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  • Resolution demanding accountability for Americans killed by Israel fails in US Senate

    Resolution demanding accountability for Americans killed by Israel fails in US Senate

    A bipartisan attempt to force a formal inquiry into the killings of nine U.S. citizens by Israeli actors in the Israeli-occupied West Bank fell short of U.S. Senate approval late Tuesday, winning just 47 votes in the 100-member upper chamber amid near-unified Republican opposition. The failed proposal highlighted growing partisan and generational rifts in Washington over U.S. policy toward Israel amid a years-long surge of violence against Palestinians and American nationals in the occupied territory.

    Introduced earlier this month by Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, a longstanding advocate for Palestinian human rights and greater oversight of U.S. military assistance to Israel, Senate Resolution 852 leveraged a little-used provision of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act — Section 502(b) — which grants congressional lawmakers the authority to compel the State Department to release mandatory human rights reports covering all nations that receive American foreign aid. Israel currently stands as the single largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, set to receive $3.3 billion in funding from American taxpayers in 2025 alone.

    Since 2022, nine U.S. citizens have been killed by Israeli military forces or extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank, and three additional American nationals have been imprisoned by Israeli authorities without full public accountability for their detention. High-profile cases include veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in the head by Israeli forces while covering an operation in Jenin in 2022; 26-year-old activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, killed by Israeli sniper fire during a 2024 demonstration against illegal Israeli settlement expansion near Nablus; and Sayfollah Musallet, a local ice cream shop worker beaten to death by Israeli settlers in 2025. Over the same three-year period, Israeli military and settler violence has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, according to aggregated casualty data.

    Only one Republican senator — Kentucky’s Rand Paul — broke with his party to support the resolution. One Senate Democrat, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, joined 50 Republican lawmakers in voting against the measure. Two Republican senators, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, did not cast votes on the proposal.

    Following the late-night vote, Van Hollen released a statement criticizing Republican lawmakers for blocking transparency and accountability for the families of the deceased U.S. citizens. “They have received no justice and no accountability. Their families – and the American people – deserve answers on their deaths,” Van Hollen said. “But today Republicans denied them that. Meanwhile, the Palestinian people have also borne the toll of this violence day in and day out. They, too, deserve justice and accountability. But again, Republicans blocked that today. It is our responsibility to ensure recipients of U.S. taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our values – this resolution was an opportunity to shed light on a reality that flies in the face of that principle.”

    The outcome of the vote, while a defeat for proponents of greater oversight, marks a notable shift in positioning among Democratic lawmakers compared to just two years ago. A similar inquiry measure brought to the Senate floor in 2023 by Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of Israeli settlement expansion, won only 11 votes in total. Political analysts note the 47-vote total this year reflects a gradual shift in elite opinion that tracks with rapidly changing views among the U.S. electorate, particularly within the Democratic base, which has grown increasingly critical of unconditioned U.S. military support for Israel amid rising violence in the occupied territories.

    In a pre-vote virtual discussion with the IMEU Policy Project, Van Hollen framed the resolution as part of a broader push to draw attention to ongoing human rights abuses in the West Bank. “We’re at a moment where we see growing recognition throughout the public that is slowly filtering up and slowly having an impact on the bubble that is the United States Congress, and so I think that this is a moment where we can use the fact that American citizens are not getting accountability and justice to shine the light on the fact that Palestinian children and others in the West Bank are subjected to these kinds of abuses every single day,” he said.

    The vote comes one month after 45 sitting Senate Democrats signed an open letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for his direct intervention to protect U.S. citizens operating in the occupied West Bank and pressing for credible investigations into the deaths of the nine American nationals. In the letter, lawmakers noted a dramatic recent surge in cross-violence in the region that has prompted large-scale Israeli military incursions, mass arrests of Palestinian civilians, and repeated extremist settler attacks on Palestinian religious sites including mosques. “We urge you to take measures to prevent and intercede in this violence, establish a credible mechanism to investigate violations of law, and to make clear that the Government of Israel will not tolerate violence by its people, just as it does not tolerate violence against its people,” the letter read. To date, the U.S. government has never demanded an independent investigation into these killings outside of the internal Israeli military investigative process, which critics have repeatedly labeled biased and lacking in transparency.

  • Japan raises residency fee for foreign nationals by twenty-fold

    Japan raises residency fee for foreign nationals by twenty-fold

    Japan has enacted sweeping changes to its immigration system this week, rolling out dramatic fee increases and tightened eligibility criteria for foreign residents seeking to live and stay permanently in the country, as the government grapples with a rapidly expanding foreign population amid ongoing labor shortages driven by demographic aging.

