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Mr Z has developed a taste for extreme food prep content. The footage is disgusting and has ruined his algorithmI’ve worked pretty hard to ban the use of Facebook in the household, not because of the threat it poses to democracy, nor because I’m worried about privacy or data or whatnot, but because it makes us look old. The kids don’t use it, obviously, because they’re not old. Mr Z has historically been susceptible to “six years ago today” nostalgia jags, and posting pictures of us on holiday that make it look as though everyone’s getting on better than they are. I’ve worked pretty hard to stamp that out, and if nixing Facebook means we miss the odd event of other people who are also old, I’m OK with that.What I can’t do is stop him watching food videos. It is a very distinct genre; I don’t know how you’d land on it by accident, except maybe if you typed into Google “the most disgusting thing anyone’s ever eaten”. A guy, often with only his arms visible, probably with sleeve tattoos, will get a gigantic piece of meat and fashion it into an unnatural shape, usually a rectangle. Then he’ll layer it into a tower, spliced with cheese, and wrap it in more meat. Somehow egg yolks will get involved, then additional cheese. It’s all a bit sped up, and mesmerising. I don’t know where the suspense comes from – what could it possibly taste like? Who would ever eat it? Why did an animal – sorry, eight animals – have to die for this? When is karma going to get involved and exact some retribution upon the mozzarella dude? These questions are never answered. And now you’re in the machine, and some fresh horror involving a thousand frankfurters is just about to begin.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

After 16 South Americans were abandoned outside a church on Friday, another flight of 20 migrants arrived on Monday morningFor the second time in four days, Florida picked up people seeking asylum and took them by private jet to Sacramento at taxpayer expense, California officials said on Monday after another flight arrived at a local airport.California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, on Monday branded his rightwing Republican Florida counterpart, Ron DeSantis, a “small, pathetic man”, and appeared to threaten kidnapping charges after the first incident in which a group of migrants was dumped at a Sacramento church. Continue reading...

The homes are advertised as ‘resilient to extreme weather’ and also keep out insects and rodents, according to manufacturer Plus 1Home Depot has quietly entered the real estate market.The US home improvement store giant appeared to debut its new tiny home or “getaway pad”, by home-kit manufacturing company Plus 1, last year, and it’s currently garnering traction on social media as a possible solution to unaffordable housing and property damage caused by the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Agent who took more than $1.4m in cash and diamonds to trade secrets is believed to have died of natural causes at age 79Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent who took more than $1.4m in cash and diamonds to trade secrets with Moscow, in one of the most notorious spying cases in American history, died in prison Monday.Hanssen, 79, was found unresponsive in his cell at a federal prison in Florence, Colorado, and later pronounced dead, prison officials said. He is believed to have died of natural causes, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of Hanssen’s death and spoke on condition of anonymity. Continue reading...

A group of nearly 1,000 protesters, mostly women, demanded a ban on all guns – a move the governor said would be unconstitutionalHundreds of women staged a sit-in outside Colorado’s capitol on Monday, calling on the state’s Democratic governor to ban all guns, a move his office said “would simply be unconstitutional”.The gun-ban protest included an estimated 1,000 people by late Monday morning, with some protesters joining from out of state, the Denver Post reported. Continue reading...

While wolverines are native to California, they’ve been essentially extinct from the state since the 1920sA wolverine was spotted three times last month in the eastern Sierra Nevada, a rare occurrence for an animal that’s only been seen one other time in California over the last 100 years, state wildlife officials said.While wolverines are native to California, they’ve been essentially extinct from the state since the 1920s – likely the result of hunting and fur trapping in the decades following the gold rush, though records from the time don’t indicate what exactly caused the population to decline. Continue reading...

Republican presidential candidate sided with the Florida governor claiming children were being ‘indoctrinated’ about LGBTQ+ issuesRepublican presidential candidate Tim Scott was booed by a television audience – and rescued by Whoopi Goldberg – after he defended Florida governor Ron DeSantis and claimed American children were being “indoctrinated” regarding LGBTQ+ issues.The South Carolina senator, 57, also accused hosts of ABC’s The View of voicing a “dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today”, in contending that his success is an exception in a systemically racist society. Continue reading...

