. The tools highlighted below can also inspire other search terms for your own state, like “disaster preparedness toolkit in Spanish,” for example.

• In North Carolina, the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry released a video series in Spanish to help immigrant communities and their families prepare for disasters and recuperate in the aftermath. This video explaining how emergency alerts work is applicable to any U.S. state.
• In Oregon, the farmworker union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, made a disaster preparedness toolkit in Spanish available for free on Google Drive.
• You can get involved in spreading the word throughout your own community with the help of available, trusted resources. PCUN also offers free social media graphics about the dangers of heat stress and what to do to stay safe at home and on the job.

Many of these organizations also offer legal refreshers for immigrants to understand their rights, which can be impacted by the presence of federal agents at disaster sites. You can read more about that below, under “What to do if you encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE” and “Best practices for staying safe.”

Government services in your language

Federal civil rights law requires any entity receiving federal funding — including virtually all state and local agencies — to provide language access to individuals with limited proficiency in English. And in recent years, an increasing number of local and state government agencies have amped up their language access policies as a result of organizing among community members and immigrant organizations.

In 2023, wildfires spread through the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawai‘i. In the immediate aftermath, the 30 percent of Lahaina residents with limited proficiency in English had trouble accessing emergency information. Liza Ryan-Gill, the executive director of the Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, spent two days organizing calls with at least 80 community advocates to figure out how to get information to immigrant communities who needed it — in languages they could understand. In 2024, after advocates organized for federal funds to be allocated to local emergency management for language access, Hawai‘i passed HB 2107 and hired a limited English proficiency access coordinator for the state’s emergency management department. Now all emergency resources in the state are translated into at least seven languages.

Other states have taken similar steps: In Michigan, a 2023 law requires translation and interpretation services for languages spoken by individuals with limited English proficiency who comprise at least 3 percent of the population, or 500 individuals, in the region served by a given state agency. New York updated its language access policy in 2022 to cover the 12 most common non-English languages spoken by state residents with limited English proficiency.

While most cities and states do not require agencies to proactively translate documents and resources into specific languages, it is worth checking with your local government and emergency management agencies. If they don’t already provide information in the language you speak, you can request it.

Emergency management agencies: Your city or county has an emergency management department, which is part of the local government. Emergency managers are responsible for communicating with the public about disasters, managing rescue and response efforts, and coordinating with other agencies. They usually have an SMS-based emergency alert system, so sign up for those texts now. Some cities have multiple languages available, but most emergency alerts are only in English. Many emergency management agencies are active on Facebook, so check there for updates as well.

If you’re having trouble finding your local department, Grist suggests typing your city or county name followed by “emergency management” into Google. You can also search for your state or territory’s emergency management department, which serves a similar function for a larger jurisdiction. Every website looks different, but many of them include translation options at the top or bottom of every page. You can also use Google Translate, or another browser-based automatic language detection program, to automatically translate any webpage.

National Weather Service: This agency, often called NWS, offers information and updates on everything from wildfires to hurricanes to air quality. You can enter your zip code on weather.gov and customize your homepage to get the most updated weather information and receive alerts for a variety of weather conditions. The NWS also sends out localized emergency weather alerts to people’s cell phones via wireless networks, to television and radio stations, and to NOAA Weather Radio, which can receive NWS broadcasts. (Make sure you’ve opted into receiving emergency alerts in your phone settings.) Some local NWS offices automatically translate local alerts into multiple languages — including Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Samoan, and Spanish — in real time.

Read more: How to prepare for a disaster

How federal disaster aid works

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is the federal government’s main disaster response agency. It is housed under the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. Often, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, which is also under DHS, is enlisted to help after a disaster. In 2021, the Biden administration issued guidance designating places where disaster or emergency response and relief are provided as “protected areas” where immigration agents should not engage in enforcement actions. However, in January, the Trump administration rescinded that policy.

Still, experts and immigrant advocates on a national level emphasize that FEMA offers non-financial aid to anyone regardless of immigration status. This includes shelter, emergency supplies, counseling, and other resources. In order to apply for financial aid, someone in your family must be a U.S. citizen; this could be a child. A household should only apply for financial aid once per disaster, according to FEMA guidance. If more than one family member submits an application, it will cause delays in the process.

“The reassurance right now is that nothing has changed in the field,” said Ahmed Gaya, director of the Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of 82 state and local immigrant and refugee organizations.

He added that “our communities’ trust in the federal government and trust in FEMA and DHS is at a historic low,” but that the law has not changed and that undocumented folks are still eligible for immediate emergency relief. “There’s a real, credible fear that there is a shift in leadership at DHS, in administration and in the rhetoric. But legal rights remain the same currently.”

As of June 2025, Gaya said, “We have not had reports from the field of FEMA’s practices and policies deviating dramatically from how they have typically gone in regards to dealing with mixed status and undocumented communities.”

Read more: How the agencies and officials involved in emergency response work

What to do if you encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE

“You probably wouldn’t see ICE officers at disaster shelters requesting documents, but we can’t predict how ICE will behave,” says Rich Stolz, a colleague of Gaya who is also a Senior Fellow with Just Solutions, focusing on the intersection of climate justice and immigrant rights strategy and organizing. “The challenge for advocates and emergency groups is making sure that people can make informed decisions. The concern is that people will be under even more stress in a disaster context, and they may forget their rights.”

It can be helpful to have a red card, or tarjeta roja, with you to show to ICE agents in the event of questioning. These cards outline your rights — like the right to remain silent and to talk to a lawyer — and anyone can order them online. They are available through the National Immigration Law Center in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

There are several “know your rights” guides for immigrants that apply in all situations, not just disasters:

• The National Immigration Law Center provides a Know Your Rights guide recommended by legal experts. It is available in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.
• The National Immigrant Justice Center offers a guide available in Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, and English that includes laws to know, sample warrants, and helplines. 
• The National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the National TPS Alliance (an organization for people with temporary protected status) put together an illustrated guide to your rights in English and Spanish. On page 2, you can find step-by-step instructions on what to do if ICE stops you on the street or in a public space. 

Best practices for staying safe

Accessing emergency shelter and supplies

You shouldn’t need identification to receive emergency supplies or stay at most emergency shelters, but you may be asked to provide some. Identification may include a photo or non-photo ID; it does not necessarily mean you need to supply a driver’s license, passport, or social security number. Some organizations offer community IDs for those who do not qualify for a state-issued ID. These may not be accepted depending on the county or location.

The Red Cross, which operates shelters after major disasters, says it does not ask for any documentation of legal status when providing aid.

Read more: How to access food before, during, and after a disaster

Going to a shelter or government-run site can be intimidating. Here are some other tips gathered from immigrant rights organizations:

• Use the buddy system: There is safety in numbers. Go with multiple people to feel more confident in getting the help you need. 
• Find an English speaker: Someone who speaks English may be able to help you get services if you are worried about language barriers.
• Request language interpretation: When talking to police, firefighters, or hospital workers, you have a legal right to an interpreter. Other agencies and institutions may have access to interpreters and translators as well.
• Contact an advocacy organization: Farmworker and immigrant advocacy organizations may be able to help you get the supplies and food you need at a safe space.
• Talk to your faith community: Speak with your local pastor, members of your place of worship, or someone else you trust about your options.

Support for disaster workers

If you are an immigrant disaster worker, day laborer, or second responder, you have rights and are legally protected by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. Day labor worker centers and labor unions are excellent resources if you have any questions regarding safety on the job. The Resilience Force put together easy-to-read illustrated guides in Spanish and English for workers specifically working in disaster recovery.

How to advocate for better resources

Each disaster has ripple effects. That’s why organizations that were not built to deal with disaster relief or response are often taking on that responsibility. “All of us need to figure that out,” said Marisol Jimenez, founder of Tepeyac Consulting, a business based in Asheville, North Carolina, for community organizers around the country. “We’re not disaster organizations, but how do we integrate this into all of our work?”

Here are some of the resources being created to help communities organize for change:

• Stolz, Gaya, and their Just Solutions colleagues representing Organizing Resilience, National Partnership for New Americans, National Immigration Law Center, and other groups plan to release a resource guide on disaster response as it relates to the Trump administration’s policies for ICE. A similar rapid response kit was published in 2022.
• Researcher Melissa Villarreal at the Natural Hazards Center in Colorado put together an annotated bibliography of academic articles, government reports, and news reports related to emergencies and language access. You can use these examples when advocating for policy change where you live.

Disasters cause communities to spring into action out of necessity, which can result in positive pressure on local governments. The more you can stay connected to your community and trusted local organizations, the more you can create change and better policies that keep immigrants safe and supported.

“So much depends on grassroots organizations actually having a presence and a plan and a strategy,” said Stolz. “A community’s ability to survive and thrive and recover is largely dependent on the existing community cohesion and relationships that exist.”

Download a PDF of this article | Return to Disaster 101

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Know your rights as an immigrant before, during, and after disasters on Jul 7, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Victoria Bouloubasis.

Losing your home and everything in it, then having to invest time and money to repair and replace everything, is extremely difficult; navigating insurance companies, government agencies, and legal issues is exhausting and nerve-racking. To help you through it, Grist put together a guide to the process for renters and homeowners.

Jump to:

↓ Protecting your belongings and documents
↓ Are you a renter? Know your rights
↓ How to navigate government aid, donations, and insurance
↓ How to avoid fraud and scams
↓ Building a new home or repairing your home

Protecting your belongings and documents

If you live in a region that’s particularly prone to disasters — hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, for example, or fires in the West — you should prepare well in advance. One of the most important things to do is create digital copies of essential documents, and keep physical copies in a weatherproof bag or container.

For homeowners, that means your homeowners insurance policy, the deed to your house, and loan paperwork. Renters, keep copies of your lease agreement and renters insurance policy if you have one. These documents will help establish your ownership or residency at the time of a disaster. (If you don’t have a written lease, a verbal contract may hold up, but try to find documentation supporting the agreement — a text, email, etc.)

Keeping copies of other helpful files, such as a recent tax return and bank statements, as well as government-issued IDs, Social Security cards, immigration records, and anything else that provides your address is a good idea. Pay stubs can help prove your income if you apply for FEMA aid.

Read more: How to pack an emergency kit and plan your evacuation route

Lastly, consider keeping photos of your home and big ticket items, such as appliances, TVs, stereos, or laptops — and write down serial numbers — so that you can prove what they looked like before the disaster. Government agencies or insurance companies will likely ask for proof that specific damage, like a collapsed roof, isn’t the result of deferred maintenance or a previous disaster.

All of this administrative setup can save a lot of hassle in a crisis. When Hurricane Harvey caused $125 billion in damages in Southeast Texas in 2017, more than a quarter of all FEMA applicants were denied aid; common reasons included that people couldn’t prove homeownership or failed to provide valid identification. In 2020, survivors of the Almeda wildfires in Oregon faced similar hurdles: FEMA denied 57 percent of all applications. Mobile or manufactured homeowners in particular had a hard time proving ownership and residency.

If you live in a mobile or manufactured home, be sure that you have a safe place to go in case of severe weather — especially tornadoes. Here are some helpful tips from the National Weather Service to stay safe. To prepare for hurricanes or other high-wind storms, consider reinforcing your roof, anchoring your foundation, and reinforcing doors.

Are you a renter? Know your rights

Nearly 35 percent of households in the U.S. rent their home, and they are especially vulnerable to the impacts of disasters. They have more limited access to recovery funding from federal aid or insurance, and almost no control over the process of rebuilding their damaged home, since they don’t own the property. Renters insurance primarily covers the cost of personal belongings that are damaged during a disaster; some policies may include reimbursements for hotels or temporary living situations.

Finding new housing after a disaster can be difficult because rents often skyrocket after a disaster, and there are fewer undamaged properties available on the market. While homeowners can request a mortgage payment deferral, landlords often won’t make the same concession. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that rents typically rise between 4 to 6 percent annually for about three years after a major disaster.

In Los Angeles, some units that escaped the Palisades Fire were relisted for three times as much despite a California law capping such increases to 10 percent after a disaster declaration. The organization also found that renters were more likely to be displaced than homeowners, and for longer stretches of time. Evictions also rise in the two years following a disaster.

Renters’ rights and protections vary by state. Some allow tenants to withhold payment until repairs are made; others say nonpayment for that reason could be grounds for eviction. Either way, you may be entitled to certain protections, such as reimbursement for simple repairs you make yourself, through your lease. 

Here are some tips:

• Get it all down in writing. The Legal Aid Disaster Resource Center recommends documenting any conversations you have with your landlord about damages and repairs. This will provide proof of any agreements regarding specific damages, costs, and other details. This can help if you must go to court to break a lease due to unsafe conditions.
• Understand the legal process. Your landlord cannot evict you without filing a legal complaint, and in some states they must provide written warning before taking that step. If you have not terminated or violated your lease, your landlord cannot legally change the locks, shut off the utilities, or remove your property without going through the legal process of eviction — even if you were evacuated or forced from your home. This is important to know because landlords sometimes evict tenants after a disaster to renovate buildings and increase rents. If your landlord attempts to wrongfully evict you, consult a lawyer or a pro bono legal aid organization. 
• Disaster Legal Services, funded by FEMA, works with state bar associations and pro bono lawyers to set up hotlines for legal services following a federally declared disaster. (Call 1-800-621-3362.) However, as of March 2025, parts of that program are suspended after the Trump administration froze some FEMA funding. You can also find free or affordable legal services through other avenues, like typing “legal aid society” and your location into a search engine, or checking with trusted people and organizations in your community. 
• Know how federal aid works. Tenants who are displaced or evicted after a disaster are eligible for help from FEMA. You might receive direct assistance to pay rent, or reimbursement for staying at a hotel. The agency may also provide temporary housing until your home is habitable again. After a series of disasters hit Lake Charles, Louisiana, between 2020 and 2021, some residents lived in FEMA trailers for over a year as they searched for an affordable place to live. 

Read more: How FEMA aid works

Some other resources for renters’ rights:

• The National Low Income Housing Coalition has a host of resources, including how disasters impact federally assisted housing, specific housing needs by state, and a guide on eviction processes.
• Your local health department, city or county government, or legal aid organization will likely have a webpage dedicated to renters’ rights. For example, the Tennessee health department describes renters’ rights, and this outlines landlord and tenant protections for rural east Tennessee specifically.
• The Stanford Legal Design Lab and Charitable Trusts has a database where you can find local legal rules about housing, eviction, rent, and landlord-tenant issues, and groups and guides that can help you with housing assistance. 

Read more: This long-term recovery guide outlines resources you can use in the weeks and months after a disaster

How to navigate government aid, donations, and insurance

Homeowners facing costly repairs after a natural disaster have options for aid. Insurance policies may cover some or all of the damages. Federal agencies like HUD, FEMA, and the Small Business Administration will provide funding as well. Some people turn to their own savings, mutual aid groups that raise money and distribute it directly, or crowdfunding platforms to help cover costs.

Insurance: Homeowners should first file a claim with their insurance company. Based on what your policy covers and your insurer pays, you can then apply for other types of federal aid. It’s important to keep good records and itemize your costs and reimbursements. You can receive payouts from a combination of private and public aid, but be careful of double-dipping: If you will receive funds from one source for specific damage, government aid can’t be used to cover the same costs.

The legal term for this is “duplication of benefits.” Let’s say your insurance paid to replace your roof, but not the cost of removing mold in your walls. You cannot legally receive additional money for the damage to your roof, but you can apply for help covering the cost of mold removal or other damage not covered by your insurance policy.

Federal/state aid: To receive assistance from federal or state agencies, you must submit an application to the agency. This can usually be done online, and you may be able to apply in person or over the phone. There is a specific process cities, states, and tribal governments must navigate in order for residents to receive FEMA aid. If you are a U.S. citizen, or meet certain qualifications as a non-citizen, and live in a disaster declaration area that was approved by FEMA and the president, you are eligible to apply for aid immediately after they announce it. You can apply on disasterassistance.gov, through the FEMA app, or at a FEMA recovery center. FEMA offers survivors eligible for individual assistance:

• A one-time grant of $750 for emergency needs and essential items like food, baby items, and medication 
• Temporary housing assistance equivalent to 14 nights in a hotel in your area 
• Up to 18 months of rental assistance
• Payments for lost property that isn’t covered by your homeowners or renters insurance
• Other forms of assistance, depending on your needs and losses

You can track the status of your aid application via the app or disasterassistance.gov and receive notifications if FEMA needs more information from you. 

You will need to provide proof of your identity and residency and document the damages that your home sustained. A FEMA inspector will meet you at your home to determine the damages. If your application is approved, you will receive funds or a loan approval with details on which repairs are covered. 

You may also qualify for rental assistance from FEMA. You must apply for individual disaster assistance to be considered for rental assistance. These funds can be used for rent, including a security deposit, and utilities such as electricity and water, at a house, apartment, hotel, or recreational vehicle that is not your damaged home. Residents in counties with a federal disaster declaration are eligible to apply under FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program. The rate is set by an area’s Fair Market Rent; find yours here. 

Read more: Everything you need to know when applying for individual and rental assistance from FEMA

If your application is denied, you have the right to appeal the decision within 60 days. You should include any information that was missing from your initial application, as well as supporting documents showing costs, damages, and proof of residence and ownership of your home. Lawyers and community advocates can help you write the appeal. You will need to sign the letter, along with a statement verifying that you authorized someone else to write the appeal. FEMA has 90 days to review your appeal, but delays are possible given the volume of paperwork the agency may be reviewing. 

Some homeowners may also apply for help through the Small Business Administration’s program, which provides low-interest loans for repairs. You don’t have to own a business to apply, and FEMA may refer you to SBA’s application to check if you qualify for additional aid for funds to make your home more resilient to future disasters.

Mortgage, rent, and utility relief: Homeowners may qualify for mortgage relief. Providers aren’t legally required to offer assistance, but they can waive late fees, delay foreclosures, and provide forbearance. It is usually up to the homeowner to initiate a conversation about these options.

If you have a loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration, you have more legal protections. If you’re unable to make payments, your mortgage servicer cannot initiate a foreclosure for 90 days after a presidentially declared disaster in your area, and you can negotiate a repayment plan or modify some terms of your loan. You may also be able to meet with HUD-approved counselors trained in foreclosure prevention, who can help you evaluate your options and finances.

Both renters and homeowners may qualify for rental and utility assistance from government agencies and nonprofit organizations. If your home or rental unit is uninhabitable or you cannot stay there for another reason, there are likely organizations providing assistance with finding a place to live. Be on the lookout for applications for these in the days and weeks after a disaster. (If you’re not sure where to start looking, here are some examples of types of organizations that provided these services after Helene in 2024; they included local nonprofits, churches, housing organizations, county governments, and more.)

Crowdfunding/GoFundMe: Some disaster survivors turn to crowdfunding platforms to cover costs for evacuations, funerals, or repairs. According to data from GoFundMe, one of the largest platforms, disaster recovery campaigns in the U.S. raised over $100 million in 2023. This avenue is often faster than waiting on insurance claims and FEMA applications. Donations you receive are considered gifts, and you will not be required to pay taxes on them, as long as you don’t promise donors goods or services in exchange. However, you can’t apply for other sources of aid to cover the same expenses you list in the campaign you create.

Read more: The agencies, organizations, and officials that respond to disasters

How to avoid fraud and scams

There’s always the risk of fraud as con artists posting as government officials or unscrupulous contractors try to bilk people out of their money or rip them off with shoddy work. A few tips can minimize the risk.

• Verify the identity of anyone who approaches you unsolicited with offers of help. Ask for identification. FEMA employees, housing inspectors, and other government officials carry official IDs. A government uniform is not proof of identification.
• Government officials will not ask you for money or for financial information. Do not trust anyone who seeks payment up front or promises a loan or grant.
• Work with reputable contractors and check their credentials and licenses before hiring them (more on this below). Here are some tips from the National Insurance Crime Bureau to avoid getting taken.
• Ask for written quotes and contracts throughout the process.

If you have knowledge of fraud, waste, or abuse, you can report it to the FEMA Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or email StopFEMAFraud@fema.dhs.gov. You also can contact the National Center for Disaster Fraud. Before calling, gather as many details as possible, including how and where it occurred. You can also report it to your state’s attorney general or local law enforcement. 

Be wary of disaster investors: You may receive calls, texts, or other communications pressuring you to sell your home as-is, for cash. These “disaster investors” take advantage of the stress and uncertainty that people feel as they return to damaged homes. Their offers often target individuals who will have a difficult path to recovery, including low-income homeowners and the elderly.

In Hawaii, following the devastating 2023 wildfires, the governor issued an order banning such unsolicited offers in Maui, and the state eventually opened investigations into some companies.

Investors trying to scoop up properties to flip after a disaster will often make offers that are lower than market value, even with the damage your home might have sustained. If you are interested in selling, work with a trusted real estate agent of your choosing, and check what comparable homes should sell for in your area. Never sign any agreements or contracts about a potential sale without carefully reviewing them — no matter how much you’re pressured to sign on the spot.

Choose a contractor carefully: You’ll likely need to hire a contractor to do major repairs, and it’s important to vet any offers to fix up your home. Here are some tips for avoiding scams from the NC State Board of Examiners of Electrical Contractors and Legal Aid of East Tennessee:

• Be wary of door-to-door repair solicitations or people who demand deposits or payments in cash. Contact your insurance company for guidance before beginning any work.
• Require a written contract that outlines the work to be done, materials to be used, a payment schedule based on completion of work, and a timeline for completion. A licensed general contractor is generally required to be insured and list their license number on all contracts.
• Do not make payments before the work specified on the payment schedule is completed.
• Check with the Better Business Bureau for any history of complaints: 1-800-544-7693 or online. You can also look at reviews on sites such as Yelp, Google, or Angie’s List.
• Verify the company’s permanent business address.
• Check with your local home builders association to verify credentials and membership.
• Some contractors require you to obtain permits, and others take care of it. Ask your contractor, and then contact your local building inspections and permitting office to determine if permits are required. If so, confirm that the contractor has acquired them before construction begins.
• Before making final payment, evaluate the completed work and require the contractor to confirm that all subcontractors and suppliers have been paid to eliminate potential liens on your property.
• You can always verify whether the contractor is licensed to perform the specific work by visiting licensing board websites or calling the board offices. 

Building a new home or repairing your home

As you make repairs or reconstruct your home, you may be able to use insurance payouts and other assistance to make the place more resilient.

Consider installing more energy-efficient features, including new insulation, double-paned windows, and hurricane shutters. If you’re in a flood zone, you may want to elevate outdoor components of your HVAC system so that they don’t flood in the future. If you live in a tornado-prone area, you could add or retrofit a room to serve as a storm shelter. Materials like stucco can help fire-proof your home more than wood or vinyl siding. Some communities can qualify for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, a federally funded program managed by local government agencies, that aims to help homeowners with structural elevation, reinforcing buildings to withstand natural disasters, and buyouts by FEMA. The land is deeded to the local county for parks, greenways, and other municipal projects.

In some flood cases, you may be required to elevate your home to avoid future damages. This is typically the case if you participate in the National Flood Insurance Program or if your community has or adopts stricter floodplain management. After receiving FEMA aid, you could be required to purchase a flood insurance policy.

After clearing out debris, consider planting native grasses, shrubs, and trees that suit your local ecology. This can help prevent soil erosion and improve drainage, which might help reduce water in your home during major rainstorms, particularly in basements. Some native species may be drought-tolerant and somewhat fire-resistant, as well. Opting for pea gravel or stones to fill out your landscaping instead of Bermuda grass can help reduce the risks of fire spreading over your lawn. Make sure that you create a buffer zone between your house and landscaping; additionally, pruning and clearing fallen branches and leaves can help reduce future risks.

Read more: How to make sure your home is better protected from disasters

Download a PDF of this article | Return to Disaster 101

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How to find housing and rebuild your home after a disaster on Jul 7, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Amal Ahmed.

Surviving a severe storm, wildfire, or other extreme weather event is an experience that many Americans have had, or will have in the future, as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. According to 2024 polling from the Pew Research Center, 7 in 10 Americans said their community experienced an extreme weather event in the past 12 months, including flooding, drought, extreme heat, rising sea levels, or major wildfires.

The aftermath of a disaster can be terrifying and traumatic, and many survivors struggle to secure basic necessities such as food and shelter, or to fill out paperwork for disaster aid and insurance. Finding accurate information about where and how to vote is even harder — so hard, in fact, that many people who have experienced disasters don’t bother to vote at all. With experts forecasting active hurricane and wildfire seasons, it’s more important than ever to be prepared for disruptions to the voting process for any primaries and special elections, as well as Election Day in November.

The guide below aims to help you navigate early and absentee voting, as well as what to expect on Election Day, should a disaster affect your area. (If you’re not registered to vote, find your state’s voter registration rules below.)

Jump to:

↓ Registration information
↓ In-person voting
↓ Early voting
↓ Absentee ballots
↓ Voter ID laws
↓ Know your rights

Registration information

Register to vote or find out if you’re registered here. Since it’s hurricane season, we’ve included registration links and upcoming election information for coastal states below:

Florida: Register to vote or check your registration here. Stay updated on Florida election dates here.

Alabama: Register to vote here. Stay updated on Florida election dates here.

Mississippi: Mississippi does not have online registration, so find out how to do so in person or online here. The deadline to register is 30 days before election day. Stay updated on Mississippi election dates here.

North Carolina: The deadline for voter registration is 25 days before Election Day; register or check your status here. Stay updated on North Carolina election dates here.

South Carolina: Learn how to register here. Stay updated on South Carolina election dates here.

Louisiana: Online registration must be done 20 days before Election Day; mail must be postmarked 30 days prior. Stay updated on Louisiana election dates here.

Georgia: Register online here. Stay updated on Georgia election dates here.

Texas: You must register to vote 30 days before Election Day; find out your status or register here. Stay updated on Texas election dates here.