    The most significant adjustment is a 20-fold jump in permanent residency application fees, which now stand at 200,000 yen, equal to roughly $1,270 or £955. For non-permanent residents applying to extend their stay or update their residency status, the new fee structure that took effect October 1 scales costs based on the duration of requested stay: fees start at 10,000 yen for stays of three months or less, and climb to 75,000 yen for stays of five years or more. That marks a major increase from the previous flat 6,000 yen fee charged for all such applications. Reduced rates are available for refugees and foreign residents facing documented financial hardship.

    Alongside the fee hikes, new eligibility rules have been introduced for permanent residency applicants. All candidates must now prove they earn a stable income at or above Japan’s national average household income, which was recorded at 5.75 million yen in 2024 government data. Starting in April 2026, applicants will also be required to demonstrate basic Japanese language proficiency, a change that has already triggered a sharp uptick in enrollments at Japanese language schools and a surge in sign-ups for the official Japanese-Language Proficiency Test, according to local Japanese media. Permanent residency candidates must also show they will have pension benefits equivalent to what a worker enrolled in Japan’s employee pension system for 30 years would receive, though personal financial assets may be considered for applicants who do not meet this pension threshold.

    The changes are the latest in a series of immigration policy overhauls rolled out by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration, which has made managing Japan’s growing foreign community a top priority since Takaichi took office in October 2024. In July 2025, the government implemented a five-fold increase in general visa fees – the first hike to visa charges in more than 50 years – with officials justifying the move as a necessary adjustment to account for inflation and global exchange rate shifts.

    In a social media post on X published days before the new residency rules took effect, Takaichi acknowledged public unease over the country’s shifting demographic landscape. “We recognize that some members of the public may feel a sense of concern or unfairness” as Japan’s foreign resident population grows, she wrote, adding that the government’s goal is to ensure immigration policies remain orderly, so that “both Japanese citizens and foreign residents can live safely and securely.”

    Longer term, Japan’s demographic reality has forced incremental openings to immigration even as the issue remains politically sensitive. The country’s rapidly aging population has created acute labor shortages across multiple sectors, leaving the economy increasingly dependent on foreign workers to fill gaps. At the end of 2025, Japan’s total foreign resident population surpassed 4.12 million, hitting an all-time high and marking a 9.5% year-over-year increase. This rapid growth has stoked public anxieties about social change, putting pressure on the government to implement stricter, more structured immigration management.

    The announcement of the new fee hikes triggered a last-minute rush of applications earlier this week, with long queues forming at immigration offices across the country. Tokyo’s main immigration bureau reported wait times exceeding seven hours for applicants hoping to submit their paperwork before the higher fees took effect.

  • California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states

    California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states

    After years of relentless advocacy from survivors and anti-exploitation organizations, California has become the 18th U.S. state to enact a full ban on child marriage, after Governor Gavin Newsom signed the historic legislation into law in a public ceremony joined by campaigners who have lived experience of the harmful practice.

    Set to take effect on January 1, 2027, the new law establishes a firm minimum marriage age of 18 across California, eliminating a decades-old legal loophole that allowed minors of any age to wed so long as they received parental approval and a judge’s signature. Prior to this reform, there was no enforceable minimum age for marriage in the state, leaving thousands of young people trapped in coercive relationships with no legal path to divorce. Governor Newsom described the long-awaited policy change as a critical step to safeguard vulnerable young Californians, calling it “long overdue” in public remarks after signing the bill.

    Among the guests on hand for the signing was Courtney Stodden, a prominent child marriage survivor who married 50-year-old Hollywood actor Doug Hutchison — known for his roles in *The Green Mile* and *A Time to Kill* — when she was just 16. The 2011 union sparked global public outcry and launched Stodden into public life, where she has become a leading voice for ending the practice nationwide. Stodden called the new law a “victory” for survivors, who have long carried the unrecognized trauma of child marriage. “Survivors of child marriage should never have been expected to carry this burden,” she said, adding that she will continue organizing until child marriage is formally banned in all 50 U.S. states.

    Stodden’s call for nationwide reform was echoed by other survivors who have worked for years to advance the legislation. Brittany Bee, who was married at 17 to escape an abusive household, only to face continued abuse at the hands of her adult husband, told reporters that California’s new ban sends a message of hope to young people across the country. “A message of hope for all children that they may be free from systemic violence. That they may choose their own path,” Bee said. Reflecting on her own experience, she added, “I was just going from one prison to another. People have the audacity to tell me that I made a choice — kids, they can’t consent.”

    Another survivor, Sara Tasneen, who was forced into an arranged marriage at 15 to a man nearly twice her age, described the bill’s passage as surreal after a decade of lobbying. Tasneen met her husband for the first time on the morning of her wedding, gave birth to her first child at 16, and was forced to drop out of high school, permanently altering the trajectory of her life. “To have seen the arc of this bill come to fruition has been a marathon,” she said. “I’m just grateful that kids cannot get married after January 1, 2027 in California.”

