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A wave of secret death penalty convictions carried out by de facto authorities in eastern Libya has triggered international condemnation, after rights groups confirmed that at least 30 men have been executed since late August, with dozens more facing imminent execution. This resumption of capital punishment ends a 15-year de facto moratorium on executions that has held across Libya since 2010.

The executions were carried out by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), the powerful military bloc led by eastern commander Khalifa Haftar that controls most of eastern and southern Libya, alongside the region’s de facto governing institutions. According to Amnesty International, the global human rights watchdog that first documented the abuses, all of those put to death were convicted in grossly unfair, closed military trials tainted by systemic torture.

Many of the convictions were tied to alleged murder and terrorism offences connected to intra-Libyan conflict between the LAAF and rival armed groups between 2014 and 2018. Multiple detainees alleged that armed groups aligned with the LAAF tortured them following arrest to force coerced confessions, which were then used as primary evidence against them at trial. Amnesty’s investigation confirms that military courts in eastern Libya systematically violate core fair trial rights: defendants are denied access to legal counsel, given insufficient time to mount a defense, stripped of the right to remain silent, and are not granted public hearings before an independent, impartial judiciary. All military prosecutors and judges in the region are affiliated with the LAAF or its allied armed groups, eliminating any guarantee of judicial independence.

This irregular judicial framework dates back to a 2017 law passed by the eastern-based House of Representatives that granted military courts jurisdiction over civilians accused of terrorism and crimes in so-called military zones. The legislation was later ruled unconstitutional by Libya’s Constitutional Chamber, but it remains in use by Haftar-aligned authorities.

Witnesses and rights groups have also documented cruel post-execution mistreatment of the deceased and their families. Local human rights defenders report that de facto authorities have denied families permission to bury their executed loved ones themselves, instead seizing the bodies and conducting secret burials. While relatives have been permitted to identify remains before interment, they have been explicitly barred from holding public funerals—a practice the United Nations has repeatedly classified as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Local Libyan rights group the Crime Monitoring Organisation has independently verified 31 executions at Gernada and al-Kuwayfiyah prisons as of September 10. The group confirmed that all sentences were handed down by military courts, and no case files have been released to the public, making independent audits of trial fairness impossible. Libya Al-Ahrar television station has also reported that families of detainees have already received notifications of upcoming additional executions at the same two facilities.

The resumption of executions came roughly two weeks after a car bomb assassination of LAAF military intelligence chief Major General Fawzi al-Mansouri in Benghazi in August. It also unfolds against a long-running political backdrop of Libyan division: the country remains split between the internationally recognized Government of National Unity that holds the capital Tripoli and controls western Libya, and the Haftar-aligned administration that governs the east and most of the south. The executions come as UN-led mediation efforts continue to work toward unifying the country’s rival institutions and paving the way for long-delayed national elections.

Both Amnesty International and the United Nations have called for immediate action to end the crisis. Amnesty is demanding the LAAF authorities immediately implement an official moratorium on all executions, vacate all convictions and death sentences obtained through unfair trials, and retry all civilian defendants in civilian courts that adhere to international fair trial standards, excluding any evidence obtained through torture. The organization has also called for independent, impartial investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, and for unimpeded access for international human rights monitors to Gernada and all other detention facilities in eastern Libya. The UN Support Mission in Libya has echoed the call for an immediate halt to further executions, noting that the resumption of capital punishment ended the 15-year unofficial moratorium.

The internationally recognized Tripoli-based Libyan authorities have also joined the UN in condemning the executions. Separately, reporting from Middle East Eye has confirmed that the LAAF, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates, continues to support Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a militia widely accused of perpetrating genocide in Sudan’s ongoing conflict. Investigations have documented active RSF fighter training camps in both eastern and southern Libya, raising further international concern over the LAAF’s regional activities.

Two full days of nonstop heavy rainfall have inundated Thailand’s capital Bangkok, pushing local authorities to declare a citywide flood emergency and urge residents to take urgent safety precautions.

The downpour, which began earlier this week, has overwhelmed Bangkok’s already strained drainage infrastructure, turning major thoroughfares into stagnant waterways and worsening the capital’s notoriously gridlocked traffic into widespread chaos. While monsoon thunderstorms are a regular seasonal occurrence in Thailand this time of year, the intensity of the recent extreme weather has far outpaced the city’s capacity to manage runoff. Multiple canals crisscrossing the urban area have already burst their banks, and forecasts calling for continued precipitation through the coming week have amplified fears that more waterways will overflow.