Former vice president filed papers on Monday; Democrats criticise Haley on abortion stance after CNN town hallDonald Trump’s lawyers are at the justice department today to argue to top officials that the former president should not be charged over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, the Washington Post reports.The attorneys at the meeting include John Rowley and James Trusty, who last month sent a letter to attorney general Merrick Garland, asking for a meeting and complaining about the investigation into Trump, which is led by special counsel Jack Smith. Continue reading...

Ex-president’s lawyers complain about perceived misconduct in investigation into handling of documents and obstructionLawyers for Donald Trump met with top US justice department officials on Thursday to complain about perceived misconduct in the criminal investigation into the former US president’s handling of national security materials and obstruction, according to two people familiar with the matter.The meeting involved Trump lawyers Jim Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsay Halligan speaking with the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation, and a senior career official to the deputy attorney general, one person said. CBS News first reported the meeting. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can read the full report here: Binance accused of mishandling fundsHere’s a quick summary of what happened today:The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, the most serious action taken by US regulators against the company.The SEC said that Binance operated a shell company, Binance.US, to skirt federal regulators, along with diverting customer funds to outside entities.Binance issued a response to the SEC’s lawsuit saying that it had been complying with regulators’ “questions” and was looking to negotiate a settlement with the agency.In the aftermath of news of the complaint, the price of Bitcoin fell below $26,000 for the first time since March. Continue reading...

The 70-year-old activist, intellectual and democratic socialist said on Twitter that he will be a candidate for the 2024 contestCornel West, the 70-year-old activist and public intellectual, announced on Monday that he is running for president in the 2024 election as a candidate for the People’s party. West made the announcement in a video posted to Twitter, saying that he had “decided to run for truth and justice”.“I come from a tradition where I care about you,” West said. “I care about the quality of your life, I care about whether you have access to a job with a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, healthcare for all.” Continue reading...

John Rumpel said daughter and granddaughter were among crash victims, and another daughter was killed in 1994 diving accidentA leading Republican donor whose family members were killed in a plane crash in Virginia on Sunday following a pursuit by US military jets lost another daughter in a scuba diving tragedy almost 30 years ago, it was reported on Monday.John Rumpel, a Florida businessman and frequent contributor to Donald Trump’s political operation, said his daughter Adina Azarian, 49, and two-year-old granddaughter were among four victims of the crash that caused a security scare when the plane flew over restricted airspace in Washington DC. Continue reading...

The three-year-old Louisiana pup was already known for her prodigious licker before Guinness confirmed she was a winnerVirtually everyone who met Drew and Sadie Williams’s dog after the married couple from Louisiana first adopted Zoey three years ago could tell the labrador-German shepherd puppy had a long tongue.It turns out it wasn’t just long – it was longer than that of any other dog in the world. Continue reading...

One year after Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips were killed in the Amazon, their work explaining what is happening there goes onThe decision by Brazilian police to charge two more men with the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, in the Javari valley region of the Amazon, brings the possibility of justice one step closer. To the three fishers already in custody for the shootings, which took place one year ago, have been added the alleged leader of a transnational illegal fishing network, Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, nicknamed Colombia (where he also has citizenship). A fourth fisher, Jânio Freitas de Souza, is alleged to have been one of Silva Villar’s henchmen on the Itaquaí river, where the killings took place.For friends and supporters of the two men’s work defending the Amazon and its Indigenous inhabitants, the investigation’s progress offers some relief. If such acts of violence go unpunished, criminal organisations that wield power in the Amazon will be further emboldened in their use. But even if convictions are secured, this will be the exception and not the rule when it comes to attacks on environmental defenders – defined by the United Nations as people who strive to protect human rights relating to nature.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Binance mixed billions in customer funds and lied to regulators and investorsBinance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was sued by the US’s top financial watchog on Monday, accused of mishandling customer funds and lying to regulators and investors.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused Binance of mixing “billions of dollars” in customer funds and secretly sending them to a separate company controlled by Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao. Continue reading...

