Society

Jihadi media specialist

15 May 2025 9 6

Simon Tyler

Inserted 5 days ago

“Starvation is being deliberately used as a weapon of war. The continued inaction of the UK alongside some of the most powerful governments in the world in the face of the Israeli authorities' deadly blockade is indefensible and could be judged as complicity under international law. Their 'deep concern' means nothing without action. More than two million people are at stake.”

Aje

Executive director of Doctors of the World UK

12 May 2025 6 1

David French

Inserted 6 days ago

“Leo will forge his own path, and it's important not to read too much into various tweets and social media posts. But if there is one thing we can glean from the new pope's words and the way he has lived his life, it's that he shares Pope Francis' love for the poor and the vulnerable. He's expressing and trying to embody a religious faith that views all life as precious. I don't know what kind of pope Leo will ultimately become. But on Thursday, I felt the cultural wind shift just a tiny bit. An American man who confounds political categories now leads the world's largest church. As a friend texted me right after the pope's selection was announced, that shift 'almost feels like … hope'.”

New York Times Opinion columnist

11 May 2025 6 1

Robert Orsi

Inserted 1 week ago

“Leo XIII transformed how the Catholic church approached workers. But he also strongly put down a movement called Americanism. This movement was a kind of a nationalist impulse within Catholicism, with national churches claiming to have their own identities, their own particular ways of doing things. And I think by choosing the name Leo XIV, this pope was, without a doubt, signaling a return to a global Catholicism. The Vatican under the new Pope Leo would be subtle and wise with how he deals with the Trump administration. But I think they will also be strong on the issues that were mentioned, climate change, migration, immigration, workers, justice and so forth.”

Aje

Professor of religious studies at Northwestern University

08 May 2025 9 1

James Bretzke

Inserted 1 week ago

“The choice of name - Pope Leo XIV - is significant as Pope Leo XIII was the first pope to create the idea of social ethics in the Catholic church. Leo XIII, who ruled 1878 to 1903, wrote an encyclical which recognised how capitalism worked and the right of labour to organise and work for just living conditions and working conditions, which was really foundational in the church. Up until that time, the church's hierarchy tended to be identified with the upper class, and so Leo XIII put a redirection on the church, and certainly many of the popes since that time have built on that. I think we can see a deepening of the church's commitment to workers and the marginalised.”

Aje

Professor of theology at John Carroll University

08 May 2025 8 1

Denis Volkov

Inserted 1 week ago

“Russian consumers are grumbling about food prices, which rose at an annual rate of more than 12 percent in March, but these concerns have so far have not translated into broader dissatisfaction with the government. Rising wages, government subsidies for the poor, and decades of living with high inflation mean that in surveys conducted as recently as April more Russians say that their economic situation is improving, rather than worsening.”

Head of Moscow-based independent pollster Levada Center

08 May 2025 (approx) 7 2

Volker Türk

Inserted 2 weeks ago

“As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new, unseen level. Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime, and so do all forms of collective punishment.”

Aje

UN high commissioner for human rights

29 Apr 2025 7 2

Sylvanus Kwaku Afesorgbor

Inserted 2 weeks ago

“Voters who are affected by tariffs, like steelworkers, will likely look at which party is offering a better economic cushion in case of job loss. They may ask themselves, 'If there is an economic crisis because of the Trump tariffs, who will be in a better position to solve that?' It depends on how voters perceive each party leader's ability to negotiate with Trump. Canadian voters are very particular about the economy, and will choose the party they believe can handle a recession and Trump's trade war. Voters may perceive Mark Carney as the better candidate because of his record in the banking sector. That has shifted a lot of support for the Liberals.”

Associate professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario

27 Apr 2025 10 5

Paul Gallagher

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“When Francis was disappointed by certain political choices that governments are making, silence comes upon him. His voice is certainly missing. People are suddenly realizing that that voice was significant, and people were listening to it. It had been one of the very few points of reference that people have in the world. There's a new world disorder being established.”

Archbishop

22 Apr 2025 3 1

Jesse Willard

Inserted 3 weeks ago

“In the short term it's going to be a little bit painful, but I'd much rather buy American than anything else. But the pain can't last forever. If it takes six months, a year you may see a little bit of people grumbling a little. But if it takes more than a couple years, you're going to see people not being OK with that.”

Politico

Chair of the Decatur County Republican Party in Georgia

19 Apr 2025 5 3

Cecilia Muñoz

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“Whatever the merits of this individual case, it's becoming clearer to the American public that he could be any of us. The president is going way too far, further than what he told the public he would do during the campaign and way farther than what the country is comfortable with.”

Former domestic policy adviser to President Barack Obama

19 Apr 2025 4 3

Kica Matos

Inserted 4 weeks ago

“Donald Trump is desperately trying to change the conversation on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's abduction and disappearance because he's losing in the courts and in the court of public opinion. The vast majority of Americans value the rule of law and the separation of powers, and the public is viscerally responding to these growing attacks on our democracy.”

President of the National Immigration Law Center

19 Apr 2025 7 4

Sergey Lavrov

Inserted 1 month ago

“As a civilization-state, Russia has consistently upheld the belief that reliance on enduring values common to all major world religions and cultures along with respect for the unique identities of all nations and their right to sovereign development is key to building a fairer multipolar world order, which, in turn, creates more favorable external conditions for Russia's development and, of course, for all nations that share such an approach. More and more people worldwide not only sympathize with our country and seek to understand our way of life but also specifically perceive Russia as a guardian and defender of these traditional values, with such sentiments observed even in Western nations.”

