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Jerusalem CNN —The family of a Palestinian activist who died while in Palestinian Authority custody has filed a “war crimes and torture” case with the International Criminal Court, they said Thursday. Nizar Banat, a well-known Palestinian critic of the Palestinian Authority (PA) with a large social media following, died in Palestinian police custody in Hebron in June 2021. His death sparked mass protests and angry condemnation of the Palestinian Authority from leading figures in the West Bank and beyond. Banat’s family said the officers were “low ranking” and the trial “farcical,” and that no senior officer was questioned. Sadly, under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority has become another oppressor for the Palestinian people, just as much as Israel,” Camuz said in a statement.

☆ North Korea Wants Dollars. It’s a Sign of Trouble.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | Pablo Robles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +18 min

Media Korean Studies 2016 2008 New Finished New buildings Repainted TAEDONG RIVER TAEDONG RIVER Pyongyang in 2008. Media Korean Studies 2008 2016 New Finished New buildings Repainted TAEDONG RIVER TAEDONG RIVER Pyongyang in 2008. Under Mr. Kim, North Korea has opened a new terminal at the city’s international airport, renovated subway stations and opened new amusement parks. Missile tests this year alone cost North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars, according to estimates by South Korean and American researchers. An array of cell phones, assembled in North Korea with components imported from China, is on sale and advertised on state TV.

But first: The results from five counties will help tell us if Democrat Raphael Warnock is on track to win tonight’s Senate runoff in Georgia. Warnock got 56.9% of the vote in Cobb when he won the Jan. 2021 runoff, and he got just under that last November (56.8%). And in Gwinnett, Warnock got 60.6% of the vote in the 2021 runoff, compared with 58.9% last month against Walker. In rural Chattooga — one of NBC News’ “County to County” counties — Warnock got just 20.5% when he won the 2021 runoff, and he got less than that in the November general election (19.8%). Data Download: The number of the day is … $7.79 billionThat’s how much money was spent on political television, radio and digital ads this entire cycle (starting the day after the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff through today’s runoff), per AdImpact.

☆ Israeli journalists experience chilly reception at Qatar World Cup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Hadas Gold | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Former Israeli football star, and now a commentator Eil Ohana posted a video showing a Qatari police officer driving him in a golf cart. Videos have gone viral in Israel and the Arab world showing football fans yelling at Israeli reporters, refusing to speak to them because of where they are from. Canadian pop star Justin Bieber launched clean water company Generosity at Qatar’s World Cup, to provide premium alkaline water in refillable fountains across the globe. The pitch invader who waved a rainbow flag on the field during Portugal’s World Cup match with Uruguay on Monday said FIFA president Gianni Infantino came to the Qatari police station to free him in order to “avoid more controversy.”Thursday’s Group E FIFA World Cup match between Costa Rica and Germany saw an all-women refereeing team for the first time in men’s World Cup history. Stephanie Frappart, from France, led the refereeing team, making her the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup match.

☆ Political bad blood between U.S. and Iran dominates run-up to World Cup showdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Dan De Luce | Dan De Luce Is A Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The politics of anti-regime protests are dominating the run-up to a World Cup showdown between the U.S. and Iran, with coaches and players fielding politically charged questions before Tuesday’s match. I’m a soccer coach.” He also was asked for his thoughts about the U.S. military’s presence in the Persian Gulf. The protests at home have followed Iran’s soccer team throughout the World Cup, which began Nov. 20 in Qatar. At some of the games, Qatari police have confiscated T-shirts or signs supporting the protests in Iran. More recently, a prominent former soccer player in Iran, Voria Ghafouri, was arrested after he endorsed the protests, according to Iranian state-linked media.

