Human Rights

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump staffer Stephen Miller, an arch-conservative, defended Trump’s Muslim ban on television Monday by pointing to Europe, where he alleged there were Muslim ghettos that bred radicalism over generations. While a tiny number of Muslim Europeans deriving from poor neighborhoods have become radicals, they don’t actually […]

Displaced and Refugees

Starbucks Plans to Hire 10,000 Refugees After Trump Travel Ban

contributors

TeleSur | – – In a letter from the CEO, Starbucks told employees it would do everything possible to support affected workers. Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said on Sunday that the company planned to hire 10,000 refugees over five years in 75 countries, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Trump Effect: What will happen to 3 mn Syrian Refugees in Turkey?

contributors

By Katharine Jones and Esra Kaytaz | (The Conversation) | – – On Holocaust Memorial Day 2017 and amid the world’s greatest refugee crisis since World War II, Donald Trump imposed a four-month suspension of all refugee admissions into the US and indefinitely banned entry to all Syrian refugees. The president’s executive order suspends the […]

Displaced and Refugees

Persecution and the threat to the refugee system

contributors

By Brad K. Blitz | (OpenDemocracy.net) | – – We need to accept that for millions of refugees persecution is the principal reason for flight today as it was before, during and after the Holocaust. Following the passage of controversial proposals on the EURODAC database of asylum applicants’ and refugees’ fingerprints,Greens/EFA MEPs protest the erosion […]

Featured

Torture works . . . to produce Fake News (and that’s how we Got into Iraq)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I told this story back in 2005 but it is a good story, has held up, and bears repeating now that President Trump is again promoting torture as “effective.” Torture is a good way to get people to tell you what they think you want to […]

Donald Trump

Will Donald Trump bring back torture? Can Foreign leaders stop him?

contributors

By Vincent Charles Keating | (The Conversation) | – – There can be no doubt that the swearing in of Donald Trump on January 20 will usher in a new era for the United States. But the president-elect’s open support for torture and waterboarding could mean his inauguration also marks a return to what President […]

Displaced and Refugees

Under Saudi Bombing, Specter of Famine Haunts Yemen’s Children

contributors

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS, Jan 6 2017 (IPS) – Millions of Yemenis could soon face widespread famine if no action is taken to improve food access through humanitarian or trade means, an early warning system has said. Up to eight million Yemenis are severely food insecure while […]

Egypt

Pain and torture: state violence in Egypt

contributors

By Maged Mandour | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The root of state violence and torture is not poor police training, nor a political decision that can be reversed, it is the nature of the regime and the political order it has created. Arabic on the banner reads, “remove our shackles.” Cairo. 3 May 2016. […]

Democracy

5 Surprising Signs of Positive Change in 2016

Juan Cole

Sarah van Gelder | (Yes! Magazine) The election divided the year into “before” and “after.” But there remain signs of hope for 2017. It was a year blown up by the election results. There are now two very different 2016s—the one before and the one after we learned that Donald Trump would become president of […]