Read more: How a disaster is officially declared

In-person voting

If a disaster strikes, the governor can extend voting deadlines, allow ballots to be forwarded to a new address, allow local officials to change or add new polling places, or postpone municipal elections. Those rules are different depending on the state, and information may be hard to find in the wake of a disaster.

The U.S. Vote Foundation has a tool to access your county election office’s contact information, which typically includes county clerks, supervisors, auditors, boards of elections, or election commissions, depending on the state. You can try to contact these offices, but it’s not guaranteed they’ll be able to answer your questions. You can also ask voting rights groups in your area and watch local news for any changes or updates.

In the wake of a disaster, first confirm where you should be voting. Has your polling place been damaged or moved? If multiple locations are combined into one, or Election Day volunteers are scarce post-disaster, be prepared to stand in long lines to vote. If you’re waiting in the heat, make sure to bring water and wear comfortable shoes and appropriate clothing. (Twenty-one states prohibit campaign apparel, so keep that in mind.) Here are some other resources on heat waves.

Was your car damaged in a disaster? Need a ride to the polls? Some ride-share services and public transit systems offer free rides on Election Day. Here’s more information.

Read more: The officials and agencies in charge of disaster response

Early voting

Most states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands offer some form of early voting, which is voting in person before the election anywhere from a few days to more than a month early, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, the hours, locations, and timing differ for each. Three states — Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire — do not allow early in-person voting.

Early in-person voting is a useful option if you’d like to avoid lines on Election Day or will be out of town. It’s also an option for people who live in a region of the country prone to natural disasters or have been recently hit by one. In-person voting on Election Day, which comes at the tail end of “danger season,” may not either be a possibility or priority. Go here to see the specific rules around early voting in your state.

Absentee ballots

Absentee voting is often called “mail-in voting” or “by-mail voting.” Every state offers this, but some require you to meet certain conditions, like having a valid excuse for why you can’t make it to the polls on Election Day. Absentee voting can be a particularly useful tool for people recently displaced by extreme weather, or are at risk of being displaced. It also safeguards voters who live in the hottest parts of the country, where heat can make waiting in long lines dangerous.

The League of Women Voters explains absentee voting rules by state here. If you reside in a county that gets a federal disaster declaration after a disaster hits, there may be changes to these processes that can offer you more time and flexibility.

Voter ID laws

Each state has a different voter ID law: Some require photo identification, others require a document such as a utility bill, bank statement, or paycheck, while still others require a signature. The National Conference of State Legislatures has a breakdown of the rules here.

If your ID gets destroyed in a flood, fire, or tornado, your state may be able to exempt you from showing an ID at the polls. For instance, after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Texas residents who lost their ID to floodwaters could vote without one once they filled out an affidavit stating that their identification was lost because of a natural disaster. Your state may also waive the fees associated with getting a new ID.

The best way to find this information is to contact your county clerk or other election official, or contact a voting rights group in your area.

Know your rights

Just as there are strict rules in states around how people can cast ballots, there are also many others that dictate what happens outside of polling places. In most states, you can accept water and food from groups around polling places — but there is misinformation around doing so. For example, after the 2020 presidential election, Georgia passed a law prohibiting this activity within a certain buffer zone, only for a judge to later strike down part of it. So while there is no longer a ban on handing things to voters within 25 feet of the line to vote, it is still illegal to do so within 150 feet of the building where ballots are being cast.

Call or text 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) to report voter intimidation to the Election Protection Coalition. You can also find more information on voter rights from the ACLU.

Download a PDF of this article | Return to Disaster 101

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Know your voting rights before, during, and after a disaster on Jul 7, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Lyndsey Gilpin.

We’ve compiled a guide to food safety and access based on recommendations from physicians, health departments, emergency management departments, and federal agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA.

Jump to:

↓ Preparing food supplies at home
↓ Accessing food
↓ How to navigate food distribution if you’re not a U.S. citizen
↓ What to know about hunger and disasters

Preparing your food supplies at home

As you prepare for an extreme weather event, it’s important to have enough food ready and easily transportable in case you lose power or need to evacuate. Review this checklist from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for what to pack so you can stay safe, hydrated, and healthy.

Read more: How to pack an emergency kit and prepare your home

State and county emergency-management departments offer varying guidelines on how to best prepare food supplies for a disaster. For instance, some counties in Florida suggest residents stock up enough food to last them at least two weeks in case of an emergency, while some in Massachusetts suggest a minimum of three days.

It’s becoming increasingly expensive to buy everything for an emergency stockpile all at once. A more affordable strategy is to pick up one or two items every time you go to the grocery store, well in advance of hurricane or wildfire season, and build up your emergency food stockpile over time. You can also contact your local disaster aid organizations, houses of worship, or charities to see if there are free or affordable nonperishable goods available.

Some of the most important things to have:

• Water (at least one gallon per person and pet in the household per day for several days)
• Food (at least a three day supply of nonperishable food for every person and pet in a household)
• Common kitchen tools like scissors, a knife, a can opener, and a cooking thermometer

Here are some food-safety tips during and after a disaster:

• If you plan to take shelter away from home, it’s always best to prepare for the likelihood that the power will go out, spoiling refrigerated and frozen food. Be wary about eating food that may have gone bad, and when in doubt, throw it out.
• Buy food with the lowest safety risks. This includes canned food with high liquid content and with limited salt, as salty foods will make you thirsty.

If the power goes out and you’re home, take the following steps to ensure your food will remain safe to eat:

• Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible. An unopened refrigerator can maintain its temperature for only roughly four hours, while a freezer can stay cold for approximately 48 hours.
• Pack refrigerated and freezer items tightly together to help retain cold temperatures for longer. (This should not be done with ready-to-eat foods or anything raw, such as poultry or fish.)
• Freeze containers of water to use for ice and potentially drinking water.
• If the power outage lasts for more than two hours, or if the refrigerator or freezer temperature rises above 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the FDA recommends that you discard any perishable food. Your appliance may tell you the temperature inside. If it doesn’t have that feature, keep an appliance thermometer handy. You can also use a bulb or candy thermometer by placing it directly into a container of food or liquid that has been in the refrigerator or freezer for 24 hours.

If there is flooding, avoid eating any food that may have come into contact with floodwater, and get rid of any foods or beverages that are not in a waterproof container or have damaged packaging. If food is not damaged or wet, follow these in-depth instructions from the FDA to make sure it’s safe to eat.

Storing food properly can help give it a longer shelf life and protect it from water damage. Here are some tips:

• Store items in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.
• Place your food supply on high shelves to keep them far from any household flooding.
• If possible, swap foods in paper boxes or cartons into airtight or waterproof containers to keep out pests. 
• Be sure to verify expiration dates on canned and dry goods.
• Store all fresh food away from ranges or refrigerator exhausts. Heat causes many foods to spoil faster.

Accessing food during and after a disaster

Where to find community-led resources on food access

Local nonprofits, food banks, food and agricultural hubs, houses of worship, and schools are all crucial frontline resources in the aftermath of a disaster, providing food and water for people regardless of socioeconomic or immigration status. Before a storm or wildfire hits your area, you can look up where organizations such as these may be in your community. During a disaster, they may offer hot meals and fresh produce, as well as nonperishables.

Recent federal funding cuts have left food banks and charitable food organizations across the country without as much money for direct food assistance, so check with your local food bank to make sure they are running these programs.

Most cities and counties will have a list of sites that are supplying food and water. You can call or check their websites. Also check your local news — either radio, online, or on television — for options.

National and international charitable organizations often deploy on-the-ground teams to distribute free food to areas hit by major disaster events. Typically these groups prioritize places where the scope of damage and population impact is significant. This list of organizations is by no means exhaustive:

• World Central Kitchen
• American Red Cross
• Feeding America
• The Salvation Army
• Team Rubicon
• Americares
• United Way
• Catholic Charities

Your state and county emergency-management departments, government-operated emergency shelters, as well as your city, tribe, or territory, is likely to partner with the school district, food banks, first responders, and federal agencies to set up ad hoc food and water distribution centers in the immediate days following a disaster event. Each entity’s official website and social media pages are great resources for up-to-date information on these efforts.

FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers also tend to serve as a source of food and water after a storm or other disaster.

Read more: How FEMA aid works

Applying for longer-term food relief programs

Depending on your legal status, total household income, and whether your household includes children under 5 years old or a pregnant or breastfeeding mother, you could be eligible for government benefits that include financial assistance for food. Keep in mind that these programs require a lengthy application process, and often have a waiting list long before a disaster strikes. Some of them are also being cut or changed by the Trump administration, so contact the local or state office to find out more.

SNAP: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides food assistance to low-income families to supplement their grocery budgets for foods to prepare at home. In the event of a disaster, you may be able to buy hot or premade food using SNAP dollars. This is not intended for immediate relief, as it could take time to apply and begin receiving any benefits. To apply, you must first contact your local or state SNAP office. Applications are handled differently depending on the state in which you live; some can be submitted online, while others need to be done in person or by mail.

The Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or D-SNAP, also known as disaster food stamps, helps you pay for food if you live in a county with a federal disaster declaration. D-SNAP provides funds on an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card to pay for food. Even if you do not normally receive or qualify for food assistance through SNAP benefits, you may qualify if you live in a county that has received a federal disaster declaration. This benefit usually amounts to at least a month of the maximum SNAP allotment for low-income households. This is not immediate relief, as it could take time to apply and receive the benefits.

If you’re a SNAP recipient, get benefits that are less than the monthly maximum, and have losses from the disaster, you can request a supplement under D-SNAP. Existing SNAP recipients may also request replacement benefits for food that was bought with SNAP dollars and lost in the disaster.

Be on the lookout for more information about this program through your local news, community organizations, or local SNAP office.

WIC: The Women, Infants, and Children program offers food assistance, information, and health care referrals to low-income families with children under age 5 or those expecting a new child. You can be eligible for WIC with any immigration status. To apply, you will need to contact  your local WIC office to schedule an appointment, where your eligibility will be determined.

TEFAP: The Emergency Food Assistance Program helps supplement the diets of lower-income people by providing emergency food assistance at no cost. TEFAP is distinct from SNAP as it provides actual food, not money, to those in need, distributed through local food banks and pantries. When the president makes a major disaster declaration, affected states are given the opportunity to reallocate and distribute existing TEFAP food and funding inventories to disaster relief organizations. You cannot apply directly for TEFAP foods, but may be able to get TEFAP foods to take home from a local soup kitchen or food pantry based on your income level. 

How to navigate food distribution if you’re not a U.S. citizen

Most of the above federal nutrition programs are not accessible to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or what the government deems a “qualified immigrant.” Though undocumented immigrants have long been largely ineligible for federal public benefits, there have been some exceptions for emergency and disaster-related services. Lawful permanent residents and qualified immigrants, such as H-2A workers, used to face a five-year or longer waiting period for programs like SNAP, but immigration and anti-hunger advocates suggest that period may be lengthier under the new administration — and the opportunity for noncitizen eligibility for food benefits may even cease to exist. If you have a U.S.-born child, they can qualify for these benefits, though it may not be enough to feed the entire family.

Please note that anyone visiting food centers or shelters may be asked to provide proof of identification. Because of stricter immigration policies enforced under the Trump administration, there is concern among immigration advocates, lawyers, and other experts that undocumented residents, those on a visa, or even legal citizens could be detained by law enforcement or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Connect with your local immigration organizations or legal aid groups for more specific information, advice, and updates.

Read more: Know your rights as an immigrant before, during, and after disasters

What to know about deepening hunger and disasters

As Kassandra Martinchek, who researches food access at the Urban Institute, told Grist in 2024, the immediate emergency food response provided by charitable providers and by federal nutrition programs “is an important part of the broader patchwork of programs that help families post-disaster.” But food insecurity “is really this household economic condition wherein families aren’t able to get the food they need to live a healthy and active life.” Disasters intensify that crisis.

Poverty rates tend to climb in impacted areas because many people, particularly those from low-income households, are less able to prepare for a looming storm or recover from the emotional and physical damage they wreak. This deepens existing racial and socioeconomic divides and exacerbates the food insecurity most commonly experienced by communities of color, those with disabilities, and households below the federal poverty line.

Research shows that food tends to be among the first expenditures financially unstable households cut during economic turbulence. Not only do they buy less food, but the quality of the food they buy decreases as well.

If you or someone you know is struggling with hunger or food insecurity at any time, reach out to churches or other houses of worship, charities, food banks, health care providers (some have food programs they can direct you to), including any of the organizations mentioned above.

Read more: Our long-term recovery guide outlines resources you can use in the weeks and months after a disaster

Download a PDF of this article | Return to Disaster 101

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How to access food before, during, and after a disaster on Jul 7, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Ayurella Horn-Muller.

Australian solidarity activists today marked the 27th anniversary of the Biak massacre in West Papua and have warned the human rights crisis in the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region is deteriorating.

No Indonesian security force member has ever been charged or brought to justice for the human rights abuses committed against peaceful West Papuan demonstrators.

According to Elsham Papua, a local human rights organisation, eight people were killed and a further 32 bodies were found near Biak in the following days. However, some human rights sources put the death toll at about 150.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua reports

“Twenty seven years later, the human rights situation in West Papua continues to deteriorate,” said Joe Collins of the Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) in a statement today.

“West Papuan people continue to be arrested, intimidated and killed by the Indonesian security forces.

“There are ongoing clashes between the TPNPB [West Papua National Liberation Army] and the Indonesian security forces with casualties on both sides.

“As a result of these clashes, the Indonesian security forces carry out sweeps in the area, causing local people to flee in fear for their lives.

‘Bearing the brunt’
“It’s the internal refugees bearing the brunt of the conflict.”

According to the AWPA statement, 6 July 1998 marked the Biak massacre when the Indonesian security forces killed scores of people in Biak, West Papua.

The victims included women and children who had gathered for a peaceful rally. They were killed at the base of a water tower flying the Morning Star flag of independence.

As the rally continued, many more people in the area joined in with numbers reaching up to about 500 people.

The statement said that from July 2 that year, activists and local people started gathering beneath the water tower, singing songs and holding traditional dances.

“On July 6 the Indonesian security forces attacked the demonstrators, massacring scores of people,” said the statement.

Internally displaced
Human Rights Monitor reported in its June update that more than 97,721 people in West Papua were internally displaced as a result of armed conflict between Indonesian security forces and the TPNPB.

Human Rights Watch in a media statement in May 2025 reported that renewed fighting between the security forces and the TPNPB was threatening West Papua civilians.

“As the West Papuan people struggle for their right to self-determination, they face great challenges, from the ongoing human rights abuses to the destruction of their environment,” said Collins in the statement.

“However, support/knowledge for the West Papuan struggle continues to grow, particularly in the Pacific region,” he said.

“If some governments in the region are wavering in their support, the people of the Pacific are not.

Pacific support ‘unwavering’
Jakarta has been targeting Pacific leaders with aid in a bid to convince them to stop supporting the West Papuan struggle.

Civil society and church groups continue to raise awareness of the West Papuan situation at the UN and at international human rights conferences.

“The West Papuan people are not going to give up their struggle for self-determination,” Collins said.

“Time for the countries in the region, including Australia, to take the issue seriously. Raising the ongoing human rights abuses with Jakarta would be a small start”.

• The Biak Citizens Tribunal

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

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on July 03, 2025. It is shared here with permission.

House Republicans on Thursday put the final stamp of approval on budget legislation that will inflict devastating cuts on Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance, clean energy initiatives, and other programs to help finance another round of tax breaks for the rich—an unparalleled upward transfer of wealth that’s expected to have cascading effects across the United States for years to come.

The sprawling legislation passed in a mostly party-line vote, with just two House Republicans—Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—joining every Democrat in opposition to the bill, which now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk.

Following the 218-214 vote, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called the reconciliation package “one of the most cruel, immoral pieces of legislation that Congress has ever voted on.”

“Not only did this bill get worse from the last time the House voted on it, it will be remembered as one of the most catastrophic bills passed in modern history,” said Omar.

The following is a sample of reactions from lawmakers and advocacy groups decrying the legislation’s attacks on healthcare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, reproductive rights, the climate, and more.

A Tax Giveaway to the Ultra-Rich and Corporations at the Expense of Working People

April Verrett, president of SEIU:

What the Republicans just did. It’s outrageous, it’s despicable, it’s immoral, itss anti-American. But SEIU members won’t forget. We will never forget that children will go hungry because of what they’ve done.

We will never forget that people will suffer because of what they’ve done. And why? For the biggest steal of taxpayer money, of working people’s money – not just poor people, but senior citizens. Every American will feel the repercussions of this horrible bill, but we won’t forget and we will get our just due.

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution:

“Republicans have passed the most dangerous legislation of our lifetimes. This bill hands billionaires and corporations a trillion-dollar tax break, paid for by ripping health care from 17 million people, gutting funding for rural hospitals, slashing clean energy investments, and cutting food assistance for millions of children.

“This reckless sellout to the billionaire class will trigger the largest transfer of wealth from working- and middle-class Americans to the ultra-wealthy in our nation’s history. This isn’t just bad policy — it’s a moral failure that will cost an untold number of lives. Every lawmaker who voted for this shameful legislation must be held accountable at the ballot box.”

Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen:

“Trump and Congressional Republicans have certainly delivered for the billionaire class.

“There are 800 billionaires in the United States and 12 100-billionaires. They don’t need any financial help. But that’s precisely what Trump and Congressional Republicans have done, with a monstrosity of a bill that may constitute the single biggest upward transfer of wealth in American history.”

Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy:

This abominable bill will make history—in appalling ways. Never before has legislation taken so much from struggling families to give so much to the richest. It makes the biggest cuts to food aid for hungry families, executes the largest cuts to health care ever, adds trillions to the national debt – all to give $117 billion to the richest 1 percent in a single year. It’s no wonder that this bill is also extremely unpopular. Historians – and voters – will look back at this as a dark day in U.S. history.

David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness:

This bill represents a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the top 1%. It enacts the largest Medicaid and SNAP cuts in history while adding over $3 trillion to the national debt. Furthermore it makes the tax code more complex with new special interest tax breaks and handouts to the ultra wealthy. In the coming years, Democrats must prioritize repealing and replacing these disastrous policies to protect American families from rising costs and loss of healthcare coverage. We need to create a truly fair tax system and an economy that works for all Americans, not just the wealthy few.

A Historic Blow to Medicaid, SNAP, Social Security, and other Anti-Poverty Programs

Bishop William Barber, co-founder Repairers of the Breach:

Today, Congress passed one of the most morally-bankrupt pieces of legislation in our nation’s history. This big ugly bill is the largest cut to healthcare and food assistance for children in our nation’s history, and it funds a war on immigrant communities. All the while, the bill gives tax breaks to the wealthiest among us—on the backs of our most vulnerable neighbors.

By passing this bill, lawmakers have officially codified the deaths of thousands of people. It’s policy murder in plain sight.”

Many of the people who passed this bill also consistently profess to be led by religious values. There is no religion that supports the degradation of humans. Policymakers can’t just claim their religious values in one breath, and then turn around and approve legislation that’s guaranteed to kill people.
The passage of this bill is deadly, but it is not a defeat. We must meet it with a resurrection. We will organize voters in every impacted community to push legislators who voted for this bill out of office and build a movement together that can reconstruct our democracy.

Americans for Tax Fairness:

Today, President Trump and his billionaire-backed Republican-controlled Congress successfully passed their reconciliation bill, passing the largest cuts in Medicaid and SNAP history while slashing billions from other essential programs to fund massive tax giveaways for billionaires and large corporations. The bill will raise average Americans’ costs by causing 17 million Americans to lose their health insurance and 2 million to lose access to food assistance. Throughout the opaque legislative process, the Republican majority in both houses didn’t hold a single hearing on their legislative proposals, and forced their members to vote under the cover of night and during weekend sessions, reflecting the GOP majority’s pattern of minimizing public attention to a wildly unpopular legislative package.Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:

Today, the House turned its back on the very people they were elected to serve. This bill isn’t about lowering prices or helping everyday Americans — it’s about lining the pockets of billionaires and big corporations while ripping away essential health care and support from seniors, people with disabilities, and working families.

Congressional Republicans have just voted for tax giveaways for the wealthy while throwing millions of people off of Medicaid, slashing half a trillion dollars from Medicare, and driving hundreds of nursing homes and local hospitals into crisis. All of this will make it harder for older Americans to get the health care they need at a price they can afford.

To add insult to injury, this bill hastens the depletion of the Social Security Trust Fund’s reserves by one year. It’s a slap in the face to every family who paid into Social Security and Medicare over a lifetime of work.

We will not forget how our representatives voted today. We will make sure every older American knows what is in this legislation — and who to hold accountable for this debacle.

Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US:

Today’s party-line vote by House Republicans to rip healthcare away and raise grocery costs for tens of millions of Americans is as devastating as it is enraging. For months, a decisive number of House Republicans voiced their concerns, acknowledging that this bill would make people poorer and sicker, only to vote in favor of this bill. It’s a cruel betrayal and proof positive you cannot trust career politicians who will put their interests over those of their own constituents’ health care and wallets.

Bobby Mukkamala, M.D., president of the American Medical Association (AMA):

Today is a sad and unnecessarily harmful day for patients and health care across the country, and its impact will reverberate for years. Care will be less accessible, and patients may simply forego seeing their physician because the lifelines of Medicaid and CHIP are severed.

This is bad for my patients in Flint, Michigan, and it is devastating for the estimated 11.8 million people who will have no health insurance coverage as a result of this bill.

The American Medical Association’s mission is promoting the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health. This bill moves us in the wrong direction. It will make it harder to access care and make patients sicker. It will make it more likely that acute, treatable illnesses will turn into life-threatening or costly chronic conditions. That is disappointing, maddening, and unacceptable.

Max Richtman, president & CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare:

In enacting President Trump’s ‘Unfair, Ugly Bill,’ House Republicans have voted to rip health coverage away from as many as 16 million Americans and food assistance from millions more. Make no mistake, the deepest cuts in history to Medicaid and SNAP will devastate older Americans who depend on both programs for health coverage, long-term care, and nutrition. 7.2 million seniors are dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid; 6.5 million rely on SNAP benefits to stay healthy and make ends meet. The bill could even trigger automatic cuts to Medicare down the road.

These beneficiaries are some of the most vulnerable members of our society — and Republicans have put them at risk in order to pay for another tax cut mainly for the rich. Republicans have passed this mean-spirited legislation with little regard for public opinion or well-being. Recent polling suggests that Americans who know about the bill are against it 2 to 1. No matter. Republicans are enacting a craven agenda to shower their wealthy donors with tax cuts at the expense of seniors and lower-income Americans.

This bill has rightly been called ‘downright regressive and cruel’ — and ‘the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in U.S. history.’ President Trump was planning to sign the bill on July 4th. We can’t think of anything LESS patriotic than depriving millions of Americans of health coverage to further enrich the already wealthy. This is not responsible leadership. It’s just the opposite. Make no mistake: older Americans and their advocates WILL NOT FORGET. Republicans will be held accountable — now and during the 2026 elections. If our response were boiled down to one word, it simply would be SHAME!

National Nurses United:

This is among the darkest days in the history of U.S. health care. People will suffer and die because of the cuts in this legislation to fund tax cuts for billionaires — certainly in the short term and potentially for decades to come if nothing is done. The policy goal here is clear: Take away everyday people’s health care coverage. Every politician who supports this legislation has blood on their hands and only themselves to blame when the impacts of these cuts devastate a health care system already in a near-constant state of crisis. These cuts will hurt these lawmakers’ constituents, our patients, who are already dealing with a broken health care system.

Lawmakers have effectively signed the death warrants for millions today. It will steal money from safety-net community hospitals and reproductive health care clinics, like Planned Parenthood. It will kick people off their health insurance. It will effectively punish people for getting sick or injured, making us all sicker and less healthy.

While we will only understand the larger impacts of this law as they unfold, experts have made clear that the potential is devastating: Millions will lose insurance coverage, and hundreds of hospitals will see critical hits to their funding. Meanwhile, the rich will get richer.

A Gut Punch to Environmental Protections, Clean Energy, and the Effort to Confront the Climate Crisis

Beth Lowell, Oceana vice president for the United States:

“Thriving and abundant oceans should not be bargaining chips at the Congressional table. This big, terrible bill is the worst environmental legislation in American history, unraveling safeguards and investments that Americans — and coastal economies — rely on and need. This disastrous bill would require the largest expansion of offshore oil and gas lease sales by area ever in the United States. We should be protecting our coasts and oceans, not opening the floodgates to more offshore drilling and increasing the risk of dangerous oil spills.”

Manish Bapna, president of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

Every lawmaker who voted for this cynical measure chose tax cuts for the wealthiest over Americans’ health, pocketbooks, public lands and waters — and a safe climate. They should be ashamed.

This measure gives the wealthiest a tax break while the rest of us will pay more on our electric bills and at the pump. So much for President Trump’s promise to save Americans money on their energy bills.

This Trump energy tax will cost electricity customers billions of dollars in higher bills. Drivers will need to fill up more often at the pump. And costs for things like cleaner cars, solar energy and efficient air conditioners will skyrocket.

We urgently need more clean, affordable energy, but this measure would bring the renaissance in American clean energy production to a halt and send good, domestic manufacturing jobs to our foreign rivals.

Oil executives, industrial loggers and coal CEOs can all celebrate today as they gain unprecedented access to drill, log and mine on our public lands. The rest of us will soon find no trespassing signs on lands that have belonged to all of us for more than a century.

John Noël, Greenpeace USA deputy climate program director:

This is a vote that will live in infamy. This bill is what happens when a major political party, in the grips of a personality cult, teams up with oil company CEOs, hedge fund donors, and climate deniers. All you need to do is look at who benefits from actively undercutting the clean energy industry that is creating tens of thousands of jobs across political geographies.

