Friday, May 17th
Last update07:12:50 AM GMT
Human Rights Glance
The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 and Israel declared war on the militant Palestinian group, launching strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip.
CPJ is investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing in the war, which has led to the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has vehemently denied the allegations. As a sign of how seriously they regard the case, Israeli leaders have taken the rare step of engaging with the court to defend their international reputation. Israel often boycotts international tribunals or U.N. investigations, saying they are unfair and biased.
A spree of swatting incidents at nearly 200 Jewish synagogues and schools last week is believed to be a connected effort by foreign actors, according to a confidential FBI memo.
“Swatting,” named for the elite police groups specializing in high-risk operations, is when an individual or group of people make a misleading or false report to emergency services in an attempt to draw numerous armed authorities to a specific place.
The memo, obtained by ABC News and reportedly sent to partner law enforcement agencies, said more than 30 of the FBI’s 56 field offices are working to investigate the string of false reports.
Air Canada has been forced to apologize after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane when the flagship carrier failed to provide a wheelchair for him.
Rodney Hodgins, 49, a hardware salesman from British Columbia who requires the use of a motorized wheelchair, flew to Las Vegas with his wife, Deanna, to celebrate their anniversary in August.
But when the plane landed, the flight attendant told the couple there wasn’t time to get a wheelchair on board before the plane had to prepare for takeoff again, Deanna Hodgins wrote in a recent Facebook post.
When the attendant said Hodgins would have to pull himself off the plane alone, the couple at first thought she was joking – but then she repeated the request.
A Black journalism professor who was hired by Texas A&M University before objections in some quarters over her history of promoting diversity foiled the job offer has secured a $1m settlement from the institution.
Kathleen McElroy also received an apology from officials at Texas A&M, the largest public school in the US, who in a statement Thursday acknowledged “mistakes … made during the process”.
In her own statement, McElroy said she would remain in a tenured teaching position at the University of Texas at Austin, and hoped the settlement would “reinforce A&M’s allegiance to excellence in higher education and its commitment to academic freedom and journalism”.
“I will never forget that … students, members, former students and staff voiced support for me from many sectors,” McElroy’s statement also said.
An independent autopsy determined a man who was found unresponsive and covered in bug bites at a Georgia jail died due to "severe neglect" from jail staff, and attorneys for his family are calling for criminal negligence charges.
LaShawn Thompson, 35, was housed in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County Jail after a June arrest on a misdemeanor battery charge in Atlanta. Local officials said Thompson had diagnosed mental health issues.
Three months later, he was found in his cell dehydrated and malnourished, and his body "was infested inside and out with insects," according to attorneys Ben Crump and Michael Harper.
"This is the most deplorable death in custody case in the history of America," Crump said at a press conference Monday morning on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol, alongside Thompson's family and community leaders.
An unaccompanied 17-year-old migrant from Honduras died in a shelter in Florida on Wednesday, according to authorities.
Investigators on Friday were still trying to determine a cause for the teen’s death, which came as the US lifted immigration restrictions stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Honduran officials identified the dead child as Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza. The statement said the US government informed Honduras of Maradiaga’s death on Thursday.
Espinoza was admitted into the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services shelter in Safe Harbor, Florida, on 5 May without being accompanied by a parent or guardian. Five days later, he was taken to a nearby hospital after being found unconscious and was declared dead after an hour of CPR attempts.
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