    According to Unchained At Last, a national advocacy group dedicated to ending child marriage across the U.S., roughly 9,000 minors were married annually in California before the ban, and nearly all of these unions paired underage girls with adult men. Survivors and advocates note that the lack of a legal divorce process for minors left thousands trapped in abusive, predatory relationships with no way out. A widespread lack of public awareness has also slowed reform: many Americans do not realize that child marriage remains legal in 32 U.S. states, or that the practice is consistently linked to severe abuse, poverty, and disrupted education.

    The shift toward nationwide reform began roughly a decade ago, when child marriage was still permitted in every U.S. state. Since 2018, 17 other states have followed California’s lead in enacting full bans, as growing survivor testimonies and public pressure have pushed lawmakers to close legal loopholes that have allowed the exploitative practice to persist.

  • Wisconsin Palestinian community leader can be deported, immigration judge rules

    Wisconsin Palestinian community leader can be deported, immigration judge rules

    On Wednesday, a U.S. immigration judge upheld a deportation order first sought by the Trump administration against Salah Sarsour, a prominent Palestinian and Muslim community leader based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The ruling marks a major escalation in a years-long legal battle that has drawn widespread attention to how U.S. immigration policy targets Palestinian rights advocates.

  • Iraq celebrates as last US troops withdraw from country

    Iraq celebrates as last US troops withdraw from country

    Twenty-two years after the United States launched a full-scale invasion of Iraq to overthrow then-president Saddam Hussein, Washington has finalized the withdrawal of its last remaining military forces from the country, closing out a two-decade-long intervention that has reshaped the Middle East at staggering human and financial cost. The exit brings an official end to America’s decades-long military combat mission in Iraq, a milestone that Baghdad has framed as a core step toward restoring full national sovereignty after years of foreign occupation.

    In an official statement released Wednesday, the Pentagon confirmed that the United States and its coalition partners have formally concluded Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, aligning the withdrawal with the terms of a joint US-Iraq agreement reached in September 2024 and advancing core US national interests. The US military footprint in Iraq has shifted repeatedly over the past two decades: Washington first ousted Hussein and occupied the country in 2003, initially pulled all combat forces out in 2011, then redeployed troops three years later at the invitation of the Iraqi government to combat the rapid expansion of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which had seized nearly a third of Iraqi territory at its peak.

    The drawdown process began in 2025, with US forces relocating from key bases including Ain al-Asad in Anbar Province and the Victory Base Complex adjacent to Baghdad International Airport, before completing the full exit from all Iraqi territory including the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. Established as a semi-autonomous entity within Iraq under the country’s 2005 constitution, Iraqi Kurdistan operates its own independent governing institutions, including a local prime minister, president, and dedicated security force known as the Peshmerga.

    Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell emphasized that the full withdrawal marks a strategic transition, shifting from a US-led wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security framework backed by a normalized bilateral security partnership between the two countries. For years, successive Iraqi governments have prioritized a full US troop withdrawal as a non-negotiable demand tied to national sovereignty, particularly as Baghdad works to cement post-IS recovery and rebuild state authority across the country.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi praised the conclusion of the US mission at a formal ceremony Wednesday, framing the withdrawal as the start of a new era for the country. “A new phase has begun, defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, unity of decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends,” Zaidi said. He also announced that October 1 will be designated as a new national holiday, “Sovereignty Day”, to mark the milestone. Earlier this week, leaders of Iraq’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches jointly described the occasion as a moment that “affirms the completion of Iraq’s path toward sovereignty and consolidates the presence of the state and its institutions.”

    Beyond security, Zaidi has prioritized expanding economic cooperation with the United States. In July, during an official visit to Washington, the two governments formally announced a joint plan to revive a historic oil pipeline connecting Iraq to Syria, a project first reported exclusively by Middle East Eye.

    The full withdrawal fulfills a longstanding campaign promise by former president and current US leader Donald Trump, who has made ending America’s so-called “forever wars” in the Middle East a central plank of his political agenda. Notably, however, Trump oversaw the largest Middle East conflict in decades earlier this year, launching joint military strikes against Iran alongside Israel in February that reshaped security dynamics across the Gulf region.

    The strikes triggered retaliatory attacks from Iran that targeted US military bases across six Gulf nations and neighboring Jordan, raising new questions about the long-term future of America’s military footprint in the Gulf, where Washington has maintained decades-long security alliances with major oil-producing states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. Earlier this month, the US Department of Defense’s inspector general released a report confirming that Iranian attacks destroyed hundreds of structures at US bases across the region. The report noted that it remains unclear whether all damaged infrastructure will be rebuilt, or which party will cover the reconstruction costs, and estimated that the 2025 Iran conflict has cost US taxpayers a total of $33.4 billion to date.