The megabill isn’t about reform—it’s about rewarding the super rich and doling out fossil fuel industry handouts, all while dismantling the social safety nets on which millions depend for stability. It is a bet against the future.

Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club:

“This is a sad and scary day for all who work to build up our communities, care for our friends and neighbors, and wish to leave this planet in a better place for future generations. Instead of working to make life better for American families and communities, what Donald Trump and his loyalists in Congress have delivered today will mean higher energy costs for working families and small businesses, the end of life-saving health care that millions rely on, and ceding the race to build the clean energy economy of tomorrow to China. Trump and Congressional Republicans have advanced the most anti-environment, anti-job, and anti-American bill in history. The Sierra Club will not forget it. America will not forget it.

Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists:

Our country will be paying the price for these reckless policies for decades to come.

In passing this bill, lawmakers repeatedly overrode the needs and interests of their constituents. When benefits are lost, when energy prices spike, when major clean energy and clean transportation investments are canceled, when jobs are cut, when climate-exacerbated extreme weather disasters hit, people should know who they have to thank.

This bill is a damning indictment of Congress’ priorities and values. Our country needs policymakers willing to confront the challenges of our time and fight for a better tomorrow, not sell out America for the benefit of a few.

An Assault on Reproductive Freedom and Health

Kelly Baden, vice president for public policy at the Guttmacher Institute:

The reconciliation bill is a sweeping attack on the health, rights and autonomy of millions of people across the country. It would strip health coverage from those who need it most, gut access to reproductive health care, and impose dangerous restrictions that disproportionately harm low-income communities, people of color, and those already facing systemic barriers to care.”

One of the most egregious provisions in the bill would block Planned Parenthood and other providers of abortion care from receiving Medicaid reimbursement for contraceptive services and other care for an entire year. This politically motivated exclusion could force one in three Planned Parenthood health centers to close their doors, cutting off access to contraception, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings and abortion care for countless patients. These are not just numbers—these are real people whose lives and futures are being put at risk.

On top of that, the bill’s broader Medicaid cuts represent a direct attack on the health and economic security of people with low incomes. Medicaid is not a luxury—it’s a lifeline. It ensures access to essential care, including sexual and reproductive health services, for millions of people. Slashing this program to finance tax cuts for the wealthy is not just wrong—it’s cruel.

Let’s be clear: this bill is about advancing an extreme ideological agenda that prioritizes control over compassion, and politics over public health.

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America:

The reconciliation bill is a targeted attack on Planned Parenthood health centers and patients that cannot stand. Everyone deserves access to high-quality, affordable health care. That’s what we’ve been fighting for the last century — and we’ll never stop. We’ll be suing the Trump administration to stop this unlawful attack. See you in court.

Dr. Jamila Perritt, Physicians for Reproductive Health president and CEO:

Federal programs like Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, as well as funding for full spectrum sexual and reproductive health care are all left at the mercy of cowardly, out of touch lawmakers who value junk science over the evidence-based practices that keep our communities safe. Limitations on these essential programs will have horrible consequences for tens of millions of people and for our entire health care landscape. In contrast of its name, this bill is one of the ugliest actions we have seen from the Trump Administration to date.

Only six months into a second Trump term, we have seen Title X funding be stripped away, the continued criminalization of those seeking lifesaving health care like abortion, as well as politically motivated attacks on those in support of full spectrum sexual and reproductive health care. This is not a coincidence – it is intentional. This is not, nor has it ever been acceptable.

Progressive Lawmakers Weigh In

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.):

Because my Republican colleagues cowered to special interests and their billionaire donors, 17 million Americans will lose their health coverage. This passage could cause 50,000 Americans to die each year because Republicans shamefully voted to kick millions off Medicaid and failed to extend the premium tax credits in the Affordable Care Act. It will also increase healthcare costs and endanger access to care for all Americans. Rural hospitals will be forced to shut down. Nursing homes and community health centers will be gravely impacted.

This bill is the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in history. While working people will be devastated, billionaires will receive massive tax cuts. Not only are the tax cuts permanent for the ultra-wealthy, any benefit to low-income families is only temporary. It will deepen the wealth and income inequality gap.

In poll after poll, the American people are clear in their disdain for this bill. From cuts to nutrition assistance to increasing the cost of college to higher utility bills – the American people are clear-eyed in opposing it. Donald Trump and Republicans know this, which is why they rammed this bill through. Every single American will remember who chose to side with billionaires instead of working people.

This bill is morally bankrupt and an attack on working people. For those reasons, I voted NO.”

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas):

“This bill is a betrayal of working Americans. So that billionaires can buy bigger yachts, millions of working people will be unable to afford to go to the doctor, put food on the table, or keep the lights on.

For years, Washington Republicans have talked a big game about becoming the party of working people. This vote should be the final nail in the coffin of that idea. In the end, Washington Republicans will simply betray the working class people they won over in the last election. They’ve done what they always do: take from the working class to give to the rich.

As Democrats, we must make sure they never live that down.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.):

“This bill is an act of violence against our communities. At a time of extreme income and wealth inequality, while 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, this budget is absolutely devastating for the working families we represent.”

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.):

“Republicans just passed one of the most harmful bills in modern history that will devastate our communities for years to come.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.):

“Republicans in the House just cheered as they voted to kick 17 million people off their healthcare.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.):

“I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion—making ICE bigger than the FBI, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, DEA, and others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.):

“Republicans have passed a bill that will be a death sentence—denying millions medical care, denying children food, and violently deporting immigrant families to destabilized countries. This is unforgivable.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.):

“Republicans passed Trump’s Big Bad Betrayal Bill to kick 17 million Americans off their healthcare for a billionaire tax cut. Cruel, horrifying, and outrageous. But we must not lose hope. Democrats will not only fight back—we’ll fight forward, press on, and justice will be won.”

Rep. Becca Ballint (D-Vt.):

“The House shamefully passed Trump’s big ugly, horrific, terrible bill that will leave 17 million people without health insurance. I, like every Democrat, voted HELL NO. People are going to suffer. I’m horrified that Congress would pass such a harmful piece of legislation.”

“I never want to hear a Republican say they care about ‘fiscal responsibility’ ever again. This bill is the largest increase in our national debt in history.”

Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.):

House Republicans just passed Trump’s evil, Big Ugly Budget. They caved, voting to take health care away from 17 million people, slash food aid, and rob the poor to reward the ultrarich. It’s the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to billionaires in history. This is a dark day in America and a shameful betrayal to those we serve. Our people deserve better and I will always fight like hell to get it. The fight continues.

Turbo-charging Trump’s Mass Deportation Machine and Anti-Immigrant Agenda

Joanna Kuebler, chief of programs at America’s Voice:

Americans are already recoiling against the harm done by this administration’s deportation agenda—the masked ICE agents running amok; the industries and small businesses worried about their future viability; the fear spreading in American communities and the separations tearing apart American families.

Sadly, we fear it will get all the worse with the new and unprecedented infusion of tens of billions of dollars for Stephen Miller to fully scale the personal mass deportation crusade he’s dreamed about since his teenage years. Earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance admitted that slashing Medicaid, the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the fiscal recklessness and all of the other unpopular and damaging provisions of this bill were ‘immaterial’ compared to the ICE and immigration enforcement money.

Yet Stephen Miller’s and MAGA’s dreams are most Americans’ nightmares. Turbocharging mass deportation endangers our economy, our families, our communities, and our history as a nation of immigrants.

Roots Action:

The expansion of fascism is here:
– $74.9 billion for ICE detention and removal
– $65.6 billion for CBP infrastructure, hiring, tech
– $10 billion DHS slush fund
– $3.5 billion for state enforcementAnd more!

Hamilton Nolan, independent journalist :

This bill contains enough money to build a new system of immigration detention centers far bigger than the entire federal prison system. The American Immigration Council says that it will be enough to facilitate the “daily detention of at least 116,000 non-citizens.” It will let ICE hire more field agents than the FBI. Its $170 billion in funding for Stephen Miller’s rabid campaign to purge America of brown people is comparable to the total annual funding for the United States Army.

Donald Trump envisions himself as an all-powerful leader whose will is equal to law. He is bent on revenge against his political enemies. He has installed extreme loyalists in the Justice Department, the FBI, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and all other security departments. The courts have declined to meaningfully restrain his abuses of these departments. This budget will give him the final piece of the puzzle that he needs to achieve his fever dream: a nationwide army of masked, unaccountable armed agents empowered to snatch anyone they like off the streets, and the physical infrastructure to imprison or deport those people at will. Thousands of men with guns, unrestrained by judges or local police, who do not answer to Congress, who point guns at the press, who arrest whoever they want, for reasons they do not share, and do whatever they wish with those people. The implications of this are going to make America a much darker place.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, American Immigration Council senior fellow:

With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.

Astra Taylor, author and Strike Debt co-founder:

The debt, deportation, and death bill has passed. Congress further decimates care work to fund violence work. ICE becomes the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency ever known. It hasn’t been sold this way, but it’s a massive public jobs program for fascists.

Uzra Zeya, CEO of Human Rights First:

“As millions of Americans lose access to health insurance, this bill forks over more than $150 billion to supercharge the policies of grave harm we’ve seen these past six months. It will fund more disappearances of people seeking asylum in our country, more masked agents in our courtrooms and neighborhoods to detain and manhandle those following the rules to be here, and more prisons where families, including infants, can now be incarcerated indefinitely due to this Big, Ugly, Betrayal of a bill.”

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Common Dreams staff.

• Trump’s Big Bill to be signed Friday after marathon vote and marathon speech by Dem leader Hakeem Jeffries;
• Democratic and labor leaders say Big Budget Bill will hurt workers and destroy the middle class;
• SF sues Trump over EPA termination of Environment Climate Justice grants;
• Advocates fear state cannabis tax proposals could unravel and hurt programs for children
• MALDEF planning million dollar lawsuit over US citizen arrested for filming ICE raid

The post Trump’s Big Bill to be signed Friday after marathon vote; Advocates fear state cannabis tax bills could unravel funding and hurt programs for children – July 3, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

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

Formed in 2001, the SCO is a grouping of 10 countries including China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran. The defence ministers’ meeting took place in China’s Qingdao ahead of the upcoming annual summit.

On June 29, X user @TheDailyCPEC claimed that Russia had signed the joint SCO statement. At the time of this article being written, the post had a million views. (Archive)

BREAKING: Russia has officially signed the joint SCO statement, supporting Pakistan’s position over India. pic.twitter.com/GHGxmH5cA4

— The Daily CPEC (@TheDailyCPEC) June 29, 2025

X user @NavCom24 had also shared the viral claim that Russia signed the SCO statement. However, it was later deleted. (Archive)

Meanwhile, X user @thinking_panda claimed that China, Iran, Russia and Pakistan agreed to a closed-door SCO meeting without inviting India. (Archive) 

If we tell India, India will tell the US and Israel. So we have to keep India out of the door. pic.twitter.com/FOSqIGC5Mj

— ShanghaiPanda (@thinking_panda) June 29, 2025

Several other X users, including @DefenseDiplomat, @BigWayneConley and @qazafi197476, shared similar claims. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

We also found an Instagram post, which made similar claims. The caption reads, “A high-level NSA meeting is scheduled among China, Iran, Russia, and Pakistan under the SCO framework, but India has not been invited.”

Fact Check

According to several media reports, the SCO joint statement was not adopted because Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh refused to endorse it as it did not mention the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians were shot dead by terrorists. India has blamed Pakistan for sheltering terrorist factions responsible for the attack. Pakistan has denied the allegations.

According to Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson from the Ministry of External Affairs, a joint statement was not adopted at the SCO. “Certain member countries could not reach consensus on certain issues, and hence, the document could not be finalised… India wanted concerns and terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country.”

We found no news reports mentioning any other country, such as Russia, signing the SCO document.

We then looked at the SCO charter available on the site of India’s Ministry of External Affairs. Article 16 on the procedures on taking decisions says that SCO decisions are taken by agreement without voting as long as no member objects. It says:

“The SCO bodies shall take decisions by agreement without vote and their decisions shall be considered adopted if no member State has raised objections during its consideration (consensus), except for the decisions on suspension of membership or expulsion from the Organization that shall be taken by “consensus minus one vote of the member State concerned.”

This meant that SCO statements are adopted by unanimous consensus. But to be sure, we also reached out to a journalist who has covered diplomatic and strategic affairs for over a decade to understand how countries adopt statements at the SCO. This journalist, who did not wish to be identified, clarified that the “signing” on the draft statement is only if all members agree to adopt it, which was not the case in this SCO defence ministers’ meeting. So, if one member state does not agree, there is no way that some member states sign the document and others do not. It is either adopted as a whole by all or it’s not, he reiterated.

So, the claim that Russia ‘signed’ the joint SCO statement supporting Pakistan’s position over India is not true.

Also, the SCO published a report on the defence ministers’ meet on June 26 in which Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh can also be seen among the representatives of the invited nations. This debunks the claim that there was a closed-door SCO meeting at which India was not invited.

Also, one of the claims, which uses an image of the leaders of China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran is actually from a meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in 2023 and not the recent SCO meet in China.

To sum up, the viral claims that India was not invited to a closed-door SCO meeting or that Russia signed a joint SCO statement favouring Pakistan are baseless.

The post After SCO defence ministers’ meet, false claims of India being left out and Russia signing joint statement go viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

After six bill increases in the last three years, Georgia Power rates will now stay the same for the time being. 

Under a deal approved Tuesday by the Georgia Public Service Commission, Georgia Power’s rates will stay the same for the next three years, though the deal does not include some costs, which could still cause bills to increase next year.

“The rate freeze resulting from this plan is a great result for customers,” Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene said in a statement, “balancing the mutual benefits of extraordinary economic growth among all stakeholders and helping to ensure that we remain equipped to continue supporting growth in this state.” 

Energy bills vary widely by state and were higher in 2024 than in 2023, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. Georgia’s bills were just above the national average in 2024, ranging from $145-165 monthly, but those figures are averaged across all customers, not based on individual bills or utilities’ rates. Atlanta has some of the highest energy burdens in the country, according to Georgia Tech, especially among low-income and Black households — meaning those residents pay a higher percentage of their income for electricity. 

Under the agreement reached by Georgia Power and the commission’s staff and later cosigned by the Georgia Association of Manufacturers and Utility Management Services, the base rates that help determine power bills will remain the same for three years — except for the cost of recovering from Hurricane Helene, the most damaging storm in Georgia Power’s history. 

Georgia Power is also scheduled to review the cost of fuels such as coal and natural gas next year, which could also drive bills up —  though company officials said lower fuel prices could lead to lower bills, or at least cancel out extra costs from Helene. 

“Customers have seen unprecedented inflation in the energy sector across the U.S.,” said commission chair Jason Shaw in a statement. “My fellow Commissioners and I urged staff and Georgia Power to come to some agreement where base rates would not increase. This is nothing but good news for Georgia Power ratepayers.” 

Shaw is right about energy prices nationwide: Georgia Power’s recent rate hikes are part of a national trend that saw utilities request rate increases totaling $18.13 billion in 2023, though the actual increases approved were lower, according to S&P Global.

Read Next

Is Georgia Power quietly planning a massive buildout of fossil gas?

Jeff St. John, Canary Media

But some critics were less certain the rate freeze is good for customers. The deal bypasses the typically intensive, months-long process of setting rates, during which interested parties – including energy and consumer advocates, municipalities, large power users like Atlanta’s transit authority and Walmart and even the federal government – comb through Georgia Power’s finances and proposals. Without those hearings, some have argued, it’s impossible to know if the rate freeze is the best possible deal for customers.

“Every day Georgians cannot be on the hook for Georgia Power’s data center spending spree,” said Bob Sherrier, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, in a statement. “The next three years are very consequential for the electric grid and deserve much more scrutiny than occurred here.”  

Critics of the deal also worried that “rate freeze” is a misnomer because of the adjustment for storm costs that will happen next year. Others raised concerns that by deferring costs to keep rates the same now, the plan will result in an even larger rate hike in 2028. 

Georgia Power officials denied both concerns in hearings last week. They argued that lower fuel costs could balance out the storm costs, leaving rates the same or even lower, and that savings from cost deferrals would extend beyond the next three years.

Commissioner Bubba McDonald objected to the current power rates — the rates now being extended – when they were approved in 2022 because he felt Georgia Power’s profits were set too high. The commission authorized a return on equity for Georgia Power investors of between 9.5 percent  and 11.9 percent, which is above the national average that year of 9.54 percent.. McDonald reiterated that objection Tuesday and proposed a motion to lower the utility’s profit cap, but no other commissioners seconded the proposal and it died without a vote.

In the end, McDonald joined his fellow commissioners in voting for the rate freeze, and it passed unanimously.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline After years of increases, Georgia power rates to hold steady — for now on Jul 3, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Emily Jones.

The state news agency has announced a “season of traitor-killing,” with hundreds of people arrested and at least six executed since the war ended on June 25. Parliament approved a law on June 29 that mandates the death penalty for collaborating with Israel, the United States, or other “hostile” countries – a charge often used to describe media that report critically.

London-based Iran International TV spokesperson Adam Baillie said the new law would “widen the legal dragnet” against journalists and criminalizes contact with media outlets based abroad.

Journalists trying to report within Iran also face internet restrictions.

“We technically have internet, but access to the global web has been cut by half,” Hassan Abbasi, a journalist with Rokna news agency told CPJ from the capital Tehran on July 1, referring to reduced speeds and frequent disruptions.

Abbasi said internet access was selectively granted during the war. The communications ministry restricted access on June 13, the first day of the conflict, citing “special conditions.” Connectivity was largely restored after the ceasefire.

“Only large media outlets aligned with the government’s narrative were allowed to stay online,” Abbasi said. “Independent and local journalists like us couldn’t report – many agencies were effectively silenced, he said. “They wanted to cut off access to outside news and stop reports from inside.”

The June 29 law also banned the use or import of unauthorized internet communication tools like Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, punishable by up to two years in prison.

‘Journalists are not enemies of the state’

“The arrests, internet disruptions, and intimidation of journalists during and after the Iran-Israel war reflect a troubling continuation of Iran’s ongoing efforts to control the media,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “These acts of censorship undermine press freedom and create fear among those trying to report the truth. Journalists are not enemies of the state.”

Since the war began, CPJ has documented the following incidents:

• On June 15, journalist Saleh Bayrami was killed by an Israel airstrike on Tehran.

• On June 16, journalist Nima Rajabpour and media worker Masoumeh Azimi were hit by an Israeli airstrike on state-owned broadcaster IRIB’s headquarters and died the following day.

• On June 16, Shargh journalist Ali Pakzad was detained while covering airstrike damage in Tehran and released two days later.

• On June 17, freelance photojournalist Majid Saeedi was arrested in Tehran while photographing the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on IRIB’s headquarters. He told CPJ he climbed to a high point to capture images of smoke when police detained him and later transferred him to Evin prison.

“The next day, a judge reviewed my case in the prison courtyard, where officials brought over a chair for him to sit on,” Saeedi added. “He said that because I had a valid press ID and authorization, there was no issue, and he ordered my release.”

• On June 21, Iran International TV reported that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had detained the mother, father, and younger brother of one of its presenters to pressure her into resigning.

In a June 27 email to CPJ, spokesperson Baillie confirmed that the family members had been released but described the incident as “a profoundly worrying turning point in the type of action taken by the IRGC and security forces against the families of Iranian journalists abroad.”

• On June 21, photographer and designer Reza Daryakenari was arrested in a Tehran café. His Instagram account went offline after June 26. As of July 1, he remained in detention on unknown charges.

• On June 23, Israeli forces bombed Evin prison, which houses at least six journalists, including Iranian-American Reza Valizadeh. Authorities reported 71 deaths, including prisoners, but did not release names. One person with knowledge of Evin prison told CPJ that all the detained journalists were safe and had been transferred to other prisons.

• On June 24, the online outlet Entekhab News was blocked for “disruptive wartime reporting.” The judiciary said the outlet was undermining public security through its critical coverage. On June 30, it was unblocked.

CPJ’s emails requesting comment from Iran’s foreign affairs and information ministries did not receive any replies.

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

After a contentious round of last-minute negotiations, President Trump’s budget bill has passed in the Senate, squeaking by thanks to Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Three Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting “no” on the bill, which gives tax cuts to the rich and makes historic cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim majority, for a final vote before Trump’s July 4 deadline. Citizen groups, including the grassroots political organization ⁠Indivisible⁠, are calling on Americans, particularly those living in Republican and swing districts, to contact their House representatives and urge them to vote against the bill. “It’s not a done deal,” says Indivisible’s co-founder and co-executive director Ezra Levin. “They do not have the votes.”

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

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

Before states banned abortion, one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided: Doctors could offer a dilation and curettage procedure, which quickly empties the uterus and allows it to close, protecting against a life-threatening hemorrhage.

But because the procedures, known as D&Cs, are also used to end pregnancies, they have gotten tangled up in state legislation that restricts abortion. Reports now abound of doctors hesitating to provide them and women who are bleeding heavily being discharged from emergency rooms without care, only to return in such dire condition that they need blood transfusions to survive. As ProPublica reported last year, one woman died of hemorrhage after 10 hours in a Houston hospital that didn’t perform the procedure.

Now, a new ProPublica data analysis adds empirical weight to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of miscarriage — which occurs in up to 30% of pregnancies — far more dangerous. It is based on hospital discharge data from Texas, the largest state to ban abortion, and captures emergency department visits from 2017 to 2023, the most recent year available.

After Texas made performing abortions a felony in August 2022, ProPublica found, the number of blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54%.

The number of emergency room visits for early miscarriage also rose, by 25%, compared with the three years before the COVID-19 pandemic — a sign that women who didn’t receive D&Cs initially may be returning to hospitals in worse condition, more than a dozen experts told ProPublica.

While that phenomenon can’t be confirmed by the discharge data, which tracks visits rather than individuals, doctors and researchers who reviewed ProPublica’s findings say these spikes, along with the stories patients have shared, paint a troubling picture of the harm that results from unnecessary delays in care.

“This is striking,” said Dr. Elliott Main, a hemorrhage expert and former medical director for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. “The trend is very clear.”

After the state’s first abortion ban went into effect in September 2021, blood transfusions increased. After abortion became a felony in August 2022, they increased more.

The data mirrors a sharp rise in cases of sepsis — a life-threatening reaction to infection — ProPublica previously identified during second-trimester miscarriage in Texas.

Blood loss is expected during early miscarriage, which usually ends without complication. Some cases, however, can turn deadly very quickly. Main said ProPublica’s analysis suggested to him that “physicians are sitting on nonviable pregnancies longer and longer before they’re doing a D&C — until patients are really bleeding.”

That’s what happened to Sarah De Pablos Velez in Austin last summer. As she was miscarrying and bleeding profusely, she said physicians didn’t explain that she had options for care. Sent home from the emergency room without a D&C two times, she ultimately needed blood transfusions so that she wouldn’t die, according to medical records. “What happened to me was just so wrong,” she told ProPublica. "Doctors need to be providing care to pregnant women — that needs to be a baseline.”

After ProPublica exposed preventable deaths following delays in care, the Texas Legislature passed a bill this year to clarify that doctors can provide abortions when a patient is facing a life-threatening emergency, even if it is not imminent.

But many Texas doctors say the reform does not address the difficulty of treating women experiencing early miscarriages, which almost always involve blood loss; they say it’s hard to know when the expected bleeding might evolve into a life-threatening emergency — one that could have been prevented with a D&C. Women can bleed and remain stable for a long time, until they crash.

Texas forbids abortion at all stages of pregnancy — even before there is cardiac activity or a visible embryo. And while the law allows doctors to “remove a dead, unborn child,” it can be difficult to determine what that means during early miscarriage, when an array of factors can signal that a pregnancy is not progressing.

An embryo might fail to develop. Cardiac activity may not emerge when it should. Hormone levels might dip or bleeding might increase. Even if a doctor strongly suspects a miscarriage is underway, it can take weeks to conclusively document that a pregnancy has ended, and all the while, a patient might be losing blood.

Some OB-GYNs and emergency room physicians have long been advising patients to complete their miscarriage at home, especially at Catholic hospitals, even if that is not the standard of care. But now, physicians across the state are faced with a law that threatens up to 99 years in prison, and more are making a new calculus around whether to intervene or even tell patients they are likely miscarrying, said Dr. Anitra Beasley, an OB-GYN in Houston. “What ends up happening is patients have to present multiple times before a diagnosis can be made,” she added, and some of those patients wind up needing blood transfusions.

While they can be lifesaving, transfusions do not stop the bleeding, experts told ProPublica, and they can introduce complications, such as severe allergic reactions, autoimmune disorders or, in rare events, blood cancer. The dangers of hemorrhage are far greater, from organ failure to kidney damage to loss of sensation in the fingers and toes. “There’s a finite amount of blood,” said Dr. Sarah Prager, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington. “And when it all comes out, you’re dead.”

ProPublica’s findings about the rise in blood transfusions make clear that women who experience early miscarriages in abortion ban states are living in a more dangerous medical climate than many believe, said Amanda Nagle, a doctoral student investigating the same blood transfusion data for a forthcoming paper in the American Journal of Public Health.

“If people are seeking care at an emergency department,” Nagle said, “there are serious health risks to delaying that care.”

In some clinics and hospitals across Texas, the pressure to definitively diagnose a miscarriage has led to delays in offering D&Cs.

Considering the chance of criminal prosecution, some doctors now default to what many pregnancy loss experts view as an overly cautious method for diagnosing miscarriage: ultrasound images alone, using criteria from the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound. Relying only on images to diagnose — and discounting other factors, like lab results or clinical symptoms — can take days or even weeks.

Dr. Gabrielle Taper was a resident at a Catholic hospital in Austin when the ban was enacted, and a culture of fear took hold among her colleagues, she told ProPublica. “We started asking, ‘Are we certain that we can document that we’ve met the radiology guidelines?’ as opposed to just treating the patient in front of us,” she said.