Tass

Russian Foreign Minister

16 Apr 2025 3 1

Colin Clarke

Inserted 1 month ago

“The lack of a US presence in Afghanistan following its 2021 withdrawal has left a major intelligence gap in the fight against IS [Islamic State]. The US has been forced to rely on signals intelligence and has extremely limited human intelligence in Afghanistan. IS is a much different organization today than it was seven years ago when it still had the caliphate, it is far more dependent on external operations and attacks to generate publicity. They have deliberately amended their strategy to focus on launching high profile attacks in the West. They have been aggressive and relentless in their plotting and are determined to pull off a spectacular attack in Europe or the United States.”

Senior research fellow at the US-based Soufan Centre

25 Mar 2025 10 1

Michael MacCambridge

Inserted 3 months ago

“Historically, it's been a time to talk about unity and togetherness and just celebrate this magnificent holiday in our national civic religion. It's complicated to have Donald Trump celebrating football, especially because of his somewhat troubled relationship with the N.F.L. and its players.”

Journalist and author of 'America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation'

09 Feb 2025 8 3

Gareth Rhodes

Inserted 3 months ago

“This is similar to sports betting or gambling. The retail customer putting in their funds is doing so at risk of losing most if not all of it with the hope of an outsize payoff.”

Former deputy superintendent at the New York State Department of Financial Services

09 Feb 2025 0 3

Erwin Chemerinsky

Inserted 3 months ago

“We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now. There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this. Systematic unconstitutional and illegal acts create a constitutional crisis.”

Dean of the University of California Berkeley Law School

07 Feb 2025 5 3

Somdeep Sen

Inserted 3 months ago

“It is, of course, early days in Musk's attempted global far-right revolution. Some of his moves may work, and others may not have the level of political impact he is hoping for. However, it is still a worry that Musk has been able to get as far as he has in terms of meddling in the internal politics of several countries. One can only hope that there will soon be a concerted pushback to Musk's global moves.”

Associate Professor of International Development Studies at Roskilde University

07 Feb 2025 2 2

Yossi Mekelberg

Inserted 3 months ago

“Surveys suggest most Israelis support Trump's idea to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza. And of the course, the right in Israel see this as a dream come true - not only in Gaza. [They think that] if they can resettle Gaza, then maybe they can move on and annex the West Bank, maybe push more Palestinians out of the West Bank, and basically fulfil the dream of 'Greater Israel'. And this is very dangerous. And to this, the [growing influence of pro-Israeli] Christian evangelists in the United States, and we are in completely new and uncharted territory.”

Aje

Analyst at United Kingdom-based think tank Chatham House

06 Feb 2025 8 3

Jalal Al Husseini

Inserted 3 months ago

“Any plan involving the mass movement of Palestinians from Gaza would be met with fierce resistance across the Arab world. The Arab states have opposed any idea of any resettlement or de-Palestinisation of Palestine, especially the occupied Palestinian territories - which is also one of the aims of the far-right Israeli parties. And that's been one of the mainstays of the Arab states' policies since 1967 - opposition to any large-scale displacement. Since the late 70s, when the Likud won the elections and became the ruling party for the first time, they always championed this idea that eventually - and this is one of the very early claims of this movement - eventually, Jordan should be the alternative state or homeland of the Palestinians. So any large-scale displacement of Palestinians to Jordan tends to support or validate this claim - that Jordan should be the alternative state of the Palestinians.”

Associate researcher at the French Institute for the Near East in Amman

06 Feb 2025 11 3

Peter M. Shane

Inserted 3 months ago

“We are well past euphemism about 'pushing the limits,' 'stretching the envelope' and the like. The array of legal constraints Mr. Trump has violated amounts to programmatic sabotage and rampant lawlessness.”

Legal scholar in residence at New York University and the author of a casebook on separation-of-powers law

05 Feb 2025 5 1

Omar Shakir

Inserted 3 months ago

“It would be a moral abomination. International humanitarian law forbids the forced displacement of the population of an occupied territory. When such forced displacement is widespread, it can amount to a war crime or a crime against humanity.”

Aje

Israel and Palestine Director, Human Rights Watch

05 Feb 2025 9 2

Janina Dill

Inserted 3 months ago

“Forcing Gazans to leave would be a crime. The scale of such an undertaking, the level of coercion and force required, hence the gravity, make this a straightforward crime against humanity. Even if Mr. Trump's Gaza plan ultimately does not move forward, his attitude toward international law could have serious consequences for U.S. interests around the world. Trump is just casually making major international crimes into policy proposals. He just normalizes violating, or proposing to violate, the absolute bedrock principles of international law.”

Co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict

05 Feb 2025 7 2

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Inserted 3 months ago

“My estimate is that the period of time will be approximately between four and five years until the elections. The infrastructure for the vote needs to be re-established, and this takes time.”

Syria's interim president

Read the Background

03 Feb 2025 2 3

Mohamad Elmasry

Inserted 3 months ago

“I don't know that he's being advised by the right people, I don't know if he has a strong understanding of Middle East politics and affairs. But the reality is this: If the Egyptians or the Jordanians or any other Arab country were to take in mass numbers of Palestinians there would be very grave political consequences for those governments. Whatever incentives there might be - there's been discussion of debt relief for Egypt, potentially a lot of money for a country that's really struggling economically - but my sense is that the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, would understand that the political cost of such an arrangement would be too grave for his government to bear. El-Sisi has not been a friend of the Palestinians per se over the years but he would not want a second Nakba, catastrophe, to occur on his watch. Palestinians should not be discounted from any discussions about their future. They are not chess pieces; the Palestinians have made it very clear that they don't want to go anywhere - this is their homeland and they are not going to be pushed out by anybody.”