    As the US exits, Zaidi’s government is moving forward with a contentious domestic plan to disarm unregulated paramilitary militias that hold significant influence across Iraq. The initiative originally set a September 30, 2025 deadline for all non-state armed factions to hand over weapons, but the deadline was recently extended to June 30, 2027 amid ongoing negotiations to “regulate” weapons held outside of formal state control.

    The Popular Mobilisation Forces, a coalition of paramilitary groups that originally formed a decade ago to fight the Islamic State, have since become deeply integrated into Iraq’s political system, drawing formal salaries from the Iraqi state budget. Most factions within the alliance are aligned with Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”, and US and regional officials have linked the groups to drone strikes carried out earlier this year during the height of US-Iran tensions. Kuwait blamed Iraqi militias for multiple drone attacks on its territory, while Saudi Arabia held the groups responsible for a strike that temporarily shut down its critical East-West oil pipeline.

    This report is based on original independent coverage from Middle East Eye, a media outlet focused on unrivaled independent reporting and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa, and global affairs related to the region.

  • Swiss glaciers suffer ‘disastrous’ year of ice loss, threatening water supplies

    Swiss glaciers suffer ‘disastrous’ year of ice loss, threatening water supplies

    A newly released scientific report from Glacier Monitoring Switzerland has delivered a stark warning about the accelerating impacts of human-caused climate change, revealing that Swiss glaciers suffered one of the most severe annual ice losses on record in 2026, driven by a string of intense summer heatwaves across the European Alps.

    Researchers estimate that approximately 5.5% of all remaining glacier ice across Switzerland has vanished over the past 12 months — a rate more than double the threshold glaciologists once considered “extreme” for a single year of melt. Dr. Matthias Huss, director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland and lead author of the report, described the scale of loss as simply “disastrous.”

    The rapid melt was fueled by a perfect storm of unfavorable conditions that left glaciers exposed to extreme solar heating. The region entered the summer season already vulnerable, after an unusually mild winter left far less snow cover than the historical average. When early, intense heatwaves hit in May and June, the sparse remaining snow melted away rapidly, uncovering the darker glacier ice beneath. Unlike bright, reflective fresh snow that bounces solar energy back into space, bare ice absorbs far more heat, creating a feedback loop that accelerates melting even as subsequent heatwaves move through the region.

    Even more alarming is the observation of total snow loss at the highest-altitude measurement sites, some as elevated as 3,500 meters above sea level. Traditionally, these high elevations remain covered in year-round snow, which gradually compacts into new ice to replenish ice that melts at lower, warmer altitudes — a natural balancing process that sustains glaciers over time. This year, researchers recorded up to four meters of ice loss even at these highest points, with no surviving summer snow to build new glacial mass. “Snow is like glacier food,” Huss explained. Without annual snow accumulation, glaciers cannot replace lost ice, and will inevitably shrink to nothing over time.

    Glaciologists have long expected Alpine glaciers to retreat amid global warming driven by fossil fuel emissions, but the unprecedented speed of the 2026 melt has shocked even seasoned researchers. “Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have thought that it’s possible to lose glaciers so quickly,” said Dr. Fabien Maussion, a glaciologist at the University of Bristol who was not involved in the new report. While he called the summer’s melt “extremely distressing,” Maussion added that the outcome aligns with longstanding climate model projections.

    The rapid ice loss carries serious long-term risks for Swiss communities and infrastructure, beyond the loss of iconic alpine landscapes. Scientists warn that continued glacier retreat will eventually threaten reliable water supplies for agricultural irrigation, hydropower generation and inland water transport. Over the 2026 summer, between July and September, melting Swiss glaciers released an estimated 2.2 trillion liters of meltwater, which helped ease short-term water shortages across the region during the heatwave. But Huss emphasized that this abundant water is a finite resource drawn from ice that accumulated over centuries or decades. “Every drop of water that runs off during these heatwaves is kind of old water that’s been stocked in the glacier ice centuries or decades ago,” he said. “It’s helping us [now] but it’s unsustainable, so we won’t have it at [our] disposal in the next heatwave.”

    Already, low water levels in the Rhine River this summer set new records, disrupting commercial shipping routes and driving up transport costs across the region. Glacier melt also increases geological risk: long-term thinning of glaciers and thawing of frozen alpine ground raises the likelihood of bedrock instability, which can trigger catastrophic landslides and flash flooding — a risk that was realized in a deadly event in Nepal this past August, when a combined collapse of glacial ice and bedrock caused widespread damage.

    Multiple Alpine glaciers, including eastern Switzerland’s Plattalva, have already disappeared completely, and researchers confirm that current global temperatures are already too warm to save many smaller Alpine glaciers from vanishing in coming decades. However, the scientific team stressed that urgent, deep cuts to global carbon emissions can still preserve the majority of the world’s remaining glacier ice, particularly in the Himalayas and polar regions that hold most of the planet’s total ice volume. “There we still can make a big difference with protecting the climate,” Huss said. “If these ice masses can be saved or stabilised, we can limit the rise of global sea levels… which could affect billions of people living along the coast.”