If they couldn’t show that the likely miscarriage met the criteria, they often felt they had to discharge patients without offering a D&C. “People are already in distress, and you are giving them confusion, a false sense of hope,” she told ProPublica. “Having to send a patient home knowing they may bleed so much they would need a blood transfusion — when I know there are procedures I could do or medicine I could offer — is just excruciating.”

The hospital where she worked did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not recommend this approach, advising doctors instead to review the ultrasound as one piece of information among many and counsel patients on all their options.

The Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound said that the guidelines “are not meant to apply in the setting of a life-threatening situation, such as heavy bleeding,” but did not respond to a question about whether it agreed with ACOG that doctors should use a combination of ultrasound images and clinical judgment to assess a pregnancy loss.

Dr. Courtney A. Schreiber, an obstetrics and gynecology professor and expert in early pregnancy care, said that even if a patient wants to let a likely miscarriage complete at home, the medical team should still explain different management options, including medication to speed up the process or a D&C, should symptoms like bleeding get worse.

“It’s our obligation to share information, help manage expectations and keep women safe,” she said.

What happened to Porsha Ngumezi shows how dangerous it can be to delay care, according to more than a dozen doctors who previously reviewed a detailed summary of her case for ProPublica.

When the mother of two showed up bleeding at Houston Methodist Sugar Land in June 2023, at 11 weeks pregnant, her sonogram suggested an “ongoing miscarriage” was “likely,” her doctor noted. She had no previous ultrasounds to compare it with, and the radiologist did not locate an embryo or fetus — which Ngumezi said she thought she had passed in a toilet; her doctors did not make a definitive diagnosis, calling it a pregnancy of “unknown location.” After hours bleeding, passing “clots the size of grapefruit,” according to a nurse’s notes, she received two blood transfusions — a short-term remedy. But she did not get a procedure to empty her uterus, which medical experts agree is the most effective way to stop the bleeding. Hours later, she died of hemorrhage, leaving behind her husband and young sons.

Doctors and nurses involved in Ngumezi’s care did not respond to multiple requests for comment for ProPublica’s story last fall, and the hospital did not answer questions about her care when asked about it again for this story. A spokesperson from Methodist Hospital said its OB-GYNs follow ACOG’s miscarriage diagnosis guidelines, which recommend considering clinical factors in addition to ultrasounds.

Even in circumstances in which the abortion ban allows a doctor to intervene — to treat a life-threatening emergency, for example, or to “remove a dead, unborn baby” — there’s plenty of evidence, detailed in lawsuits and federal investigations, that doctors in Texas still aren’t offering procedures.

As soon as Sarah De Pablos Velez, a 30-year-old media director, learned she was pregnant last summer, she began attending regular checkups at St. David’s Women’s Care, in Austin. During her third appointment at about nine weeks, a resident, Dr. Carla Vilardo, and her supervisor, Dr. Cynthia Mingea, reviewed the ultrasound, according to medical records, which indicated her pregnancy wasn’t viable. Instead of being offered treatment for a miscarriage, De Pablos Velez says she was advised to hold out hope and come back for the next checkup.

Five maternal health experts and practicing OB-GYNs who reviewed the records for ProPublica said by that ultrasound visit, doctors would have had enough information to determine that the pregnancy wasn’t viable, even under the most conservative guidelines. If they wanted to be extra sure, they could have done blood work or one more ultrasound during that visit.

Instead, De Pablos Velez was told to come back in two weeks, according to medical records. During a visit when she should have been nearly 11 weeks pregnant, Mingea wrote in her chart she was “not optimistic” about the pregnancy's viability. Still, De Pablos Velez was advised to return in another week to be sure.

Within a few days, when the cramping got so bad she could barely walk, De Pablos Velez went to the emergency room at St. David’s Medical Center, unaware that a D&C could stop the pain and the bleeding. “I’ve never researched what it looks like for women who have a miscarriage,” she told ProPublica. “I always thought you go to the bathroom and have a little bit of blood.”

Over two visits to the emergency room, doctors told her that she could complete the miscarriage at home, even as she reported filling up three toilet bowls with blood and a nurse remarked that they needed a janitor to clean the floor, De Pablos Velez and her husband recalled. No obstetrician ever came to assess her condition, according to medical records, and while her hospital chart says “all management options have been discussed with the patient and her husband,” De Pablos Velez and her husband both told ProPublica no one offered her a D&C.

She was told to follow up with her OB at her next appointment in three days. Six hours after discharge, though, she was trying to ride out the pain at home when her husband heard her muttering “lightheaded” in the bathroom and ran to her in time to catch her as she collapsed. “She was pale as a ghost, sweating, convulsing,” said her husband, Sergio De Pablos Velez. “There was blood on the toilet, the trash can — like a scene out of a horror movie.”

An ambulance rushed her to the hospital, where doctors realized she no longer had enough blood flowing to her organs. She received two blood transfusions. Without them, several doctors who reviewed her records told ProPublica, she would have soon lost her life.

Vilardo and the doctors who saw De Pablos Velez in the emergency room did not respond to requests to speak with ProPublica or declined to be interviewed. St. David’s Medical Center, which is owned by HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain in America, said it could not discuss her case unless she signed privacy waivers. The hospital did not respond to ProPublica’s questions even after she submitted them. The De Pablos Velezes say that a hospital patient liaison told them after the ordeal that the hospital would conduct an internal investigation, educate the emergency department on best practices and share the results. It never shared anything. When ProPublica asked about the status of the investigation, neither the liaison nor the hospital responded.

Mingea, who supervised Vilardo’s care during checkups, reviewed the clinic’s records with ProPublica and agreed that De Pablos Velez should have been counseled about miscarriage management options at the clinic, weeks before she ended up in the ER. She said she did not know why she wasn’t but pointed ProPublica to the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound criteria, which is hanging on the clinic’s wall and is used to teach residents.

She was adamant that her clinic, which she described as “very pro-choice — about as much as we can be in Texas,” regularly provides D&Cs for miscarrying patients. “I feel badly that Sarah had this experience, I really do,” she said. “Everybody deserves to be counseled about all their options.”

Doctors had five opportunities to counsel De Pablos Velez about her options and offer her a D&C, said Dr. Jodi Abbott, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine, who reviewed case records. If they had, the life-or-death risks could have been avoided.

De Pablos Velez “basically received the same care Porsha Ngumezi did, only Porsha died and she survived,” said Abbott. “She was lucky.”

Sophie Chou contributed data reporting, and Mariam Elba contributed research.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Andrea Suozzo.

Ellis, bubbly and blonde and smiling behind an enormous pair of shades, is overjoyed to be back on the water after an uncertain winter. It has been nine months since Hurricane Helene ravaged central Appalachia, crumbling highways and roads, leveling forests, and reshaping rivers.

The Pigeon runs through Western North Carolina into the eastern end of Tennessee, roughly parallel to Interstate 40. When the river flooded after Helene, it took huge bites out of the highway, closing it for months and isolating small communities. Debris tumbled into the river, and the crews scrambling to make repairs have replaced sections of riverbank with concrete. Their efforts have been complicated by ongoing flooding and mudslide, creating new scars alongside the old.  

 “The whole thing basically changed,” Ellis said. “It moved major boulders and mountains.”

Ellis possesses an infectiously sunny outlook, even though things have been hard. She lost her home and most of her belongings to Helene and lives in a camper parked in the lot at work. She shares her uncertainty with many thousands of people, especially those who are paid to lead visitors into the beautiful places that make the Great Smoky Mountains so popular. 

As many as 149,000 people in North Carolina alone draw a paycheck related in some way to outdoor recreation, and by one count the seven rivers of the southern Blue Ridge help sustain 68,000 jobs. The Pigeon River provides about $6 million in revenue annually to the rural counties along its banks, and some seven million people visit the French Broad, which flows through Asheville, each year. Rafting is second only to property taxes in the amount of money it brings to Cocke County, Tennessee.

Helene’s disruption of the rafting industry underscores how climate change — and the extreme weather it brings — threatens tourism-dependent economies. A dozen outfitters on the Pigeon, French Broad, and other rivers shut down after the storm and haven’t reopened. Many guides moved on. Those who remain grapple with what Helene wrought, trying to work during a season that, while active, remains well short of its usual vigor.

Those crammed into Ellis’ boat shouted joyfully over the din of roaring rapids, and when the water calmed, guides playfully pushed each other in. Yet everyone was keenly aware of what’s been lost. The patterns of the most popular rapids have shifted. Some vanished, others grew bigger and wilder. In some ways, the Pigeon is a different river. “Stuff will come back eventually but, you know … it’ll probably be a bit,” Ellis said as the boat approached a construction zone.

The bustling work on shore highlighted the dissonance of life on the Pigeon. To the left, the riverbank met a dense and dark mountain forest. To the right, it rose sharply into concrete and gravel shoring up the storm-damaged highway. The sound of singing birds and running water mingled with the rumble of heavy equipment and traffic on Interstate 40. As Ellis’s raft passed the site, she waved. A man in a bulldozer honked a friendly response.

Hurricane Helene made a mess of the Pigeon. Much of the debris the storm knocked loose and the flood carried away choked the waterway, which meanders 70 miles through Pisgah National Forest and drains a watershed of some 700 square miles. Downed trees, vast tangles of brush, even the remains of buildings that once stood along its banks clogged it for months. Although an intrepid rafter or kayaker could run its full length, some of the most popular spots for putting in remain inaccessible.

Other rivers that course through the Smokies saw similar devastation, and uneven recoveries. Some are running clear and strong enough to host rafters, others lag behind. “It’s a story of haves and have nots,” said Kevin Colbourn, executive director of American Whitewater and a river enthusiast himself.

The Pigeon is among those that are open for business but marred by quarrying, riverbank stabilization, and construction. Others, like the French Broad, are ready to ride but businesses along their shores have been washed out. The Nolichucky, which runs 115 miles through North Carolina into Tennessee, is, to Colbourn’s mind, the most tragic. Rafting season is on hold as CSX Transportation rebuilds its rail line through the gorge. A lot of people aren’t happy about that. Guides have watched, aghast, as the company dug rock from the riverbed to shore up the tracks. “‘The river will be there,’ is what people say,” Colbourn said. “What the storm taught us is that’s not always true.”

When the flood swept dozens of businesses away, many guides were left without a reason to return. Others have been hindered by the lugubrious pace of recovery and reconstruction. With nothing else to do, Trey Moore, a kayak instructor and guide in Erwin, Tennessee, turned to activism to get the Nolichucky open again. The river has long kept towns like his alive even as other industries moved on by attracting a steady stream of people who fall in love with the area and settle there to raise families. “We’re a small, tight-knit community,” he said of those who work the rivers.

Moore, a guide for more than 20 years, said many feel a responsibility to their neighbors. During and after the storm, many used their swiftwater rescue skills, and knowledge of the rivers’ contours, to pull people from raging waters. Some hiked for miles up broken roads bringing supplies to isolated elders. Others administered first aid and guided helicopters and first responders to those needing help. They saved lives.

That overwhelming feeling of purpose has since given way to worry. Guiding people down a river is by most accounts incredibly fun for people who love it, but it can also be an unstable way to earn a living. It’s a dangerous seasonal gig, it doesn’t pay all that well, and it rarely comes with benefits. Many who do it live in communal housing or mobile homes. So when the jobs vanished, a lot of them left. “We’ve lost so many guides to so many other rivers,” Moore said. “The guides that are sticking around are struggling.”

Moore is outraged by how CSX is handling reconstruction of the railroad and feels agencies like the U.S. Forest Service have backburnered people like him. As someone who loves the river, and as chairman of the Nolichucky River Outdoor Association, he feels a responsibility to help restore the paddling community to glory. In the meantime, a lot of guides are working on debris removal crews clearing the rivers and surrounding areas. Leslie Beninato is among them. She worked as a guide and owned a small boat rental business before Helene. “Both places do not exist anymore,” she said. “It was just, ‘Oh God, what am I going to do now?’” 

These days she leads crews picking trash off the banks of the French Broad. The only requirement is that anyone joining her must have lost their job to Helene. Most worked in rafting or other river-related industries. Some of them have cleared away remnants of their own workplaces.

Beninato is in her late thirties, and has lived in the mountains of western North Carolina since graduating from Appalachian State University 20 years ago. Unlike some of the younger, greener guides, she’s settled enough to feel stubborn about staying. “To look at the positives of it, how our community came together, that’s one of the reasons why I love the Appalachian mountains,” she said. “I’ve chosen to make these mountains my home because they mean so much to me and they really captured my heart.”

She spoke while paddling across the river, wearing gloves, waders, and a sun hat. Her small canoe carried a pile of trash bags and some trash grabbers; the sun was hot, and mounds of silt covered the tangled riverbanks where trees and businesses once stood. “Just a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, but then everyone else was in that same boat,” she said, jumping out of hers into waist-deep water. 

A few months after the storm, she started exploring the river and grabbing trash, keeping Excel spreadsheets detailing what she found and where, and what more needed to be removed. That work turned into the crew, and the possibility of something more permanent as destructive storms continue to wreak havoc on the mountains. Things are OK for now, she said, yanking a few pieces of twisted metal out of the brush. Besides, she’s used to improvising. All guides are. “That’s what you have to do in outdoor scenarios,” she said. “You have to think, ‘All right, well here’s plan A, how we think and we want things to go. Here’s plan B, if it doesn’t really go this way, then, oh crap, here’s plan C, if plan A and B just got thrown out the window.’”

Earlier this month, just as rafting season was getting in swing, the Pigeon’s wounds reopened. Four inches of rain doused western North Carolina, causing a rockslide on Interstate 40 and washing construction equipment into the river. All but the lowest reaches of the waterway is closed to rafting, and several put-in spots washed out.

Even before the water started to recede, raft guides once again piled into their boats to rescue neighbors, then set to work mucking out damaged houses and businesses. It was another blow to an industry, and a community, that is, in the words of one young guide, “getting some PTSD from the flood in September.”

As best as Heather Ellis can tell, no more than half the rafting companies in the Cocke County area have managed to reopen since Helene,, and some may not come back at all. She feels like one of the lucky ones, even if she is living in a camper until her new home is built.

After that May day on the Pigeon, she and two guide friends relaxed in front of her RV, watching the next group of lifejacket-clad tourists prepare to set out. Ellis started working here eight years ago, when she was 20, long enough that it started feeling like home. She recalled the moment her boyfriend called her to say Helene had taken their house. “It was heartbreaking,” she said.

In the months since, Ellis has found solace in growing more connected to the community, helping people rebuild, and getting to know the Pigeon River in its new form — exciting and frightening in equal measure. For Ellis and other guides, the only constant is the way these rivers change. 

“It kind of made me feel like a rookie again, cause I had to read water,” Ellis said. “That’s what we say when we’re just kind of seeing where the path needs to be, how we’re going to navigate down the river.”

Gerard Albert III contributed reporting to this story.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A year after Helene, river guides in Appalachia are navigating a new world on Jun 27, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Katie Myers.

Ellis, bubbly and blonde and smiling behind an enormous pair of shades, is overjoyed to be back on the water after an uncertain winter. It has been nine months since Hurricane Helene ravaged central Appalachia, crumbling highways and roads, leveling forests, and reshaping rivers.

The Pigeon runs through Western North Carolina into the eastern end of Tennessee, roughly parallel to Interstate 40. When the river flooded after Helene, it took huge bites out of the highway, closing it for months and isolating small communities. Debris tumbled into the river, and the crews scrambling to make repairs have replaced sections of riverbank with concrete. Their efforts have been complicated by ongoing flooding and mudslide, creating new scars alongside the old.  

 “The whole thing basically changed,” Ellis said. “It moved major boulders and mountains.”

Ellis possesses an infectiously sunny outlook, even though things have been hard. She lost her home and most of her belongings to Helene and lives in a camper parked in the lot at work. She shares her uncertainty with many thousands of people, especially those who are paid to lead visitors into the beautiful places that make the Great Smoky Mountains so popular. 

As many as 149,000 people in North Carolina alone draw a paycheck related in some way to outdoor recreation, and by one count the seven rivers of the southern Blue Ridge help sustain 68,000 jobs. The Pigeon River provides about $6 million in revenue annually to the rural counties along its banks, and some seven million people visit the French Broad, which flows through Asheville, each year. Rafting is second only to property taxes in the amount of money it brings to Cocke County, Tennessee.

Helene’s disruption of the rafting industry underscores how climate change — and the extreme weather it brings — threatens tourism-dependent economies. A dozen outfitters on the Pigeon, French Broad, and other rivers shut down after the storm and haven’t reopened. Many guides moved on. Those who remain grapple with what Helene wrought, trying to work during a season that, while active, remains well short of its usual vigor.

Those crammed into Ellis’ boat shouted joyfully over the din of roaring rapids, and when the water calmed, guides playfully pushed each other in. Yet everyone was keenly aware of what’s been lost. The patterns of the most popular rapids have shifted. Some vanished, others grew bigger and wilder. In some ways, the Pigeon is a different river. “Stuff will come back eventually but, you know … it’ll probably be a bit,” Ellis said as the boat approached a construction zone.

The bustling work on shore highlighted the dissonance of life on the Pigeon. To the left, the riverbank met a dense and dark mountain forest. To the right, it rose sharply into concrete and gravel shoring up the storm-damaged highway. The sound of singing birds and running water mingled with the rumble of heavy equipment and traffic on Interstate 40. As Ellis’s raft passed the site, she waved. A man in a bulldozer honked a friendly response.

Hurricane Helene made a mess of the Pigeon. Much of the debris the storm knocked loose and the flood carried away choked the waterway, which meanders 70 miles through Pisgah National Forest and drains a watershed of some 700 square miles. Downed trees, vast tangles of brush, even the remains of buildings that once stood along its banks clogged it for months. Although an intrepid rafter or kayaker could run its full length, some of the most popular spots for putting in remain inaccessible.

Other rivers that course through the Smokies saw similar devastation, and uneven recoveries. Some are running clear and strong enough to host rafters, others lag behind. “It’s a story of haves and have nots,” said Kevin Colbourn, executive director of American Whitewater and a river enthusiast himself.

The Pigeon is among those that are open for business but marred by quarrying, riverbank stabilization, and construction. Others, like the French Broad, are ready to ride but businesses along their shores have been washed out. The Nolichucky, which runs 115 miles through North Carolina into Tennessee, is, to Colbourn’s mind, the most tragic. Rafting season is on hold as CSX Transportation rebuilds its rail line through the gorge. A lot of people aren’t happy about that. Guides have watched, aghast, as the company dug rock from the riverbed to shore up the tracks. “‘The river will be there,’ is what people say,” Colbourn said. “What the storm taught us is that’s not always true.”

When the flood swept dozens of businesses away, many guides were left without a reason to return. Others have been hindered by the lugubrious pace of recovery and reconstruction. With nothing else to do, Trey Moore, a kayak instructor and guide in Erwin, Tennessee, turned to activism to get the Nolichucky open again. The river has long kept towns like his alive even as other industries moved on by attracting a steady stream of people who fall in love with the area and settle there to raise families. “We’re a small, tight-knit community,” he said of those who work the rivers.

Moore, a guide for more than 20 years, said many feel a responsibility to their neighbors. During and after the storm, many used their swiftwater rescue skills, and knowledge of the rivers’ contours, to pull people from raging waters. Some hiked for miles up broken roads bringing supplies to isolated elders. Others administered first aid and guided helicopters and first responders to those needing help. They saved lives.

That overwhelming feeling of purpose has since given way to worry. Guiding people down a river is by most accounts incredibly fun for people who love it, but it can also be an unstable way to earn a living. It’s a dangerous seasonal gig, it doesn’t pay all that well, and it rarely comes with benefits. Many who do it live in communal housing or mobile homes. So when the jobs vanished, a lot of them left. “We’ve lost so many guides to so many other rivers,” Moore said. “The guides that are sticking around are struggling.”

Moore is outraged by how CSX is handling reconstruction of the railroad and feels agencies like the U.S. Forest Service have backburnered people like him. As someone who loves the river, and as chairman of the Nolichucky River Outdoor Association, he feels a responsibility to help restore the paddling community to glory. In the meantime, a lot of guides are working on debris removal crews clearing the rivers and surrounding areas. Leslie Beninato is among them. She worked as a guide and owned a small boat rental business before Helene. “Both places do not exist anymore,” she said. “It was just, ‘Oh God, what am I going to do now?’” 

These days she leads crews picking trash off the banks of the French Broad. The only requirement is that anyone joining her must have lost their job to Helene. Most worked in rafting or other river-related industries. Some of them have cleared away remnants of their own workplaces.

Beninato is in her late thirties, and has lived in the mountains of western North Carolina since graduating from Appalachian State University 20 years ago. Unlike some of the younger, greener guides, she’s settled enough to feel stubborn about staying. “To look at the positives of it, how our community came together, that’s one of the reasons why I love the Appalachian mountains,” she said. “I’ve chosen to make these mountains my home because they mean so much to me and they really captured my heart.”

She spoke while paddling across the river, wearing gloves, waders, and a sun hat. Her small canoe carried a pile of trash bags and some trash grabbers; the sun was hot, and mounds of silt covered the tangled riverbanks where trees and businesses once stood. “Just a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, but then everyone else was in that same boat,” she said, jumping out of hers into waist-deep water. 

A few months after the storm, she started exploring the river and grabbing trash, keeping Excel spreadsheets detailing what she found and where, and what more needed to be removed. That work turned into the crew, and the possibility of something more permanent as destructive storms continue to wreak havoc on the mountains. Things are OK for now, she said, yanking a few pieces of twisted metal out of the brush. Besides, she’s used to improvising. All guides are. “That’s what you have to do in outdoor scenarios,” she said. “You have to think, ‘All right, well here’s plan A, how we think and we want things to go. Here’s plan B, if it doesn’t really go this way, then, oh crap, here’s plan C, if plan A and B just got thrown out the window.’”

Earlier this month, just as rafting season was getting in swing, the Pigeon’s wounds reopened. Four inches of rain doused western North Carolina, causing a rockslide on Interstate 40 and washing construction equipment into the river. All but the lowest reaches of the waterway is closed to rafting, and several put-in spots washed out.

Even before the water started to recede, raft guides once again piled into their boats to rescue neighbors, then set to work mucking out damaged houses and businesses. It was another blow to an industry, and a community, that is, in the words of one young guide, “getting some PTSD from the flood in September.”

As best as Heather Ellis can tell, no more than half the rafting companies in the Cocke County area have managed to reopen since Helene,, and some may not come back at all. She feels like one of the lucky ones, even if she is living in a camper until her new home is built.

After that May day on the Pigeon, she and two guide friends relaxed in front of her RV, watching the next group of lifejacket-clad tourists prepare to set out. Ellis started working here eight years ago, when she was 20, long enough that it started feeling like home. She recalled the moment her boyfriend called her to say Helene had taken their house. “It was heartbreaking,” she said.

In the months since, Ellis has found solace in growing more connected to the community, helping people rebuild, and getting to know the Pigeon River in its new form — exciting and frightening in equal measure. For Ellis and other guides, the only constant is the way these rivers change. 

“It kind of made me feel like a rookie again, cause I had to read water,” Ellis said. “That’s what we say when we’re just kind of seeing where the path needs to be, how we’re going to navigate down the river.”

Gerard Albert III contributed reporting to this story.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A year after Helene, river guides in Appalachia are navigating a new world on Jun 27, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Katie Myers.

Figueredo refused to comply with a June 23 police summons, reviewed by CPJ. On that same day she received three private number phone calls warning her that a police investigation had been opened against her and Correa for “dangerousness,” the journalists told CPJ. On June 16, a local police officer parked outside the journalists’ home told them that they weren’t allowed to leave in an incident witnessed by others in the neighborhood.

“The Cuban government must halt its harassment of journalists Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa, and allow them to continue their work with the community media outlet, Amanecer Habanero,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Reporters should not be threatened into silence with legal orders.” 

Cuba’s private media companies have come under increased scrutiny from a new communication law banning all unapproved, non-state media and prohibiting them from receiving international funding and foreign training.

Amanecer Habanero is a member of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP), a network of six community media outlets, which has strongly condemned the actions of Cuban authorities against Figueredo, who became director of the outlet earlier this year.

In a statement, ICLEP said Figueredo has been the victim of an escalating campaign of intimidation by Cuban law enforcement, including verbal threats by state security agents; permanent police surveillance without a court order; restriction of her freedom of movement; psychological intimidation against her family; and police summonses without legal basis in connection with her work denouncing government.

Cuba’s private media companies have come under increased threat from a new communication law banning all unapproved, non-state media and prohibiting them from receiving international funding and foreign training.

Cuban authorities did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

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

As ICE increases its raids on immigrant communities, footage of the arrest of one man, Narciso Barranco, shows seven federal agents — all masked — pinning the 48-year old gardener to the ground and repeatedly punching him in the head before pushing him into an unmarked vehicle. His son, Marine veteran Alejandro Barranco, recently visited him in an ICE detention center. “He looked beat up, he looked rough, he looked defeated. He was sad. It’s just not right,” he says.

Barranco, whose three children have all served in the U.S. military, was arrested while working as a landscaper at an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana. “We are seeing an extreme abuse of power on the screens of our phones,” says Santa Ana councilmember John Hernandez, who adds that Barranco is a “hardworking Santa Ana resident of over three decades, who has raised three children who have all decided to sacrifice their freedom for this country that we love.”

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

In Gaza, at least 41 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since midnight, including more Palestinians targeted by Israeli forces while seeking food and humanitarian aid. This comes as UNICEF is warning Gaza is facing what amounts to a “man-made drought” with children at risk of dying from thirst due to Israel’s blockade. We go to Dr. Mark Brauner, an emergency medicine physician who is currently volunteering at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. He describes “execution-style” killings of Palestinians at food distribution sites and the desperate lack of baby formula leading to the deaths of children suffering from malnutrition and starvation.

