As Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes pushed to cut off rebel-held territory north of Aleppo this year, they severed something beyond a supply route — the last practical way thousands of civilians had to reach a functioning hospital. A Siege Measured in Blocked Roads, Not Just Bullets Syrian government forces, supported by Russian…
Akech Garang hasn’t seen her two daughters since the night fighting broke out in South Sudan. “It was about 3 a.m. We were trying to escape. We were walking and running. There were too many people fleeing. At first, we moved together but then they disappeared. I lost my two children that night,” she said,…
French warplanes have expanded their bombing campaign deeper into northern Mali this week, pushing toward Islamist-held strongholds in Gao and Timbuktu — an escalation that has humanitarian organizations warning of a growing risk to civilians caught between advancing French-Malian forces and retreating militant fighters. An Intervention That Began as Emergency Defense France launched what it’s…
Thousands marched through Mexico City and cities across the country today, demanding the government explain what actually happened to 43 students who vanished nearly two weeks ago — a case that has grown only more disturbing since a mass grave was discovered outside the city where they were last seen. A Grave That Raised More…
Three times in the span of a few months this year, thousands of Chinese citizens have taken to the streets over industrial projects they fear will poison their air, water, and land — and three times, local governments have backed down and scrapped the projects rather than risk further unrest. A Year Officials Themselves Have…
As the State Department prepares to decide whether Egypt’s military-backed government has earned the release of suspended U.S. aid, human rights advocates are pressing officials not to look away from a crackdown they say has only intensified since the country’s 2013 coup. A Certification Process With Real Money at Stake Human Rights Watch delivered a…
A fire tore through the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos late Monday, sending thousands fleeing into the surrounding hills after violence broke out among camp residents — the latest crisis at a facility regional officials have warned for months is dangerously overcrowded. A Camp Already Past Its Breaking Point More than…
At the Surajkund Craft Fair on the outskirts of Delhi, a group of snake charmers plays for visitors between sets from local folk musicians — one of the few remaining, legally gray spaces left for a tradition that Indian law effectively made illegal decades ago. A Tradition Cut Off at the Root “Snakes and snake…
ro-democracy and human rights rallies in St. Petersburg, Russia. Some activists have taken to calling her “the grandmother of the opposition.” A Decade of Solitary Protest Elena Andreyevna Osipova, 69, first stepped into opposition activism in the years following Vladimir Putin’s initial rise to power, and her presence at Russian protest movements has been remarkably…
The first-ever European Games opened in Baku this week with an extravagant ceremony featuring a Lady Gaga performance and a flaming torch lit by President Ilham Aliyev — a spectacle human rights organizations say was designed to project a progressive, modern image for a government that has spent the past year jailing the journalists and…