☆ Iranian activists say fire set at ancestral home of late leader Ayatollah Khomeini
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Dan De Luce | Dan De Luce Is A Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Iranian activists say protesters set a fire at the ancestral home of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the latest in a series of taboo-breaking acts in a wave of protests rocking the country. Protests continued across the country on Friday as funerals were held for young Iranians that activists say were killed by security forces, according to human rights groups. His family says he was killed by police, but Iranian authorities denied it and say the boy was shot by terrorists. Human rights groups based abroad say more than 300 Iranians have been killed in the protests. Iranian leaders have blamed the protests, which they refer to as “riots,” on foreign enemies, citing Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

☆ 2022 World Cup should ban Iran in support of women and protesters
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Sardar Pashaei | Emily Schrader | Sardar Pashaei Is A Former World Wrestling Champion Iran Who Fled In Due To Political Persecution. He Is Now The Executive Manager Of | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

On Saturday, 32 national soccer teams are gathering in Qatar for the start of the FIFA World Cup. That same year, Mahshid Razaghi, who played for the Olympic soccer team, was executed for selling anti-government newspapers. In 1984, Habib Khabiri, a member of the men’s national soccer team, was executed by firing squad for membership in an anti-regime organization. Preventing Iran from participating in the World Cup would send a concrete message that regimes that persecute their own athletes have no place in world sporting organizations. While such a ban would mean Iranian athletes can’t participate in this World Cup, many in Iran believe the team isn’t representative of the people of Iran in the first place but only represents the Islamic regime.

A false claim that Iran is planning to execute thousands of people has gone viral in the wake of the first death sentence for a protester tied to the ongoing demonstrations against the country’s clerical rulers over women’s rights. An image that has circulated widely on social media falsely states that 15,000 protesters have been sentenced to death. Like much viral misinformation online, the claim about the 15,000 death sentences appears to have started with a kernel of truth. Independent reporting is suppressed in Iran and it is not possible for NBC News to confirm these numbers. “The rumors of a new round of mass executions is likely fueled by memories of what happened in 1988.”

☆ Biden-Xi meeting brings North Korea into crosshairs. Sanctions are needed.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Anthony Ruggiero | Anthony Ruggiero Is Senior Director Of The Nonproliferation | Biodefense Program At The Foundation For Defense Of Democracies. He Previously Served On The National Security Council Under President Donald Trump As The Senior Director For Counterproliferation | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

But after North Korea re-engaged in negotiations, he reduced sanctions in exchange for promises of denuclearization, which Pyongyang soon violated. They included sanctions and an indictment against a Chinese company and four Chinese people who helped North Korea evade U.S. sanctions. This robust sanctions policy in the last year of Obama’s presidency extended into the beginning of his successor’s term. More than 20 countries curtailed diplomatic or commercial relationships with North Korea. Yet, instead of ratcheting up pressure on North Korea, Trump turned to other issues for the rest of his term.

☆ U.S., Japan and South Korea vow unified response to North Korean threat
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Sunday vowed a unified, coordinated response to North Korea’s threatening nuclear and ballistic missile programs, with Biden declaring that the three-way partnership is “even more important than it’s ever been” when North Korea is stepping up its provocations. Biden met separately with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol before all three sat down together on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia. The U.S. president began by offering condolences for a crowd surge during Halloween festivities in Seoul that killed more than 150 people, saying the U.S. had grieved with South Korea. Earlier this month, the South Korean military said two B-1B bombers trained with four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four South Korean F-35 jets during the last day of “Vigilant Storm” joint air force drills. North Korea responded with its own display of force, flying large numbers of warplanes inside its territory.

North Korea has escalated its weapons tests and fiery rhetoric as the U.S. and South Korea continue large-scale joint military exercises this week. An hour later, North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea from the Gaechon area of South Pyongan province. North Korea last tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in March, its first such test since 2017. Early last month, North Korea sent an intermediate-range ballistic missile soaring over Japan in its longest-ever weapons test. Tensions had already risen Wednesday when South Korea responded to North Korea’s barrage by firing three air-to-surface missiles of its own.

The United States on Wednesday called for Iran to be expelled from a U.N. commission on women, citing the regime’s “systematic oppression” of women and its violent crackdown on street protests. Iranian women have been at the forefront of protests across the country since a 22-year-old woman from the country’s Kurdish region, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody in September. Human rights groups have made similar allegations and issued detailed accounts of the crackdown. Two rights groups, Norway-based group Iran Human Rights and the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, said last week that more than 250 protesters have been killed since the protests began. “It’s time for us to stop abetting the Islamic Republic of Iran and start supporting the freedom-loving people of Iran,” said Boniadi.