The intolerable pressure leads to terrible family rows. I thought I had escaped the worst of it with my children, but I now realise I was wrongIn September 2013, I thought I was the most intelligent person ever to exist. By some masterstroke of family planning, I’d managed to have two children, spaced almost two years apart, but because the first was born in September and the second August, they were in adjacent school years. By my calculations, I’d saved two whole years of childcare, which back then was more expensive than the mortgage, but only because at that point Liz Truss was still in charge of childcare costs, and had yet to screw with everyone’s mortgage. And it wasn’t even intentional, my miracle! I was a genius at the level of the ovary.Obviously, I hadn’t really thought through what the consequences would be, once they hit the meaningful-exam stage of life, which they still haven’t – at the moment I’m just observing other people. GCSE and A-level events are objectively weird for a household whatever its composition, because for the first time, the kid’s day has the highest stakes. You can pretend this is true for the preceding decade – big day, darling, you’re the narrator in Sinbad the Sailor and yes it is a big deal whether you get the crabs and the dancing squid in the right order – but now it is real. It doesn’t matter what your job is, whole human lives could be hanging off your performance; you still won’t come anywhere near the singular tightrope of the exam, that absolutely atomised space where you’re not allowed to ask for help, you can’t take a little more time, and you’ll be judged on the outcome, indeed that is all you’ll be judged on, until such time as you achieve anything else, which could be never.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Rivals condemn ex-president for posting a message of support on Truth Social after North Korea added to WHO boardA number of Republican presidential candidates, including Ron DeSantis, have criticized Donald Trump after the former president again praised the dictatorial leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.The intervention from Trump’s rivals, who have largely avoided attacking the influential frontrunner, comes as a rare moment of dissension during the campaign. Continue reading...

The route I used to escape is now closed – but new technology makes it increasingly hard to keep the population under control

Russia claims to have fought off ‘major offensive’ and says 250 Ukrainian troops killed in attack. Plus, what caused a global shortage of pink paint?

After a Sweet 16 shooting killed four Black youth, Martin Collins searches for answers and fights to keep his son’s name aliveOn the night of 15 April, gunfire broke out at the dance studio in Dadeville, Alabama, where Alexis Dowdell was celebrating her 16th birthday.The shooting turned a joyful gathering of teenagers into a chaotic and bloody nightmare, cutting short the lives of four young people in the small rural town north of Montgomery: Marsiah Collins, a 19-year-old high school graduate and musician; Shaunkivia Nicole “KeKe” Smith, a 17-year-old senior who managed the basketball and track and field teams; Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23, who graduated from Dadeville high school in 2018; and Alexis’s brother, Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, an 18-year-old star football player. Continue reading...

Former DoJ prosecutors say Trump will pack government agencies with sympathizers in effort to ‘secure his autocratic power’As Donald Trump begins another campaign for the presidency, his extremist rhetoric and lies about the 2020 election signal that in a second term, Trump would attempt to thwart the rule of law at the justice department and other agencies in an effort to expand his power and attack critics.Former DoJ officials, some Republicans and academics say that if Trump becomes the Republican nominee and is elected again in 2024, he would most likely appoint officials who would reflexively do his bidding, target dissenters he deems part of the “deep state” and mount zealous drives to rein in independent agencies. Continue reading...

Now that Biden has signed the deal into law, what can we expect in the next 17 months leading up to the 2024 election?It was supposed to be their ace in the hole, their single biggest bargaining leverage. But in the end, House Maga Republicans got surprisingly little out of their agreement to increase the debt ceiling.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

The country’s new housing law could change so much – but may be reversed if rightwing parties gain more influenceA housing revolution is taking place in Spain. On 26 May, a monumental new housing law came into force. It was the culmination of years of work and sought to enshrine housing as a human right. But now that vision is in danger. Two days after the law passed, rightwing parties won seats in local and regional elections. Last week Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called a snap election. On 23 July, when Spain goes to the polls, the fate of this law will hang in the balance.The origins of the law go back decades. In 1956, José Luis de Arrese, who would become Franco’s first housing minister, said that Spain had to change from “a country of working-class tenants to a country of homeowners”. Governments encouraged property ownership at the expense of renting. It created a new class of social housing – “publicly protected housing”. Unlike your average council home, a publicly protected home is subsidised by the government and offered for sale at an affordable price. Once 30 years have elapsed, it can be sold on the free market. Continue reading...

The new Little Mermaid film reinforces the sense that the Disney princesses’ significant others are doomed to non-existenceMuch has been said over the years about the Disney princesses – some are bad role models, some good, they set impossible expectations for young girls, they’re predominantly white, and so on. But what about their male counterparts? Just like the princesses have evolved as characters, so have the roles of the Disney princes; yet, we rarely hear about their cultural impact (or lack thereof).So who are the Disney princes? The latest iteration of the character is Prince Eric in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. Although he has more screen time than in the original, he’s arguably even more redundant this time around. The film follows the same story beats, but it overhauls Ariel from a naive and reckless figure into a mature protagonist who doesn’t fall for the first human pretty boy she lays her eyes on. The Little Mermaid wants to keep Eric, but it doesn’t want to need him. Continue reading...

In a video released by the US Navy, the USS Chung-Hoon observes a Chinese navy ship conduct what is described as an 'unsafe' manoeuvre in the Taiwan Strait on 3 June. The Chinese navy ship moves across the path of the American destroyer, forcing the US ship to slow to avoid a collision, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The incident occurred as the US destroyer and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a 'freedom of navigation' transit of the strait between Taiwan and mainland China. China's military rebuked the US and Canada for 'deliberately provoking risk'

I thought that dropping out made me a failure, but it was the making of me as a journalist and writerFirst came the sobbing – a great gust of tears that successively overwhelmed my shirt sleeve, an entire box of tissues and an extra-large bath towel. Next came a prolonged period of sitting cross-legged on the floor and staring blankly into space while a single question – infused with equal parts sorrow and self-pity – tolled in my head: “What will become of me?” At last came the desperation-fuelled gesture I dreaded beyond all others: I quit.I was certain that dropping out of graduate school, and giving up the teaching appointment that funded it, would ruin me. Surely it would mark me as a snivelling loser, a lazy bum, a spineless coward. But I had no choice because my misery was so acute. (And I was running out of towels.)Dr Julia Keller is a journalist and the author of Quitting: A Life Strategy Continue reading...

While some countries turn marriage into a patriotic act, it might just give us a radical new way to live our livesOne of the curious things about marriage is the role it’s played in embedding commonly held views about normality. Married people are generally considered normal people. As such, they have possessed inordinate power to dictate the terms of normality in a way that single people rarely can. And yet marriage, clearly, isn’t for everyone. Plenty of people have no desire to do it. Plenty of others have done it and haven’t liked it. The stats only corroborate this. Fewer people over the years have been getting married, while the stresses and strains of lockdown in 2020 (along with the temporary closure of venues) saw divorces in England and Wales overtake weddings for the first time.Not everyone, however, is taking marriage’s declining popularity lying down. At the recent National Conservatism conference, delegates were promised a national revival founded on “faith, family and flag”. Likewise, China has just proposed a list of measures to actively encourage its young women to marry and have children (and not just one child any more: three, ideally). This is a national policy, but it’s one with global benefits: to stem the threat of economic stagnation, growing the population is supposed to ensure the continuity of a huge, and therefore cheap, labour force. In other words, unless more Chinese women have more children, we’ll all have to pay more for our merch – with matrimony here (never mind that not everyone who marries has children and not everyone who has children gets married) still framed by national governments as the gateway to maternity first of all. Other countries may well follow China’s lead. In Japan, where they’ve just recorded a seventh consecutive year of declining birthrates, and fewer couplings, the government is accused of failing to act quickly enough to mitigate the effects of a rapidly ageing population.Devorah Baum is associate professor of English literature at the University of Southampton and the author of On Marriage Continue reading...

The fighter jets caused a sonic boom over the US capital that sent some residents into a brief panicUS authorities scrambled fighter jets to intercept an unresponsive light aircraft that violated the airspace over the Washington DC area and later crashed into mountainous terrain in south-west Virginia, officials have said.Four people were onboard the Cessna Citation plane, according to CNN, which cited an unnamed source. Police said rescuers had found no survivors onboard the plane. Continue reading...

Kristen Welker, the network’s chief White House correspondent, will take over hosting duties for the political affairs showChuck Todd has announced that he will be leaving NBC’s Meet the Press after nearly 10 years.On Sunday, Todd, who has hosted the political affairs show for more than nine years, told viewers: “It’s been an amazing nearly decade-long run. I am really proud of what this team and I have built over the last decade.” Continue reading...

Rights group says 16 migrants were flown via private chartered plane but it’s unclear who paid for the travelA rights group has said 16 migrants had been “lied to” and deceived after being transported from Texas to California and dropped off outside a church in Sacramento.The migrants from Venezuela and Colombia entered the US through Texas, reported the Associated Press. They were flown to California from New Mexico via a private chartered plane, but it’s unclear who paid for the travel. Continue reading...

Branden Colvin Sr is the first confirmed fatality in six-story apartment building that partially collapsed in Davenport last weekThe family of Branden Colvin Sr confirmed on Saturday he was found deceased at the six-story apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, that partially collapsed on Sunday, 28 May.Colvin’s 18-year-old son, Branden Colvin Jr, had been sleeping outside of the building awaiting news on his father. “I know my dad’s in there and there’s nothing I can do … wishing I could just run in there,” Colvin Jr told ABC News on Wednesday. Continue reading...

A new study says you are more likely to become depressed living in the suburbs than in the city. For me, though, it’s living the dreamI moved to the suburbs in the spring of 2021, a classic post-lockdown move. My husband and I had been hot-desking between the bedroom and the kitchen table and we were all far too emotionally involved with the rat that frequented our bird feeder. I had wanted to move before Covid: the bed shook when buses went past, and the frequent drunken meltdowns on our conveniently located doorstep left me awkwardly squeezing past sobbing strangers to take the dog for his late-night pee, muttering: “Sorry, could I just …” I had the noise abatement team on speed dial and a throbbing vein in my eyelid.Arriving here, where semis with gardens meet the green belt, and cows graze by the big Sainsbury’, was like the switch to colour in The Wizard of Oz, combined with the moment my noise-cancelling headphones kick in: relief and wonder. We slept with the window open and every morning I listened to the birds and smelled the roses, unable to believe my luck. Two years on, I still feel that. I’m incredulous that I get to live here, surrounded by green and birds, in peace so enveloping that I can finally hear myself think (though, wow, it’s boring: “Is that the one-eyed cat?” “Should I have a biscuit?”).Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Docuseries breaks new ground on mystery of true age of Ukrainian girl adopted and then abandoned by Indiana coupleIt’s been years since a central Indiana couple adopted a girl from Ukraine, became convinced that she was an adult impersonating a child, and abandoned her, setting off an international media frenzy and a legal showdown with authorities who accused them of parental neglect.But even after the recent release of a slickly produced docuseries broke new ground on the saga, the mystery surrounding Natalia Grace’s virtually unprecedented adoption case seems to remain unsolved: exactly how old was she when Michael and Kristine Barnett left her? And was it unreasonable that they did so? Continue reading...

Governor’s Disney battle and extremist policies are met with costly lawsuits covered by ‘blank check’ from Republican legislatureSince Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis took office in 2019 and embarked on his culture wars, lawsuits from various communities whose rights have been violated have been stacking up against the far-right Republican.As DeSantis fights the lawsuits with what critics have described as a blank check from the state’s supermajority Republican legislature, the mounting legal costs have come heavily at the expense of Florida’s taxpayers. Continue reading...

Mathew Bianchi claims superiors retaliated against him for writing tickets for people holding ‘corrupt’ courtesy cardsMathew Bianchi became a Staten Island traffic cop in 2017, two years after joining the New York police department, assigned to enforcing traffic violations and issuing tickets. In the first two years on that beat, he received stellar performance evaluations.But in November 2018 – a year into his career in the traffic unit – Bianchi issued a ticket to a civilian who held a New York City police department laminated courtesy card, an unofficial credential issued to NYPD officers based on their union affiliation that can then be distributed to family members and friends to carry with them. Continue reading...

Why are Rupert and co so obsessed with not being identified with the fictional Roys?It was a term of Jerry Hall’s divorce settlement from Rupert Murdoch, according to Vanity Fair, that she couldn’t “give story ideas” to the writers of Succession. Thankfully, as its sublime finale showed last week, they continued to manage without her contributions.Whatever was behind Murdoch’s Succession anxiety, it confirmed what was widely assumed: that a drama in which an elderly tyrant’s adult children compete to inherit a media empire (built on the subjugation of political leaders) held up a mirror to his own dynasty, even if, as its creator would regularly insist, it wasn’t based on them. “It’s not bullshit to say it really isn’t the Murdochs,” Jesse Armstrong told the Guardian in 2018, when Succession launched. That was four years before Hall was let go, in terms that only emphasised the gulf between Murdochian reality and a Succession script. “Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage,” went her husband’s unexpected email, according to Vanity Fair. “We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do.” You wondered if an earlier wife, Wendy Deng, mocked for her musings on Tony Blair (“He has such good body and he has really really good legs Butt …”) wasn’t actually more fluent than her ex. Continue reading...

Recent polls in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Finland tell the story of voters swayed by fear and prejudice. Progressive parties – take note Keir Starmer – need a clear, principled agenda to turn that tideWhy does the left keep losing? It’s not a question liberals and progressives particularly want to confront, but look around. Reactionary parties of the political right and far right are once more on the rise and on the march across Europe, as shown again by last week’s lopsided election results in Spain and Italy.Each country is different, its circumstances unique. Yet a broad pattern is discernible – and it’s not difficult to trace. The banal common denominator is that parties of the European left, hard and soft, are too fractured and fractious to build winning coalitions that offer convincing alternative solutions to voters’ problems. Like Spain and Italy, recent election outcomes in Greece, Turkey and Finland suggest the dominant issues for electorates are the cost of living, energy and inflation. Other shared worries include security (foreign and domestic), migration, climate and environment, and national identity (loosely defined). Continue reading...

Nothing is being destroyed in adding diversity and sexual equality to old storiesShould we update classic stories with modern morals? Two film-based kerfuffles have reopened the question. Reports that the next James Bond “won’t be white” have provoked a backlash, as did the launch of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, which features a black Ariel.Negative “review bombing” of the film, which has been the target of criticism since its lead actor, Halle Bailey, was announced, caused the Internet Movie Database to make a rare intervention and change its ratings system. There is abhorrent racism on show here – about which perhaps little more needs to be said. But alongside it is a broader, longer running argument that might be worth addressing. Namely, that 21st-century mores – diversity, sexual equality, and so on – should not be shoehorned into old stories. Continue reading...

Several conservative parents of students at Lyman high school complained about two pages highlighting LGBTQ+ studentsA high school in Florida will offer refunds and reprints to parents and students who argued its yearbook featured “disgusting and wrong” LGBTQ+ content.Students at Lyman high school in Seminole county received their yearbooks a few weeks ago. Several conservative parents complained. Continue reading...

Torture, rape and death are the results of a policy to keep desperate people away from Europe‘Please help, today one person self dead by petrol because hopeless.” Sally Hayden received the text in October 2018. The Irish Times journalist was one of the few outsiders trusted by refugees locked up in Libya. The text was about Abdulaziz, who had been forced to flee his native Somalia to escape al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida-linked Islamist group waging terror in east Africa.After a perilous journey across the desert, Abdulaziz was locked up in Triq al-Sikka, a grim prison in Tripoli, Libya. Why? Because the EU pays Libyan militias millions of euros to detain anyone deemed a possible migrant to Europe. Like many other similar prisons across Libya, Triq al-Sikka is a place of hunger, disease, beatings, rape, torture and death. Death by starvation, death by beatings, death by execution. And death by suicide. Continue reading...