Category World News

A second oil tanker is seize by the US military off Venezuela’s coast, prompting outrage in Caracas, where officials have labelled the seizure “thief and hijacking.”

A rights group has documented the rape of prisoners caught on camera and the deaths of at least 94 of them in Israel already in horrifying conditions.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli prisons minister, proudly claimed that under his leadership, Palestinian prisoners’ conditions have become worse. And in late October, he urged the introduction of the death penalty for those who he described as Palestinian “terrorists” while he stood over Palestinian prisoners who were forced to lie face-down on the ground.

Ben-Gvir might soon receive his wish.

The first reading of a bill that would impose the death penalty for those found guilty of killing Israelis who had “racist” intentions or were acting “with the intention of harming Israel” was passed in the Israeli parliament in early November. Even as Israelis launch deadly attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israeli soldiers continue to kill Palestinians in Gaza, the bill clearly targets Palestinians.

Palestinians have had a vehement response. They are informed that Israel intends to establish a system of lethal punishment by what they hear.

The director of the occupied West Bank’s Independent Commission for Human Rights, Farid al-Atrash, claimed that “this law practically aims to execute prisoners just because their people fight for their people’s freedom and their right to self-determination.”

Lawyers and activists in Palestine are stoked by the alarm. They assert that the law fundamentally undermines judicial safeguards and claims that it seeks to end Palestinian detainees’ protection under international law.

Remove safeguards

Palestinians who are found guilty of killing Israelis would now be able to be executed in accordance with the draft legislation, which grants them more authority to impose mandatory death sentences on them. These actions were deemed to have been done for nationalistic, racist, or hate-based reasons, or to be intended to endanger Israel or its citizens.

Additionally, it would remove the power for a president or government to pardon someone who has been executed for those crimes and make it possible for a panel of judges to decide the sentence on their behalf.

The framework eliminates the safeguards that were once in place for Palestinian defendants, according to Palestinian advocates.

The proposed law, according to Al-Atrash, stands in stark contrast to how Israelis are treated when Palestinians are frequently found not guilty of murder.

International humanitarian law

As an occupied people with a right to resistance, critics claim that the decision to legalize the death penalty is a part of a larger effort to evict Palestinians from their protections under international humanitarian law.

Hassan Breijieh, the head of the Wall and Settlements Resistance Commission’s Bethlehem office, claimed that the far-right-dominated Knesset Parliament is working to pass official legislation. The proposed law aims to make the Palestinian fighter a criminal defendant by removing his international recognition.

The proposed law, according to Amjad al-Najjar of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, is intended to erode the rights of the Palestinian people.

“It’s a double crime,” he said. It is a clear violation of international law and a racist law specifically targeting Palestinians, according to al-Najjar.

The proposed law, according to former judge and former Palestinian attorney Saeed al-Awiwi, is the most recent clampdown on Palestinian legal rights.

Al-Awiwi noted that many prisoners now have no meaningful legal representation, especially inside military courts, despite even previously being permitted to enter Israeli prisons.

He claimed that before the bill, many Palestinians had never experienced trial, sentencing, or other fair trial. The actions that led to those deaths, such as torture, medical neglect, and arbitrary detention, will gain official standing if the death penalty is codified.

According to al-Awiwi, “the move toward legal execution legalizes] the [Israeli] occupation’s] already-performed actions without accountability.”

Prosecuting freedom

It is necessary for Israeli law-defenders.

According to the National Security Committee of Israel, “its goal is to eradicate terrorism from its roots and establish a strong deterrent.”

However, Palestinian human rights organizations like Amnesty International have condemned the bill as a form of institutionalized discrimination.

The execution of prisoners of war or other protected persons, including those who are under occupation, is prohibited in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law. That rule would be violated by the proposed law.

According to experts, it was a step in the right direction, moving from a system where death is a judicial byproduct of occupation to one where death is deemed to be a legal sentence.

Breijieh remarked, “When the occupation criminalizes the act of resistance, it is also prosecuting the prisoner as well as the idea of freedom itself.”

The bill serves as a benchmark for how occupied people are treated, and whether current international humanitarian laws survive or fall, for Palestinians.

In response to the demand for the release of Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israeli jails, a swarm of protesters gathered in central London on Saturday to demand that those detained for indefinitely renewable periods of time without being charged or having committed an offence.

In an effort to bring attention to the plight of Palestinian prisoners, activists wore red ribbons, which they claimed represented danger and urgency.

The vigil’s organizers stated that they wanted the gathering to launch a global campaign.

The Israeli army expended Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, from that hospital in December 2024, with particular attention. His lawyer and his family claim that Israeli custody, including prolonged periods of solitary confinement, has subjected him to abuse, torture, and unfair treatment.

According to Adnan Hmidan, chair of the Palestinian Forum in the UK and event organizer, “we are clear about this vocabulary because they are hostages, not like any prisoners,” and that Dr. Hussam Abu Safia is our current symbol.

According to Hmidan, “They collected him from the hospital while he was wearing his white coat, and in front of everyone in that hospital,” adding that some Palestinian detainees have no court dates and are unable to see their attorneys.

There are 9,300 Palestinian political prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons, according to Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organization tracking political prisoners. The majority of them are detained without trial or charge.