Aje

Associate Professor and Chair in the Media and Cultural Studies and Journalism programs at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

01 Feb 2025 12 2

Mirette F. Mabrouk

Inserted 3 months ago

“Two thousand and eleven is only 14 years away. The Egyptian authorities know that things snowball. Any hint that Egyptians could catch Syrians' revolutionary fervor spells trouble - not because Egyptians want armed revolt, but because it could take very little for their disgruntlement to explode into protest.”

Egypt expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington

31 Jan 2025 4 2

Jean Kaseya

Inserted 3 months ago

“There is an urgent need to address the Goma crisis. The displacement of over one million people in Goma presents a critical challenge to national and regional health security.”

Aa

Director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC)

Read the Background

30 Jan 2025 4 1

Shannon Liss-Riordan

Inserted 3 months ago

“Elon clearly thinks he learned from Twitter how to decimate a workplace and he's trying to roll out the same playbook with the federal government now.”

Employment lawyer who is suing Mr. Musk on behalf of former Twitter workers

30 Jan 2025 6 2

Basil Farraj

Inserted 3 months ago

“[There are] the emotions of these families being able to hug their loved ones, but also the reminder of the cruelty that's taking place inside Israeli prisons. Those released on Thursday included children, as well as elderly people who had spent decades in Israeli custody. Since October 7, the Israeli regime has been subjecting Palestinian prisoners - children, women, administrative detainees, adults, to brutal conditions of detention, where they have been denied medical care, denied food, denied any form of communication with their family members. They are restricting their communication with lawyers and subjecting them many of them to brutal isolation and solitary confinement. This carceral system treats Palestinians as inferior, it treats them as subhuman.”

Aje

Professor at Birzeit University who studies political prisoners

30 Jan 2025 9 2

Yousef Munayyer

Inserted 3 months ago

“Trump's outrageous statement should be condemned for violating all norms and basic rights. However, it should also be taken with a degree of scepticism. Trump says all kinds of things. Sometimes, they're things that he means. Sometimes, they're things that he doesn't mean. Sometimes, they're things that he heard in a conversation that he had five minutes ago. Sometimes, they're things that he thinks he heard but misunderstood. The idea of ethnically cleansing Gaza is not new and has been circulating since the war broke out in October 2023. This is not merely about how these countries [Egypt and Jordan] feel about Palestine or what they think of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. It's also about their own national security concerns - existential national security concerns, which really can't be minimised in this discussion.”

Head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington DC

30 Jan 2025 11 2

Thomas J Rachko Jr

Inserted 3 months ago

“What is particularly evident already about these actions is the confusion, fear, and uncertainty these policies are already evoking for immigrant families and their communities.”

Research manager at Georgetown University’s Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute

27 Jan 2025 1 4

Pavel Sapelka

Inserted 3 months ago

“The politicians who once dared to challenge Lukashenko are now literally rotting in prison in torture conditions, there has been no contact with them for over a year, and some of them are in very poor health.”

Lawyer working with Viasna Human Rights Centre

26 Jan 2025 3 3

Lynden Melmed

Inserted 3 months ago

“After they [immigrants] came in doing everything the government told them to do, they are in the same boat as someone who came here unlawfully. Right now, even though you are holding valid documents that allow you to work and be in the U.S., this guidance makes you vulnerable to being picked up by immigration agents and arrested at any time.”

Former chief counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and partner at the firm Berry Appleman & Leiden

25 Jan 2025 2 2

Robert Fico

Inserted 3 months ago

“We see a structure that wants to exploit these meetings, these rallies, primarily for a possible clash with the security forces of the state, to escalate tensions even further. To further aggression and then to fulfil the plan that is being disseminated today by the organisers of these protests.”

Slovak Prime Minister

24 Jan 2025 2 3

John C. Coughenour

Inserted 3 months ago

“This is a blatantly unconstitutional order. Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind. I've been on the bench for over four decades. I can't remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order. Where were the lawyers when this decision was being made?”

Senior judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington

23 Jan 2025 2 2

Mariann Edgar Budde

Inserted 3 months ago

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people-the people who pick our crops, clean our office buildings, labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals-they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras, and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing persecution in their own lands find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people, the good of all people in this nation, and the world.”

Theguardian

Episcopal bishop of Washington

21 Jan 2025 12 3

Abed Ayoub

Inserted 3 months ago

“I wish the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] would extend the same careful approach and benefit of the doubt it offered Musk to members of Arab and Muslim communities. This organisation has a history of censoring our speech and going after our speech and our freedom of expression, and it has made life difficult for many Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims and our supporters in this country.”

Executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)

21 Jan 2025 4 1

Yara Hawari

Inserted 3 months ago

“While the Gaza ceasefire is a positive step the danger to the occupied West Bank from an Israeli invasion continues to rise. It's brought about a huge amount of relief that the bombardment will stop, but I think crucially the ceasefire does not mean an end to the occupation neither in Gaza or the West Bank. So people are under no illusion that this means an end to Israeli control over their lives. I think people are pessimistic as to whether the ceasefire will actually hold because they know the Israeli regime is already trying to sabotage it. The situation in the occupied West Bank remains as precarious as ever. We saw a year of genocide in Gaza go unchecked so the big question is could they do the same in the West Bank? I'm afraid without accountability measures the answer is yes.”

