The FBI licensed but says it didn’t use the Israeli NSO Group’s Pegasus “no click” spyware. Given the widespread abuse of Pegasus to spy on dissidents and journalists, why did the Israeli government let it be licensed to any government at all?
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Kenneth Roth
@KenRoth
Former long-time executive director of Human Rights Watch, now a free agent writing a book. Still proudly "sanctioned" by the Chinese and Russian governments.
New York and GenevaJoined December 2008
Kenneth Roth’s Tweets
A victory for US democracy: "Republican election deniers lost every swing-state Secretary of State race." Secretaries of state play a key role in certifying elections. axios.com/newsletters/ax
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Among 's first acts at Twitter was to lay off the entire team dedicated to human rights, the accessibility team that tried to improve the experience of people with disabilities on Twitter, and the team working to reduce bias and harm. hrw.org/news/2022/11/1
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"Top military commanders from Ethiopia and its embattled Tigray region have agreed to allow unhindered humanitarian access to the region." Let's hope they live up to these vows.
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Aiding Beijing's censorship, "Apple has limited filesharing features on iPhones in China, a month after reports that anti-government protesters were using the function to share digital leaflets with strangers."
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The latest Banksy mural is in Ukraine, "depicting a female gymnast balancing on the rubble of a destroyed building."
trib.al/rGbJG7D
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Canada suffered the consequences of the Chinese government's repression when Beijing detained two Canadians -- Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig -- as hostages for the release of the Huawei chief financial officer, who had been arrested for extradition.
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Beijing allows no democracy at home but manipulates others' -- Canadian intelligence officials have warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the Chinese government funded "a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates...in the 2019 election."
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Janet Yellen "lauded investments that have allowed an American solar manufacturer to set up operations in India instead of China, noting that solar panel materials produced in China’s Xinjiang region are made with forced labor."
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The challenge for Xi Jinping as he meets with Biden: is building an anti-US alliance so important to Xi that he is willing to embrace Putin's invasion of and war crimes in Ukraine?
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Iranian authorities' trials of protesters, bystanders and chroniclers of the current uprising have begun. "There is little expectation of due process in a judicial system dominated by the security services and stacked against the accused." #KangarooCourts
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So this is Qatar? Its World Cup ambassador says homosexuality is "damage in the mind" and calls it "haram." If Qatar can't accept international rules on the rights of LGBT people, why did it sign up to host an international competition?
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No, Qatar, it's not that LGBT people "have to accept our rules here" and stop being who they are. It's that Qatar, having chosen to host an international competition like the World Cup, has to accept the internationally recognized rights of LGBT people.
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Is the Egyptian government's response to the campaign to free President Sisi's most prominent political prisoner really, why prioritize him over others? Fair enough. Why doesn't Sisi free all 60,000?
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No surprise that governments under pressure to address past atrocities begin with token steps toward justice, trying to give supporters a chance to pretend that something is being done, but those steps sometimes get out of control, producing real results.
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Putin's color-revolution fears: “Whether Russians really accept Mr. Putin’s shifting justifications for the war, it is becoming clear that there are limits to what they are prepared to pay for his revanchist dreams.”
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As cuts staff, "Twitter’s ability to effectively moderate content and protect its most vulnerable users" around the world will diminish.
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On Nov. 5, "Documento, an investigative weekly, published a list of 33 prominent Greeks, among them several cabinet members and a former prime minister, whose mobile phones were reportedly targeted for hacking by Predator, a bit of Israeli-made spyware."
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Under Xi Jinping's new vision for China, there is no room for individual dreams unless they happen to correspond to the Communist Party-imposed collective dream.
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“Some of the very types of weapons that are being used to kill people in Ukraine are being used to kill the people of Myanmar. And they come from the very same source — they come from Russia.” -- UN rapporteur
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"The generals will fail. Myanmar has traveled too far down the road to freedom. Millions of...young people who have grown up tasting democracy and have access to the internet won’t accept being dragged back to the dark days when the junta reigned supreme."
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Brazil's President Bolsonaro may have many backers in the military, but even the military fails to credit his empty claims of election fraud. He lost, plain and simple.
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This is not how should greet a man -- Egypt's President Sisi -- who oversaw the murder of 817+ people at the Rabaa Square protest in August 2013 and has brutally suppressed independent Egyptian voices ever since (60,000 political prisoners). nytimes.com/live/2022/11/1
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UN experts press Iranian authorities "to stop indicting people with charges punishable by death for participation, or alleged participation, in peaceful demonstrations." ohchr.org/en/press-relea
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Surprise! When 's Twitter lets "people" obtain verified accounts for a nominal price -- apparently little actual verification -- fake accounts proliferate.
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Mexico: Four of her sons have "disappeared." She devotes her life to help the families of the 100,000 others who have also vanished.
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"Five investigative journalistic groups...have launched an app called Samizdat to avoid the blocking of their websites by Russian authorities." By downloading the app, users will no longer need a VPN to reach these investigative websites.
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FIFA, which has not trouble sponsoring tournaments in highly repressive countries, refuses to allow players on Denmark's team to wear shirts that say "Human rights for all." That's too political!
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Everyone knows that Putin, as a confirmed autocrat, makes all the important decisions, which makes his disappearing act on Kherson hard to succeed in shirking responsibility for his military's defeat.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has pledged to be “the most pro-Israel governor in America.” He apparently could care less about the Israeli government's apartheid.
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"The Ethiopian government said Friday that 70 percent of the war-stricken northern region of Tigray was now under federal army control and that aid was being sent in -- claims swiftly denied by Tigrayan rebels," who say the aid blockade continues.
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Autocratic Putin surrounds himself with yes-men who parrot his decisions, but when those decisions go wrong because Putin bars the free debate that leads to better decisions, he is nowhere to be seen, such as now as Russian troops withdraw from Kherson.
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The good news: the Biden administration has expressed "deep concern" over the fate of imprisoned activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah.
The bad news: there are tens of thousands like him in prison, yet the US continues to generously fund Egypt's repression.
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"Members of civil society attending COP27 have described how surveillance and intimidation by the Egyptian authorities is threatening their participation in the climate conference." But President Sisi cares more about suppressing dissent than the climate.
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Regardless of the feeble excuses and the shifting supposed target, the "Back to Africa?" taunt shows the racism at the heart of the French far right's program.
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The US government finds its voice to condemn a far-right Israeli lawmaker who is likely to play a key role in Netanyahu's coalition government. But Washington remains largely silent as the Israeli government implements apartheid.
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As so often occurs with strongman posturing, Xi Jinping's tough facade betrays an underlying weakness -- his fear of the people of China, which is why he ruthlessly suppresses any independent voices or organized protests among them.
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The potential spoiler in the Tigray peace deal could be Eritrea, which harbors its own deep animosity toward the TPLF. The Ethiopian government drew on that animosity when it was convenient, but now Eritrea must be convinced to put it back in the box.
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How many times will ASEAN nations urge dialogue and compliance with its peace plan for Myanmar until it recognizes that the junta has no intention of complying. Only heightened pressure on the Myanmar generals can make a difference.
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Continuing their cruel and retrograde efforts to sequester women in their homes, the Taliban is now banning women from parks and gyms.
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