Local officials have issued urgent guidance for residents: people across the city are advised to remain at home unless travel is absolutely essential, and households located in low-lying areas adjacent to canals have been told to relocate all valuable belongings to upper floors of their properties to avoid water damage. All 50 administrative districts that make up the greater Bangkok area have been officially classified as emergency disaster zones, with the city’s governor Chadchart Sittipunt confirming that eastern districts have suffered the worst impacts of the deluge.

In an interview with AFP, Chadchart outlined the scope of the ongoing response challenge, noting, “The rain keeps falling and we are doing our best. We are trying to pump the water out, but the water in canals are full… The risk areas are those who live near canals. Every canal is now filled.”

Residents in flood-prone neighborhoods are already grappling with deep, disruptive flooding that many say is worse than the devastating 2011 nationwide flood event that claimed hundreds of lives across Thailand over three months. Somkid Pheuk-ngam, a 67-year-old small business owner who lives alongside a canal just north of central Bangkok, described the ongoing crisis to AFP: “The water keeps coming in. It’s hard to go out now. It’s like at my waist level now. I cannot go anywhere. I have been closing my shop for two days now.”

As of Friday, the Thai Meteorological Department projects that the heavy rain will continue through at least Sunday, and will persist across central parts of the country through the coming week. The low-pressure system driving the intense downpours is forecast to shift deeper into central Thailand in the coming days. Importantly, no casualties have been reported in Bangkok as of this update, a stark contrast to the deadly 2011 flood that remains one of the worst natural disasters in recent Thai history.

After days of unrelenting heavy rainfall that has deluged large swathes of the Thai capital, officials have formally declared a disaster amid widespread flooding that has disrupted daily life for hundreds of thousands of residents. The near-continuous downpours, which have pounded the Bangkok metropolitan area for nearly a week, have overwhelmed the city’s aging drainage infrastructure, leaving major thoroughfares, residential neighborhoods, and commercial districts submerged under waist-deep water in the hardest-hit zones. Local emergency management teams have been deployed across the city to conduct evacuations of at-risk neighborhoods, distribute emergency food and clean drinking water, and work to clear blocked drainage canals that have exacerbated the flood spread. Commuters have faced massive disruptions to public transit, with several suburban rail lines suspending service after tracks were submerged, and many major roads remaining impassable to passenger vehicles. The disaster declaration unlocks additional national emergency funding and resources to support response and recovery efforts, as meteorologists warn that scattered rain showers could continue through the end of the week, raising concerns about further flood worsening in low-lying areas of the capital. Bangkok, which sits barely above sea level, has long faced growing flood risk as climate change increases the intensity of monsoon season downpours across Southeast Asia, and urban development has reduced the natural absorption capacity of surrounding land.

On Thursday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly, widespread demonstrations across the city culminated in dozens of arrests of protesters demanding he be held accountable for alleged war crimes in Gaza and the broader Middle East.

Organized by coalitions including Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestinian Youth Movement, thousands of demonstrators gathered outside UN headquarters to march against Netanyahu’s presence in the city, with many condemning Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the threat of expanded conflict to Lebanon and Iran. What started as a mass demonstration shifted to direct action when a group of protesters held a sit-in that blocked a primary arterial road leading to the UN complex, prompting NYPD officers to move in and make arrests.

The list of detained demonstrators includes high-profile public figures: Academy Award-winning actor Susan Sarandon, comedian Hannah Einbinder, and former US Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea Manning were all taken into custody. Video of Einbinder, handcuffed and being led away by police, circulated widely on social media, where she can be heard chanting, “Netanyahu out of New York, no bombs on Lebanon, no bombs on Iran, stop the genocide.”

Multiple sitting and candidate elected officials were also among those arrested. New York City Council members Alexa Avilés, Linda Sarsour, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Chi Ossé, Darializa Avila-Chevalier, and New York State Senate candidate Aber Kawas were all detained during the action. In remarks to Middle East Eye (MEE) hours after her release, Kawas reaffirmed her commitment to the protest, saying that more elected leaders must condemn what she called the presence of a war criminal on New York soil.