  • ‘I’m very shocked’ – College students react to Cornell University rape investigation

    ‘I’m very shocked’ – College students react to Cornell University rape investigation

    It’s a story that has sent shockwaves through U.S. college campuses, reigniting long-simmering conversations about sexual assault prevention and accountability in higher education. At the center of the current controversy is Cornell University, which is now navigating a high-stakes criminal investigation into an alleged rape that took place at a campus fraternity house earlier this year. A female survivor has come forward to formally accuse an individual of the crime, and the case has already sparked intense scrutiny of the university’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations and its relationship with Greek life organizations on campus.

    In on-the-record interviews with BBC reporters conducted on the ground at college campuses in Washington D.C., students from multiple area institutions expressed profound shock at the details that have emerged from the Cornell investigation. Many of these students, who are themselves navigating campus life just like the Cornell community, said they were stunned that an alleged violent sexual assault could occur at a major Ivy League institution, which many assume have robust policies and systems in place to prevent this type of violence.

    “I’m very shocked,” one junior at a Washington D.C.-based university told the BBC, echoing a sentiment repeated across nearly all interviews. “We talk about sexual assault awareness all the time here, but to hear a story like this, so recent and at a school that’s supposed to be one of the best in the country, it just makes you question how much progress we’ve actually made.”

    Other students noted that the allegations, if proven true, highlight a persistent problem endemic to fraternity culture across U.S. colleges. Fraternity houses, which often host unsupervised parties and have a long history of exclusive, male-dominated social hierarchies, have been repeatedly linked to higher rates of sexual assault on college campuses. Critics argue that the decentralized nature of Greek life, combined with universities’ frequent reluctance to crack down on influential fraternity alumni donors, allows problematic behavior to go underreported and unpunished.

    The investigation remains ongoing, and no charges have been filed as of yet. Cornell University has released a brief statement confirming that it is cooperating fully with law enforcement, and has said it is committed to supporting the survivor throughout the investigation process. The case has already prompted renewed calls for national action to address campus sexual assault, with advocacy groups pushing for stricter oversight of Greek life organizations and mandatory, bystander intervention training for all students and campus staff.

  • US Supreme Court allows execution of Christa Pike to go ahead

    US Supreme Court allows execution of Christa Pike to go ahead

    In a high-states legal ruling that has reignited national debate over capital punishment, the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the path for the execution of Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate, reversing an eleventh-hour pause on her lethal injection that had been ordered by a lower appellate court. The case has quickly become a flashpoint over due process rights for death row prisoners, coming down to the wire as a state execution deadline approached midnight on Wednesday.

    Pike’s execution was originally scheduled for Wednesday morning, but the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in to halt the procedure mid-week to allow additional time to review unresolved legal claims in her case. Within hours of that ruling, Tennessee’s attorney general fast-tracked an emergency appeal to the nation’s highest court, asking justices to immediately vacate the lower court’s stay of execution.

    Justices Brett Kavanaugh approved the state’s request to lift the execution pause, with no formal explanation included in the court’s brief order issued Wednesday evening. The Supreme Court’s three-member liberal bloc—Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—issued a formal dissent against the ruling, marking a sharp ideological split on the high court over the case.

    In her written dissent, Sotomayor argued that the majority’s decision improperly allowed Tennessee to move forward with Pike’s execution before her pending legal challenges to her conviction could receive full and fair consideration. “Tennessee’s desire to expedite Pike’s execution by a few days or even weeks cannot outweigh her fundamental interest in her own life,” Sotomayor wrote.

    The Supreme Court’s ruling came just a handful of hours before the state’s original execution warrant was set to expire at midnight local time. If the warrant lapses before the execution can be carried out, the Tennessee Supreme Court will be required to schedule a new execution date, the Associated Press reports. As of Thursday morning, no new timeline for the execution had been publicly confirmed.

    Pike, now 58, was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow participant at a job training camp for at-risk teens. Then 18 years old, Pike carried out the killing alongside her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp. If her execution goes forward as cleared by the Supreme Court, she will become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries.

    The latest legal dispute centers on a contradiction in the state of Tennessee’s courtroom arguments over Pike’s background. For decades, state attorneys insisted in court filings that Pike had fabricated claims of repeated childhood sexual abuse and rape. But during a recent hearing focused on her requested lethal injection method, state representatives confirmed they no longer disputed that the abuse occurred. Pike’s legal team argues that the earlier false claim that she lied about her trauma skewed previous federal reviews of her case, and that a lower court needs to re-examine her claims to correct the record.

