Sarah Sanders; 'New Zimbabwe' Gone in Puff of Tear Gas: Daily Brief

Calls for calm amid Zimbabwe  unrest; the 'zombie monitors' rubber-stamping sham elections; Americans need to know human rights protect them, not just 'others'; Palestinian teenage activist Ahed Tamini speaks out after release from prison; latest on US immigration scandal; Google to make a 'censored' search engine for China; Saudi women's activist arrests; Afghan orphan girl shows cost of war; & good news for one small boy from Tajikistan... 

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Even as President Trump disparages the media on Twitter and at campaign rallies, his daughter and special assistant, Ivanka, said she did not believe the media was the 'enemy of the people', contradicting previous statements by the President. Press Secretary Sanders refused to deny the claim when asked repeatedly at today's press briefing. 

There have been international calls for restraint in Zimbabwe after troops opened fire on protesters following Monday's elections. At least four people have been killed, and several injured. The result of the presidential vote is still not known, but is now due to be announced this evening. 

A group of populist and nationalist politicians from Europe descended upon Cambodia last weekend to observe the country's national elections, which they claimed were free and fair, despite strong evidence to the contrary. So-called "zombie monitors" are increasingly used to give regimes with troubled democratic records a veneer of respectability.

Many Americans falsely believe that human rights protect only other people, as opposed to constitutional or civil rights, which protect Americans. But the US administration’s vendetta against the international human rights system, ironically, could end up reaffirming for Americans how important human rights are for them, too.  

The teenage Palestinian activist, 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi, has given her first sit-down interview since her release from an Israeli prison.

The horrors for migrant families who are separated and poorly treated by US immigration authorities is laid bare in this moving interview

Google’s reported plan to develop a censored version of its search engine in China has come under attack, with campaigners warning it will put profits before human rights. 

There is growing alarm and outrage over fresh arrests in Saudi, where authorities have arrested the internationally recognized women’s rights activist Samar Badawi, as well as another well-known activist, Nassima al-Sadah. An unprecedented government crackdown on the women’s rights movement that began in May has resulted in the arrest of more than a dozen activists.

The tragic tale of a six-year-old girl who has now been orphaned after her mother, already a widow, died in a suicide attack in Jalalabad yesterday shows the high price civilians are paying for the uptick in violence in Afghanistan

And finally, some rare good news from Tajikistan, where the critically-ill son of a Tajik opposition member and his mother have received travel documents allowing the 4-year-old boy to receive treatment abroad, following an outcry from international rights groups.

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