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

Several users shared visuals of a blood-filled road and remarked sarcastically, “This isn’t Bangladesh or Pakistan…” Some stated that parts of Kolkata resembled “scenes from Bangladesh”. The posts also claimed that the visuals were from Ward 44 in Kolkata. (Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4)

BJP leader Sajal Ghosh who represents Ward No. 50 in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), also shared the video on Facebook and claimed that it was from the Bhawani Dutta Lane and Neel Madhab Sen Lane areas of Bowbazar. In the post, He also urged ‘urban, smart, ultramodern seculars’ to wake up unless they wanted the same picture to emerge from their localities within four-five years.

On the same day, the X handle of the West Bengal Police Cyber Crime Wing shared a related fact check. It picked up a Facebook post from a user named Nepal Saha, which contained six photos of purported Eid celebrations in Kolkata, and labelled them as fake. One of these photos is a screenshot from the viral video. The fact check claimed that the photos originated in Bangladesh, with a 2016 post from Dhaka cited as the source. However, the viral video screengrab is not part of the 2016 post, and only two of the five others flagged as fake can actually be traced back to it. (Archive)

A disturbing image falsely linked to Kolkata post-Eid is actually from Dhaka, 2016, after Eid-ul-Adha and heavy rain. It has no connection to West Bengal.#factcheckthetruth#factcheck#Bangladesh#WestBengal pic.twitter.com/SVSPwxr748

— Fact Check : The Truth (@t20274) June 8, 2025

Taking a cue from Sajal Ghosh’s Facebook post, Alt News was able to precisely identify the spot featured in the viral clip. Bhawani Dutta Lane and Neel Madhab Sen Lane are two narrow streets near the College Street — Mahatma Gandhi Road crossing, stones throw from the Presidency University. We visited the site and shot a video that shows the same area that is seen in the  viral clip. 

The business establishments visible toward the end of the footage all carry Kolkata addresses. (Outlined in red in the screengrabs below)

Key landmarks visible in the viral video — including a distinct red-coloured house, a grey coloured building with light blue stripes, and a black car — can be seen in the Alt News video as well. The grey building houses the historical and current sections of the West Bengal state archives and bears the address: 6, Bhawani Dutta Lane.  

These elements have also been highlighted below:

Have Never Seen Streets Turn Red Like this Before: Locals

To understand what transpired, we spoke to several locals. They recounted that on the intervening night of June 6 and June 7, the area experienced heavy rainfall resulting in severe waterlogging. On Saturday, June 7, morning, the ritual of qurbani (animal sacrifice) was carried out in keeping with religious tradition, local residents observed.

With the lanes being already waterlogged from the overnight rain, blood from the animal sacrifices mixed with the stagnant rainwater. Locals themselves came forward to manually clear the drains before the intervention of the civic body.

Alt News spoke to a local shop owner, Rajesh, who said he had lived and worked in the neighbourhood for over four decades. He told us that he had never witnessed anything like this before. 

“I’ve been living and working in this neighbourhood for over 40 years, and I’ve never witnessed anything like this. The area indeed gets waterlogged whenever it rains, and the ritual of qurbani is performed here every year. But this is the first time I’ve seen such a scene — it was truly unprecedented.” Rajesh also confirmed that the video shows his locality and is from last Saturday.

The same information was corroborated by another shop owner from the area who told  us that he had been in business there for around five to seven years and “had never seen anything like it.” “The water was red and there was a pungent smell”, he told us.

To further corroborate the events, we spoke to another family that had been residing there for over 60 years. They told us that in all their time living there, they had never witnessed such a disturbing sight. According to them, waterlogging is a recurring issue whenever it rains — and Friday was no exception. That evening, the area experienced heavy rainfall, which led to water accumulation due to clogged drains. “I was born and brought up here. In my lifetime, this was the first time I had witnessed something like this. Yes, the streets get waterlogged after a heavy shower. And on Friday, we experienced a heavy rainfall, which led to the accumulation of water.”

“Even at around 7 am, the water was clear, and likely after an hour, it turned red. Yes, it was accompanied by foul odour,” members of the household told Alt News. they did not want to be named. The time of the water turning red was corroborated by two other witnesses. 

When asked whether the ritual of qurbani is practised every year on Eid al-adah, the family said, “Yes, but it has never affected the neighbours in any manner.” They also observed that a few local residents took the initiative to clear the clogged drains using sticks in an attempt to improve the situation. Shortly after these efforts, municipal workers arrived, cleaned the affected area, and restored normalcy. “We saw a few locals trying to unclog the drains with sticks. And later the municipality intervened and cleared it up.”

Kamal Pandit, a priest at a nearby temple, repeated the same point — that this was unprecedented. “I have been working here for the past six years. In this span, I have never seen a filthy sight like this. Whenever it rains, the area gets waterlogged, but I have never seen it turn red. It was cleared up in the afternoon.”

To sum up, Alt News’ on-ground investigation confirmed that the viral video was indeed authentic and were filmed in Kolkata. On the night of June 6 (Friday), the city witnessed heavy rain in certain areas, including Bhawani Dutta Lane in central Kolkata. As a result, following the Qurbani (sacrificial) ritual on Bakri Eid the next day, the already waterlogged lanes turned red, possibly due to contamination with animal blood. However, the X handle of Bengal police’s cyber crime wing issued an inaccurate fact-check of a Facebook post carrying a screenshot from the same video, incorrectly claiming that it was from Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2016.

This story will be updated if we receive a response from the cyber cell of police.

The post Waterlogged Kolkata street did turn red after Eid qurbani: Alt News ground report rebuts police cyber cell’s denial appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

Kia ora koutou, 

I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.

At least 16 killed by Israeli airstrike on al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. 92 killed across Gaza in total, a significant number while seeking aid. 15 months after the shocking “flour massacre”, Israeli forces are now committing daily massacres against Gazan residents desperately seeking food due to Israel’s policy of forced starvation. These ongoing war crimes have been met with indifference, justification, and ongoing impunity from global leaders.

Jerusalem’s Old City markets remain closed for the seventh consecutive day after restrictions were imposed under the pretext of “wartime emergency”. Meanwhile, across the besieged West Bank the occupation forces continue demolishing homes in Tulkarm and Jenin refugee camps, where more than 40,000 residents have been displaced by Israel’s months-long “military operation”.

Israeli soldiers occupying houses south of Jenin as military barracks, embedding themselves among Palestinian civilians as they have for several days in Al Khalil/Hebron.

Around two-dozen young men detained in Asakra village south-east of Bethlehem, and several more in Laban village, south of Nablus. A young man, Moataz, 22, was executed by Israeli forces in his home village of Wolja west of Bethlehem. Movement of ambulances has been affected by gasoline shortages in Bethlehem. Forces invaded Plata camp in East Nablus for the second day in a row.

*

Israel bombed the outskirts of Shabaa town, in southern Lebanon, yet another violation of ceasefire agreements.

*

An Iranian missile hit Beersheba’s Soroka hospital in southern Israel last night, with no resulting casualties — Iran claiming it targeted a nearby military site. Outrage at the war crime has highlighted widespread double-standards across Israeli society and globally. Israeli forces have destroyed, bombed, or damaged 38 hospitals in Gaza over their 20-month genocidal war on the enclave, with the World Health Organisation recording around 700 attacks on Gazan healthcare facilities in that same period. Israeli residents have erected tents, transforming an underground parking lot into a bomb shelter.

*

Several more retaliatory volleys of Iranian missiles targeted the Israeli territories throughout the day, as heavy Israeli assaults continued on Iranian territories. Israel’s reported death toll has risen to 24, with Iran’s rising to 639.

Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

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

The Democratic primary for the seat representing part of metro Atlanta on the Georgia Public Service Commission appears to be headed to a runoff. In the other competitive race in this week’s PSC primaries, Republican incumbent Tim Echols won his party’s primary in district two in east Georgia.

The commission oversees utilities, including Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric provider and a subsidiary of one of the largest utilities in the country. The PSC commissioners have final say over Georgia Power’s plans and rates – meaning they make decisions that affect millions of Georgia households’ finances, as well as how the state responds to climate change. 

State utility commissioners across the country have a substantial impact on climate action because they oversee electric utilities and have final say over how those utilities generate energy — one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. 

In states like Georgia, where monopoly utilities dominate, the power of commissioners is magnified.

This year’s election came with more scrutiny than usual because it was the first election in five years and in that time Georgia Power bills to the consumer have increased repeatedly with the current commission’s approval. It was also the only statewide race on Georgia’s ballot this year. 

Two of the five seats on the commission are on the ballot this year.

No Democrat got 50 percent of the vote in the crowded race for the party’s nomination in district three, the one representing metro Atlanta.

Top vote-getters Peter Hubbard, an energy advocate, and Keisha Sean Waites, a former state lawmaker, will compete in a runoff election scheduled for July 15. 

The winner will face Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson in November, who was unopposed in the primary.

In district two, located in east Georgia,  Echols defeated challenger Lee Muns in the Republican primary. In the general election, he’ll face Democrat Alicia Johnson, a community advocate with a background in nonprofit work, who had no opposition in the primary.

This race is the first PSC election in Georgia in years, after a voting rights lawsuit delayed two election cycles. 

Three commissioners – Echols, Fitz Johnson and Tricia Pridemore – continue to vote on critical decisions about Georgia Power’s rates and energy plans despite not facing voters as originally scheduled. Pridemore will be up for reelection next year.

The PSC has signed off as Georgia Power bills have gone up six times in the past few years. 

Next week, commissioners will consider a proposed freeze on raising rates further, though the plan carves out the potential for a bill increase next year to cover damage from Hurricane Helene. 

The commission is also currently considering Georgia Power’s long-term energy plan as the utility looks to pause plans to close coal-fired power plants, make upgrades to nuclear and hydropower facilities, build more solar farms and upgrade energy infrastructure.  

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline In Georgia, a runoff looms for Democrats after primary results for public utility commission seat on Jun 18, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Emily Jones.

The main suspect – a man in his 30s who stabbed Akaravong three times in the throat and torso on Saturday – was arrested on Tuesday in Nîmes, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the city of Pau, Pau public prosecutor Rodolphe Jarry said in a statement on Wednesday. The suspects were not named.

Akaravong was rushed to a hospital in Pau in critical condition after the attack. His condition has since stabilized, Jarry told French media.

The public prosecutor’s office in Pau has launched an investigation into what they are referring to as an “attempted assassination.” Authorities did not confirm if the attack was politically motivated at this time, reported France’s Le Monde.

Human rights advocates say the attack fits a broader pattern of targeting activists abroad. Rights group Manushya Foundation described the attack as an example of “transnational repression.”

“The attack on Joseph is part of a dangerous and escalating pattern, in which authoritarian regimes continue to monitor, pressure, and even harm activists across borders,” the foundation said in a statement.

Akaravong, one of the most prominent critics of the communist government in Laos, fled the Southeast Asian nation in 2018 after criticizing the collapse of a saddle dam at the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu province that killed dozens of villagers. He was granted political asylum in France in March 2022, the foundation said.

According to the Manushya Foundation, Akaravong was attacked while he was meeting with another Lao woman activist who had recently traveled to France after completing a five-year prison sentence in Laos last September for her criticism of the government on Facebook.

The foundation did not name the woman activist, but last September, Houayheuang Xayabouly was freed from prison in southern Laos. She was arrested in September 2019 after she criticized the government on Facebook for delaying a flood rescue effort.

In recent years, other Lao activists have gone missing or faced violence both inside Laos and outside the country, typically in neighboring Thailand.

The Pau public prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to RFA’s request for comments.

Written by Tenzin Pema. Edited by Mat Pennington.

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

New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested outside an immigration courtroom Tuesday. Lander has been volunteering as an observer and escort for people with immigration hearings in recent weeks. In this case, while accompanying a man named Edgardo, a group of ICE agents approached the two men, who were walking arm in arm. Lander asked repeatedly to see a judicial warrant before being handcuffed and detained. Lander was later released after New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the arrest and visited New York City to lobby for his release. Five other mayoral candidates also condemned Lander’s arrest, although current Mayor Eric Adams has stayed silent. Adams “has sold this city out to Donald Trump to try to get his own pardon,” says Lander. “Let’s be clear: It’s only himself he cares about, and he is putting New York’s immigrants in harm’s way.”

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

In the video, added below, he says: “Today, I am here to announce that I will be banning the production of all Teslas in the United States of America, effective immediately. As everyone knows, Elon stabbed me in the back a few days ago, and lied about my involvement in the Epstein files, so I can’t have that snake Elon making money in the country while I’m president. No one likes Tesla anyway unless you’re a nerd. They catch fire and break down easily, so it’s definitely not the best electric car out there.” He also adds that he bought a Tesla to get Elon Musk’s support for the election, but he now plans to sell for $69, because that’s what it’s worth.

The dramatic feud between Musk and Trump had led to a full-blown war of words on social media in the first week of June. A few days after his exit from the White House on May 28, Musk called the bill a ‘disgusting abomination’ and claimed it would significantly add to the country’s debt. He even called for the President’s impeachment and linked him to the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on X, which he later deleted. Meanwhile, Trump maintains that Musk’s opposition is primarily owing to the proposed elimination of tax credits for electric vehicles in the bill, which would impact Tesla’s business.   

X users @Shamsher__Ali, @ExSecular and @zakayonoel37, among others, shared the video between June 8 and 9.

Fact Check

Alt News found no credible news reports on any such announcement by Trump, which raised doubts regarding the authenticity of the video.

A closer look at the viral video also revealed discrepancies between the audio and Trump’s lip movements. Besides that, we also noticed the American national flag pin on Trump’s suit was inverted and a watermark of “@DANGEROUSAIRETURNS” on the right.

A quick search for @DANGEROUSAIRETURNS led us to an Instagram account with the same username. We found the viral video uploaded by this account on June 8, 2025. A closer look at content uploaded by this account indicates that it often shares AI-generated parody content.

We also found a YouTube channel by the same username. The channel’s description clearly says it creates parody content using AI voice-overs.

We also ran the video through HIVE’s AI detection tool. According to this, there is a 99.8% likelihood that the audio in the viral video was AI-generated.

To sum up, an AI-generated video of Donald Trump, in which he sounds a ban on the production of Tesla cars, is being shared as an actual announcement by the US President. At the time of writing this, no such ban has been announced.

The post Did Trump ban production of Tesla in US after fallout with Musk? No, viral video is AI-generated appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

“Alistair Kitchen’s deportation is a clear case of retaliation in connection with his reporting, and such action sends a chilling message to journalists that they must support the administration’s narratives or face forms of retribution,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Foreign media operating on U.S. soil are covered by First Amendment protections, and it is incumbent upon U.S. officials—from Customs and Border Patrol to the White House—to allow journalists to do their jobs and travel freely without fear of reprisal.”

Kitchen said he left Melbourne for New York on June 12 and was detained for 12 hours by US Customs and Border Protection officials during a layover in Los Angeles after being pulled aside for secondary screening. Kitchen told The Guardian that he was questioned in connection with his reporting on the pro-Palestinian Columbia student protests, which he published on his personal blog, Kitchen Counter.

Kitchen, who moved back to Australia from New York in 2024, said that interrogators asked him about his views on a one-state, versus two-state solution in relation to Israel and Palestine.

Earlier this year, CPJ issued its first-ever travel advisory for journalists entering the United States, which includes warnings about searches of electronic devices.

During the first Trump administration, CPJ published a report on the press freedom challenges posed by the U.S. border agency’s stop-and-search powers at the border.  

CPJ emailed the Customs and Border Patrol office in southern California but did not immediately receive a reply. 

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

On Thursday, North Korea held a formal launch ceremony for the repaired naval destroyer named ‘Kang Kon’ at the Rajin dockyard, 45 miles (72 kilometers) up the coast from Chongjin shipyard where the warship on May 21 fell sideways into the sea, leaving it partially submerged.

“The warship was safely raised and floated in just two weeks since the accident occurred, and complete restoration was completed ahead of the Central Committee of the Party (meeting) as planned,” Kim said, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim – who had attended the failed May 21 launch attempt and angrily called it a “serious criminal act” and a “grave unacceptable accident” – had ordered the vessel be fully restored before a key ruling party meeting later this month.

(KCNA via Reuters)

But on Thursday, a beaming Kim – wearing a wide straw hat and accompanied by his daughter Kim Ju-ae – praised the successful restoration at the launch ceremony that was celebrated with much pomp and glory, saying “truly great lessons” had been learnt in the process, according to KCNA.

The rushed ‘restoration’ and relaunch underscores Kim’s determination to project naval strength despite technical setbacks, as he pushes to expand maritime capabilities that could “be fully projected in any necessary waters without limitation,” as he had warned earlier this year.

Kim said a plan to build two additional 5,000-ton destroyers next year had been recently approved, signaling North Korea’s continued focus on strengthening its naval power.

North Korea defied skeptics about its ability to salvage the Kang Kon after the initial botched launch, but within two weeks, satellite imagery showed it had been righted and then towed for repairs at Rajin, which lies in the northeastern part of the country, near the Russian and Chinese borders.

(Maxar Technology via AP)

On Friday, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which manages inter-Korean relations, said no visible defects were seen in the destroyer’s appearance but added that continued monitoring is needed to determine whether it is functioning normally.

“Attention is being paid to whether a live-fire test of the ship’s weapons will be conducted immediately after the launch ceremony to assert that the destroyer is still in good condition,” the South Korean ministry said.

“If major equipment is submerged or damaged, it may take a long time to restore to its original condition,” it added.

(KCNA via Reuters)

Analysts said there was no clear evidence at the launch ceremony that the Kang Kon is fully operational.

“The North Korean version of the anti-ship Spike missiles that were loaded on the Choe Hyon are not visible on the Kang Kon,” said South Korean lawmaker and former defense journalist Yoo Yong-won, referring to another 5,000-ton destroyer that North Korea unveiled in April.

“It is highly likely that the warship was launched after only the exterior was hastily restored… (and) without some of its equipment loaded due to the damage from the accident,” he added.

Written by Tenzin Pema. Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Han Do-hyung for RFA Korean.

Cambodia also closed the Doung international border crossing point, known as Ban Laem on the Thai side, after Thailand had cut its operating hours there by half. The move left dozens of Thai cargo trucks stranded at the border.

The actions marked a deepening of a bilateral spat after a Cambodian soldier died in a clash on May 28, the latest episode in a long-running dispute over the demarcation of the 800-kilometer (500-mile) Thai-Cambodia border.

The two sides are holding talks Saturday in Phnom Penh at a Joint Boundary Commission meeting. While Cambodia will be represented by a minister, the Thai side is led by a former ambassador.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet posted on Facebook that as of Friday, the country was disconnecting all internet bandwidth from Thailand, leaving businesses complaining of slow speeds.

The Cambodian ministries of information and cultures ordered television stations and cinemas to stop airing Thai movies and TV series. The Khmer Boxing Federation instructed all television stations and boxing arenas to cancel all scheduled matches involving Thai fighters, both male and female.

(Hun Sen via Facebook)

Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is Hun Manet’s father, posted on Facebook that the closure of the Doung border checkpoint was blocking exports of Thai jackfruit heading via Cambodia to Vietnam. He urged Thai farmers to protest against the Thai military.

“Cambodia will only reopen this gate when all border checkpoints - unilaterally closed by the Thai military - are restored to mutual coordination as before,” Hun Sen wrote.

He also ordered all armed forces to be on 24-hour combat readiness in case of aggression, and instructed provincial governors along the border to prepare evacuation plans for civilians.

Thailand: Cambodia has misunderstood

On Friday, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said that Cambodia has misunderstood the situation and incorrectly believes the Thai government plans to cut electricity and internet services to border areas of Cambodia, Khaosod English, a Thai news portal, reported.

She emphasized this is not the case and has instructed the Foreign Ministry to clarify the matter with Cambodian counterparts.

Thailand reiterated Thursday that it wants to resolve the border dispute bilaterally, and does not support Cambodia’s intention to involve the International Court of Justice. Bangkok says it does not recognize the compulsory jurisdiction of The Hague-based court.

(Royal Thai Government via AFP)

The border dispute, which has historical roots, stirs nationalist sentiment on both sides. Cambodia is calling for the U.N. court to rule on the demarcation of the border at three ancient Khmer temples - Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch and Ta Krabei - and at an area near to where the May 28 shootout happened where the borders of Cambodia, Thailand and Laos meet.

The last time there was a serious and bloody flare-up in tensions at the border was between 2008 and 2011, over a disputed 11th century temple at Preah Vihear. The International Court of Justice has granted sovereignty over the temple to Cambodia.

(Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP)

On Friday, social media posts and news media reporting showed long queues of pedestrians at the main border Thai-Cambodia crossing at Aranyaprathet-Poipet, suggesting some of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand were traveling home.

One Cambodian worker in Thailand’s central province of Rayong told Radio Free Asia that some workers are returning to Cambodia out of concern for their safety and because of discrimination by Thai nationals at their workplaces.

But the worker, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, added that most Cambodian workers in his area had not yet returned as they were waiting for the outcome of Saturday’s talks. He said that if the situation worsens, they will return to Cambodia soon.

Translated by Poly Sam. Edited by Mat Pennington.

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

The letter underscores the right of the press to inform the public without fear of assault or injury and calls on Noem to ensure that federal personnel and other institutions under her command refrain from the use of force against members of the press.

A copy of the letter, authored by the First Amendment Coalition, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and the Los Angeles Press Club, can be found here.

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

Janine Jackson interviewed the Revolving Door Project’s Jeff Hauser about DOGE “after” Elon Musk for the June 6, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

USA Today (5/28/25)

Janine Jackson: “A Bruised Musk Leaves Washington,” the New York Times told readers. USA Today said, “Musk Leaves Trump Administration, Capping His Run as Federal Government Slasher.” The Washington Post said “his departure marks the end of a turbulent chapter.”

While most outlets acknowledge that the impacts of Musk’s time as “special government employee” are still in effect, and even that many of the minions he placed are still hard at work, the focus was still very much on the great man—What drives him? What will he do next?—rather than on the structures and systems whose flaws are highlighted by the maneuvers of Musk and the so-called Department Of Government Efficiency.

Our guest says now is not the time to take our eye off the ball. Jeff Hauser is the executive director of the Revolving Door Project. He joins us now by phone. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Jeff Hauser.

Jeff Hauser: Hi, great to be here.

JJ: I feel as though we spoke recently because we spoke recently, but for the press corps, there’s a new story. To imagine, as some headlines suggest, that Elon Musk has packed up his toys and left town, so some kind of chapter has concluded—that’s not just inaccurate, but rather worrisomely so, don’t you think?

JH: Absolutely. Elon Musk brought dozens of people with him to Washington, DC, to government. They were very homogeneous, in the sense that none of them were qualified to work at senior levels of government, and they all were motivated by a hatred for public service and a hatred for government protecting ordinary people from the whims of corporate America.

Politico (3/24/25)

And they remain in government right now. They’re implementing Musk’s agenda, which happens to be pretty similar to Russell Vought’s agenda, which happens to be very similar to Project 2025’s agenda, which was an agenda that Donald Trump disavowed, but is obviously governing with.

JJ: Talk about Russell Vought a little bit. I know he’s head of the Office of Management and Budget, but what else do we need to know about him, in this context?

JH: Russell Vought is sort of like Elon Musk, if Elon Musk had been paying attention to politics for a couple of decades, and minus the allegations of ketamine usage. Russell Vought brings a unique combination of hard-right social views and hard libertarian views on economic policy. He is the personal marriage of all the sort of worst tendencies within the Republican coalition, and he knows what he’s doing.

He had a senior role in the Trump administration go-around one. He thinks that they underperformed, that they could have attacked government more, they could have made the country even “freer” and more supportive of the richest, most rapacious corporations; and he’s determined that they succeed at doing so again. And he spent the four-year interregnum planning, in exquisite detail, how to bring about the devastation of American government–of the professionalization of the American government that has been the project for more than 140 years, since the Pendleton Act and the rise of the civil service in the early 1880s.

ProPublica (3/20/25)

JJ: ProPublica revealed some speeches Vought gave a little while back, and touching on Project 2025, which he’s an architect of, goes right to what you’re just saying. Part of myriad things they want to do is revive Schedule F, which would make it easier to fire large groups of government workers who right now have civil service protections. But what struck me was the quote; this is Vought:

We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry, because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.

I have a feeling if that quote were put in front of people, it might provide some light on the project here.

JH: Absolutely. It was hiding in plain sight. They told us what they were going to do, but Donald Trump disavowed it. Donald Trump said, I’m not going to run on Project 2025. This stuff is so extreme. It’s crazy. Obviously I’m not going to do it. But they’re doing it, note for note.

And I can tell you, as somebody who not only does politics but lives in Washington, DC, when you’re in the community, there are a lot of traumatized public servants who really, deeply believe in the mission of their agencies, people who could have made a lot more money and had easier, more comfortable lives outside of government service, but are in government for the right reasons. And they are genuinely traumatized right now, and they have a lot of capacity to do good in the world that was underappreciated. Now they are being radically disempowered, and it’s going to take a very long time; it’s going to take a lot of great energy, to ever rebuild this government that Russell Vought, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are destroying.

JJ: I think it’s so interesting how you say that, even though this Trump administration is acting out the points of Project 2025, the story is still, “Oh, he disavowed it.” And it really highlights the way media have difficulty focusing on what’s happening when they’re so busy listening to what folks are saying, and what other folks are saying about what those folks are saying. But what we really need them to do is to track actual actions.

JH: Absolutely. It’d be great if the media were more focused on letting people understand what it is that the government can be doing, ordinarily does, is doing and should be doing.

