Amnesty International warned that plans by five European Union member-state governments for migrant "return hubs" in Rwanda and Uganda risk creating "cruel black holes for human rights." The warning comes as the EU Return Regulation, approved by the European Parliament in June but still awaiting final approval by the European Council, is set to provide the legal basis for such hubs. (Photo: Sara Creta/TNH)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Thai authorities to halt the deportation of ethnic Karen villagers from Thailand's Phetchaburi province to Burma, citing grave risks to their safety if returned, and urging their immediate release from immigration detention. HRW reported that Thai security forces raided the Karen community living within Phetchaburi's Kaeng Krachan National Park, targeting those without proof of Thai citizenship, and arresting 26 villagers before placing them into the custody of the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok. The organization stated that deporting the Karen villagers to Burma would expose them to severe risk given the Burmese military junta's record of ethnically targeted attacks and abuses, including mass killings, torture and arbitrary arrests. (Map: Google)
A Damascus criminal court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia after convicting him of murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity. This was the first judgment issued by Syria's own courts against the head of a government that ruled the country for decades and put down a 2011 uprising with a wave of harsh repression, sparking a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. (Photo of early Arab Revolution protest in Syria via Fightback)
A group of 31 international human rights organizations called on the EU and its member states to end their cooperation with Libyan authorities on migration control. The groups expressed alarm at plans to strengthen cooperation with the rival authorities in Eastern and Western Libya, which both have a longstanding record of grave rights abuses against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. (Map: Perry-Castañeda Library)
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her government plans to seek criminal complaints in the United States over the deaths of Mexican citizens while in immigration custody or during anti-immigration operations. Since President Donald Trump launched the current immigration crackdown, at least 14 Mexican nationals have died in the custody of US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and three more have reportedly died in arrests conducted by the agency. (Map: PCL)
The trial of Syria's former grand mufti, Ahmed Bareddin Hassoun, opened at the Palace of Justice in Damascus. Hassoun led Syria's official religious establishment under the Bashar Assad dictatorship. He is accused of incitement to murder and abusing his position as a mufti to provide religious cover for the crimes of the regime, as well as participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity. He famously issued fatwas justifying the bombing of civilians and called the regime's use of indiscriminate barrel bombs "liberation," winning him the epithet "Barrel Bomb Mufti." He also issued a fatwa in 2017 authorizing the execution of detainees held at the notorious Sednaya Prison, where the Assad regime killed thousands, many through torture and starvation. (Photo: SANA via Arab News)
Amnesty International raised concerns over an absolute blanket ban by the Turkish government on all protests in the capital Ankara ahead of the NATO summit that is to be held in the city next week. The statement also decried the pretrial detention of more than 100 people in the city, including lawyers, academics and activists. Amnesty describes the measures as "excessive" and constituting an attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. (Map: CIA)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for independent investigations into dozens of deaths in US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. He urged authorities to take immediate measures to prevent further fatalities as the number of deaths in detention continues to rise. Türk noted that at least 52 people have died in ICE custody since the beginning of 2025, following President Donald Trump's return to office and the start of the administration's expanded immigration enforcement policies. According to official figures, 18 people died in ICE detention during the first five months of this year, with an additional death recorded in June, while 33 deaths were documented during 2025 overall—compared with 11 in 2024. (Photo: ICE via Wikimedia Commons)
Indian authorities have deported thousands of Bangladeshi citizens in the month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won elections in the state of West Bengal. Shortly after taking power in West Bengal, BJP officials ordered the creation of detention centers both for undocumented Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims who are fleeing persecution in their native Burma and mistreatment in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. (Image: Sowmya Reddy)
Amnesty International called on Egyptian authorities to immediately release jailed activists and uphold international law, following the arrest of a group involved in organizing a peaceful protest. Several members of the Committee to Defend Prisoners of Conscience were detained after holding an exhibition called "They Don't Belong in Prison," highlighting cases of persons unjustly detained for political reasons. They were charged with "disseminating false news," and one activist, lawyer Mohamed Abu al-Dayyar, is also facing terrorism-related charges. (Image: Egyptian Human Rights Forum)
The head of the World Health Organization has appealed for a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, where Ebola is rapidly spreading. Director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' statement said even a temporary truce would allow health workers through and save lives. "I urge you, I implore you: give us the space to help the people who need it most," he said, addressing the armed factions active in the province. Out of nearly a thousand suspected Ebola cases in the DRC and Uganda, over 220 people may have died, with the WHO warning that the outbreak could potentially be much larger. (Photo of displaced persons camp in Ituri: Alexis Huguet/MSF via TNH)
The administrative subpoenas issued for Hasan Piker and Medea Benjamin over their participation in the Cuba caravan are to be opposed—in part because the subpoenas will only give their sinister politics greater cachet among neophyte activists! Piker's shameless shilling for the dictatorships of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin invisibilizes the victims of their ethno-supremacist detention states—such as the Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the Crimean Tatars. This more critical point is obscured in the endless outrage over his supposed anti-Semitism. And with Xi and Putin joining with Trump to build a fascist world order, Piker's brand of campist pseudo-opposition (however overheated) is compromised from the start, mirroring what it ostensibly opposes—subpoenas notwithstanding. In Episode 330 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down in his typically unsparing manner. (Photo: Xinjiang Judicial Administration via The Diplomat)