    This latest ruling comes on the heels of two prior setbacks for Pike this week: the Supreme Court declined to hear a separate appeal challenging her conviction, and Tennessee’s governor rejected her formal request for clemency.

  • Cornell case spotlights ‘confusing’ web of systems for reporting campus assaults

    Cornell case spotlights ‘confusing’ web of systems for reporting campus assaults

    The conversation around how U.S. colleges and law enforcement agencies respond to reports of sexual assault on campus has been thrown back into the national spotlight, after a former Cornell University student brought a high-profile civil lawsuit alleging she was drugged and gang-raped by multiple fraternity members during a 2024 campus event.

    Only identified as Jane Doe to protect her privacy, the former student alleges that Cornell failed to adequately protect her from harm and failed to issue appropriate punishment to the accused men. After she first reported the assault to campus police, who passed the case along to the Tompkins County District Attorney’s office, prosecutors initially declined to bring criminal charges. Earlier this week, however, District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced he would reopen the investigation into the alleged assault.

    Both Cornell and Van Houten have publicly defended their handling of the 2024 case. In an official statement, the Ivy League institution said it had carried out a months-long, thorough investigation and adjudication into the incident, issuing unique sanctions to each student involved based on investigation findings, and had since developed a new campus framework to address sexual assault reports. The university confirmed it followed all protocols laid out in Title IX, the federal civil rights law that sets mandatory standards for how U.S. colleges investigate reports of campus sexual misconduct. Per Cornell, the investigation resulted in the implicated fraternity being permanently banned from campus, and the involved students receiving suspension or expulsion.

    But the case has sparked widespread outcry from Cornell students, who have criticized the university’s lack of transparency around disciplinary outcomes. The student-run newspaper *Cornell Daily Sun* made headlines when it published the full names of the accused students under the provocative headline “Cornell won’t, we will.” Cornell has countered that federal privacy laws prohibit the institution from releasing any personally identifiable information about individual student disciplinary proceedings, so it cannot disclose further details to the public.

    While the Cornell case has drawn national attention, sexual assault survivors and advocacy experts say it is just one example of systemic, long-standing challenges that survivors face when reporting assaults across U.S. college campuses.

    Take Mary, a first-generation college student whose name has been changed to protect her identity, who experienced a similar assault during her first year at a separate institution. After waking up from a fraternity party with extensive bruising and bite marks across her body, it took Mary days to piece together that she had been sexually assaulted while she was blacked out from alcohol. She eventually reported the incident, but while the man she accused was ultimately expelled through the university’s Title IX process, local police declined to bring any criminal charges, citing a lack of sufficient physical evidence.

    Mary described the entire process of pursuing any form of justice as deeply confusing, emotionally draining, and ultimately disappointing. “Even though it was a positive outcome, it was still so emotionally exhausting and draining, because I had to do all of this in tandem with getting used to being a college student for the first time,” she said. “In many ways, I had to be my own advocate, gathering all my evidence.” Her experience with local law enforcement, she added, left her with profound disillusionment in the justice system. “I was left with this taste that because they knew that the college was ‘handling’ my investigation, that they could wipe their hands clean of it.”

    Though Mary’s case is unconnected to Cornell, survivor advocates say it illustrates the core, widespread barrier that keeps the vast majority of campus sexual assaults unreported, per national research: a confusing, overlapping web of policies and procedures that varies dramatically from institution to institution, requiring survivors to navigate two parallel systems—the university disciplinary process and the traditional criminal justice system—with little clear guidance.

    “These processes are hard to navigate if you aren’t in trauma,” explained Nancy Chi Cantalupo, an associate law professor at Wayne State University with years of experience representing campus sexual assault survivors. “If you are in trauma, they’re virtually impossible to navigate.”

    Zoey Scheinblum-Brewer, policy coordinator at the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), the nation’s largest anti-sexual assault nonprofit, broke down why this dual system creates so many barriers. “[The two systems] serve different purposes, operate under different rules and timelines, and lead to different outcomes,” she said. “Unclear guidance about the options available through these parallel processes can create so much confusion and uncertainty that some students ultimately decide not to report.”

    For Mary, that lack of clarity was palpable when she first reported her assault. She recalled that university officials seemed as unfamiliar with the process as she was, leaving her to navigate every step alone. Unlike Cornell, which maintains an information-sharing agreement with local law enforcement, Mary was required to file a separate report with police independently—a process she described as physically and emotionally exhausting. Though Mary’s legal team obtained surveillance footage showing the accused carrying her unconscious, slumped body, along with photographic evidence of her injuries, police said they lacked probable cause for an arrest, and the district attorney deferred the case entirely to the university. When reached for comment by the BBC, the local police department said it did not retain records of the specific case, and the local district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

    Another point of ongoing debate is the inherent secrecy of campus Title IX investigations, which are conducted entirely behind closed doors. Helene Weiss, an attorney who has represented dozens of campus sexual assault survivors, argues the secrecy is primarily designed to protect the institutional reputation of colleges, rather than the interests of survivors. “The secrecy of the process, it prevents other students from knowing about it. It prevents witnesses from coming forward,” she said.

