Refugee football fans lament last-minute rejection from Qatar World Cup

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment

[Produced with Reuters colleague Riham Alkousaa and published here on November 18, 2022]

DOHA/BERLIN, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Syrian lawyer Amrou Sabahi had hoped to spend his first World Cup at the heart of the action, working behind the scenes at the stadiums in Qatar, the first Arab country to hold the crowning event of soccer.

But when the tournament kicks off on Sunday, the 27-year-old will be watching from Spain, where he lives as a refugee, after his application to attend the Cup, was rejected.

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Outgoing president says Lebanon at risk of ‘constitutional chaos’

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment

[Produced with Reuters colleague Laila Bassam and published here on October 29, 2022]

BAABDA, Lebanon Oct 29 (Reuters) – Outgoing Lebanese President Michel Aoun told Reuters on Saturday his nation could be sliding into “constitutional chaos”, with an unprecedented situation of having no one in line to succeed him and a cabinet that is operating in a caretaker capacity.

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Facebook’s ‘double standard’ on hate speech against Russians

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment

[Produced with my colleague Rina Chandran and published here on March 17, 2022]

BANGKOK/BEIRUT, March 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Facebook’s decision to allow hate speech against Russians due to the war in Ukraine breaks its own rules on incitement, and shows a “double standard” that could hurt users caught in other conflicts, digital rights experts and activists said.

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Iraq Yazidis want Big Tech held to account for Islamic State crimes

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment

[Published here on February 17, 2022]

BEIRUT, Feb 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Wahhab Hassoo’s family had to pay $80,000 to buy the release of his niece from the Islamic State (IS) militants who abducted her in 2014, and then offered her “for sale” in a WhatsApp group.

Now, Hassoo’s family and dozens of others from Iraq’s minority Yazidi community want social media companies to be held to account, accusing them of having facilitated the trafficking of Yazidi women and girls by the jihadists.

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