“I was proud to be out in protest, to even face arrest… because I think we’re sending a message that we need more people to stand up for what is morally right in this moment,” Kawas told MEE.

Protesters wore matching emblazoned shirts reading “Fund people, not bombs” as they blocked traffic near the UN, echoing demands for an end to US military aid to Israel, a ceasefire in Gaza, and accountability for crimes against Palestinian civilians. The International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an official arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024, charging him with multiple war crimes including the use of starvation as a weapon of war, murder, persecution, and deliberate attacks on civilian populations, with allegations dating back to at least October 8, 2023.

Ibtehal, a leading Palestinian Youth Movement organizer in New York who was arrested alongside Kawas, told MEE the core demand of the demonstration was to challenge the international community’s failure to execute the ICC warrant.

“We were protesting the fact that a war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, hasn’t been held to account, that the international community hasn’t arrested this war criminal and hasn’t enacted sanctions and an arms embargo for the crimes that he’s committed,” she said.

Much of the public criticism on the day was also directed at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who made a campaign promise to use city law enforcement to arrest Netanyahu if he entered New York. Eight months after taking office, however, Mamdani announced in July that the city lacked the legal authority to enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant. On the day of the protests, Mamdani attempted to signal solidarity with Palestinian people by sharing a video of himself planting an olive tree with Gaza-based Palestinian families at Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence.

The gesture drew sharp backlash from Palestinian advocacy leaders. Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of the Palestinian-led community organization Within Our Lifetime, called the video performative politics designed to distract from the city’s actual actions.

“This is a far cry from campaigning on arresting Netanyahu. So this performative nonsense is meant to distract from the fact that hundreds of NYPD vehicles escorted Netanyahu to the UN today, giving him a grander welcome than most, if not all, heads of state. Meanwhile the NYPD was arresting anti-genocide protesters in the streets,” Kiswani wrote on social media. “Instead of arresting Netanyahu, the NYPD arrested the protesters. This is the exact opposite of what Mamdani ran on.”

Across the protest, demonstrators echoed a consistent message: the UN had no business granting Netanyahu a speaking platform, and he should instead be standing trial at the ICC in The Hague. Thaer Ahmed, a physician who volunteered treating injured civilians in Gaza, described the human cost of the conflict that drove him to protest. Ahmed told MEE that Gazan civilians are routinely targeted by 2,000-pound US-manufactured bombs, and medical workers were deliberately cut off from the life-saving supplies needed to treat casualties.

“We were deprived of the supplies that we needed to be able to treat them, and we just had to watch one by one, brought in dead, killed by the Israeli military,” he said. Ahmed added that the UN’s decision to allow Netanyahu to speak had destroyed the body’s global moral authority, saying, “I don’t think that we should be listening to what anybody at the UN General Assembly has to say, especially not listening to a child murderer by the name of Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Many Jewish demonstrators also joined the protest to separate their faith from the actions of the Israeli government. Carol Choke, a Jewish woman who lost relatives in the Holocaust, told MEE that Judaism and Zionism are distinct, and that the violence carried out in the name of the Jewish people does not align with her religion’s values.

“We take care of people, we tithe (give charity). We leave the edges of the fields for people to gather who don’t have; we don’t go destroying a whole culture,” she said.

Protests against Netanyahu were not limited to the streets outside the UN. As Netanyahu walked to the General Assembly podium to deliver his address, dozens of UN member state delegations staged a coordinated walkout, booing and jeering the Israeli leader as they left the chamber in boycott.

Even so, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of grassroots feminist anti-war organization Code Pink, told MEE that a symbolic walkout is not enough to hold Israel accountable. “What they have to do is say that we’re going to sanction Israel first, then expel Israel from the United Nations. It shouldn’t be allowed to participate,” she said.

Benjamin also condemned continued US military support for Israel, particularly in the wake of Netanyahu’s statement during his address that Israel has “no greater partner than President Trump.” She argued that any government that continues selling weapons to Israel violates the will of the majority of the American public, who oppose deepening US military entanglement with Israel.

“I think that any country that is still selling weapons to Israel should be overthrown by their people,” Benjamin said. “It shows that this country is not a democracy, because if it were, we would not be selling those weapons to Israel, and we would not have in our National Defense Authorization Act right now a section that says that we’re going to intertwine the US and the Israeli militaries even further than they are now. That goes against everything that the majority of the American people want.”