☆ Biden admin imposes sanctions on Iranian officials over 'brutal' crackdown on protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Dan De Luce | Dan De Luce Is A Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on 14 Iranian officials after a violent crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran, vowing to hold the regime accountable for its "brutal suppression" of dissent, officials said Wednesday. The sustained protests, which have spread to universities and some factories and teachers associations, mark an unprecedented challenge to the regime’s authority. But officials still say they remain open to restoring the deal, which imposes limits on Iran’s nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions. The administration views the protests as a moral issue, a question of "right and wrong," the official said. The package of sanctions unveiled Wednesday designated Hossein Modarres Khiabani, the governor of Sistan and Baluchistan province, where U.S. officials say some of the worst violence against protesters has unfolded.

☆ Biden targets Nicaragua’s gold in new move against President Daniel Ortega
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Previous rounds of sanctions have focused on Ortega, his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, and members of their family and inner circle. Together with the Treasury Department’s simultaneous sanctioning of Nicaragua’s General Directorate of Mines, the order all but makes it illegal for Americans to do business with Nicaragua’s gold industry. The Biden administration’s targeting of the gold industry could sap Ortega’s government of one of its biggest sources of revenue. According to Nicaragua’s Central Bank, the country exported a record 348,532 ounces of gold in 2021 and the country’s mining association projects exports totaling 500,000 ounces in 2023. Nicaraguans began fleeing their country in 2018, initially to neighboring Costa Rica, after Ortega violently put down massive street protests.

☆ Ethnic group says Myanmar air attack kills 80 at celebration
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

BANGKOK — Airstrikes by Myanmar’s military killed as many as 80 people, including singers and musicians, attending an anniversary celebration of the Kachin ethnic minority’s main political organization, members of the group and a rescue worker said Monday. He said he first heard there had been 60 deaths, but was later told by sources close to Kachin Independence Army officials that about 80 people had died. He said military aircraft dropped four bombs on the celebration at about 8 p.m., according to members of his group who were there. They also included at least 10 Kachin military and business VIPs sitting in front of the stage, and cooks working backstage, he added. He said the deaths were a loss for all Kachin people, and its group would fly the Kachin flag at half-staff.

☆ U.S. mining sanctions take aim at Nicaragua's Ortega
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks about student debt relief at Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware, U.S., October 21, 2022. REUTERS/Leah MillisOct 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's administration ratcheted up economic pressure on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's government on Monday through a series of steps targeting the country's mining, gold and other sectors. Biden signed an executive order that includes the authority to ban U.S. companies from doing business in Nicaragua's gold industry, while U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions the head of Nicaragua's mining authority, along with another top government official, the department said in a statement. The order's expanded sanctions powers could also be used to block new U.S. investment in certain other sectors in Nicaragua, the importation of certain Nicaraguan products or the exportation of certain items to Nicaragua, it added. The two sanctions announced on Monday target Nicaragua's General Directorate of Mines, a unit of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Energy and Mines that manages most mining operations in the country, and Reinaldo Gregorio Lenin Cerna Juarez, a close Ortega confidante, Treasury said.

CNN —Dozens of people have been killed in military airstrikes that hit a celebratory event in Myanmar’s mountainous Kachin state on Sunday, according to local news outlets and international organizations. Reuters and local news outlet The Irrawaddy reported at least 50 people were killed. CNN cannot independently verify the number of reported deaths and has reached out to the military for comment. Kachin Alliance, a Kachin community organization based in Washington, DC, said Kachin artists, local elders, and KIO leaders were among those killed. The attack on Sunday drew international condemnation, with the United Nations saying it was concerned over reports of more than 100 civilians impacted.