Aje

Senior analyst with Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network

20 Jan 2025 6 3

Tareq Abu Azzoum

Inserted 3 months ago

“What happened earlier in Gaza City's as-Saraya square is that the military wing of Hamas handed over three female Israeli captives in a scene that felt beyond imagination. The military wing of Hamas - which has been engaging in battles with the Israeli occupation forces across many areas in the strip - appeared today, organising the implementation of the deal and the exchange of the Israeli captives. We saw crowds of Palestinians gathering in the area around the fighters of the military wing of Hamas, chanting for liberation and freedom. So, apparently, despite the significant blows that the military wing of Hamas has endured, they appeared today as an organized force on the ground. This could indicate that in the foreseeable future, they will still exist as a military force despite the Israeli claims that they managed to degrade their military capabilities and eradicate their military governance of the territory.”

Aje

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza

19 Jan 2025 10 3

Lara Elborno

Inserted 3 months ago

“Israel must be held accountable after committing the first live-streamed genocide assisted with artificial intelligence. This accountability must be pursued, whether it's before international jurisdictions, like the International Criminal Court, or before national courts using the principles of extraterritorial jurisdiction or universal jurisdiction. Accountability should not just be confined to Israeli leaders the architects of the genocide, but also to the soldiers that enforced and executed the genocide, and who found themselves, in many cases, gleefully carrying out the destruction of civilian homes and targeting Palestinian civilians. Countries that were complicit with this genocide, in particular the United States, should also be held accountable. There's no statute of limitations on international crimes of this nature, and so we're going to see this process unfold over a number of years to come.”

Aje

Palestinian-American international lawyer and activist

19 Jan 2025 11 2

José Ignacio Torreblanca

Inserted 4 months ago

“In October, Trump vowed to not let the EU 'take advantage of our companies', and Vice-president elect JD Vance has also stated that the US could drop support for NATO if the EU further regulates X. As a result, the Trump administration could lobby European leaders to prevent the commission from punishing X. Moreover, if the EU does impose the fine, Trump and Vance are likely to support Musk and denounce the fines as illegitimate. Musk could also use the platform itself to mobilise citizens and far-right parties to raise the political cost for EU decision-makers pursuing the crackdown.”

Geopolitics and technology expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations

17 Jan 2025 9 3

Alan Elrod

Inserted 4 months ago

“For a whole cohort of younger voters, Trump and Trumpism are how they came to politics. For some, they're what they prefer. For others, they're merely an unwelcome reality of American democracy. But in either case, he is their normal.”

Msnbc

President and CEO of The Pulaski Institution

17 Jan 2025 5 3

Cindy McCain

Inserted 4 months ago

“Promising news coming out of Gaza. World Food Program has life-saving assistance ready at the borders to help feed 1M+ acutely hungry Palestinians, but we need: guaranteed safety of humanitarians, safe movement of food across all border crossings, and more funding to deliver at scale.”

Aa

Executive director of the World Food Programme

15 Jan 2025 4 1

Afaf Al-Najjar

Inserted 4 months ago

“As I process this moment, I feel both a flicker of hope and a tide of anger. Hope that this pause might save lives, and anger that it has taken so much suffering to reach even this fragile point. The cameras will turn away soon, the world's attention will shift, but for us, this is not an end. Ceasefires are not peace. They are moments of quiet in an unending storm. Until justice is realised, until dignity and equality are more than distant dreams, the cycle will continue.”

Palestinian student, activist and independent journalist from the Gaza Strip

15 Jan 2025 3 2

Ursula von der Leyen

Inserted 4 months ago

“I warmly welcome the ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza. Hostages will be reunited with their loved ones and humanitarian aid can reach civilians in Gaza. This brings hope to an entire region, where people have endured immense suffering for far too long. Both parties must fully implement this agreement, as a stepping stone toward lasting stability in the region and a diplomatic resolution of the conflict.”

Aa

President of the European Commission

15 Jan 2025 7 1

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Inserted 4 months ago

“I am confident that 14 million Syrians will return to their country in two years. Only around 1 to 1.5 million will remain (abroad). If the state is weak, the citizens of that country cannot be strong. Syrian people overcame their despair through the revolution. Now, Syrians hold their heads high everywhere. We have changed the course of history. There is social consensus in Syria. Thanks to this, for the first time in Syria, people will be able to live together with love.”

Aa

Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)

13 Jan 2025 3 1

Stephen J. Rapp

Inserted 4 months ago

“Any prosecution has to be a good process, otherwise it'll look like score-settling. And that can play a key role in reconciling a society and defusing efforts to settle scores, for instance, against the children of parents who committed these crimes.”

Former international prosecutor and former U.S. ambassador for global justice

12 Jan 2025 3 2

Najib Mikati

Inserted 4 months ago

“It has become urgent today - in the interest of both countries - to deal with this issue as quickly as possible and return the displaced to a Syria that is thankfully recovering.”

Prime Minister of Lebanon

11 Jan 2025 2 2

Gavin Schmidt

Inserted 4 months ago

“We sound like a broken record but only because the records keep breaking. They will continue to break until we get emissions under control. We think sometimes that if we live in a city, we're not vulnerable to natural forces. But we are, and it comes as a huge shock to people. There's no get out of climate change free card.”

Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

11 Jan 2025 3 4

Kaitlyn Trudeau

Inserted 4 months ago

“In the last couple years we've seen an increase in extreme weather events and increasing amounts of billion-dollar disasters. It's very clear that something is off, and that something is that we're pumping an insane amount of carbon into the atmosphere and causing the climate systems to go out of whack.”

Senior research associate focused on wildfires and the West Coast at Climate Central, a nonprofit research group

11 Jan 2025 6 5

Ilan Pappe

Inserted 4 months ago

“I share with a lot of people a surprise at the European position. Europe, that claims to be a model of civilisation, ignored the most televised genocide of modern times. What I like about the idea about a Palestinian-European Network is the need to ask a question - how come Europe behaves in an abysmal [way] … [it has] reached such a level of inhumanity, of disregard, of indifference. I wasn't prepared for that. wWhy people fly Ukrainian flags in solidarity with the war-torn European nation across the Danish capital but there are no Palestine flags visible. Let's face it, there's no genocide of Ukrainians, but there is of Palestinians.”

Aje

Israeli historian

11 Jan 2025 8 2

Adam Isacson

Inserted 4 months ago

“The border is quieter than it has been in year. The number of people entering Border Patrol custody is as low as the first months of the pandemic. And for the first time ever, more people are making appointments at official crossings - an orderly process - than are being captured in between. Migrants will delay their plans, if they can, to see what happens after an anti-immigration president takes power.”

Border security expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy organization

10 Jan 2025 3 2

Michael Young

Inserted 4 months ago

“Aoun has interlocking objectives. He has to address Hezbollah's weapons through some sort of dialogue forum. Yet he can only do so if he secures funding to rebuild mainly Shi'a areas. And for this he must engage in economic reform, because the Gulf states now demand it.”

Senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut

10 Jan 2025 5 4

Alice Weidel

Inserted 4 months ago

“We have this insane, wokeish, socialist, leftist agenda in our educational system. So, the young people, they don't learn anything in school, university. They just learn about gender studies.”

Politico

AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) co-leader

09 Jan 2025 5 4

Craig Brommers

Inserted 4 months ago

“This will either be the biggest headline-making nonevent in marketing history or the most shock to the system in the last decade.”

Chief marketing officer of the retailer American Eagle Outfitters

09 Jan 2025 2 2

Kevin Roose

Inserted 4 months ago

“In reality, Mr. Zuckerberg changed his views on speech many times, usually in the direction of the prevailing political winds. And the details of the latest changes (a laundry list of right-wing speech demands) as well as the method of delivery (Mr. Kaplan went on 'Fox & Friends' to announce them) made it clear what the real purpose was.”

New York Times technology columnist and a host of the podcast "Hard Fork"

08 Jan 2025 3 1

Carlos Hernández-Echevarría

Inserted 4 months ago

“You just have to see the celebration on the channels of well-known disinformation actors to know this is bad news for Meta users. And it's hard to overlook that the move comes after demands by the incoming US president Donald Trump and his advisor Elon Musk. Most importantly, fact-checkers did not censor anyone and never ever asked Meta to remove anything legal.”

Associate director of the independent Spanish fact-checking platform Maldita.es

07 Jan 2025 5 2

Vadim Krasnoselsky

Inserted 4 months ago

“The January 3 introduction of rolling cuts was a test. And it confirmed that an hour-long break to keep the electrical supply system operating was insufficient. The power generated is not covering sharply rising demand. 1,500 multistory apartment buildings have no heating and hot water. Almost 72,000 private households have no gas. One hundred and fifty gas boiler houses have been shut down.”

Transdniester’s de facto leader

05 Jan 2025 6 1

Hisham Mhanna

Inserted 4 months ago

“First responders suffer from unspeakable levels of stress, anxiety and frustration. We have heard them describe feelings of helplessness toward the victims who they could not save, and of the immense pain of losing colleagues on duty.”

Communication Officer at International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC

04 Jan 2025 5 1

Ahn Byong-jin

Inserted 4 months ago

“Yoon Suk Yeol is depending on the South Korean version of MAGA to hold onto power.”

Political scientist at Kyung Hee University in Seoul

04 Jan 2025 2 2

Nicholas Rasmussen

Inserted 4 months ago

“It's a very, very difficult law enforcement challenge, much more difficult than dealing with someone who may have had active communications with overseas actors, for example, or having a distinct online profile in which they were consuming and participating in extremist activity in the online space. If you don't have that, then you are very much reliant on that bystander phenomenon.”

Apnews

Counterterrorism coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security

03 Jan 2025 2 2

Chris Costa

Inserted 4 months ago

“I have never seen the threat landscape this worrying, not just from a counterterrorism perspective but from state-sponsored threats. You pick the grievance, and then you'll find the ideology to act on it. Now it includes Oct. 7, it includes IS - and why IS is so important right now is because it is resurging as a result of what IS could perceive as a victory in Syria.”

Apnews

Senior director for counterterrorism in the Trump administration

03 Jan 2025 8 2

Riyad Mansour

Inserted 4 months ago

“It is our collective responsibility to bring this hell to an end. It is our collective responsibility to bring this genocide to an end. You have an obligation to save lives. Palestinian doctors and medical personnel took that mission to heart at the peril of their lives. They did not abandon the victims. Do not abandon them. End Israeli impunity. End the genocide. End this aggression immediately and unconditionally, now. Palestinian doctors and medical personnel are fighting to save human lives and losing their own while hospitals are under attack. They are fighting a battle they cannot win, and yet they are unwilling to surrender and to betray the oath they took.”

