Nepal's LGBTQ+ community holds first Pride rally since US funding cuts
Hundreds of people took part in the rally through the heart of Kathmandu, playing music and dancing in the Gai Jatra festival, which is celebrated to remember family members who have passed away during the year. But it has long drawn colorful parades by bringing in sexual minorities to join in on the festivities.
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Bloomberg
23 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
South Korea Prosecutors Arrest Ex-First Lady in Corruption Probe
Kim Keon Hee, wife of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, was arrested late Tuesday in an ongoing investigation into allegations ranging from suspected stock manipulation to bribery, investigators said. The arrest was made after the Seoul Central District Court approved an arrest warrant for the former first lady, who was embroiled in a Dior bag scandal that shook the country's politics early last year.
CBS News
23 minutes ago
- CBS News
State Dept. human rights reports scale back criticism of El Salvador, but fault U.K., Germany
The State Department on Tuesday released a long-awaited series of reports on worldwide human rights practices that reveal scaled-back criticism of select countries including El Salvador and harsher assessments of traditional U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom and Germany. The release follows a period of revisions that administration officials said were meant to "streamline" the reports, which cover events in about 200 countries in 2024 and had been largely completed by the end of the Biden administration. A note included with the reports said they had been "adjusted" to be "aligned to the administration's executive orders." The 2024 reports omit references to LGBTQ discrimination issues and significantly pare back treatments of issues including gender-based violence and government corruption. They no longer include sections dedicated to systemic racial or ethnic discrimination or violence, or to child abuse or child sexual exploitation, among other deletions. Mandated by Congress, the reports have been produced annually by the State Department for decades and are used by U.S. policymakers, human rights workers, foreign governments and judicial bodies worldwide as a resource to inform potential arms sales and court proceedings, and they also function as a U.S.-led check on government corruption and abuses. Rights groups and former State Department officials decried the revisions as an "erasure" of the plight of marginalized communities and what they said was a politically motivated move that undermined the prior value of the reports. "I think the signals are quite loud and quite clear of who they value and who they don't," said Desirée Cormier Smith, former special representative for racial equity and justice, now with the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice. In the case of El Salvador, which ended presidential term limits in early August and has an agreement with the Trump administration to accept and detain undocumented immigrants from the U.S., the report notes "There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" and that the government had taken "credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses." The 2023 report made note of El Salvador's overcrowded prisons and reports of "arbitrary killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention," and more. This year's report for Hungary notes "no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" though last year's included extensive mention of "serious government corruption" and restrictions on media freedom. Meanwhile the 2024 report for the United Kingdom notes the "human rights situation worsened," citing "credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism." A similar assessment was offered for Germany and France, countries administration officials including Vice President JD Vance have publicly accused of censorship and the suppression of free speech. Asked by a reporter how the Trump administration squares its stricter monitoring of free expression via social media accounts of U.S. visa applicants with its criticism of European countries restricting hate speech, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a press briefing Tuesday that "restrictive laws against dis-favored voices, often on political or religious grounds — no matter how disagreeable someone's speech may be — to criminalize it, or silencing it by force only serves as a catalyst for further hatred, suppression, and polarization." The 2024 report for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza does not include a death toll for Israelis or Palestinians since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, a figure that was included in 2023. The report acknowledged a Committee to Protect Journalists figure of 82 Palestinian journalists having been killed in the conflict last year, but also included a line saying that "[i]n some cases, the IDF claimed the journalists killed were embedded with Hamas terrorists." The report did acknowledge troubling human rights records in several countries with which it has struck agreements to deport third national nationals, such as Libya. It noted credible reports of "arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest and detention" and other abuses. It also noted of Afghanistan that there was "widespread disregard for the rule of law and official impunity for those responsible for human rights abuses." The U.S. terminated temporary protected status for Afghans last month, leaving more than 12,000 vulnerable to deportation. Reports for Russia, China, North Korea and Iran noted this year, as they did in previous years, "significant" human rights issues and included criticism of inaction by their respective governments to identify or punish those who had committed abuses. "The 2024 human rights report has been restructured in a way that removes redundancies, increases report readability and is more responsive to the legislative mandates that underpin the report," a senior State Department official said in a briefing last week. "U.S. policy on promoting respect for human rights around the globe, or in any particular country, has not changed."James LaPorta contributed to this report.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Trump administration calls out human rights records of some nations accepting deported migrants
