World
UN expert decries practice of taking boys from their mothers at camps in Syria
A U.N.-backed human rights advocate says hundreds of boys — some as young as 11 — held in detention camps run by U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria have been wrongly separated from their mothers on the “unproven” belief that they pose a security risk.
Fionnuala Ni Aolain, an independent U.N. rapporteur on the protection of rights while countering terrorism, aired concerns Friday about lingering “mass arbitrary detention” in the infamous al-Hol camp and others like it that she saw during her trip to the region this week — billed as the first visit of its kind by an independent human rights expert, Associated Press reported.
For years, human rights advocates have been calling on foreign countries — in Europe, north Africa and beyond — to repatriate their nationals from the camps housing family members of Islamic State group militants, especially children who were not involved in the atrocities carried out by the extremist group.
The group rose to power amid an uprising-turned-civil war that erupted 12 years ago and has left hundreds of thousands dead. At one point the militants controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq, but Kurdish forces backed by an international anti-ISIS coalition, as well as Iraqi and Syrian government troops, recaptured that territory by 2019.
Ni Aolain said her team’s experts have calculated that since 2019, some 7,000 people have been repatriated by some 36 countries — more than three-quarters of them women and children.
But tens of thousands of others remain left behind in the detention centers — and no immediate sign of getting out, let alone traveling to the countries that they or their families came from.
Fearing that a new generation of militants will emerge from al-Hol Camp, the Kurdish officials who govern eastern and northern Syria have been experimenting with a rehabilitation program aimed at pulling children out of extremist thought — by removing them from their families and whisking them away for training in tolerance and other education.
The Kurdish officials fear that kids who grow up in the camp could give rise to a new generation of violent extremists.
Ni Aolain lashed out at the use of “dehumanization language” against so-called “Cubs of the Caliphate” — a reference to children from areas formerly under Islamic State control — “to describe 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds born on this territory by no choice of their own.”
Ni Aolain said conditions were “dire” in al-Hol, which she said was currently home to more than 49,000 people. She expressed concerns about security, access to health care, and “scarcity of water” in camps where temperatures rose to 50 degrees Celsius and tents were providing shelter.
“The second issue I want to highlight is the separation of hundreds of adolescent boys from their mothers without any legal procedure, in what I describe as ‘summary separation’ based on an unproven security risk that male children pose upon reaching the age of adolescence,” Ni Aolain said.
“Every single woman I spoke to made clear that it was the snatching of the children that provided the most anxiety, the most suffering, the most psychological harm,” she said, alluding to the ”distress” felt by many of the boys.
“The taking of these boys may in itself constitute a disappearance practice under international law, which is in direct contravention of multiple human rights obligations,” said Ni Aolain, who is faculty director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School.
World
Israel rejects Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, PM Netanyahu says
Israel has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace 15-point plan for Gaza, and will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, Reuters reported.
World
Ex-U.S. President Biden’s cancer has spread, is very painful, son says
World
US Senate passes Russia sanctions championed by Graham; US House next
In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”
The U.S. Senate easily passed sweeping Russia sanctions legislation on Friday, advancing a long-delayed measure backed by late Senator Lindsey Graham and setting the stage for consideration by the House of Representatives within weeks, Reuters reported.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died last month, was among Kyiv’s most outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-long war with Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
It also includes expanded sanctions on Iran sought by President Donald Trump as lawmakers pushed for a vote on the measure well over a year since it was introduced in 2025.
The Senate’s Republican leaders had not brought the bill up because of resistance from Trump, who had kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second term in January 2025.
The Senate voted 86-11 to pass the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” to sanction Russian officials and authorize stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”
However, broad support may not be enough to secure House passage, with some lawmakers and industries wary that new tariff powers for Trump could raise costs for U.S. importers and consumers while exposing Republicans to political blowback.
Representatives Gregory Meeks of New York and Don Beyer of Virginia said in a statement they still had “fundamental concerns” about the tariff powers for Trump, who has made them a central piece of his “America First” approach to foreign policy, read the report.
“What the bill does grant … are sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponize with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past,” said Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Beyer, the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.
Trump’s fellow Republicans control only slim majorities in both the House and Senate.
Only one Senate Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, likening tariffs to taxes on American consumers.
The chamber erupted into applause after Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill his seat, read out the final tally.
The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Paul and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have removed the tariff powers.
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who also sought to change the tariff language, said he had received a written commitment from Trump’s U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, to put guardrails on the tariff authorities, Reuters reported.
If it is approved by the House and signed into law by Trump, the measure would allow the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are major consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.
The legislation’s backers insist that the tariffs are narrow enough that they would do their intended job of reducing Russian energy revenue that funds its war on Ukraine without negative consequences.
Supporters called the legislation the best opportunity to support Ukraine, and the strong bipartisan Senate vote provided momentum for it to pass the House after it returns from its summer recess on August 31.
Graham had announced shortly before his sudden death on July 11 that he and Trump agreed finally to move forward with the legislation.
The legislation lets the president impose targeted tariffs on imported goods from countries that buy the vast majority of Russian oil or gas and enable Russia’s evasion of sanctions.
The bill limits these tariffs to the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the top five countries that aid Russia’s energy sanctions evasion. The measure includes a provision to prevent a lapse in sanctions authority that restricts funding for Iranian energy and weapons.
-
Latest News5 days agoKhalilzad says Pakistan needs ‘reset’ amid economic crisis and rising instability
-
Latest News4 days agoFirst Afghanistan-Ireland ODI abandoned without a ball bowled
-
Sport5 days agoAfghanistan aim for winning start against Ireland
-
Sport4 days agoAfghanistan holds Russia to 3-3 draw, earns first point at Continental Futsal Championship
-
Latest News4 days agoAfghan boxer appears in Greek court over death of Scottish woman
-
Regional4 days agoIran threatens to hit Gulf states if US launches new strikes
-
Business3 days agoUzbekistan’s Fergana region strengthens economic ties with Afghanistan
-
World2 days agoUS Senate passes Russia sanctions championed by Graham; US House next