I don’t think people have a good understanding of government. Even political junkies who can tell you a lot about Nebraska’s Second District, and the chances of Democrats taking back that house seat, and how that one electoral vote might influence the Electoral College in the presidential cycle—people who know that level of minutia can’t really tell you what the Office of Management and Budget does.

AP (via PBS, 4/27/25)

They almost certainly can’t tell you what OIRA, which is a subset of the Office of Management and Budget that focuses on regulatory issues, does. They wouldn’t have been able to tell you about what the civil service does, or the role of the EPA as law enforcement against corporate criminality. They don’t know these things. The media do not convey these things.

And so if there is an abstract threat about government bureaucrats, even political junkies don’t understand, definitely, what that will mean for their real lives. And I think it’s going to become, unfortunately, painfully clear in the coming years what that means. But the process is not immediate, and it’s incumbent upon the media to, as things go wrong, show the causality, show how these bad things were made much more likely to occur by Trump’s actions, by Musk’s actions, by Vought’s actions, by their disdain for public service, and their embrace of corporate titans being able to do whatever they want to do.

JJ: I want to just ask you, finally, what Revolving Door is up to, but I just saw this quote from AP, which said Musk “succeeded in providing a dose of shock therapy to the federal government, but he has fallen short of other goals.” And we’re supposed to take away that providing “shock therapy” to the federal government is somehow benign or necessary or a good thing; it’s remarkable.

But let me ask you, finally, what Revolving Door is up to, and how you hope journalists and others can use the tools and the information that you’re providing?

Jeff Hauser: “Taking seriously the notion that Musk was some sort of deficit hawk is part of the inanity of American political coverage.”

JH: Yeah, I think the quote really actually gets at a lot of what the Revolving Door Project is up to, because we do two types of work. One is pushing back on Trump, on creeping authoritarianism, and rapacious oligarchs destroying the government so they can pillage society.

So we do that work, but we also fight back against neoliberals within the Democratic Party. We’re a nonpartisan organization, and we attack neoliberalism in all of its many forms. And the idea that government required shock therapy, that there were too many people working in government, even though the number of people working in government is the same as it was two or three generations ago, when America’s population was half of what it currently is.

But the notion of this is a nonpartisan idea, that government required shock therapy: That is the marriage of Democratic neoliberals and Republican neoliberals, and that is what allowed Musk and DOGE and Trump to happen. It’s that belief that things really were broken, that there was some legitimacy to the concept of DOGE from the jump. No one should have ever validated the idea of DOGE, or talked about, “Here’s my vision for what government efficiency pursuits would happen.”

Because Musk’s goals were not to cut government spending. In fact, Silicon Valley wants way more financial support for their artificial intelligence data centers and the like. They want subsidies for all sorts of tech projects, and they want a bigger military industrial complex that is more heavily dependent on Silicon Valley. So they want lots of spending, they just want it on their priorities. They want to attack government workers, because those government workers enforce the rules that limit and constrain corporate oligarchs.

So that’s what they wanted. They did not want to reduce the deficit, and taking seriously the notion that Musk was some sort of deficit hawk is part of the inanity of American political coverage. And I’d like the media to be less credulous about people who have obvious economic stakes in public policy, and pretending that the rhetoric that they deploy, especially when they’re known liars, is something that we should take seriously.

Rolling Stone (8/19/23)

JJ: And so the work you’re doing is tracking the ins and outs of what these predations have meant, and what they could mean, and how to stay on top of them?

JH: Yes. We are cataloging under our DOGE Watch feature the ways in which Trump and Musk are attacking the ability of government to protect ordinary people. And we’re also monitoring, separately—we have a website, Hackwatch.us—how ostensible Democratic-aligned, center-left neoliberal pundits, people like Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias and Derek Thompson, are making things easier for corporate oligarchs, are carrying water for Silicon Valley and are pursuing neoliberalism, because we’re against neoliberalism in all forms.

JJ: All right, we’ll end on that note—for now. We’ve been speaking with Jeff Hauser from the Revolving Door Project. Jeff Hauser, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

JH: It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

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

Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).

White House photo (5/30/25) of Elon Musk’s farewell press conference with President Donald Trump.

This week on CounterSpin: An email we got this week tells us: “The radical left is up in arms about DOGE. Just think about it—DOGE has exposed BILLIONS in wasteful spending, and is rooting out fraud and corruption at every turn. They’re making the government work for the people of this great nation once again, as the founders intended, and that is why the left simply can’t stand DOGE.” The ask is that we fill out a survey that represents “our once-in-a-lifetime chance to slash the bloated, woke and wasteful policies in the federal government. Thank you, and God Bless, Speaker Mike Johnson. (Paid for by the NRCC and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.)”

Reports are that Elon Musk is leaving government, going back to make Tesla great again or something. But if that’s true, why did we get this weird, sad email? We’ll talk about how to miss Musk when he won’t go away with Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project.

Lever (5/17/24)

Also on the show: The New York Times has its stories on the Boeing “non-prosecution agreement” in the “Business” section, suggesting that whether planes drop out of the sky is mostly a concern for investors. A huge corporation paying money to dodge criminal charges is evidently not a general interest story. And the families and friends of the hundreds of people dead because of Boeing’s admittedly knowing malfeasance? They’re just another county heard from. If you want reporting that calls crimes “crimes,” even if they’re committed by corporations, you need to look outside of corporate media. We’ll hear about Boeing from independent journalist Katya Schwenk.

Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of trans youth in sports and gender-affirming care.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by CounterSpin.

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

Texas state legislators dropped efforts to spend millions of dollars to buy what experts call ineffective child identification kits weeks after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported that lawmakers were again trying to fund the program.

This is the second consecutive budget cycle in which the Legislature considered purchasing the products, which promise to help find missing children, only to reverse course after the news organizations documented the lack of evidence that the kits work.

ProPublica and the Tribune originally published their findings in a 2023 investigation that revealed the state had spent millions of dollars on child identification kits made by a Waco-based company called the National Child Identification Program, run by former NFL player Kenny Hansmire. He had a history of legal and business troubles, according to public records, and although less expensive alternatives were available to lawmakers, Hansmire used outdated and exaggerated statistics about missing children to help boost sales.

He also managed to develop connections with powerful Texas legislators who supported his initiatives. In 2021, Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell authored a bill that created a Texas child safety program. The measure all but guaranteed any state funding would go to Hansmire’s business whenever lawmakers allotted money for child identification kits. That year, the state awarded his company about $5.7 million for the kits.

Two years later, both the House and the Senate proposed spending millions more on the program. But when the final budget was published, about a month after the newsrooms’ investigation, legislators had pulled the funding. They declined to answer questions about why.

Funding for the program appeared again in this year’s House budget. State Rep. Armando Martinez, a Democratic member of the lower chamber’s budget committee, suggested allotting $2 million to buy the kits for students in kindergarten through the second grade. The Senate, however, didn’t include that funding in its version of the budget.

The newsrooms published a story in early May about the proposed spending plan. The final version of the budget that lawmakers passed this week again had no designated funding for the identification kits.

Campbell, Martinez and the leaders of the House and Senate budget committees did not respond to the newsrooms’ interview requests for this story or written questions about why the funding didn’t make the final cut.

Hansmire did not reply to an interview request this week. In a prior response, he told the newsrooms he’d resolved his financial troubles and said that his company’s kits have helped identify missing children, though he did not provide any concrete examples. Hansmire told reporters to reach out to “any policeman,” naming several departments specifically. The newsrooms contacted a number of them. Of the dozen Texas law enforcement agencies that responded to the queries, none could identify one case where the kits helped find a runaway or kidnapped child.

Stacey Pearson, a child safety consultant who previously oversaw the Louisiana Clearinghouse for Missing and Exploited Children, said legislators made the correct decision to eliminate the identification kits from the budget because there is no data proving they actually help improve kids’ safety. She remains disappointed that Texas lawmakers continue to give the program any attention and hopes they won’t contemplate the funding in the future.

“Every dollar and every minute, every hour that you spend on a program like this, is a dollar and a minute and an hour that you can’t spend on something that is more promising or more sound,” said Pearson.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, has highlighted the growing isolation of the United States at the United Nations over its defiant stance over Gaza.

He emphasised the contrast between Washington’s support for Israel and mounting global criticism, with 14 members of the UNSC voting for a resolution calling for an immediate permanent and unconditional ceasefire.

Even close allies like the UK voted for the resolution 14-1 and condemned the American position, suggesting that the US has acted as a dam blocking ceasefire resolutions five times since October 23.

• READ MORE: Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

But, Bishara said, that barrier was beginning to crack — the US was “utterly isolated”, Al Jazeera reports.

With rising international and domestic pressure, he sees a swelling current of opposition that may soon challenge US policy at the UNSC.

The acting US Ambassador, Dorothy Shea, blamed the crisis on the Palestine resistance movement Hamas and said Israel was “defending Gaza from Iran”, a stance ridiculed by Bishara.

The US vetoed the UNSC resolution calling for a permanent and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the release of captives and the unhindered entry of aid.

It was the fifth time since October 2023 that the US has blocked a council resolution on the besieged Strip.

‘No surprise’
In remarks before the start of the voting, Acting Ambassador Shea made the US opposition to the resolution, put forward by 10 countries on the 15-member council, painfully clear, which she said “should come as no surprise”.

“The United States has taken the very clear position since this conflict began that Israel has the right to defend itself, which includes defeating Hamas and ensuring they are never again in a position to threaten Israel,” she told the council.

Washington was the only country to vote against the measure, while the 14 other members of the council voted in favour.

A Hamas statement said: “This arrogant stance reflects [the US] disregard for international law and its complete rejection of any international effort to stop the Palestinian bloodshed.”

US isolated in UN Security Council.             Video: Al Jazeera

‘Human abattoir’
Meanwhile, former UN Palestine relief agency UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness slammed the Israeli-US aid operation as turning Gaza into a “human abattoir”, or slaughterhouse.

He was condemning the four distribution sites operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

“Hundreds of civilians are herded like animals into fenced-off pens and are slaughtered like cattle in the process,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.

The GHF announced two full day’s closure on Wednesday, saying that operations would resume after the completion of maintenance and repair work on its distribution sites.

This come after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians seeking aid, killing at least 27 people and injuring about 90, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

The former UN official cast doubt on the reason for the suspension, saying its work had been halted “because it has rightly sparked international outrage and condemnation”.

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

America’s retreat from foreign aid is being felt deeply in Pacific media, where pivotal outlets are being shuttered and journalists work unpaid.

The result is fewer investigations into dubiously motivated politicians, glimpses into conflicts otherwise unseen and a less diverse media in a region which desperately needs it.

“It is a huge disappointment … a senseless waste,” Benar News’ Australian former head of Pacific news Stefan Armbruster said after seeing his outlet go under.

• READ MORE: Political pressure, bribes, self-censorship ‘greatest threats’ to Pacific media freedom
• NZ fares well in latest RSF press freedom index as authoritarian regimes stifle Asia-Pacific media
• Fiji coup culture and political meddling in media education given airing

Benar News, In-depth Solomons and Inside PNG are three digital outlets which enjoyed US support but have been hit by President Donald Trump’s about-face on aid.

Benar closed its doors in April after an executive order disestablishing Voice of America, which the United States created during World War II to combat Nazi propaganda.

An offshoot of Radio Free Asia (RFA) focused on Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Benar kept a close eye on abuses in West Papua, massacres and gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea and more.

The Pacific arm quickly became indispensable to many, with a team of reporters and freelancers working in 15 countries on a budget under A$A million.

Coverage of decolonisation
“Our coverage of decolonisation in the Pacific received huge interest, as did our coverage of the lack of women’s representation in parliaments, human rights, media freedom, deep sea mining and more,” Armbruster said.

In-depth Solomons, a Honiara-based digital outlet, is another facing an existential threat despite a proud record of investigative and award-winning reporting.

Last week, it was honoured with a peer-nominated award from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan for a year-long probe into former prime minister Manasseh Sogavare’s property holdings.

“We’re just holding on,” editor and co-founder Ofani Eremae said.

A US-centred think tank continues to pay the wage of one journalist, while others have not drawn a salary since January.

“It has had an impact on our operations. We used to travel out to do stories across the provinces. That has not been done since early this year,” Eremae said.

A private donor came forward after learning of the cuts with a one-off grant that was used for rent to secure the office, he said.

USAID budget axed
Its funding shortfall — like Port Moresby-based outlet Inside PNG — is linked to USAID, the world’s biggest single funder of development assistance, until Trump axed its multi-billion dollar budget.

Much of USAID’s funding was spent on humanitarian causes — such as vaccines, clean water supplies and food security — but some was also earmarked for media in developing nations, with the aim of bolstering fragile democracies.

Inside PNG used its support to build an audience of tens of thousands with incisive reports on PNG politics: not just Port Moresby, but in the regions including independence-seeking province Bougainville that has a long history of conflict.

“The current lack of funding has unfortunately had a dual impact, affecting both our dedicated staff, whom we’re currently unable to pay, and our day-to-day operations,” Inside PNG managing director Kila Wani said.

“We’ve had to let off 80 percent of staff from payroll which is a big hit because we’re not a very big team.

“Logistically, it’s become challenging to carry out our work as we normally would.”

Other media entities in the region have suffered hits, but declined to share their stories.

Funding hits damaging
The funding hits are all the more damaging given the challenges faced by the Pacific, as outlined in the Pacific Islands Media Freedom Index and RSF World Press Freedom Index.

The latest PFF report listed a string of challenges, notably weak legal protections for free speech, political interference on editorial independence, and a lack of funding underpinning high-quality media, in the region.

The burning question for these outlets — and their audiences — is do other sources of funding exist to fill the gap?

Inside PNG is refocusing energy on attracting new donors, as is In-depth Solomons, which has also turned to crowdfunding.

The Australian and New Zealand governments have also provided targeted support for the media sector across the region, including ABC International Development (ABCID), which has enjoyed a budget increase from Anthony Albanese’s government.

Inside PNG and In-depth Solomons both receive training and content-focused grants from ABCID, which helps, but this does not fund the underpinning costs for a media business or keep on the lights.

Both Eremae, who edited two major newspapers before founding the investigative outlet, and Armbruster, a long-time SBS correspondent, expressed their dismay at the US pivot away from the Pacific.

‘Huge mistake’ by US
“It’s a huge mistake on the part of the US … the world’s leading democracy. The media is one of the pillars of democracy,” Eremae said.

“It is, I believe, in the interests of the US and other democratic countries to give funding to media in countries like the Solomon Islands where we cannot survive due to lack of advertising (budgets).

As a veteran of Pacific reporting, Armbruster said he had witnessed US disinterest in the region contribute to the wider geopolitical struggle for influence.

“The US government was trying to re-establish its presence after vacating the space decades ago. It had promised to re-engage, dedicating funding largely driven by its efforts to counter China, only to now betray those expectations,” he said.

“The US government has senselessly destroyed a highly valued news service in the Pacific. An own goal.”

Ben McKay is an AAP journalist. Republished from National Indigenous Times in Australia.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Officials in Gaza say over 100 Palestinians have been killed during recent Israeli attacks on people waiting at aid sites. An additional 500 are wounded. Following the series of deadly attacks, the shadowy U.S.-Israeli humanitarian aid operation is shutting down for a day, and Israel’s military warned Palestinians that roads leading to the aid distribution centers will be considered “combat zones.” The United Nations has called for a prompt and impartial investigation into each of the attacks. The U.S.-Israeli aid system is “more about the humiliation and the control of the people” than feeding Palestinians, says Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, who joins us from Gaza City.

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

X handle @maheshyagyasain, which identifies itself as a ‘fan of Godse’, made a similar claim while sharing the video. (Archived link)

X User @sanatani_6, who has been found sharing misinformation on several occasions in the past, and numerous other X users also shared the videos with similar claims. (Archived link 1, link 2)

Same Video, Different Claims

We found that a Facebook page named Utishtha Bharata had shared the same footage targeting the Muslim community. The caption says, “Jihadis pelted stones on a convoy going to visit Vaishno Devi”. (Archived link)

X users Amitabh Chaudhary, who have been known to amplify communal propaganda and misinformation, and BJP supporter KV Iyyar also shared the video claiming it showed people in PoK ‘welcoming’ Pakistan army personnel. (Archived link 2, link 3)

Fact Check

We performed a reverse image search on a few frames taken from the viral video. We found the source video uploaded on a Facebook page named Indian Military Updates – IMU on May 15, 2024. In other words, this video is more than a year old. The caption states that it shows Kashmiris pelting stones at a convoy of Pakistani security forces in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Along with this, we came across another similar video on the same Facebook page, which stated that Kashmiris pelted stones at vehicles carrying Pakistani security forces (Rangers) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir’s Muzaffarabad.

Using this information as a clue, Alt News performed a keyword search. This led us to a report by Al Jazeera published on May 14, 2024, which talks about a protest rally by a group called Jammu Kashmir Joint Awaami Action Committee (JAAC), which had been marching towards Muzaffarabad in PoK since May 11, demanding subsidised flour and electricity, among other things.

“Our protesters were completely peaceful but the government’s decision to call in rangers meant that they wanted to use force against us, and now we see that three people were killed,” JAAC Chairman Shaukat Nawaz Mir told Al Jazeera.

India Today and The Free Press Journal also reported that protests against the rising prices of food, fuel, and electricity in PoK intensified and slogans of azadi (freedom) were raised.

We also found a report on the official YouTube channel of Pakistani media outlet Dawn News titled, “Video of stone pelting on Rangers from hills in Azad Kashmir.”

In May 2024, a user on reddit.com shared the same video identifying Lohar Gali as the location where the stone-pelting occurred.

We searched for Lohar Gali, Muzaffarabad on Google Maps to verify the location. This led us to a view of a winding road similar to the one seen in the viral video as well as a Street View snapshot near a bridge constructed over flowing waters. This makes it clear that the incident is indeed from Lohar Gali, Muzaffarabad in PoK.

To sum it up, a one-year-old video of stone pelting on vehicles belonging to Pakistani security forces (Rangers) by protesters in Muzaffarabad, PoK, was falsely circulated with several misleading claims.

The post ‘Jihadis’ pelting stone at paramilitary convoy in Kashmir after India-Pak ceasefire? Old video, false claim appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

VietJet Air, Vietnam’s biggest private commercial airline, has asked the mayor of Hanoi to take action against people spreading “false information” about the company online.

And the mayor is doing just that.

In a statement published by the Vietnamese government on Monday, the Mayor Tran Sy Thanh ordered relevant agencies to investigate and handle Facebook accounts responsible for disseminating “false information” about Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, the billionaire CEO of VietJet.

The post on the government’s official Facebook account, however, was later edited to remove the reference to VietJet’s high-profile CEO.

This is not the first time the government has gone after people for posting negative information about Thao, reputedly the richest woman in Vietnam.

She became the target of online trolling earlier this year after a parody post mocking her and the airline’s service circulated widely on Vietnamese-language social media.

Two individuals who shared the post were later summoned to a police station, where they were compelled to admit wrongdoing and sign a commitment not to repeat their actions.

(Kham/Reuters)

VietJet Air is the country’s largest low-cost carrier, offering more affordable fares than the national flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines. However, the airline is often subject to criticism over delays and customer dissatisfaction. It’s also been dubbed the “bikini airline,” because of ads featuring models in bikinis to promote resort destinations.

Thao is a well-known business leader in Vietnam. She has been at the forefront of Vietnam’s efforts to persuade the Trump administration to lift tariffs on Vietnamese exports to the U.S., and in April joined the delegation that came to Washington for trade negotiations.

Even before Donald Trump took office for his second term, Thao made headlines with a personal encounter with him.

In January, Thao was seen on the golf course with the then-president-elect during a visit to Mar-a-Lago. Video of the encounter was widely shared on social media in Vietnam, including on government accounts.

In the communist country, it is not unusual for private companies to use the government to pressure critics.

VinFast, the country’s well-known car manufacturer, has also reported to police customers who say negative things about it online.

A lawyer in Hanoi lambasted the mayor’s decision to instruct authorities to go after critics of VietJet.

“Because in his position as mayor, he represents the interests of all people in Hanoi, not the interests of a single business,” the lawyer told Radio Free Asia, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

The lawyer added that the company “should use legal means to challenge those they deem to be spreading defamatory statements instead of asking police and politicians to interfere”.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Truong Son for RFA Vietnamese.

The Chinese team members and support staff confronted the eight activists who were seated close to them during Saturday’s friendly international match at the Allianz stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota, that the U.S. won 3-0.

The activists, dressed in white T-shirts, had been shouting slogans and holding up white banners that read “Free Tibet” during the second half of the game.

(Tenzin Shakya/RTYC-MN)

Members of the Chinese team sought their removal from the stands, and the activists were asked to leave the stadium by security guards. That prompted boos from other spectators who shouted, “Let them stay!” and chanted “Free speech!”

Soon after, stadium officials allowed the activists to return to their seats but confiscated their white banners. The activists watched the rest of the game holding up the Tibetan national flag that is banned by China inside Tibet. They also still wore their “Free Tibet” T-shirts.

(Tenzin Shakya/RTYC-MN)

“The biggest takeaway (from this campaign) is that if Tibetans stand up, raise our voices, and take action for our own cause, then the people of the world automatically rise up in support,” one of the protesters, Tenzin Palsang, told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.

“China doesn’t just play soccer. They also play games with human rights,” said Palsang, who is president of the Minnesota chapter of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress.

She cited harsh conditions inside Tibet, where she said children are suffering “colonial boarding school policies,” referring to the Chinese government-run schools where Tibetan children, aged 6-17, have reportedly been held in “prison-like” conditions and forced to study a Mandarin-heavy curriculum that promotes party loyalty or a state-approved “patriotic education.”

(Tenzin Shakya/RTYC-MN)

According to Freedom House’s annual 2025 Freedom in the World report, Tibet was given a score of 0, based on an analysis of political and civil freedoms, making it one of the least-free places in the world. China annexed Tibet in 1950 and has since governed the territory with an oppressively heavy-hand while seeking to erase Tibetan culture and identity.

Beijing denies it represses Tibet or seeks to erase its cultural traditions, instead pointing to economic development in the region as evidence of its positive impacts on the population of about 6 million Tibetans.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

Samoa’s Parliament has been formally dissolved, and an early election is set to take place within three months.

After months of political instability and two motions of no confidence, Prime Minister Fiāme Naomi Mata’afa said she would call for the dissolution of Parliament if cabinet did not support her government’s budget.

MPs from both the opposition Human Rights Protection Party and Fiāme’s former FAST party joined forces to defeat the budget with the final vote coming in 34 against, 16 in support and 2 abstentions.

• READ MORE: Samoa parliament to be dissolved in June, election date to come
• Other Samoa reports

Fiāme went to the Head of State and advised him to dissolve Parliament, and her advice was accepted.

This all came from a period of political turmoil that kicked off shortly after New Year.

A split in the FAST Party in January saw Fiāme remove FAST Party chairman La’auli Leuatea Schmidt and several FAST ministers from her cabinet.

In turn, he ejected her from FAST, leaving her leading a minority government.

Minority government defeated
Earlier this year, over a two-week period, Fiāme and her minority government defeated two back-to-back leadership challenges.

On February 25, with La’auli’s help, she defeated a no-confidence vote moved by Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, 34 votes to 15.

Then on March 6, this time with Tuilaepa’s help, she defeated a challenge mounted by La’auli, 32 votes to 19.

Parliament now enters caretaker mode, until the election and the formation of a new government.

Samoa’s Electoral Commissioner said his office has filed an affidavit to the Supreme Court, seeking legal direction and extra time to complete the electoral roll ahead of an early election.

A hearing on this is set to be held on Wednesday.

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

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

This article was produced by WPLN/Nashville Public Radio, a 2023 ProPublica Local Reporting Network partner. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week.

Richard L. Bean, the longtime superintendent of the East Tennessee juvenile detention center that bears his name, abruptly announced Friday that he will be stepping down. His decision to retire came the day after the Knox County mayor said he had lost confidence in Bean’s leadership.

Bean, 84, has been superintendent of the juvenile detention center since 1972. A 2023 investigation from WPLN and ProPublica found the facility was using solitary confinement more than other detention centers in the state. Sometimes the children were locked up alone for hours or days at a time. That kind of confinement was also used as punishment, in violation of state law.

At the time, Bean broadly defended the practices at the facility, saying he wished he had more punitive abilities and that people who pushed back didn’t understand what was necessary. After the story ran, the head of the detention center’s governing board told local TV station WBIR that he thought the Bean center was “the best facility in the state of Tennessee.”

Renewed scrutiny on the detention center began last week when Bean dismissed two employees, including the facility’s only nurse. The nurse’s termination was first reported by Knox News, and the mayor described her dismissal as “retaliation” because she had reported to state investigators significant issues with medical care at the facility, which she said went unchecked and unaddressed by Bean.

On Wednesday, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and juvenile court Judge Tim Irwin wrote a letter to Bean demanding he reinstate both employees. Irwin is a nonvoting member of the center’s governing board of trustees but selects one of its three voting members.

“These dismissals may well lead to lawsuits against you and the county,” the letter reads, “which could cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The following day, Jacobs wrote a letter to the governor calling for immediate state intervention and detailing issues with medication in the facility going missing, errors with medication reporting and “even medication going to the wrong detainees.”

In a public video statement, Jacobs said he had “no confidence that these issues will be addressed with the center’s current leadership or the governing board that oversees the Bean juvenile detention center.” He called for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office to take over operation of the center but said he has limited power to intervene.

By Friday, Bean announced that he would leave his post as superintendent in two months after he gets the facility “shipshape,” according to a press release. He did not respond to requests for comment but said in the press release that his last day will be Aug. 1.

During WPLN and ProPublica’s investigation of the Bean center, documents revealed that state officials repeatedly had put the Bean center on corrective action plans and had documented its improper use of seclusion yet continued to approve the center’s license to operate without the facility changing its ways.