Aje

Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations

03 Jan 2025 7 1

Agnes Callamard

Inserted 4 months ago

“Dr Abu Safia's unlawful detention is emblematic of the broader attacks on the healthcare sector in Gaza and Israel's attempts to annihilate it. None of the medical staff abducted by Israeli forces since November 2023 from Gaza during raids on hospitals and clinics has been charged or put before a trial; those released after enduring unimaginable torture were never charged and did not stand trial. Those still detained remain held without charges or trial under inhumane conditions and at risk of torture.”

Aje

Secretary General of Amnesty International

03 Jan 2025 11 3

Volker Türk

Inserted 4 months ago

“The UN has recorded 136 Israeli attacks on 27 health facilities in Gaza, which have caused significant death and destruction. While Israel often states that Palestinian armed groups use such facilities for military purposes, Israel has not backed up those claims with evidence. Israel has not provided sufficient information to substantiate many of these claims, which are often vague and broad. In some cases they appear to be contradicted by publicly available information.”

Aje

UN high commissioner for human rights

03 Jan 2025 6 2

Farhan Haq

Inserted 4 months ago

“There's a lot of hospital needs. We continue to call on all sides to keep hospitals out of harm's way, which means not placing or trying to infiltrate the hospitals. We want to make sure that all steps are taken to protect and preserve the lives of the injured and sick, who are in those hospitals.”

Aje

Spokesman for the UN

02 Jan 2025 3 1

Choi Sang-mok

Inserted 4 months ago

“I decided to appoint the Constitutional Court justices because of the need to end the political uncertainty and social conflict as soon as possible and stop a possible crisis in the economy and people's livelihoods.”

En

South Korea Acting President

31 Dec 2024 4 2

Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez

Inserted 4 months ago

“This really impacts how we can provide life saving humanitarian assistance to all the people in Afghanistan. And obviously we are very concerned by the fact that we are talking about a country where half the population's rights are being denied and are living in poverty, and many of them, not just women, are facing a humanitarian crisis.”

Apnews

U.N. associate spokesperson

Read the Background

30 Dec 2024 4 3

Amy Pope

Inserted 4 months ago

“As the new year nears, the crisis in Gaza has reached an unbearable breaking point. Innocent lives, including infants, are lost to winter cold. Hospitals and shelters are targeted. Member States must act now to prevent further devastation and restore hope for peace in 2025.”

Aje

IOM Director-General

30 Dec 2024 6 1

Asaad al-Shibani

Inserted 4 months ago

“Authorities will stand by women and fully support their rights. We believe in the active role of women within society, and we have confidence in their capacities. Syrian women fought long years for a free homeland that preserves their dignity and status.”

Timesofisrael

Syria’s new Foreign Minister

29 Dec 2024 4 2

Elon Musk

Inserted 4 months ago

“Portraying the AfD as far-right is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on! AfD's principles reflect the principles that made Tesla and SpaceX successful.”

CEO of Tesla

Read the Background

28 Dec 2024 4 2

Balakrishnan Rajagopal

Inserted 4 months ago

“I have warned for months that more than a million Palestinians lack shelter for winter conditions. Now babies are freezing to death. This is another achievement of Israel's so-called most moral army in the world.”

Aje

UN special rapporteur on the right to housing

28 Dec 2024 3 1

Jan Egeland

Inserted 4 months ago

“We warned of this many times: the Israeli strangulation of Gaza, where neither shelter nor food reach the innocent, had led to babies freezing to death. This catastrophe is man-made from A to Z.”

Aje

Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council

27 Dec 2024 4 1

Francesca Albanese

Inserted 4 months ago

“Like other accolades that I have received lately, speak not so much to my actions over the past 14 months - the normal opposition of a sentient human to a genocide - but rather to the silence of the many, particularly in the West, who should have spoken and acted against Israeli crimes and have chosen not to. I wonder how they [those who had not spoken out] manage to sleep at night.”

Aje

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories

26 Dec 2024 4 1

Fawaz Gerges

Inserted 4 months ago

“Syrians in Idlib complained a great deal about the lack of resources, about the terrible infrastructure - about how HTS was not really providing goods and services to the population. Turkey is really the winner of what happened in Syria. Without at least a green light or a yellow light by Turkey, I don't think HTS would have risked all-out war against Assad. I have no doubt in my mind that Turkey either supplied the [HTS-led] opposition with drones or even trained them on the use of the drones.”

Npr

Professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics

20 Dec 2024 6 7

Volker Türk

Inserted 4 months ago

“The siege [of el-Fasher in Sudan's North Darfur state] and the relentless fighting are devastating lives every day on a massive scale. This alarming situation cannot continue. The Rapid Support Forces must end this horrible siege. Any large-scale attack on Zamzam Camp or el-Fasher would catapult civilian suffering to catastrophic levels. All efforts must be taken, including by the international community, to prevent such an attack and to halt the siege.”

UN high commissioner for human rights

Read the Background

20 Dec 2024 8 3

Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri

Inserted 4 months ago

“The Israeli invasion concerns me and I reject it. Contacts between Syria's Druze community and the new authorities in Damascus led by Ahmed al-Sharaa have been positive. But we are waiting for accomplishments from the new government, not just positive words. Druze people want to remain in their lands with privacy, but this has become an international matter. The invasion is something that should be addressed by all countries.”

