Geert Wilders’ PVV altered sketch of jailed Syrian brothers to make them look more menacing

A Dutch court artist has received damages after an MP for the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) used one of her drawings without permission and manipulated it with AI to make the subjects look more menacing.

Petra Urban, a court artist for 19 years, was shocked to discover a drawing she had made last year of two Syrian brothers jailed for the murder of their sister had been reworked and used in a video on Instagram and Facebook by the party’s Noord-Brabant region.

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© Photograph: Petra Urban

© Photograph: Petra Urban

© Photograph: Petra Urban

With more than 177,000 people forcibly disappeared since 2011, short doc Maybe Tomorrow captures ‘the violence of waiting’ experienced by family

When Wafa Mustafa was a child, she remembers her father playing the music of Umm Kulthum non-stop at home in Syria, humming along to the legendary Egyptian singer’s melodic tones. One day, in an effort to encourage his daughter to appreciate music, he asked her to take a pen and paper and write the lyrics of a song she loved. Wanting to impress him, Mustafa chose an Umm Kulthum song called “Aghadan Alqak”, which translates to: “Will I meet you tomorrow?”

“The lyrics are literally about someone who’s gone, about the waiting for them and the love you have for them,” says Mustafa. “It feels like I knew what was coming … as if I manifested my life since I was very young.”

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© Photograph: Violet Films

© Photograph: Violet Films

© Photograph: Violet Films

Israeli forces have advanced into southwestern Syria’s Quneitra Governorate again Wednesday, and once again one of the operations involved a raid of the village of Saida al-Hanout. Locals say the IDF troops tied up a pair of young men in the village, beat them for awhile before letting them go without providing a reason, and […]

A Guardian analysis reveals how most of 39 countries facing US entry restrictions are most vulnerable environmentally

• ‘Every day it’s more barriers’: how the US is shutting out climate refugees

Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is largely targeting people from the countries most vulnerable to displacement from climate-driven disasters, a Guardian analysis shows.

As the Trump administration pushes policies to boost planet-heating fossil fuels, millions of people are being forced to flee their homelands due to storms, floods and droughts worsened by the climate crisis.

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© Composite: The Guardian, AFP via Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian, AFP via Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian, AFP via Getty Images

Intermittent Israeli military operations in southwestern Syria have been an ongoing reality since the invasion of December 2024, but usually only a handful of meaningful incidents any given month. During the past week, that number has been rising substantially. The monitor Syrian Record Center reported that they’d documented at least 59 distinct Israeli violations within […]