“What we do is treat everybody like they’re in here for murder,” Bean told WPLN during a 2023 visit to the facility. “You don’t have a problem if you do that.” Most of the children in the Bean center are not in for murder and instead are awaiting court dates after being charged with a crime.

When asked if he was worried he might get in trouble for the way he was running the facility, Bean said, “If I got in trouble for it, I believe I could talk to whoever got me in trouble and get out of it.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio.

Since President Donald Trump took office, his barrage of executive actions in the name of curbing waste has imperiled the basic functions of federal agencies. At the Forest Service, the result is a climate of fear and uncertainty that’s stymieing the scientists working to fulfill the agency’s mission — sustaining the nation’s forests and grasslands for the public’s long-term benefit — just as the summer research field season ramps up. 

“Science and research are critical to maintaining public lands,” said Jennifer Jones, the program director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. Federal scientists intimately understand the ecosystems of the public lands they study. Their institutional position and on-the-ground knowledge make them uniquely suited to translate study findings into effective management. “If we lose a few months — a few years — of science and science-led management of those natural resources, it could take decades and generations for ecosystems to recover if they’re poorly managed,” she said.

Forest Service workers describe the last few months as an emotional roller coaster. First came the freezes of congressionally approved spending, followed by confusing resignation offers for federal employees, firings that were reversed almost as quickly as they were ordered and promises of further workforce culling through planned downsizing. The Trump administration has even called for eliminating Forest Service research stations, according to reporting by Government Executive; three of the five stations are located in the West. 

Spring and summer are usually an all-hands-on-deck time of year for field-going scientists. As the snow melts and the days lengthen, researchers head outdoors for fieldwork they’ve been planning for all winter. This year, however, they are grappling with uncertainty regarding funding, labor, and logistics. “I don’t know what I’m going to do on Day 1,” said a Forest Service aquatic biologist, who requested anonymity, citing fear of retribution for speaking publicly, just four weeks before their field season was set to begin. “I wish I had a plan. I just show up every day and see if there’s any news.” 

Most of the planned field projects in that scientist’s district have been suspended indefinitely. Still, one study, with the Fish and Wildlife Service, may happen: a survey of the movement of threatened bull trout along a western Montana river. The goal is to see how local populations are faring so that future recovery efforts can target problem sites. 

But whether the team can execute it is another matter. The biologist needs a minimum of two extra hands to help install fish traps and tag captured trout, and at least $10,000 to install transponders for tracking the fish. But that support is now uncertain, so the biologist is making contingency plans, building their own fish traps and calling in favors to see if other groups can help with personnel or equipment. “We’ll have to get really creative — and beg and borrow from other agencies,” they said. In theory, the project could be delayed until next year, but the team is acutely aware of the ticking clock of the trout’s survival. “The sooner you intervene, the better your results,” the biologist said. 

Research also helps federal agencies cultivate community relationships. One Forest Service scientist leading an effort to map aquatic biodiversity across the West is hounded by job insecurity: If they lose their job, no one will be left to analyze and interpret the two years’ worth of field samples that state and tribal collaborators have already gathered. “When I can’t be accountable to my partners in holding up my end of the research, that doesn’t have a good look,” said the researcher, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about their work. At the time of the interview, the scientist had no plan B to salvage the project if they’re let go.

Forest Service research often involves repetitive environmental monitoring and inventorying. This allows scientists to catch anomalies, such as the initial appearance of an invasive species. The eradication of the invasive European grapevine moth from California’s wine country in 2016, for example, was due to early detection and rapid action. Still, it took federal and local agencies seven years to eliminate the berry-munching pest. 

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“If you just stop a program in the middle, that’s insane,” said Elaine Leslie, a former agency chief for biological resources at the National Park Service who is currently on the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “That is waste and fraud, right there. Years and years that people have spent protecting things are about to go down the tubes.”  

In response to an email from High Country News asking about federal cuts to science, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service, sent a general statement that did not address concerns about what the changes mean for research. Instead, it read in part, “We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people.”

Other agencies are also under assault. The Trump administration has proposed dissolving the research divisions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as slashing NASA’s research budget. Some remaining scientists are taking on non-research duties: With a hiring freeze for seasonal custodians in place at Yosemite National Park, scientists are on the roster for cleaning toilets. 

All this translates to a chaotic period for agency employees. Delays and uncertainty are eating into the valuable hours of the limited field season. Getting field-ready takes time: hiring seasonal staff, training new recruits, setting fieldwork schedules and ensuring that everyone is paperwork-compliant. “From A to Z, there’s a lot to do before you ever put a boot in the field,” Leslie said. “Everybody’s behind, because of this debacle.” 

At first glance, the science at the Forest Service — from studies on the foraging behavior of fish to the rhythms of coastal fog and the properties of river bedrock — might seem esoteric. But scientific breakthroughs often occur only after years of investment, when scientists finally put together enough pieces to reach a larger understanding. 

“You never know where the leaps and bounds are going to come from,” said the aquatic biologist researching bull trout. So, field season after field season, “you just have to keep looking.” 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline As Trump comes after research, Forest Service scientists keep working on Jun 1, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Shi En Kim, High Country News.

Since President Donald Trump took office, his barrage of executive actions in the name of curbing waste has imperiled the basic functions of federal agencies. At the Forest Service, the result is a climate of fear and uncertainty that’s stymieing the scientists working to fulfill the agency’s mission — sustaining the nation’s forests and grasslands for the public’s long-term benefit — just as the summer research field season ramps up. 

“Science and research are critical to maintaining public lands,” said Jennifer Jones, the program director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. Federal scientists intimately understand the ecosystems of the public lands they study. Their institutional position and on-the-ground knowledge make them uniquely suited to translate study findings into effective management. “If we lose a few months — a few years — of science and science-led management of those natural resources, it could take decades and generations for ecosystems to recover if they’re poorly managed,” she said.

Forest Service workers describe the last few months as an emotional roller coaster. First came the freezes of congressionally approved spending, followed by confusing resignation offers for federal employees, firings that were reversed almost as quickly as they were ordered and promises of further workforce culling through planned downsizing. The Trump administration has even called for eliminating Forest Service research stations, according to reporting by Government Executive; three of the five stations are located in the West. 

Spring and summer are usually an all-hands-on-deck time of year for field-going scientists. As the snow melts and the days lengthen, researchers head outdoors for fieldwork they’ve been planning for all winter. This year, however, they are grappling with uncertainty regarding funding, labor, and logistics. “I don’t know what I’m going to do on Day 1,” said a Forest Service aquatic biologist, who requested anonymity, citing fear of retribution for speaking publicly, just four weeks before their field season was set to begin. “I wish I had a plan. I just show up every day and see if there’s any news.” 

Most of the planned field projects in that scientist’s district have been suspended indefinitely. Still, one study, with the Fish and Wildlife Service, may happen: a survey of the movement of threatened bull trout along a western Montana river. The goal is to see how local populations are faring so that future recovery efforts can target problem sites. 

But whether the team can execute it is another matter. The biologist needs a minimum of two extra hands to help install fish traps and tag captured trout, and at least $10,000 to install transponders for tracking the fish. But that support is now uncertain, so the biologist is making contingency plans, building their own fish traps and calling in favors to see if other groups can help with personnel or equipment. “We’ll have to get really creative — and beg and borrow from other agencies,” they said. In theory, the project could be delayed until next year, but the team is acutely aware of the ticking clock of the trout’s survival. “The sooner you intervene, the better your results,” the biologist said. 

Research also helps federal agencies cultivate community relationships. One Forest Service scientist leading an effort to map aquatic biodiversity across the West is hounded by job insecurity: If they lose their job, no one will be left to analyze and interpret the two years’ worth of field samples that state and tribal collaborators have already gathered. “When I can’t be accountable to my partners in holding up my end of the research, that doesn’t have a good look,” said the researcher, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about their work. At the time of the interview, the scientist had no plan B to salvage the project if they’re let go.

Forest Service research often involves repetitive environmental monitoring and inventorying. This allows scientists to catch anomalies, such as the initial appearance of an invasive species. The eradication of the invasive European grapevine moth from California’s wine country in 2016, for example, was due to early detection and rapid action. Still, it took federal and local agencies seven years to eliminate the berry-munching pest. 

Read Next

The US government stole the Black Hills. Now it’s clear-cutting them.

Anya Kamenetz

“If you just stop a program in the middle, that’s insane,” said Elaine Leslie, a former agency chief for biological resources at the National Park Service who is currently on the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “That is waste and fraud, right there. Years and years that people have spent protecting things are about to go down the tubes.”  

In response to an email from High Country News asking about federal cuts to science, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service, sent a general statement that did not address concerns about what the changes mean for research. Instead, it read in part, “We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people.”

Other agencies are also under assault. The Trump administration has proposed dissolving the research divisions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as slashing NASA’s research budget. Some remaining scientists are taking on non-research duties: With a hiring freeze for seasonal custodians in place at Yosemite National Park, scientists are on the roster for cleaning toilets. 

All this translates to a chaotic period for agency employees. Delays and uncertainty are eating into the valuable hours of the limited field season. Getting field-ready takes time: hiring seasonal staff, training new recruits, setting fieldwork schedules and ensuring that everyone is paperwork-compliant. “From A to Z, there’s a lot to do before you ever put a boot in the field,” Leslie said. “Everybody’s behind, because of this debacle.” 

At first glance, the science at the Forest Service — from studies on the foraging behavior of fish to the rhythms of coastal fog and the properties of river bedrock — might seem esoteric. But scientific breakthroughs often occur only after years of investment, when scientists finally put together enough pieces to reach a larger understanding. 

“You never know where the leaps and bounds are going to come from,” said the aquatic biologist researching bull trout. So, field season after field season, “you just have to keep looking.” 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline As Trump comes after research, Forest Service scientists keep working on Jun 1, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Shi En Kim, High Country News.

The Supreme State Security Prosecution released Qandeel the same day on bail of 50,000 Egyptian pounds (about US$1,004).

“Accusing Qandeel after questioning her journalistic integrity is another example of Egypt’s legal harassment and use of vague charges to silence independent voices,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “We urge Egyptian authorities to drop all charges against her and stop targeting independent journalism.”

Qandeel, a well-known former BBC Arabic presenter, said she has faced increased verbal attacks from pro-regime Egyptian media presenters after publishing articles last month criticizing the Egyptian army’s arms purchases amid the country’s economic hardships.

If convicted, Qandeel could face up to five years in prison, a fine up to half a million Egyptian pounds, or both, under Article 80(d) of the Penal Code—a provision that raises penalties for spreading “false news” abroad.

Qandeel told Cairo-based news outlet Al-Manassa that the charges followed 31 citizen complaints filed over two weeks in May—all related to investigative reports she published last year.

Egypt ranked as the sixth-worst country globally for press freedom last year, with 17 journalists behind bars.

CPJ’s request for comment from the Egyptian Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding Qandeel’s case did not receive an immediate response.

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

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What Happened: Three Democratic senators asked the Justice Department and other federal authorities to investigate whether members of the Department of Government Efficiency helping to downsize federal agencies violated conflict of interest laws by holding stocks in companies that their agencies regulate.

The letter sent Wednesday by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Jack Reed cited ProPublica reporting on how one such aide assigned to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau helped oversee the mass layoffs of the agency’s staff while holding as much as $715,000 in stocks that bureau employees are prohibited from owning.

What They Said: The DOGE aides’ cases “underscore what appears to be a pervasive problem with Elon Musk and DOGE employees trampling ethics rules and laws to benefit their own pockets at the expense of the American public,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

Warren and Reed sit on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Wyden is the ranking member of the chamber’s Committee on Finance.

The letter asked Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Office of Government Ethics and three inspectors general with jurisdiction over the CFPB, Treasury and IRS to investigate the DOGE aides' finances, including whether they’d appropriately divested from any conflicted holdings, and their specific work at the agencies. “The American people deserve answers regarding whether their own interests may have been undermined by Trump Administration officials that acted in violation of federal ethics laws,” the letter said.

Background: In recent weeks, ProPublica reported that at least two DOGE aides assigned to the CFPB helped coordinate mass layoffs at the agency while maintaining financial arrangements that experts have said either are or appear to be conflicts of interests. In the case of Gavin Kliger, ProPublica reported that ethics attorneys at the bureau warned the 25-year-old software engineer that he could not hold onto his stocks and also participate in major agency actions. Days later, he nevertheless helped oversee the layoffs of nearly 90% of the CFPB’s staff — an action that one expert called a “pretty clear-cut violation” of the federal criminal conflict-of-interest statute.

Response: The DOJ declined comment. Neither the Treasury Department, the IRS, DOGE nor the CFPB responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the OGE said the agency doesn’t comment on “situations in specific agencies.” Kliger didn’t respond to emails seeking comment. The White House has previously said that “these allegations are another attempt to diminish DOGE’s critical mission.” It added that Kliger “did not even manage” the layoffs, “making this entire narrative an outright lie.”

Why It Matters: The Trump administration has repeatedly tested the boundaries of mixing personal and public business, from the president’s own foray into the cryptocurrency industry to Elon Musk’s dual roles as both DOGE’s founder and a major federal contractor. (Musk announced Wednesday that he’s leaving the administration.)

The lawmakers’ letter adds to a growing chorus of good-government groups that have called for an outside investigation into Kliger’s actions at the CFPB. Federal prosecutors can bring charges against government workers who violate the criminal conflict of interest statute, an offense that’s punishable with a fine of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison. But one expert previously told ProPublica that’s unlikely to happen under Trump, as the administration “greatly deprioritized public integrity, ethics and public corruption as issues for them.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Jake Pearson.

Last week, the U.N. refugee agency said that while details remained unclear, it had collected reports from family members and others about two separate boat tragedies on May 9 and May 10 in which 427 people may have died. It said both boats left from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where about 1 million Rohingya shelter in camps.

Twenty-six Rohingya diaspora groups, including the U.K.-based Burmese Rohingya Organization, co-signed Thursday’s statement that said just 87 people had survived the two incidents. It added authorities had intercepted a third vessel with 188 people aboard as it attempted to leave Myanmar on May 18.

“These back-to-back disasters are the worst loss of Rohingya lives at sea this year, and they expose the deadly consequences of regional inaction and global neglect,” the statement said, adding that most of those on board were Rohingya who had already been displaced from their homes in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

“They were fleeing a growing campaign of widespread violence by the Arakan Army, amounting to a continuation of the ethnic cleansing first started by the Burmese military,” the statement said, referring to a rebel group that has seized control of most of Rakhine state from the Myanmar military.

“Those confined to displacement camps in Burmese military-controlled zones are starving, children are suffering from acute malnutrition, and many families are completely without food,” the statement said.

Most Rohingya are from Rakhine state and most are stateless, regarded as migrants from South Asia and not one of the ethnic groups classified as indigenous in Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s constitution.

(Zahlul Akbar/AFP)

About 750,000 Rohingya fled a violent Myanmar military clearance campaign in Rakhine in 2017 and crossed into Bangladesh. The U.S. government determined the killings and rapes by the military amounted to genocide.

Now each year, thousands of Rohingya attempt to leave Bangladesh and Myanmar aboard rickety vessels for other destinations in Southeast Asia. Reports of boats sinking and mass fatalities are common.

The Arakan Army, consisting Buddhist ethnic Rakhine people, has also been implicated in serious rights abuses against Rohingya, human rights groups say, although the AA denies it.

In recent years, the AA’s position on the persecuted Muslim minority has vacillated. After the 2021 coup in Myanmar when the military seized power from a civilian government, the AA evinced a moderate and inclusive position on the Rohingya. But it has since been accused of mass killings after a campaign by the Myanmar junta to recruit Rohingya men, sometimes forcibly, into militias to fight the AA.

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

Updated May 28, 2025, 11:40 a.m. ET

BANGKOK – The Thai prime minister said Wednesday she spoke to her Cambodian counterpart to reduce tensions after Cambodia said one of its soldiers was killed in a brief gunfight with Thai troops at a sensitive border region.

The 10-minute shootout at Hill 496 comes after weeks of mounting tension. The neighbors have a history of armed confrontation at disputed border areas.

Cambodia said one of its soldiers, Sgt. Suan Roan, 48, was killed during the fight, and the body has been transported from the border for a funeral, The Associated Press reported. The Thai army said it suffered no casualties.

Tension has risen in recent weeks after Thai soldiers accused their Cambodian counterparts of burning a Thai-built friendship gazebo in the Chong Bok area of Thailand’s northeastern Ubon Ratchathani province, where the Thai, Cambodian and Lao borders meet. There have also been disturbances at the ancient shrine of Ta Moan Thom, in Surin province to the west. Both Thailand and Cambodia claim the site.

Following Wednesday’s clash, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said both countries were determined to prevent tensions from boiling over.

“[I] have talked to Prime Minister Hun Manet. [The incident] was minor. We have understanding and will ease the tension and will prevent the reoccurrence,” she told reporters.

Thai soldiers were directed to stay alert despite top level negotiations, the Thai army said in a statement, adding that Cambodia fired the first shot and all Thai soldiers were safe.

(Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

In a post on Facebook, Cambodian Senate president and former prime minister Hun Sen expressed condolences to the family of the fallen soldier, and said a peaceful border “should never witness such incidents.”

“I strongly condemn any individual, entity, or authority that made the decision to carry out such an act of aggression, which resembles the incursions that occurred between 2008 and 2011 at the Preah Vihear temple,” Hun Sen wrote.

In 2011, there was a deadly clash between Thai and Cambodia forces over an ancient temple at Preah Vihear, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The U.N.’s International Court of Justice granted sovereignty over the area to Cambodia in 2013.

This March, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet threatened to use military force if the Thai military sent soldiers to Ta Moan Thom temple site.

The incomplete boundary demarcation there led to a confrontation between Cambodian soldiers who visited the temple last month and Thai soldiers who are stationed nearby, according to independent online news outlet CamboJa.

RFA Khmer contributed reporting. Edited by Mike Firn and Mat Pennington.

Updated with Hun Sen’s comment.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.

Dhakad, who has links to the BJP and is national secretary of the Dhakad Mahasabha registered in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, was arrested by the state’s Mandsaur Police on May 26, 2025. The viral video of Dhakad in a compromising position with a woman on a public highway was captured on May 13; soon after it went viral, several cases were registered against him and the woman at Bhanpura police station. 

Those sharing the video of the hijab-clad woman on social media after his arrest claimed that she was the one seen in the CCTV footage with Dhakad that night and identified her as Lubna Qureshi.

X user Jitendra Pratap Singh (@jpsin1), who counts Prime Minister Narendra Modi among his followers, shared the clip of the woman on May 27 and quipped, “If the hero of the film is arrested, why is the heroine released?” (Archive)

धाकड़ के हाईवे की फिल्म की हीरोइन लुबना कुरैशी

ये कह रही है मेरा जिस्म मेरी मर्जी चाहे मैं हाईवे पर या ओयो में

तुम कौन होते हो मुझे रोकने वाले

पुलिस को इसको भी अश्लीलता फैलाने की जुर्म में गिरफ्तार करना चाहिए था

फिल्म के हीरो को गिरफ्तार कर लिया तो हीरोइन को क्यों छोड़… pic.twitter.com/5BHTb71VjV

— Jitendra pratap singh (@jpsin1) May 27, 2025

At the time of writing this, the post had garnered 550,000 views.

X user Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) also shared the video, referring to the woman as “highway heroine”. (Archive)

मेरा जिस्म मेरी मर्जी, मै धन्दा करू तुम्हें क्या ?

लुबना कुरेशी हाइवे फिल्म की हीरोइन pic.twitter.com/ymosPZeQ3z

— Ocean Jain (@ocjain4) May 27, 2025

At the time of writing this, the user’s post had racked up over 800,000 views.

Similarly, another X user, Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7), also shared the video, claiming ‘Lubna Qureshi’, Dhakad’s partner on the highway that night, was publicly acknowledging what she did. The user also snuck in a snide communal remark: “This hijab clad woman is very open-minded”. (Archive)

Readers should note that Ocean Jain, Jitendra Pratap Singh, and Deepak Sharma are notorious for amplifying false and misleading information. Alt News has fact checked posts by the three users several times in the past. 

Besides these three, other social media users also shared the video and amplified the claims.

Fact Check

We broke down the video of the hijab-clad woman into key frames and ran a reverse image search. This led us to a TikTok account @ghdvcvjfe5u, which uploaded three similar videos of the woman’s interaction on May 21, 2025.

The TikTok videos can be seen below.

We tried more reverse image searches from key frames in these videos and found a longer video from the same incident uploaded on August 8, 2023—nearly two years before the expressway incident.

Note that the long YouTube version also began and ended abruptly and did not have the 17-second clip that was viral. However, on close examination of the visuals and based on the context from the TikTok videos, we were able to determine that it was indeed the same woman and the same incident. The comparison below makes it amply clear.

Thus, we were able to ascertain that the viral video is at least two years old.

To be sure, we also looked up several news reports on the Dhakad case but nowhere was the religious identity of the woman divulged. A Times of India report said that the authorities had yet to identify the woman seen in the video. It added that the police, despite interrogating Dhakad for a few hours, were unable to get any details on who he was with that night. 

To sum up, the viral video is unrelated and we found longer, similar footage of the woman from almost two years before the expressway incident. The claims made by social media users that the woman in the video is the same one seen with Dhakad in the viral CCTV clip are false and misleading. 

The post After Manohar Dhakad’s arrest for obscenity on highway, unrelated video of woman in hijab goes viral appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

North Korean state media has reported that several senior officials have been detained, including Hong Kil Ho, the manager of the Chongjin Shipyard, and Ri Hyong Son, a senior military industry official in the ruling Workers’ Party.

The May 21 launch was meant to be a signature event for supreme leader Kim Jong Un, signaling North Korea progress toward building a blue water navy.

He was presiding over the launch when the ship tipped sideways after an attempted “side launch” from the dock side that left one side of the hull submerged. Just a day later, state media reported his angry reaction: calling it a “grave and unacceptable accident” and a “serious criminal act.”

“People are stunned that the government acknowledged the failure so openly,” a resident of North Hamgyong province, where Chongjin is located, told RFA. Like all the sources in this story, the resident spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

A source from Chongjin said: “The whole city feels like it’s in mourning.”

(KCNA via Reuters)

North Korea’s opaque and often brutal political system only adds to the tension. Residents now fear that those involved—engineers, managers, and possibly even their families—may face severe punishment.

“People worry that this will lead to a purge,” a second source from North Hamgyong province said. “Kim takes failure personally, especially when it undermines his image.”

Reasons for failure

The shipyard was once known for building ships like the 9,500-ton Mangyongbong-92, a cargo and passenger ferry which launched in 1971. But it has not launched large-scale vessels like that in decades, according to local sources. During Kim Jong Un’s rule, the yard had pivoted toward production of military assets like submarines and torpedo craft.

“The shipyard used to be capable of building cargo ships before economic collapse in 1990s,” the Chongjin resident said. “But after the economic collapse, they haven’t built larger ships. With the retirement of older engineers, additionally the new generation lacks the experience for this kind of operation.”

(KCNA via AFP)

Following the accident, the damaged warship was covered with blue tarpaulin, visible in satellite images. The residents say attempts to recover the vessel have been slow, hindered by poor infrastructure and a lack of proper equipment.

“There are no large cranes at the shipyard that can lift a vessel of this size,” the first source from North Hamgyong said. “They might use sea cranes, but the approach route through sea to the dock is too narrow and shallow for those to operate easily.”

“It is possible to use crane ships (floating cranes), but the shipyard dock where the vessel has capsized is too narrow, making it extremely difficult to deploy multiple crane ships,” the source added. “Another problem is that the dock is not directly connected to open waters — it lies deep inland and can only be accessed through a narrow channel, which makes it challenging to bring in large crane ships to the site."

Using balloons?

Satellite imagery appears to show that North Korea is attempting to raise the destroyer into an upright position by attaching numerous balloons to it, according to a U.S. expert.

Decker Eveleth, an imagery analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., likened it to a scene from a popular animated movie.

“North Korea appears to be attempting to lift up their destroyer with methods inspired by Pixar’s hit 2009 film Up. Note the numerous balloons in the air above the destroyer,” he wrote in a post on X featuring a May 25 satellite image from Maxar.

In “Up,” an elderly man ties vast numbers of balloons to his house to fly it to a South American wilderness.

Translated and additional reporting by Jaewoo Park. Edited by Sungwon Yang and Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Chang Kyu Ahn and Ji Eun Kim for RFA Korean.

The image was captioned, “Lol” Salam, Comrade,” a pun on communists’ usage of the greeting “Lal Salam” or red salute.

“Lol” Salaam, Comrade!! https://t.co/WkzYoHIOUQ pic.twitter.com/ngYyVKYCll

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) May 23, 2025

On May 21, 2025, the District Reserve Guard unit of the Chhattisgarh police, a special force created to combat insurgency in Chhattisgarh, carried out an anti-Naxal operation in the state’s Narayanpur district. 27 Maoists, including the general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, were neutralised in this. Named Kagar, this operation sought to neutralise Maoist presence in the  Karreguttallu hill range along the Telengana-Chhattisgarh border region. 

The May 23 post by the BJP handle was in response to a statement by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (@cpimlliberation) condemning “the cold-blooded extra-judicial killing of the General Secretary of CPI(Maoist) Comrade Keshav Rao and other Maoist activists and Adivasis in Narayanpur-Bijapur.” Calling it a massacre, the communist party said, that “celebratory” posts by Indian leaders made it clear that the state was carrying out “an extra-judicial extermination campaign and taking credit for killing citizens and suppressing Adivasi protests against corporate plunder and militarisation in the name of combating Maoism.” The party was likely referring to X posts by Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hailed the Maoists’ deaths as a “landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism”.

In the past 16 months, under the BJP’s governance, more than 400 alleged Maoist insurgents have been killed in Chhattisgarh, a state with a significant Adivasi population.