Middleeasteye

Leader of Syria’s Druze

20 Dec 2024 7 5

Obaid Arnaut

Inserted 4 months ago

“A key part of the new government's mission as they usher in a new era is to re-establish people's trust in the rule of law and the country's judicial system. This can only happen when those who have detained and tortured hundreds of thousands of Syrians across al-Assad's notorious prisons are brought to justice. By holding criminals accountable, we aim to heal the deep wounds inflicted upon our society and pave the way for a more just and equitable future. The government's top priorities include reforming state institutions that have been tainted with corruption. Employees who have committed crimes and harmed the Syrian population will be dismissed and held accountable. The new rulers will, however, prioritise those who have been dedicated, professional, and loyal to their country.”

Spokesperson for the new Syrian Government

19 Dec 2024 3 2

Demetre Daskalakis

Inserted 4 months ago

“It is believed that the patient that was reported by Louisiana had exposure to sick or dead birds on their property. These are not commercial poultry, and there was no exposure to dairy cows or their related products. People who work with or have recreational exposure to infected animals are at higher risk of infection, and it's extremely important that they follow CDC recommended precautions when around infected or potentially infected animals, a message that we will continue to magnify given recent cases.”

Cnn

Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC

Read the Background

18 Dec 2024 5 2

Caroline Rose

Inserted 4 months ago

“HTS and Julani [Ahmed al-Sharaa] thus far have sought to put distance between this new transitional government and the Captagon trade. This is why we've seen several laboratory and warehouse raids on regime-aligned facilities as well as Julani referring to the regime's illicit history of Captagon production. They may not be able to rein in all low-scale production and cross-border trafficking, but there will be a strategy to crack down on industrial-scale production and encourage Syrians to participate in the formal, licit economy.”

Expert on Syrian drug trafficking at the New Lines Institute

18 Dec 2024 5 3

Jerome Drevon

Inserted 5 months ago

“Before the Salvation Government you had many different factions that had their own courts of justice, prisons and social services. It [HTS] imposed itself on other factions and took out their governing responsibilities. It's an Islamic governance in a technocratic way. What they wanted to do is control how religion is understood and how it's implemented. Jolani was pragmatic in adapting to the requirements of the society he ruled over. Responding to the public's displeasure, he slowly phased out the strict application of Islamic law, turned a blind eye to gender mixing and smoking and allowed protests against him. A Sharia law-based morality unit was disbanded but women were encouraged to cover their hair. It was a successful project in practice because there was also some buy in from the population. It was stable, the economy was working better (than the rest of Syria) and even the type of authoritarianism was nothing compared to Assad's family. Syria's transition to democracy is going to be a lengthy and complicated process after six decades of dictatorship. It was a very new form of governance (in Idlib). You can't expect an armed group in war controlling a region that's very tiny to create a social democratic system… They had to be realistic on what's possible at war. Syria hasn't had democracy in five, six decades. You will not become democratic in one week.”

Cnn

Senior analyst who has researched HTS for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank

13 Dec 2024 10 4

Walid Tamer

Inserted 5 months ago

“You went from governing Idlib to governing an entire nation… I don't think the capabilities of the government we saw are enough for the task of governing the whole of Syria. Idlib was very safe under the SSG [Syrian Salvation Government]. The rebels placed no restrictions on travel and movement inside the HTS-controlled province. Syria as a whole was a difficult place to live in, but the (SSG) never interfered in your personal life. Products were available and no limitations were imposed on your clothing or how you lived your life.”

Cnn

Head of northern Syria’s Free Doctors Union and resident of Idlib

13 Dec 2024 3 2

Osama Bin Javaid

Inserted 5 months ago

“The challenges this incoming government is going to face are massive: building basic infrastructure, returning life to the areas where no life had existed for more than a decade. People here are celebrating, people here are with hope - but they're also asking the people who are in charge: Do not miss this opportunity to run Syria according to the aspirations of the Syrian people.”

Aje

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from Aleppo, Syria

13 Dec 2024 1 2

Eve Geddie

Inserted 5 months ago

“The situation in Syria is extremely volatile. Five decades of brutality and repression cannot be undone overnight. But European governments have wasted no time halting asylum applications of Syrians. At this time of turbulence and change, countries should avoid plunging Syrian refugees and people seeking asylum into situations of further uncertainty and precarity.”

Aje

Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office

10 Dec 2024 1 1

Zein Basravi

Inserted 5 months ago

“There were two very significant things in the speech that HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani gave. He said that this was now not a Syria of vengeance, it was a country for all Syrians. He pushed this idea of Syrian multiplicity - a Syria for all Syrians should be something people focus on. But he also criticised the Iranian government and its involvement in Syria, making the point that this is no longer going to be a government that will be affected by Iran as an outside actor and that the future of Syria will be determined by Syrians themselves. He was making this point as a victor in this war, as a leader who was key in taking over one city after another. So we've seen him make this speech that was very symbolic, very significant and mirroring a lot of the feelings that people have here.”

Aje

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from Lebanon-Syria border

08 Dec 2024 4 4

Marwan Bishara

Inserted 5 months ago

“After 60 years, more than six decades of dictatorship and repression, it's certainly earth-shattering the way everything fell apart in a dozen days. This has been long in the making. The regime, while maintaining the appearances of bravado and an attempt at confidence, turned out to be so empty - such an empty shell, it's beyond belief. If you want a bit of honesty, none of us, no one, no one that I know, expected the regime to fall so fast that the contagion would be within days and the breakdown within hours - that the fall of Damascus would come after those two decades of horrors and fears that the al-Assad regime instilled in people.”

Aje

Senior political analyst at Al Jazeera

08 Dec 2024 6 2

Gideon Sa'ar

Inserted 5 months ago

“We may have an opportunity now for a hostage deal. Israel is serious about reaching a hostage deal and I hope we can do this - and do it as soon as possible.”

Aje

Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel

05 Dec 2024 2 1

Sung Hee Park

Inserted 5 months ago

“The media's aggressive and critical response to the declaration of martial law showed that Korea's press freedom is alive and well. South Koreans are very digitally connected and any attempt to suppress or dominate the flow of information cannot easily succeed.”

Professor of media at Ewha Womans University in Seoul

04 Dec 2024 3 3

Darcie Draudt-Véjares

Inserted 5 months ago

“President Yoon Suk-yeol's miscalculation reveals the depth of his administration's crisis and desperation to deal with political turmoil within his own party. Yoon has been facing opposition not just from outside his party but also within - including from his own party chair Han Dong-hoo - amid a growing number of scandals. This attempt to override democratic institutions suggests either desperate overreach or grievous undemocratic impulses. The swift lifting of the martial law order and the past three decades have shown that South Koreans will not tolerate democratic backsliding - even if its leaders from Yoon to the ousted President Park Geun-hye fail them.”

Aje

Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Asia Program

03 Dec 2024 4 2

Vladimir Putin

Inserted 5 months ago

“Someone from the outside says, 'A strategic defeat should be inflicted on Russia.' What does that mean? Destruction. Time after time. However, there have always been people who rise up to defend [the country].”

Tass

President of Russia

03 Dec 2024 3 2

Salome Zourabichvili

Inserted 5 months ago

“It's everything but a revolution. This is a huge, I would say, national movement that has truly spread across the entire country, geographically and socially, encompassing all segments of the population.”

President of Georgia

02 Dec 2024 0 3

António Guterres

Inserted 5 months ago

“Malnutrition is rampant … Famine is imminent. Meanwhile, the health system has collapsed. Gaza now has the highest number of children amputees per capita anywhere in the world, with many losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without even anaesthesia. The blockade of aid is not a crisis of logistics but rather a crisis of political will and of respect for fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”

Aje

Secretary-general of the United Nations

02 Dec 2024 6 2

Hani Mahmoud

Inserted 5 months ago

“The Israeli military has deliberately targeted law enforcement and those who work in protecting and securing delivery of aid into Gaza since the beginning of the war. This has created a power vacuum, throwing the whole Strip into lawlessness. There is no law or order, creating mayhem across Gaza. The suspension of UNRWA's operations of delivery of aid to a much needed population is a byproduct of ongoing attacks on UNRWA, its facilities and partners - the World Central Kitchen was attacked yesterday. Employees do not feel safe in the facilities or on the ground, moving trucks from one area to another.”

Aje

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from Deir el-Balah

01 Dec 2024 6 2

Salome Zourabichvili

Inserted 5 months ago

“There is no legitimate parliament, and therefore, an illegitimate parliament cannot elect a new president. Thus, no inauguration can take place, and my mandate continues until a legitimately elected parliament is formed.”

President of Georgia

30 Nov 2024 1 3

Inger Ashing

Inserted 5 months ago

“There are not strong enough words to express the grief and outrage at loss of staff member Ahmad Faisal Isleem al-Qadi, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. This war has been the deadliest on record for the killing of UN and aid workers with at least 337 reported killed since October 2023. Violence against civilians and humanitarian workers is unacceptable and it must stop. There must be a ceasefire. There must be accountability.”

Aje

Chief executive of Save the Children

30 Nov 2024 7 2

Catriona Murdoch

Inserted 5 months ago

“Russia's systematic attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure are not just acts of war - they are crimes that deliberately target and terrify the civilian population, leaving millions vulnerable. [The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants] in relation to such attacks on energy during the winter of 2022, perpetrators must be held accountable for this second wave of attacks which are a violation of international law.”

Director of the starvation and humanitarian crisis division of Global Rights Compliance

28 Nov 2024 5 1

Zein Basravi

Inserted 5 months ago

“In Beirut's southern suburbs alone, at least 262 buildings were made inhabitable. The cost estimate from the World Bank is $2.8bn in damage to housing alone in Lebanon, across the country. A total of 99,000 homes - 99,000 living units - partially or completely destroyed, uninhabitable.”

Aje

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from Beirut

28 Nov 2024 2 1

Khalil Sayegh

Inserted 5 months ago

“The ceasefire [Israel-Hezbollah] could make Hamas even less popular in Gaza, by proving the failure of its gambit that its attack on Israel would rally other militant groups to the fight. It's a moment where we can see the Hamas messaging become weaker and weaker, as they struggle to justify their strategy to the public.”

Palestinian analyst

27 Nov 2024 4 3

Dragos Stanca

Inserted 5 months ago

“More than any of his opponents, Georgescu relied on TikTok to get his message out, said. Calin Georgescu is ideal for digital media, especially TikTok. Sell a dream, sell a vision. Social media was not created to inform us, but to convert us into buyers…. And the object on sale can also be ideas. And Mr. Georgescu sells ideas that catch on in social media.”