A royal pardon in Bahrain freed 600+ political prisoners, most jailed since the Arab Spring, but 500+ remain, including several prominent opposition figures, such as Hassan Mushaima and Abdulhadi Al Khawaja. nytimes.com/2024/05/05/wor…

Israel is found to have used a US weapon in a March airstrike that killed seven healthcare workers at an ambulance center in southern Lebanon, according to a Guardian analysis of shrapnel found at the site. @HRW found the attack to violate int'l hum'n law. theguardian.com/world/article/…

I wouldn't get too excited at the news that Hamas has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal because it's not clear that Israel has. The big sticking point: Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire, but Netanyahu rejects that and wants to invade Rafah. aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/…

UNRWA: “An Israeli offensive in Rafah would mean more civilian suffering and deaths' among '1.4 million people. UNRWA is not evacuating: the agency will maintain a presence in Rafah as long as possible and will continue providing lifesaving aid to people.” news.un.org/en/story/2024/…

12 Republican senators threaten the International Criminal Court prosecutor with sanctions if he issues war-crime charges against Netanyahu & other Israeli officials. zeteo.com/p/exclusive-yo… He one-ups them by threatening them with obstruction of justice. reuters.com/world/icc-pros…

UN experts are 'horrified' at the mass graves unearthed in the Gaza Strip -- 390+ bodies at Nasser & Al Shifa hospitals, including of women and children, 'many reportedly showing signs of torture & summary executions' and potentially 'people buried alive.” ohchr.org/en/press-relea…

A review of satellite imagery found 85+% of Gaza's schools had been 'damaged or destroyed.' 'More than two-thirds of Gaza’s schools would either need to be rebuilt from the ground up or be extensively repaired before their buildings could be safely used.' nytimes.com/2024/05/06/wor…

'North Korean weapons are killing Ukrainians.' There always seems to be someone willing to arm Putin's war crimes. The International Criminal Court could help stop that by charging accomplices with aiding and abetting war crimes. bbc.com/news/world-asi…

Things must be going worse for Russian forces than most observers assume, since Putin, as he does in such moments, resurrects the threat to use nuclear weapons. That's not what a force that is winning would do. Let alone someone concerned about civilians. reuters.com/world/europe/r…

The son of Equatorial Guinea's kleptocratic dictator, who also happens to be vice president (purely on the merits), got upset when South Africa seized his yacht as the fruits of stolen money. So his regime took two South African oil workers as hostages. wsj.com/world/africa/y…

'80+% of Gaza’s schools have been severely damaged or destroyed by fighting,' says the UN, 'including every one of its 12 universities.' Israel is accused of 'a deliberate pattern of targeting educational facilities' similar to its targeting of hospitals. nytimes.com/2024/05/06/wor…

Israel's new evacuation zone for eastern Rafah includes the two main border crossings into Gaza. If Israeli military action now follows, that is likely to further impede food and other humanitarian aid from entering Gaza at a time of declared famine. nytimes.com/live/2024/05/0…

The long-term effects of Israeli bombardment: 'Tiny Gaza is a site of some 37 million tons of rubble — more than what’s been generated across all of Ukraine during Russia’s war — and 800,000 tons of asbestos and other contaminants.' washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/…

Chad's pseudo election will reconfirm a dynasty: Despite ten men on the ballot, the son of former president Idriss Déby, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, who seized power at the head of a junta on the day rebels shot and killed his father in April 2021, will win. theguardian.com/world/article/…

Netanyahu used a Holocaust ceremony to brush off international pressure about Gaza. But the lesson of the Holocaust should be the importance of protecting the rights of anyone who is threatened, not a green light for Israel to violate Palestinian rights. apnews.com/article/israel…

Israel says the Palestinian civilians in parts of Rafah must move to a 'humanitarian zone.' If history is any guide, there won't be much humanitarian about it, as food and medical care will be in short supply and bombing can continue. nytimes.com/live/2024/05/0…

Negotiations rather than an invasion of Rafah are far more likely to free the hostages unharmed, but that is not Netanyahu's priority. Nor does he care much for the 1.4 million Palestinian civilians who are sheltering in Rafah. nytimes.com/live/2024/05/0…

The rest of the world can still watch Al Jazeera. But the Israeli government is preventing its own people from seeing what everyone else does about its war crimes in Gaza. Netanyahu's goal is to continue hoodwinking the Israeli people and stay in power. x.com/sfardm/status/…

Before October 7, Netanyahu found it convenient to encourage Qatar to fund Hamas, seeing Hamas's existence as a way to split Palestinian leadership and avoid pressure on Israel to enter negotiations about a Palestinian state. Utter cynicism. ynetnews.com/article/bk8mgc…