Media Coverage

Some Western media outlets are facing backlash from Iranian activists over headlines printed Sunday saying that Iran was abolishing its “morality police.” The news—an interpretation of a comment by an Iranian official during a press conference—turned out to be anything but clear cut. The country’s...

Egypt announced late on November 24 the release of 30 political activists from jail, the latest in a series of mass releases from detention amid intensifying international scrutiny over the country's human rights record. Since 2013, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government has cracked...

The head of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Iraq met on Sunday with the military leader of the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria to discuss the importance of protecting the sovereignty and security of Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Both sides discussed the urgent need to solve the...

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to say that Ankara is planning to deploy ground forces to attack Kurdish forces—the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the affiliated Syrian Kurdish groups—based across the border in Syria. Similar threats have been made in the past six...

The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, said it remains deeply concerned by reports of children being killed, injured, and detained in Iran, it said in a statement on Friday, adding that the reported deaths of about 50 children at anti-government protests “must stop.” This comes as the unrest...

British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has told his family in a letter that he has ended a seven-month hunger strike in prison in Egypt. "At one level, a very basic level, [I am] relieved. But at another level I am even more worried," said Mona Seif, Abdel Fattah's sister. "Alaa...

A court in Iran has issued the first death sentence to a person arrested for taking part in the protests that have engulfed the country, state media say. At least 20 people are currently facing charges punishable by death, said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, citing official reports. Its...

The resolution approved at UN headquarters in New York asks that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) "urgently" weigh in on Israel's "prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory," which it said were violating the Palestinians' right to self-determination. Israel...

Israel's Defense Minister has said Israel will not cooperate with any external investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, one of the most prominent journalists reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the past two decades. The U.S. Federal Bureau of...

A United Nations independent commission of inquiry has begun public hearings on the alleged human rights violations in the Palestinian territories, with the first day focusing on Israel’s outlawing of several Palestinian rights organizations last year. The commission, established by the UN Human...