From @PostOpinions: More Americans are being held hostage by foreign governments than by terrorists and other groups.
The rise in wrongful detainments to extract concessions, policy changes or prisoner exchanges from the U.S. is dramatic: wapo.st/3BYnHik
@PostOpinions Roger Carstens is the current hostage envoy and one of the few holdovers from the Trump administration.
He says countries that regularly detain Westerners for leverage — such as Iran — might be incentivizing others to follow their lead. wapo.st/3BYnHik
As governments such as Rwanda’s imprison U.S. nationals like Paul Rusesabagina, depicted in “Hotel Rwanda,” the U.S. and other countries run the risk of accepting state hostage-taking as a problem without a solution. wapo.st/3BYnHik
U.S. national Aziza al-Yousef and her son Salah al-Haidar, an American journalist, are barred from leaving Saudi Arabia.
Al-Haidar’s young son is growing up in the United States without them. wapo.st/3BYnHik
Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed of Texas is serving nine years in a Russian labor camp for allegedly assaulting a police officer.
The U.S. is struggling to find the right leverage to free Reed and two other Americans jailed in Russia. wapo.st/3BYnHik
The U.S. passed a law in 2020 to help free U.S. hostages being unjustly detained by foreign governments as political pawns.
Since taking office, the Biden administration has freed just three. wapo.st/3BYnHik
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Mark Robinson, the firebrand Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, has for years made comments downplaying and making light of sexual assault and domestic violence. wapo.st/3KQffZ6
A review of Robinson’s social media posts over the past decade shows that he frequently questioned the credibility of women who aired allegations of sexual assault against prominent men, including Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. wapo.st/3KQffZ6
In one post, Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, characterized Weinstein and others as “sacrificial lambs” being “slaughtered.” wapo.st/3KQffZ6
Exclusive: A Washington Post investigation has found that over the past two decades, hundreds of law enforcement officers in the United States have sexually abused children while officials at every level of the criminal justice system have failed to protect kids, punish abusers and prevent additional crimes. wapo.st/3XiNgZC
The Post conducted an exclusive analysis of the nation’s most comprehensive database of police crimes.
From 2005 through 2022, reporters identified at least 1,800 state and local law enforcement officers who were charged with crimes involving child sexual abuse. wapo.st/3XiNgZC
Police and court documents show that abusive officers frequently spent months befriending and grooming kids.
Many used the threat of arrest or physical harm to make their victims comply. wapo.st/3XiNgZC
Exclusive: For decades, Catholic priests raped or molested Native American children who were taken from their homes by the U.S. government and forced to live at remote boarding schools, a Post investigation found. wapo.st/3yB2VZT
At least 122 priests, sisters and brothers assigned to 22 boarding schools since the 1890s were later accused of sexually abusing Native American children under their care, The Post found. wapo.st/3yB2VZT
Most of the documented abuse occurred in the 1950s and 1960s and involved more than 1,000 children.
Experts say the The Post’s findings are a window into the widespread sexual abuse at Indian boarding schools. wapo.st/3yB2VZT
Exclusive: A group of billionaires and business titans working to shape U.S. public opinion of the war in Gaza privately pressed New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams (D) last month to send police to disperse pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. wapo.st/4apUvBO
Business executives including Kind snack company founder Daniel Lubetzky, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik and real estate investor Joseph Sitt held a Zoom video call with Mayor Eric Adams (D) a log of chat messages shows. wapo.st/4apUvBO
During the call, some attendees discussed making political donations to Adams, as well as how the chat group’s members could pressure Columbia’s president and trustees to permit the mayor to send police to the campus to handle protesters. wapo.st/4apUvBO
Emily Franciose’s love of the backcountry drew her to boarding school in the Swiss Alps.
Then a mountain fell apart beneath her skis — and left her parents seeking answers. wapo.st/3UqR3SH
Emily had been on skis since she was 2, had attended avalanche safety courses and traveled with a first-aid kit.
She arrived at Ecole d’Humanité — which had a backcountry program with ski tours at least once a week in the Swiss Alps — in August 2022, one day after turning 18. wapo.st/3UqR3SH
The school’s last backcountry outing of the season took place on March 21, 2023.
Spring break was a few days away. Emily and her roommate had tickets to Paris.
But first, a trek to the top of the Wellhorn: wapo.st/3UqR3SH
As Donald Trump faces dwindling options to pay off a massive fine imposed as a result of losing a fraud case in New York, financial experts say filing for bankruptcy would provide one clear way out of his financial jam.
But Trump is not considering that approach, partially out of concern that it could damage his campaign to recapture the White House, according to four people close to the former president. wapo.st/3TLvfAX
Even though bankruptcy could alleviate Trump’s immediate cash crunch, it also carries risks for a candidate who has marketed himself as a winning businessman — and whose greatest appeal to voters, some advisers say, is his financial success. wapo.st/3TLvfAX
A bankruptcy filing by Trump personally or by one of his companies could delay for months or years the requirement that he pay the judgment of nearly half a billion dollars, which with interest is growing by more than $100,000 a day. wapo.st/3TLvfAX