While the two parties and their ideologues are on two opposing ends on how they view the Naxal movement, the troubling part is that BJP Karnataka’s X post used a trope—the cauliflower—that is a horrifying reminder of a genocide.

Rooted in Bloodshed

To an unsuspecting viewer, Shah holding a cauliflower on the tombstone of the Naxal movement might strike as odd, but harmless. However, the cauliflower here is a deep-rooted symbol of bloodshed. It is a reference to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots in which over a 100 Muslims were killed.

Over 35 years ago, a series of brutal riots broke out in the city of Bhagalpur, Bihar. In October, 1989, rumours of Hindu students being murdered by Muslim mobs amid the cultural furore of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement began spreading. This gave way to a protracted period of organised communal violence, lasting around two whole months. The Bhagalpur riots, as they are called, saw more than 250 villages razed to the ground, leaving well over a thousand people dead, majority of them Muslims.

But something far more sinister took place in Bhagalpur’s Logain village. On October 27, 1989, a mob, allegedly led by police officer Ramchander Singh, killed 116 Muslims. Their bodies were buried, and cauliflower saplings were sown on their mass graves to cover up the killings.

Nearly 25 days later, on November 21, the then-Additional District Manager of Bhagalpur, AK Singh, on a relief mission to a nearby village, overheard conversations between villagers about cauliflower plants sprouting over buried dead bodies and unearthed the massacre. Another account suggests that Singh found out that bodies may be buried under the ground because he saw vultures hovering above the cauliflower plantations.

For more details on the happenings in 1989 and what triggered the clashes, read our earlier report here. You can also read the Bhagalpur Riot Inquiry Commission Report here.

The Cauliflower Imagery

While the Bhagalpur riots took place over three decades ago, in the past few years, the cauliflower symbolism has found its way through graphical representations, imagery and memes. Each time, a minority or non-Right group is targeted, supporters who identify with Hindutva groups or the Right-wing ideology have openly made references to the cauliflower as a ‘solution’.

In March 2025, after communal clashes broke out in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, Right-leaning social media users referred to cauliflowers, as a potential ‘solution’.

In February last year, similar cauliflower references were used in several social media posts after riots broke out in Haldwani.

Several memes were made and shared on social media platforms glorifying the Bhagalpur massacre, subverting a horror as a feasible remedy.

Read | Nagpur clashes: Cryptic cauliflower memes referring to mass killings in 1989 Bhagalpur riots resurface

Not only does such symbolism trivialize the horrors of what unfolded in Bhagalpur but glorifies the action as an acceptable ‘solution’. It’s hard to determine which is more troubling, that the state wing of a party that governs the nation shared this or that “eliminating Naxalism” is being equated to a genocide. As of May 24, despite several social media users pointing out the gory undercurrents to the image, BJP Karnataka’s X handle has not taken the post down.

The post After Maoist deaths, BJP Karnataka shares ‘cauliflower’ meme, a reference to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

This Sunday marks five years since George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. In a video that shocked the world and spurred a global movement for racial justice, Chauvin pinned Floyd to the ground with a knee to his neck for eight minutes while Floyd gasped for air. Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.”

Despite the nationwide uprising that followed Floyd’s killing, Congress failed to pass legislation that sought to reduce racial profiling and the use of force by law enforcement. The Trump Justice Department dismissed police reform and oversight agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville earlier this week, just days ahead of the fifth anniversary. We speak with Nekima Levy Armstrong, Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney, activist and founder of the Racial Justice Network, on where the movement for racial justice stands today.

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

Soon after this, a video began circulating on social media with claims that these showed the destruction at the Noor Khan (Chaklala) airbase. The airbase is located in the Rawalpindi area, around 10 kilometres from Islamabad.

X user Karma Yogi (@karma2moksha) shared the video and wrote, “Pakistan’s Noor Khan Airbase. As per the shared video, the damage is huge.” (Archive)

Several other X handles, including @munish_pat1980, @amjaviya and @Yashwant_Saroha also shared the video with the same claim.

Fact Check

On looking at the viral video closely, Alt News noticed that there were only passenger planes and nothing resembling a fighter jet on the tarmac. At the 00:52-minute mark in the video, the word ‘Sudan’ can be seen on the tail of one of the planes.

We performed a reverse image search using a few frames of the viral clip and found the same video uploaded on Instagram by a user named ‘@africanaviators_official’ on March 31, 2025. The caption of the post said these were tragic scenes from Khartoum International Airport in Sudan that show a large number of aircraft being destroyed during clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in May 2023. It also says that the Sudanese army took back control of the Khartoum International Airport from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A longer version of this video was shared by X handle @smutoro on March 31. The post said that the Khartoum Airport was destroyed by RSF fighters. At the 04:31-minute mark in the video, the words ‘Blue Bird Aviation Company Limited’ can be seen on the damaged plane as well as on the signboard of an aircraft workshop. Blue Bird Aviation is a private airline company from Sudan established in 1989. Thus there is ample evidence that the video is from Sudan and not Pakistan.

According to a report published by Al Jazeera on March 26, the Sudanese army recaptured Khartoum International Airport from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in March 2025, two years after the war.

To sum up, this viral video shows an airport destroyed in a clash during the civil uprising in Sudan, not Pakistan. Social media users wrongly shared it as scenes from Pakistan’s Noor Khan airbase after it was destroyed by the Indian armed forces.

The post Video from Sudan shared as visuals of Pakistan’s Noor Khan airbase after Indian attack appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

An Auckland University law academic says Samoa’s criminal libel law under which a prominent journalist has been charged should be repealed.

Lagi Keresoma, the first female president of the Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS) and editor of Talamua Online, was charged under the Crimes Act 2013 on Sunday after publishing an article about a former police officer, whom she asserted had sought the help of the Head of State to withdraw charges brought against him.

JAWS has already called for the criminal libel law to be scrapped and Auckland University academic Beatrice Tabangcoro told RNZ Pacific that the law was “unnecessary and impractical”.

• READ MORE: Samoa press group calls for repeal of criminal libel laws after journalist charged
• Samoan journalists association calls to repeal law
• Treating journalists with respect – Samoa Observer editorial
• Other Samoa media freedom reports

“A person who commits a crime under this section is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 175 penalty units or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months,” the Crimes Act states.

JAWS said this week that the law, specifically Section 117A of the Crimes Act, undermined media freedom, and any defamation issues could be dealt with in a civil court.

JAWS gender representative to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Keresoma’s arrest “raises serious concerns about the misuse of legal tools to independent journalism” in the country.

Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson called on the Samoan government “to urgently review and repeal criminal defamation laws that undermine democratic accountability and public trust in the justice system”.

Law removed and brought back
The law was removed by the Samoan government in 2013, but was brought back in 2017, ostensibly to deal with issues arising on social media.

Auckland University’s academic Beatrice Tabangcoro told RNZ Pacific that this reintroduction was widely criticised at the time for its potential impact on freedom of speech and media freedom.

She said that truth was a defence to the offence of false statement causing harm to reputation, but in the case of a journalist this could lead to them being compelled to reveal their sources.

The academic said that the law remained unnecessary and impractical, and she pointed to the Samoa Police Commissioner telling media in 2023 that the law should be repealed as it was used “as a tool for harassing the media and is a waste of police resources”.

Tonga and Vanuatu are two other Pacific nations with the criminal libel law on their books, and it is something the media in both those countries have raised concerns about.

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

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

Columbia University activist and student Mohsen Mahdawi graduated on Monday — after he was released from ICE jail late last month. As he crossed the stage, students erupted in thunderous applause. Democracy Now! spoke with Mahdawi after the ceremony. “I am coming here to be in the middle of this fire because I am a peacemaker, because I am a firefighter,” says Mahdawi, who plans to attend Columbia University’s graduate School of International and Public Affairs in the fall.

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

“Turkish authorities in Ankara must take the threats made against journalist İsmail Arı and his relatives seriously and take decisive steps to better ensure their safety,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should swiftly and comprehensively investigate the threats and hold those responsible to account, so all journalists in Turkey can safely do their jobs.”

Arı, based in the capital Ankara, said in a post on X that he filed a criminal complaint on May 16 notifying authorities that he was insulted, threatened and sent a list of his relatives via messaging app by an unknown foreign number earlier in the day, and at least one of his relatives was threatened in a phone call, according to the complaint reviewed CPJ.

Arı told CPJ via messaging app on Monday that the police provided a “caution protection” number for him to call and report incidents for 90 days. The journalist also contacted the Interior Ministry about the matter but did not receive a reply as of Monday evening.

Arı was previously targeted with death threats in late 2023 in connection with his reporting on an Islamist group in southern Turkey.

CPJ’s emailed request for comment to Turkey’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, did not receive a reply. 

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

Many weeks after they were rescued from scam centers inside Myanmar, more than 200 Vietnamese workers are still stranded in a squalid camp near the Thai border because they can’t afford their passage home, two of the workers told Radio Free Asia.

“Life here is very hard. The accommodation is like a chicken coop. You have to sleep on the floor on mats,” said a 31-year-old woman from the northern Vietnamese province of Son La, adding that conditions were “miserable” and infections spread among people there.

Hundreds of Vietnamese were among the more than 8,000 people of various nationalities who were freed in February by a pro-junta Myanmar militia that hosted extensive online fraud operations in its territory on the Thai-Myanmar border.

The Karen National Army, or KNA, let them go after unprecedented pressure from governments, including China, over criminal activity in the militia’s area including forced labor and torture of workers, and fraud against the targets of cyber scams.

Freed workers were taken to a makeshift camp near Myawaddy, the main international border crossing point to Thailand, to await repatriation. While the majority of those freed were Chinese, the Karen force said they included 685 Vietnamese.

(Citizen photo)

On May 15, Vietnam confirmed that it had repatriated a total of 450 citizens from Myanmar, and about 200 were still waiting to return. Stranded workers told RFA there were 215 Vietnamese left, and the KNA said 214.

Those still left behind are increasingly sore about it.

“I am very disappointed,” the Son La woman said. “Even Ethiopians, the poorest people here, were allowed to return home, leaving only over 200 Vietnamese people still here.”

People have to pay

RFA spoke directly to two of the Vietnamese workers. Others were within earshot of the call at the camp. They all said that they have to pay money to their embassy to be repatriated - money they don’t have. All requested anonymity for safety reasons.

“At first, you only had to pay 10 million (dong) ($385), but the longer you stay, the higher it gets. Now it’s 12 million ($470), and some people have to pay 13 million $500),” a Vietnamese man in the camp told RFA.

He said he was instructed by a representative of the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok on how to pay to be on the repatriation list.

He showed RFA the contents of a text message exchange with that official via the messaging app Zalo. In it, the official explained that the amount of “more than 12 million (dong)” was to buy a plane ticket, and if there was money left over it would be returned to the family.

“To be honest, I can’t afford to pay because my family is very poor. My family also asked me why I have to pay for the rescue?” the man told RFA.

The woman told RFA that she was also asked to pay money if she wanted to return home. “People from the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand said it would cost money, and if you don’t pay, you won’t be able to return,” she said.

RFA contacted the Vietnamese embassies in Myanmar and Thailand to verify the above information but received no response.

(Reuters)

The revelation that the Vietnamese scam center workers have to pay for their passage home may raise awkward questions about the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ handling of the situation.

Past problems with repatriations

The ministry and other Vietnamese government agencies have courted controversy in the past over officials skimming repatriation funds. In 2023, a Hanoi court convicted 54 defendants, including senior diplomats, for collecting over $7.4 billion in bribes to arrange government flights home for Vietnamese citizens stranded overseas during COVID pandemic lockdowns during 2020 and 2021.

While this repatriation operation is far smaller in scale, the scam centers have been headline news, shining a spotlight on the plight of those caught up in huge fraud operations in lawless regions of Southeast Asia. These centers are often staffed by people lured by false job advertisements and forced to work, sometimes under threat of violence, rescued workers and rights groups say.

The scamming, known as “pig butchering” in China, involves making contact with unsuspecting people online, building a relationship with them and then defrauding them. Researchers say billions of dollars have been stolen this way from victims around the world.

The Vietnamese man said he had arrived in Thailand in 2023 to take up another job but was forced to cross the border into Myanmar to work in a Chinese scam center to target Vietnamese people. He said if he did not achieve monthly targets, he would be tortured.

The woman from Son La told a similar story. She got a job as a translator in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand in September 2024 but was then forced at gunpoint by her employers to cross the border into Myanmar to work in a scam center.

She said that after that she had tried to contact the Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar for help but received no response, and started to plan an escape with other women from India and Indonesia. Their plan was exposed, and she was then locked in a separate room by her Chinese employers for two months as punishment. In April 2025, she was taken to the border camp by the Karen militia.

US sanctions

Despite the KNA’s apparent efforts to show it is untangling itself from the scam industry, on May 5, the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted the ethnic army, its leader Saw Chit Thu and his two sons for facilitating cyber scams from territory they control on the Thai-Myanmar border. The KNA was designated as a “significant transnational criminal organization” that is barred from holding property in the United States and conducting transactions with U.S. persons.

On May 6, Lt. Col. Naing Maung Zaw, a spokesperson for the KNA, told The Associated Press 7,454 of 8,575 foreign scam workers have so far been repatriated through Thailand. He said more than 10,000 people remained to be identified in the KNA-controlled areas, and the group would continue to work toward the elimination of scam activities.

Speaking to RFA last week, Naing Maung Zaw said they do not have a direct communication channel with the Vietnamese government and have noticed that recently Vietnam has reduced the repatriation of its citizens. He said he wasn’t aware those stuck at the camp have to pay money to the Vietnamese government to be repatriated.

“Now that RFA has mentioned it, I will pay attention to this issue. I will meet the Vietnamese people tomorrow and ask them directly if this is true. If it is true, we will report it to our superiors and do something,” he said.

Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pham Thu Hang told reporters in Hanoi on May 15 that the ministry will direct Vietnamese representative agencies in Myanmar and Thailand to bring the remaining Vietnamese citizens home as soon as possible.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Truong Son for RFA Vietnamese.

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

Texas lawmakers are pushing to impose steep penalties on local governments that don’t post campaign finance reports online, after an investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found some school districts weren’t doing so.

The initial posting requirements, designed to make election spending more transparent, went into effect nearly two years ago. Most of the school district leaders said they had no idea they were out of compliance until the newsrooms contacted them. Even after many districts uploaded whatever documentation they had on file for their trustee elections, reports were still missing because candidates hadn’t turned them in or the schools lost them.

“I was surprised and disappointed,” said Republican state Rep. Carl Tepper, who authored the online posting requirement. “I did realize that we didn’t really put any teeth into the bill.”

Tepper is aiming to correct that with a new bill this legislative session. He cited the newsrooms’ findings in a written explanation of why the state needs to implement greater enforcement.

The measure would require the Texas Ethics Commission, the agency that enforces the state’s election laws, to monitor thousands of local governments’ websites across the state and to notify them if any campaign finance reports are missing. If those government agencies do not upload the records that candidates have turned in within 30 days of the state’s notice, the commission can fine them up to $2,500 every day until they comply.

The proposed measure also recommends the state allot funding for the ethics commission to hire two additional staff members, whose job would be to monitor all local government entities that hold public elections in the state’s 254 counties and roughly 1,200 cities and towns. The newsrooms previously found the agency did not have any staff dedicated to enforcing compliance in local elections and, instead, investigated missing or late reports only when it received a tip.

The bill has cleared the Texas House but still needs approval from the Senate by May 28 if it has a chance of becoming law.

The superintendent of Galveston Independent School District, which was among those that ProPublica and the Tribune found hadn’t posted any campaign finance reports online last year, said the measure would help schools like his.

“I do like the suggestion of a 30-day period to achieve compliance after an issue is reported,” Matthew Neighbors said of the new proposal in an emailed statement. “Our district, for example, had no objections to posting the necessary campaign information once our new employees were aware of the requirements.”

Kelly Rasti, the associate executive director of governmental relations for the Texas Association of School Boards, said districts do not flout the law intentionally. Rasti said the employees tasked with handling school board election documentation are not always well versed in the state’s regulations but that the association plans to provide additional resources later this year.

District employees are accustomed to handling a plethora of education-related paperwork and reporting requirements imposed by the state. But “elections are just different, and they seem to have ever-evolving laws and rules associated with them,” Rasti said.

Notably, Tepper’s bill would not directly require the ethics commission to penalize or follow up with candidates who fail to turn in their reports. He initially included a provision in his bill that would make candidates ineligible to run for office if they didn’t file those records, even if they won an election. He told the newsrooms that he cut the penalty after realizing the logistical challenges it might present.

That means the ethics commission must still decide whether to investigate and fine any of the candidates and officeholders for the state’s estimated 22,000 local elected positions should they miss a filing. By contrast, candidates who run for statewide office are automatically fined by the commission if they don’t make a deadline.

Tepper’s ultimate goal is to create a unified system in which the ethics commission compiles campaign finance records for state and local candidates in one central database, rather than leaving local filings scattered across thousands of city, county and school district government websites. The Republican lawmaker withdrew his proposal to create such a system in 2023 after the commission estimated it would cost $20 million, but he told the newsrooms that he hopes to gain enough support to make that investment next session, in 2027.

For now, he sees his proposal as a necessary advance.

“I’m a big believer in incrementalism,” said Tepper. “This is another step toward better enforcement.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.

In the aftermath of a broken ceasefire, Palestinians in Gaza speak out about the trauma, loss, and fear they live with daily. Families recount the horrors of bombings, life in tents, and the silence of a world that watches but does not act. Through raw testimony and haunting imagery, this short film captures the reality of survival under siege—and the enduring dignity of a people who refuse to be erased.

Producers: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
Videographers: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi
Video Editor: Leo Erhardt

Transcript

MAMDOUH AHMED MORTAJA: 

More than 500 days have passed and this unjust world has watched our bodies being burned alive. 

SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD: 

A girl asleep. In a tent, also. An air strike hit, her brain spilled out—she died on her mattress. What did this girl do? What crime did she commit? 

MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA: 

Two billion Muslims. Two billion Muslims are watching us. They could do something, but they do nothing. Where is the Arab world? Where is the Islamic world? Where is the Western world? While we are being killed daily. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

Destruction, terror, fear, humiliation. Faith only in God. As for faith in the end of the war—sadly, we’re not hopeful. 

SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD: 

We were in the refugee camp, when we heard gunfire, bombs and the chaos that followed. We didn’t need anyone to tell us, at night, we woke up to gunfire and bombs. There were assassinations, and the whole world turned upside down. My feelings when the ceasefire happened: we were truly pleased, we thought it was over and thought we were going to go back to normal life, like everyone else. Or do we not have the right to live? After that, war returned, worse than before. Now our feelings are different from before. At first, when the ceasefire happened, we were happy and thought we could go back to our lives. But for the war to stop and then return? That’s terrifying and fills us with anxiety. We didn’t expect the war to start again, at all. We couldn’t even believe it when it ended. We were waiting for relief, supplies and aid. We heard the promises on the news, about trucks entering—we didn’t expect the war to return. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

For me? Yes, I expected it. I expected it. Because they are treacherous, they don’t want peace. We had almost finished the first stage, but at the beginning of the second phase, they turned everything around. They don’t want it to succeed. They don’t want it to succeed. It’s not possible for the war to end. It’s not possible. 

MAMDOUH AHMED MORTAJA: 

Rings of fire, flying body parts, surprise attacks, abductions—the stuff of nightmares is happening in this war, and now, the resumption of war has renewed our feelings of intense fear. Everyone’s only demand is an end to this war and this curse, so we can have safety,

and tranquility, so we can rest our heads on our pillows and know that we will wake up the next day without drones, bullets, or artillery strikes. 

Interviewer: 

– This is not normal, it’s really loud. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

– It’s like this 24/7. 

SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD: 

Of course, Gaza is used to wars, but not like this. It’s not a war; it’s genocide: the child, the young, the girl, the wealthy, the poor—everyone. I’ll tell you a story: Yesterday, a ten-year-old girl was sleeping in her bed when an airstrike hit and killed her. What did this girl do? She was only ten years old. A girl sleeping. Also, in a tent. An air strike hits, her brains spill out. She dies on her mattress. What did she do? What crime did she commit? It’s a scary thing. The person sitting in his tent is scared, the person in his house is scared. We feel complete exhaustion, there is no stability, and we are mentally drained. When we sleep, we don’t expect to wake up. With the jets and the strikes, no one expects to wake up. We are living day to day, when we sleep, we don’t think about waking up. Death has become normal. What can we do? 

MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA: 

To me, the war hasn’t stopped. We have been living in destruction since October 7, 2023. I was injured on October 11, 2023, and until now, there’s been complete ongoing destruction in the Gaza Strip. Martyrs, orphans—destruction, destruction, destruction, more than you can imagine. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

Unfortunately, we expected the war to end, but it didn’t. They don’t want to end it—they want to end us: completely. We don’t want wars, it’s enough. We’re exhasted. Displacement, displacement, displacement. I lost three homes, and I have lost family as martyrs. We’ve been humiliated as you can see, living in a refugee camp and the situation is miserable. A worn out tent, frankly the situation is not good. 

SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD: 

The children here, when they hear explosions, develop psychological problems. They wet themselves. If a glass falls, they panic—they’re psychologically broken. They’re still children. What do they know? Anything that moves, they think it’s an airstrike or tank fire. They’re living in fear. 

MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA:

One of my grandsons has a heart condition, we worry his heart will stop from terror. He screams and cries when he hears a rocket or an airstrike, or the quadcopter fire. The children can’t sleep because of what’s happening here in Gaza. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

The kids wet themselves. That’s one thing. The second? The fear and terror—like this child next to you. They are terrified and have no reassurance. The children roam the streets. There are no schools, no education. The Jews demolished the schools, they demolished kindergartens, the hospitals, the dispensaries, and the infrastructure. Buildings, houses: there is nothing left. The children are broken. The children? Childhood is over here. 

SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD: 

The future? It’s black and bleak. We have no future—our future is with God. What future? We live in tents, and they have followed us even here! The tent is everything—the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, everything. At the same time, the tent is an oven—not a tent. Even here, they won’t let us stay. They won’t leave us alone. The tents, the fear, the airstrikes—everything is crushing us. 

MAMDOUH AHMED MORTAJA: 

More than 500 days have passed, and this unjust world has watched our bodies being burned alive. Today, more than 50,000 human beings killed, burned alive in front of the world, and no one lifts a finger. So it’s normal that we in Gaza feel we face a deaf, blind, unjust world that supports the executioner standing over us, the victims. 

MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA: 

After losing my son, after what’s happened to Gaza? No. There is no hope, none at all. Only God stands with us. Hope in any country? There is none. I don’t trust the international community. They haven’t helped us. On the contrary. They sit and discuss as they destroy us. They haven’t found a solution for Gaza. They are destroying us here and in the West Bank. No one has stopped the war. Why? Only God knows. The blame is on them. There is a conspiracy against the people of Gaza. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

Doesn’t the international community see the victims every day? Thirty, forty victims a day, while they watch. No. Only God is our hope. No one else. God will deliver us from this war. He who is capable of anything. As for the international community, the Arab world, the Muslim world? There are 56 Arab and Muslim nations, yet they do nothing. Two billion Muslims. Two billion Muslims are watching us. They could act, but they do nothing. Where is the Arab world? Where is the Islamic world? Where is the Western world? We are being killed daily. They could act, but they are complicit—their hearts side with Israel. In the end, we’re battling the U.S. We are not equals. And the entire world supports Israel. We’re

exhausted. We are seeing horrors, tragedies, and no one stands with us. The International Court of Justice ruled for us, but where’s the action? We’re alone. 

Interviewer 

– Do you think you will survive this war? 

SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD: 

– No. Zero chance. I told you: I sleep feeling like I won’t wake up. It’s normal. Thanks be to God. If He wills us to be martyrs, it’s better than this torture. Because, I’m telling you, we are not living—we are dead. These tents are graves above the earth. What’s the difference if we’re buried under it? Nothing. We’re being tortured, watching the explosions, the despair—it’s destroying us mentally and physically. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

Honestly, it’s difficult. We’ve faced death repeatedly. May God save us. I don’t expect to survive. I’m not optimistic. Destruction, terror, fear, humiliation. Only faith in God. As for faith in the war ending? Sadly, we’re not hopeful. 

SUHAILA HAMED SA’AD: 

Who can we have faith in? In whom? There’s no one. We’ve lost everything. Everything. Only our breath remains. And we wait, minute by minute, for it to leave us. 

MOHAMED DARWISH MUSTAFA SA’AD: 

Frankly, we are beyond exhausted. We lost our children, homes, livelihoods, work—Gaza has no life left. Life is over. I mean it. I’m 73. I’ve seen many wars, but never like this. This is genocide. 

MUKARAM SA’AD MUSTAFA HLIWA: 

I hope to walk again after my injury. I have a broken hip, I need a replacement. They approved my transfer, but I’m afraid if I leave, I’ll be exiled. They’re saying that those who leave can’t return. But why? I’m leaving for treatment—why exile me? I am from this land. I am Palestinian. I want my country. I want treatment, but I must return. I’m not leaving to emigrate. I don’t want to abandon my country. That’s what I fear.

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi, Belal Awad and Leo Erhadt.

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British officials told the U.S. they are concerned about the safety of SpaceX’s plans to fly its next Starship rocket over British territories in the Caribbean, where debris fell earlier this year after two of the company’s rockets exploded, according to documents reviewed by ProPublica.

The worries from the U.K. government, detailed in a letter to a top American diplomat on Wednesday, follow the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision last week to grant SpaceX’s request for a fivefold increase in the number of Starship launches allowed this year, from five to 25. Growing the number of launches of the most powerful rocket ever built is a priority for SpaceX head Elon Musk, who is also one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers.