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London CNN —A High Court judge in London has denied Julian Assange permission to appeal an order to extradite him to the United States, where he faces criminal charges under the Espionage Act. A London court issued a formal extradition order to send the Australian to the US in April last year; it was rubber-stamped by the UK government two months later. In January 2021, a UK judge rejected a request from the US to extradite Assange, ruling that such a move would be “oppressive” to his mental health. Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office described the latest court decision as “disappointing.” It said allowing the extradition “would set a dangerous precedent, threatening all our rights to freedom of expression” in a Twitter post. The reaction was similar from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which said it was “deeply concerned” by the High Court decision against Assange which brings him “dangerously close” to being extradited.

Persons: Julian Assange, Justice Swift, Assange, Vanessa Baraitser, Mr, Assange’s, Stella, Julian, ”, Chelsea Manning, “, Rebecca Vincent, Biden, Dominique Pradalié Organizations: London CNN, CNN, WikiLeaks, High, U.S ., Twitter, London’s Metropolitan Police, Eastern, of, Army, Department, High Court, Amnesty, Office, International, European, of Journalists, British Locations: London, United States, Belmarsh, of Virginia, Guantanamo

☆ U.N. Body Condemns Torture of Guantánamo Prisoner Awaiting Capital Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Why It Matters: Criticism of Guantánamo Bay is mounting, again. The report could be presented to a sentencing jury of U.S. military officers in Mr. Nashiri’s case. In October 2021, a military jury in the case of another Guantánamo prisoner who was tortured by the C.I.A. Mr. Nashiri’s lawyers describe him as a torture survivor who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other conditions attributed to untreated physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Mr. Nashiri has more hearings this month focused on what evidence can be used at his eventual capital trial.

Persons: Biden, Cole, Abd al Rahim, Janet Hamlin, Nashiri, Katie Carmon Organizations: International Committee, Pentagon, Associated Press Locations: Guantánamo, America, U.S, Aden Harbor, United States

☆ Not just Disney: DeSantis brings history of business battles to the presidential campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Ron DeSantis officially launched his presidential campaign Wednesday, putting his blend of pro-business conservativism and culture-war populism to the test at the national level. In the most recent legislative session, DeSantis signed a bill that stopped union dues from being automatically deducted from public employees' paychecks. Ron DeSantis, a critic of environmentally sensitive investing, didn't succeed in protecting his constituents from the ravages of Hurricane Ian, which may have been intensified by global warming. DeSantis signed a bill in early May barring state and local officials from making ESG-based investment decisions. The Disney sagaApparel promoting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sit on a table before a book tour event at the North Charleston Coliseum on April 19, 2023 in North Charleston, South Carolina.

☆ Fact Check-New York prison barge not being transported to Guam or ‘Gitmo’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A New York City prison barge is not being moved to Guam or the Guantanamo Bay detention center known as “Gitmo,” according to officials in the New York City Department of Corrections and the U.S. Southern Command. The base includes a military prison, known colloquially as Gitmo. A New York City Department of Corrections spokesperson also said in an email that the photograph shows the Vernon C. Bain Center located in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Vernon C. Bain Center is an 800-bed prison that houses inmates for the New York City Department of Corrections. The prison barge was set up in 1992, intended as a temporary facility to accommodate New York’s growing inmate population, the New York Times reported in 2019 (here).

☆ Cuban police crackdown on demonstrators protesting widespread shortages
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Patrick Oppmann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Videos posted to social media show a crowd protesting in front of government buildings, before riot police arrived and forcibly arrested several demonstrators. Netblocks, an organization that tracks internet activity, said it appeared the Cuban government had taken down the internet across the entire island as news of the protests spread. Pro-Cuban government bloggers blamed the protesters uploading videos of the protests for the internet disruptions. However, the Cuban government has a history of taking down the state-provided internet during previous protests, sometimes for several days. Internet connectivity appeared to be largely restored on Sunday, and Cuban state media Cubadebate said no more protests had occurred.

☆ Ron DeSantis was advised to write 'LIKABLE' at the top of his notepad as a reminder to himself to not get aggressive, old 2018 debate prep video shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ron DeSantis was advised to write 'LIKABLE' on his notepad before a 2018 debate. An advisor told DeSantis to tone down his aggressiveness in a debate prep video obtained by ABC News. "You have to write in all caps at the top of the pad, 'LIKABLE,'" the advisor off camera said. Ron DeSantis was advised by an aide to find ways to stay "likable" and tone down his aggressiveness while speaking in debates. According to ABC News, the advisor later told DeSantis: "You want to have that likable, dismissive tone, and not condescending."

☆ Fact Check-Satirical article claims Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot ‘executed at GITMO’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

An article shared online claiming that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been executed at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) is from a satirical website whose stories are regularly debunked by Reuters Fact Check. Posts include a link to an article by Real Raw News (archive.is/N9CLZ) published on April 17, 2023. Representatives for Lightfoot did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The claim originated from a satirical website. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

☆ Hunger Strikes Have Long Served as a Tool of Nonviolent Protest
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

How is force-feeding hunger strikers viewed? The authorities are typically eager to quash any potential fallout from prisoners’ dying and loathe the spectacle that hunger strikes can create. International groups like the United Nations, the International Red Cross and the World Medical Association have long recognized the right of prisoners to refuse food. And it has been labeled “a form of torture and is contrary to medical ethics,” according to the World Medical Association. Despite these objections, the U.S. military has force-fed prisoners on hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, saying that it had no other choice but to keep them alive, and none have starved.

☆ Opinion | Biden Can Close the Legal Black Hole at Guantánamo
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Last week, Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush was released from detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and returned to Algeria, his home country. Mr. Biden wisely avoided the kind of highly public pledges to close down the prison that President Barack Obama made and could not keep. Clearing out the remaining prisoners requires cutting through a tangle of laws, policies, procedures and bureaucratic secrecy. Mr. Biden can use his authority to order the Departments of Defense, Justice and State, the intelligence agencies and other agencies involved to coordinate their efforts and direct their resources to make it happen, as quickly as possible. As long as there are people held in detention at Guantánamo, America’s condemnations of brutal detention centers in China and Syria will ring hollow.

☆ DeSantis loses his cool with a reporter after being challenged over claims he witnessed torture while working at Guantanamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ron DeSantis clashed with a reporter when questioned about Guantanamo Bay. A former detainee claims DeSantis witnessed him being force fed. Ron DeSantis was involved in a tetchy exchange with a reporter after being questioned about whether he witnessed detainees being tortured in Guantanamo Bay. The UN has said that it regards the force feeding of inmates at Guantanamo as a form of torture. "So everything at that time was legal in nature one way or another," DeSantis told a CBS affiliate in 2018.

☆ War Court Proceedings Stream to Guantánamo From a Secret Chamber in Virginia
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — For hearings in the destroyer Cole bombing case this month, the Guantánamo war court was mostly empty. Skeletal teams for the prosecution and the defense sat in the cavernous chamber, silently watching an 80-inch screen over the witness stand. On it lawyers argued and witnesses testified from a secret courtroom 1,300 miles to the north outside Washington. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the George W. Bush administration created a war crimes court at Guantánamo to be out of reach of the U.S. courts. But now, increasingly, lawyers are examining witnesses and making arguments in the remote annex — four miles from the Supreme Court and 10 miles from C.I.A.

☆ Ron DeSantis, facing challenges at home, will test presidential ambitions overseas
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Steve Contorno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

While in Israel, DeSantis will also keynote an event hosted by The Jerusalem Post and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem. The trip will spotlight DeSantis’ foreign policy credentials as he inches toward a White House bid. DeSantis’ predecessor, now-US Sen. Rick Scott, embarked on more than a dozen trade missions during his tenure as governor. Eleven Florida Republicans have endorsed Trump over DeSantis so far – including seven last week. State lawmakers have also balked at a provision in DeSantis’ immigration package that would eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented residents.

☆ Fact Check-Altered image appearing to show Hillary Clinton in Guantanamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

An image appearing to show former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton apprehended by armed forces is digitally altered. The original photograph shows soldiers escorting a detainee in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in January 2002. Some social media users say the altered image appears to show Clinton apprehended by two police officers, walking with their backs to the photographer. It shows police escorting a detainee to their cell at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (here). The original photograph was captured in January 2002 and shows soldiers escorting a detainee to their cell in Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba.

☆ Red Cross Expresses Alarm Over Detainee Health at Guantánamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a rare statement of alarm on Friday about deteriorating health conditions and inadequate preparations for aging prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. The U.S. military must do a better job of providing care for prisoners who are “experiencing the symptoms of accelerated aging, worsened by the cumulative effects of their experiences and years spent in detention,” Patrick Hamilton, the head of the Red Cross delegation for the United States and Canada, said in the statement. In March, Mr. Hamilton and other delegates made a routine quarterly visit to the detention facility, the organization’s 146th since the wartime prison opened in January 2002. He said the detainees’ “physical and mental health needs are growing and becoming increasingly challenging.”“Consideration must be given to adapting the infrastructure for the detainees’ evolving needs and disabilities, as well as the rules that govern their daily lives,” said Mr. Hamilton, who had last visited the prison in 2003, when 660 men and boys were held there. Today, 30 detainees remain.

☆ Guantanamo inmates showing signs of 'accelerated ageing' - ICRC
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, April 21 (Reuters) - Inmates who have been held for years in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. detention facility in Cuba are showing signs of "accelerated ageing", a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday. Hamilton's comments came after a visit to the facility in March following a 20-year hiatus. There were 40 detainees when President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021. Hamilton also urged Washington to resolve the fate of the detainees, urging action to transfer those out who were eligible. Reporting by Emma Farge and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pentagon’s Repatriation of Algerian Leaves 30 Prisoners at Guantánamo
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — The U.S. military repatriated a prisoner to Algeria on Thursday who had been held at Guantánamo without charge for more than two decades, as the Biden administration continues its efforts to reduce the detainee population at the Navy base. The prisoner, Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush, 52, was among about 20 suspected low-level fighters who were swept up by Pakistani security services in a 2002 raid in Faisalabad on dwellings believed to be Al Qaeda safe houses. The suspected fighters were ultimately taken to Guantánamo Bay. His release leaves only one prisoner captured in the raid still at the Pentagon prison in Cuba. Lawyers who have tried to speak with Mr. Bakush described him as reclusive.

☆ Tiny homes, big problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Daniel Geiger | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Beyond their star appeal, low-cost tiny homes like Casitas have real-world utility. The homes have been seized upon as a solution for cities like Los Angeles to house the homeless. They showed off their homes' transportability by hitching several of them to a Tesla and filming drag races between Teslas and trucks that were hooked to trailers carrying the homes. So far, though, after a little more than a year of building, the company has fabricated only about 400 homes. Even if it were churning out thousands of units, Boxabl hasn't yet received the certifications required to sell them in most states across the country.

☆ Bill Maher said he's afraid of Trump 'on a very personal level' and thinks Trump wants to take revenge on him
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Bill Maher said he's scared about Trump on a "very personal level." Maher has often mocked Trump on his HBO show 'Prime Time.' "I am afraid of Trump on a very personal level because I don't think he likes me. In the run up to the 2020 presidential election, Maher successfully predicted that Trump would refuse to concede defeat if he lost. "If it's Biden against Trump, Biden will win – that's a good bet," Maher said.