    But Michael Diamondstein, a Pennsylvania attorney who represents people accused of campus sexual misconduct, countered that the confidentiality protects all parties involved. “I think when you compare it to what they would face in a courtroom, it’s much easier for students and much safer for students. Their name isn’t put out there. The news media doesn’t get them,” he said.

    Despite the many systemic flaws, many survivor advocates and survivors themselves argue that maintaining the dual pathway of campus investigations and criminal prosecutions serves a critical purpose. Criminal prosecution of sexual assault is notoriously difficult: a recent systematic review of national cases found that fewer than 10% of reported sexual assault cases result in a criminal conviction. Criminal courts require prosecutors to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, a far higher burden of proof than the lower standard applied in campus disciplinary tribunals. Additionally, Title IX requires colleges to provide adaptive accommodations that law enforcement cannot, such as reassigning class schedules to separate survivors and the accused during an investigation and granting extensions for academic work.

    For Mary, that dual pathway was the only avenue to any form of justice. After criminal prosecutors dropped her case, the Title IX process resulted in her attacker’s expulsion. “This was my only avenue to achieve any sort of justice,” she said.

  • Inside India’s forest villages, where a dangerous mix of crises led to 32 child deaths

    Inside India’s forest villages, where a dangerous mix of crises led to 32 child deaths

    It is an unspeakable tragedy that has unfolded across the remote, forested tribal villages of Balaghat district in India’s Madhya Pradesh state. Since May, at least 32 children have lost their lives to a deadly combination of infectious disease, systemic neglect, and geographic isolation, leaving grieving families to grapple with preventable loss and shattered futures. The tragedy first came to light through the story of three-year-old Bamita Markam, whose short life ended at dawn one rainy May morning after days of agonizing illness.

    Bamita first developed a high fever and painful red sores across her body. Her mother Koushila initially brought her to a local doctor, who prescribed an ointment, and the toddler appeared to briefly recover before falling dangerously ill again. Desperate and trapped by impassable, muddy terrain, the family turned to a local faith healer, who administered homemade syrups and tablets that did nothing to slow the disease. By the time the sun rose, Bamita was dead after convulsing through the night and vomiting blood. Her small body was buried in the nearby jungle by midday. “If god took away our children, what can we do?” Koushila says, her grief unspoken but palpable.

    Almost all of the victims, who range in age from three-month-old infants to an 18-year-old young adult, belong to the Baiga people, one of India’s 75 classified Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, communities that have long faced systemic exclusion and limited access to basic services. Local officials have attributed the majority of deaths to a combination of measles and malaria, with public health experts noting that pre-existing malnutrition and dangerous delays in accessing medical care drastically worsened outcomes.

    Current official data points to roughly 8 to 10 deaths linked to measles, another 10 tied to malaria, with many children suffering from multiple overlapping infections. The full scope of causes for each individual death remains unclear, but even seasoned local leaders say they have never seen a crisis of this scale. “I have never seen an outbreak like this. My father was a two-term lawmaker, and I have served three terms, but neither of us has seen so many children die in such a short time,” says Sanjay Uikey, who has represented the area as an elected official since 2013.

    Beyond the spread of infectious disease, the crisis exposes deep, long-running structural flaws in healthcare access for India’s most remote tribal communities. In these heavily forested parts of Balaghat, regions once troubled by Maoist insurgency, just reaching a functional health care facility is an often insurmountable challenge. The monsoon season turns narrow dirt tracks connecting scattered mud homes into slippery, impassable paths, cutting off entire hamlets from the outside world. The nearest 100-bed state hospital in Birsa sits roughly 70 kilometers from many of the affected villages. For families without private transportation, reaching the facility requires trekking for miles across mud, carrying sick children on makeshift bamboo stretchers or the back of motorcycles, and losing an entire day of wages that many already impoverished families cannot afford to forfeit.

    Poverty and geographic isolation are compounded by deeply held cultural beliefs that shape how many Baiga families respond to illness. For generations, many community members have viewed common illnesses like rashes and fevers as the arrival of Mata, the disease goddess, who must be appeased through traditional rituals rather than rushed to formal medical treatment. Families often perform seven to nine-day rituals involving bathing, offerings of cool water and neem leaves to the goddess, with a widespread belief that seeking modern medical care before the ritual is complete will bring death. For weeks after the first cases emerged, these beliefs led many families to delay seeking care, allowing otherwise treatable infections to become fatal.