Detainees held in Israeli military camps are not included in the figure, according to the group. According to Addameer, there are at least 3,350 Palestinians being detained from the occupied West Bank and held as “administrative detainees.”

About 10, 900 Palestinians were being detained in Israeli prisons or detention facilities on “security” grounds as of late 2025, according to official figures from the Israeli Prison Service, according to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization. According to the same source, this number includes 2, 931 residents of Gaza.

At the London vigil, activists and advocates for human rights expressed hope that their campaign would eventually have a noticeable impact.

Eva Nazem told Al Jazeera, “It’s also a reminder that we haven’t forgotten what’s happening, and that people in Gaza and Palestine are appreciative of us doing everything we can.”

The government, Nazem said, “people who could do something are keeping quiet, not doing enough, and we just need to keep putting pressure on.”

“We have two things going for us here. The ceasefire is only in name, to remind people that it is still ongoing. It is ineffective. It’s unacceptable for people like Dr. Safia, who have been exemplary heroes, to be imprisoned and tortured, she said.

Hmidan, the director of the Palestinian Forum, wanted the crowds to stand in silence and hold placards, rather than refer to the protest in London as a “silent, peaceful act of solidarity.”

“Lower-side campaigns and lobbying are a number of options. We respect various forms of protest, he said, but this one concerns humanitarian issues.

After the release of a partial trove of documents from the late convicted sex offender’s case, which contained heavily redacted pages and blacked-out photos, victims of Jeffrey&nbsp, Epstein have criticized the US government.

At least 16 files from the tranche, which were published online, have vanished from the public website, according to US media reports on Saturday.

A photo of President Donald Trump was included in the deleted files.

In response to a law that was overwhelmingly passed by Congress in November that mandated the release of all Epstein files, despite Trump’s months-long effort to keep them sealed, the Department of Justice (DOJ) began making the trove public on Friday.

It blamed the delay on what it claimed was a time-consuming process of concealing survivors’ names and other identifying information and said it plans to release more records on a rolling basis.

However, the tens of thousands of pages that were made public did not provide any fresh information about Epstein’s crimes or the prosecution decisions that had allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years. Additionally, they omitted some of the most closely watched sources, including internal DOJ memos on charging decisions and FBI interviews with victims.

A 119-page document with the title “Grand Jury-NY,” which is thought to have been the result of one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the Epsteinsteinstein accusations in 2019, was completely blacked out.

Marina Lacerda, one of Epstein’s victims, reacted furiously to the numerous redactions and unreleased documents.

She told MS NOW on Saturday, “All of us are enraged by this.” It’s yet another insult to the face. We had high hopes for more.

In the 2019 investigation that led to the filing of sex trafficking charges against the late financier, Lacerda claimed that Epstein abused her when she was 14 years old.

Epstein committed suicide shortly after being arrested that year.

In a separate interview, Lacerda claimed she felt let down by The New York Times.

She claimed that “many of the photos are irrelevant.”

Jess Michaels, a second survivor, claimed to have spent hours looking through the victim’s statements and records of her call to an FBI tipline, but neither one of them came up for public view.

She continued, “I can’t find any of those.” Is this the government’s best course of action? Even a law passed by Congress doesn’t serve our needs.

Marijke Chartouni, who claimed Epstein abused her when she was 20 years old, lashed out for being uninformed.

Where is the transparency if everything has been redacted? She stated in an interview with The New York Times on Friday.

Some lawmakers expressed their dismay as well.

In a social media post on Friday, Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who helped to spearhead the legislative push, claimed that the White House “failed to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that Donald Trump signed just 30 days ago.”

The government’s case file had only been allowed by legal and victim privacy concerns to be made public by Friday under that law.

Meanwhile, the 16 mysterious missing files, which have heightened public rumors about what was done, and why no one was informed, have added to Epstein’s and the powerful people who lived nearby.

Democrats from the House Oversight Committee wrote in response to the missing image, which appears in a post on X, saying, “What else is being covered up? The American public needs transparency, too.

Chuck Schumer, a senior Democrat, said, “Just imagine how much more they’re trying to hide this.” One of the biggest cover-ups in American history might be this.

However, the Trump administration denied that the materials had been made available. There was no “to hold anything back” being made, according to deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who spoke with ABC on television.

Late on Saturday, the DOJ released a statement about X. As more details become available, “Photos and other materials will continue to be reviewed and redacted in accordance with the law in an abundance of caution,” it said.

Former president Bill Clinton, late news anchor Walter Cronkite, singer Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross, British entrepreneur Richard Branson, and Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, are just a few of the celebrities who have appeared in photos that were made public as part of Friday’s release.

Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey were also photographed with Epstein.

None of those individuals have been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and many of the photos were provided without context and without date.

In a photo, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is seen stumbling over several women’s laps. The former duke of York has denied any wrongdoing and was stripped of his royal crown as a result of his ties to Epstein.

Despite being frequently mentioned in earlier Epstein-related documents, Trump himself was not made any mention. In the 1990s and the early 2000s, Trump and Epstein had a disagreement before Epstein was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2008.

Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Two agency spokespeople posted on social media images that they claimed showed him with Epstein victims in response to the outcry from the DOJ.

Angel Urena, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, claimed in a statement that the White House was trying to “shield themselves” from scrutiny by focusing on the former president.