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Tuesday released human rights reports for countries worldwide, which eliminate mentions of discrimination faced by LGBTQ people, reduce a previous focus on reproductive rights and criticize restrictions on political speech by U.S. allies in Europe that American officials believe target right-wing politicians. The reports, which cover 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, reflect his administration's focus on free speech and protecting the lives of the unborn. However, the reports also offer a glimpse into the administration's view of dire human rights conditions in some countries that have agreed to accept migrants deported from the United States under Trump's immigration crackdown. 'This year's reports were streamlined for better utility and accessibility in the field and by partners,' the State Department said. The congressionally mandated reports in the past have been frequently used for reference and cited by lawmakers, policymakers, academic researchers and others investigating potential asylum claims or looking into conditions in specific countries. The reports were delayed by the Trump administration's changes The reports had been due to be released in March. The State Department said in an overview that the delay occurred because the Trump administration decided in March to 'adjust' the reports, which had been compiled during the Biden administration. Among other deletions, the reports do not include accounts from individual abuse survivors or witnesses. 'Frequently, eyewitnesses are intimidated or prevented from reporting what they know,' the overview said. 'On the other hand, individuals and groups opposed to a government may have incentive to exaggerate or fabricate abuses. In similar fashion, some governments may distort or exaggerate abuses attributed to opposition groups.' Human rights groups decried the changes in focus and omissions of certain categories of discrimination and potential abuse. 'With the release of the U.S. State Department's human rights report, it is clear that the Trump Administration has engaged in a very selective documentation of human rights abuses in certain countries,' Amnesty International said in a statement. 'In addition to eliminating entire sections for certain countries – for example discrimination against LGBTQ+ people – there are also arbitrary omissions within existing sections of the report based on the country,' it said. The reports do follow previous practices in criticizing widespread human rights abuses in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. Laying out the poor human rights records of countries accepting migrant deportees Although such deportations did not begin until after Trump took office, the reports, with one notable exception, detail general poor human rights conditions in many of the countries that have agreed to accept migrants, even if they are not citizens of that nation. The exception is El Salvador, which was the first of several countries in Latin America and Africa to agree to accept non-citizen migrant deportees from the U.S. Despite claims from rights advocates to the contrary, the report about the country says 'there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses' in El Salvador in 2024 and that 'the government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.' Human rights groups have accused authorities of abuses, including at a notorious prison where many migrants are sent. However, for Eswatini — a small country in Africa formerly known as Swaziland — South Sudan and Rwanda, the reports paint a grimmer picture. All have agreed to accept third-country deportees from the United States. In all three countries, the reports noted 'significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment … serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systematic restrictions on workers' freedom of association.' Those governments 'did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses,' the reports said. Singling out the treatment of white South Africans South Africa was also singled out for its human rights situation 'significantly worsening.' The report pointed to unfair treatment of white Afrikaners following the signing of major land reforms that the Trump administration has said discriminate against that minority, which ran the country's apartheid government. That system brutally enforced racial segregation, which oppressed the Black majority, for 50 years before ending in 1994. With the signing of that law in December, the report said that 'South Africa took a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.' It also said the government 'did not take credible steps to investigate, prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, including inflammatory racial rhetoric against Afrikaners and other racial minorities, or violence against racial minorities.' This year, the administration admitted as refugees some groups of white Afrikaners. Accusations of European allies restricting right-wing speech The reports take issue with what the Trump administration believes are restrictions on free speech imposed against generally right-wing voices in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The reports use identical language to say that human rights conditions in each of the three NATO allies 'worsened during the year.' The executive summaries for each of the three reports say 'significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism.' These governments have rejected such assertions that have been made by senior U.S. officials, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Targeting Brazil over allegations of restricting Bolsonaro's speech Similar freedom-of-speech issues were raised in Brazil, which has more recently provoked Trump's ire by prosecuting his ally — former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro — and led to the imposition of massive U.S. tariffs and sanctions against Brazil's Supreme Court chief justice. 'The human rights situation in Brazil declined during the year,' the report said. 'The courts took broad and disproportionate action to undermine freedom of speech and internet freedom by blocking millions of users' access to information on a major social media platform in response to a case of harassment.' It added that the government 'undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to undermine democracy' and specifically mentioned suppressing the speech of Bolsonaro and his supporters.