    The scale of the crisis only began to emerge in late July, when local village council chief Parshuram Dhurwey learned of three child deaths in one small neighborhood of Bondari village within 24 hours. When he and local officials reached the area, they found a devastating scene: nearly every other child was sick, struggling with fever, rashes, and severe dehydration, most suffering from chronic undernutrition. When government medical officer Nimish Gautam first arrived to assess the outbreak, he encountered a teenage girl with several days of fever and a dangerous low blood sugar level, whose family refused to let medical teams examine her properly, convinced that transporting her to a hospital would kill her. “Police were brought in to persuade them to take her to a health centre. The family still refused. So we kept her under observation, and she recovered,” Gautam recalls. In one village, officials ultimately forcibly removed five seriously ill children to receive hospital care; every single one survived.

    By the time local authorities recognized the scope of the outbreak, children had already been dying for weeks. Across four villages in Dhurwey’s council alone, 10 children between 18 months and 14 years old lost their lives. The tragedy has repeated across hamlets: Sagnibai of Bondari lost two children within 24 hours, her 12-year-old daughter Lamnin and one-year-old son Sahil, after local healers attributed their illness to Mata and the family had no money or transport to reach a hospital. Mahasingh Parte of Matla village lost two children, a six-year-old girl and four-year-old boy, within two days of each other after a faith healer ordered the family not to seek hospital care. Parte, a landless farm laborer who earns just 200 rupees ($2) on a good day, with work even scarcer during the monsoon, lives just 5 kilometers from a small primary health center but had never visited it. Poverty and remoteness stacked all odds against his children.

    Investigations by the ICMR-National Institute for Tribal Health Research confirmed that six out of 10 tissue samples collected from affected villages in early August tested positive for measles, a highly contagious viral infection that is easily preventable with vaccination but can turn deadly for chronically undernourished children. Measles weakens the immune system, leaving young children vulnerable to life-threatening complications including pneumonia, severe dehydration, and brain swelling, and the risks rise drastically when paired with malaria, which is endemic to Balaghat district. Many sick children were also suffering from secondary infections including scabies, bacterial skin infections, and fungal disease, compounding their weakened health.

    Public health experts emphasize that no single factor is to blame for the mass deaths, but rather a deadly collision of multiple vulnerabilities. Chronic malnutrition is endemic across the Baiga community, with the tragic case of one five-year-old who died of measles weighing just 5 kilograms, less than the average weight of a one-year-old child. Gautam attributes widespread child malnutrition to a combination of early marriage and early motherhood, with many Baiga girls giving birth by age 16 or 17 when their own bodies are still developing, leading to closely spaced pregnancies, premature births, and low birth weights. Many young mothers lack the resources and support to properly breastfeed and nourish their children, and most families rely on a monotonous diet of rice and lentil soup with very little protein or dietary variety, leading to widespread nutritional deficiencies. Low uptake of public health and nutrition services further exacerbates these gaps.

    While the Baiga community is not entirely cut off from modern India — many families have solar electricity, bank accounts, and access to smartphones where children watch social media reels, and many adults migrate seasonally for work — the gap between government services on paper and delivery on the ground could not be starker. A 2024 audit by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General found “serious irregularities” in Madhya Pradesh’s distribution of government-issued take-home rations designed to supplement the diets of young children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers, with widespread failures in beneficiary identification, production, transport, and distribution that left the most vulnerable without critical support.

    Once the outbreak was finally recognized, state health authorities launched an emergency response, with health workers conducting door-to-door screening across affected villages and mobile medical units equipped with oxygen, diagnostic tests, and medications visiting more than 20 remote hamlets. At the peak of the response, medical teams treated more than 50 patients a day, half of them children, conducting more than 10 malaria tests daily. In total, more than 6,200 mostly child patients were treated at home, more than 630 were referred to district hospitals, and roughly 30 remain hospitalized as of late September.

    Emergency vaccination efforts also revealed gaps in official vaccination coverage: while official records claimed 90 to 95% coverage for measles, health teams found hundreds of unrecorded children and many families reluctant to accept vaccination. Authorities responded by offering the measles-rubella vaccine to all children under 15 regardless of prior vaccination status, and had vaccinated roughly 27,000 of 40,000 identified children in the Birsa block as of September.

    The outbreak has now subsided, with officials reporting no new child deaths for more than two weeks before their late September assessment, and medical camp caseloads have dropped dramatically from 120 children a day at the peak to fewer than 10. But for the grieving families who lost their children, the pain of the tragedy is permanent. Back in Matla village, Koushila Markam visits the rocky grave of her daughter Bamita, who loved to play with her older sister Ankita and was frightened of passing cars. “I had hope she’d study and make something of herself. I never regretted I didn’t have a boy,” Koushila says, looking at her surviving six-year-old daughter, who still cries constantly for her sister. “I want more kids. I feel alone. Ankita is alone. She keeps crying for her sister.”