☆ Myanmar villagers say army beheaded high school teacher
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The slain teacher, Saw Tun Moe, was a longtime educator who had participated in anti-military protests before taking charge of a high school founded by the country’s pro-democracy movement in his native Thit Nyi Naung village. Saw Tun Moe also taught mathematics at his village school and another nearby alternative school and was involved in the administration of Thit Nyi Naung, where he lived with his family. She said Saw Tun Moe was taken to Taung Myint village, almost a mile north of Thit Nyi Naung, and killed there the following day. A villager from Taung Myint village said he saw Saw Tun Moe’s body at about 11 a.m. Monday after the soldiers had left. I immediately knew that it was Teacher Moe.

☆ World's female foreign ministers meet to back Iranians
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

We have a moral obligation to support them," Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said. The ministers will address the unrest ignited by Mahsa Amini's death last month in Iran while in police custody. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterTheir gathering "shows global solidarity for Iranian women and tells the Iranian regime that the world is watching," she said. Female foreign ministers from Germany, Chile, New Zealand and Norway were expected to attend, while another French official was expected to represent Paris, according to a Canadian government source. The female officials were set to hear from women of Iranian heritage and to discuss ways to coordinate efforts supporting Iranians.

The people of Iran are in open revolt, this time led by courageous young women protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who died in the custody of the morality police, and the law requiring they wear hijab. Most significantly, this current uprising over the murder of a Kurdish 22-year-old is being led by the young women of the TikTok generation. Pro-regime chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” have been a staple of the rhetorical diet fed to the public. To that end, pro-Palestinian sympathy was ingrained in Iran’s propaganda via school textbooks, television programs, sports, cartoons, billboards and more. In 1979, the people of Iran yearned for a democratic revolution; instead, they got an Islamic dictatorship.

☆ U.S. Sanctions Shipping Firm, Individuals for Alleged Oil Exports to North Korea
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. imposed sanctions against a shipping company and two individuals for allegedly exporting oil to North Korea, which the U.S. said supports Pyongyang’s nuclear and military programs. The U.S. said the Courageous, also known as the Sea Prima, has participated in several deliveries of refined petroleum to North Korea, including ship-to-ship transfers to North Korean vessels that violated United Nations sanctions. North Korea faces sanctions from the U.S. and the U.N., including restrictions on its import of petroleum products. Ship-to-ship transfers have been identified as one way North Korea circumvents these sanctions. PREVIEWFriday’s sanctions come after the U.S. Justice Department filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Kwek in April 2021 for allegedly conspiring to evade economic sanctions on North Korea and for conspiracy to money launder.

☆ Iran’s Hard-Line Government Faces Growing Unrest Over Women’s Rights
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( David S. Cloud | Benoit Faucon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Antigovernment protests in Iran gathered strength Sunday with new demonstrations in scores of cities and indications that unrest was growing, posing one of the biggest challenges the country’s conservative Islamic rulers have faced in years. A movement initially led by young people that focused on the country’s strict Islamic dress code for women appeared to be broadening into a mass outpouring of pent-up dissatisfaction among middle-class workers and even religious Iranians at the regime’s treatment of its own citizens.

☆ U.S. Allows Iranians Access to Software That Circumvents Internet Restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Ian Talley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The U.S. is giving Iranians access to export-controlled technology that will allow them to circumvent the clerical regime’s latest communications crackdown, including a new internet blackout imposed this week. The Treasury Department on Friday responded to Tehran’s restriction of internet access in large parts of the country by issuing a new license that allows U.S. companies to provide Iranians with cyber services that can help them to maintain digital connection to the world.

☆ U.S. Approves Technology to Circumvent Iran Internet Crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Ian Talley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Amini’s death in the capital has ignited a wave of protests across the country, exposing a raw anger among Iranian women about their treatment by the regime and an unprecedented willingness to defy the government. She invites Iranian women to post their protest videos on social media under her #WhiteWednesdays hashtag campaign. At least four people have been killed so far by police in this week’s protests, according to Iranian-focused human rights organizations. Every prison sentence and arrest meted out by the regime has only radicalized Iranian women and served as a catalyst for more protests, Alinejad and other activists said. To me, I don’t see Iranian women like victims.

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