☆ U.S. transfers two Guantanamo Bay detainees to Pakistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 23 (Reuters) - The United States has transferred two brothers from the Guantanamo Bay U.S. detention facility in Cuba to Pakistan, bringing the total number of people held at Guantanamo down to 32, the Pentagon said on Thursday. There were 40 detainees when President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021. The federal government is barred by law from transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. mainland prisons. "The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility," the Pentagon said in a statement. A total of 32 detainees remain, of whom 18 are eligible for transfer, the Pentagon said in its statement.

☆ A tiny-home startup has attracted 160,000 customers, including Elon Musk. But disgruntled customers, an empty factory, and a tie to an alleged Iranian agent cloud its future.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Daniel Geiger | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

A Boxabl Casita being delivered to a SpaceX facility in Texas. Tackling the US housing crisisStamped out on an assembly line, Boxabl homes could finally begin to help quench America's perpetual housing shortage. Homeowners, meanwhile, could rent out Boxabl units as secondary dwellings in their backyards or as Airbnbs. Firooznia, Tiramani said, sometimes provided a tiebreaking vote when the father and son disagreed on business decisions. During a tour of Boxabl's factory in December, a freelance reporter for Insider saw Tiramani's wife, Shauna, arrive with their four young children.

☆ U.S. transfers Pakistani Guantanamo Bay detainee Khan to Belize
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Idrees Ali | Thomson Reuters | National Security Correspondent Focusing On The Pentagon In Washington D.C. Reports On U.S. Military Activity | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

There were 40 detainees at Guantanamo when President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021. The federal government is barred by law from transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. mainland prisons. Khan told of being beaten, subjected to the simulated drowning technique called waterboarding and raped anally by objects. This went on for three years, from the time of his arrest in Karachi in 2003 until his 2006 Guantanamo transfer, Khan said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified U.S. lawmakers about his intent to transfer Khan last year, the Pentagon said.

☆ Biden signs Defense Authorization Act, but voices concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed the Defense Authorization Act, but he voiced concerns about several of its provisions, including one that he said could hamper the administration's prosecution of Guantanamo Bay detainees. "I urge the Congress to eliminate these restrictions as soon as possible," Biden said in a statement, referring to a provision barring the use of funds to transfer certain detainees into the United States. Reporting by Paul Grant; Editing by Tim AhmannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Fact Check-False claims Moderna CEO was executed at Guantanamo Bay stem from widely-debunked website
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An article from a website regularly debunked by Reuters Fact Check for spreading fake news articles falsely claims that Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel was executed on Nov. 18, 2022 by the “U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps.” There is no evidence to support this claim. Bancel has made public appearances and spoken publicly since Nov. 18 (here), (here). No reference to the incident exists on the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corp website (www.jag.navy.mil/news.htm) or Moderna’s website (here). Claims that Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel was executed on Nov. 18, 2022 by the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps originate from a website that publishes satire and fake news.

☆ China operating over 100 police stations across the world with the help of some host nations, report claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Nina Dos Santos | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Madrid-based human rights campaigner Safeguard Defenders says it found evidence China was operating 48 additional police stations abroad since the group first revealed the existence of 54 such stations in September. When approached by CNN last month about Safeguard Defenders’ original allegations, China’s foreign affairs ministry said the overseas stations were staffed by volunteers. However, the organization’s latest report claims one police network it examined had hired 135 people for its first 21 stations. The organization also sourced a three-year contract for a worker hired at an overseas station in Stockholm. The NGO determines Italy has hosted 11 Chinese police stations, including in Venice and in Prato, near Florence.

K9s for Warriors, an organization that has rescued over 1,500 dogs from shelters and trained them as service dogs for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, matched Romero with Puppy — an Australian shepherd — in June. His wife, Brenda, who is a nurse practitioner in psychiatry, encouraged him to apply for a service dog. So far, O’Haire said, research based on participants from K9s for Warriors is showing that veterans with service dogs are struggling significantly less. And for those who are employed, there’s five times less absenteeism from work due to health.”But getting a service dog for veterans with PTSD is still a challenge. “The waitlist for service dogs on average tends to be two years.

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