‘My hands are paralyzed from torture’: Gazans reveal horrors of Ofer Camp

December 19, 2024

Oren Ziv

In February, Rami was arrested by the Israeli army at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital. The 42-year-old Palestinian was taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention center, where, like thousands of Gazans detained there, he endured severe abuse at the hands of the guards. But he was soon transferred out. “I thought I was being returned to Gaza, but I found myself in another prison,” he told +972 and Local Call. That prison was Ofer Camp — a military facility that Israel established during the current war to hold detainees from Gaza, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

 

 Detainees at Ofer Prison, near Jerusalem, occupied West Bank, August 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Burning Witches and Torching American Democracy

December 19, 2024

James Bovard

On December 1, President Joe Biden announced that he was pardoning his son Hunter for all the crimes he committed from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024. Biden’s sweeping pardon of all of his son’s abuses epitomizes how presidents and their families are now above the law. It also illustrates how the “King James Test for American Democracy” could become the death of the Constitution.

Chess King Gukesh: How an 18-year-old dreamer checkmated the world

December 19, 2024

S. Sujatha

What dreams can an eight-year-old boy harbor? Perhaps a new video game, a favorite toy, or a cherished destination. At most, an autograph or selfie with a beloved sports star. But young Gukesh Dommaraju’s dream was extraordinary: to become world chess champion.

 

 Ding Liren (L) of China plays against Dommaraju Gukesh of India during the Game 14 of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 in Singapore on December 12, 2024. ©  Global Look Press / XinHua / Then Chih Wey