内容摘要：In Russian supermarkets, popular food brands such as Coca-Cola, Lipton, Lindt, Geisha, Tchibo and Pringles are still displayed on shelves despite officially exiting the country.

In Russian supermarkets, popular food brands such as Coca-Cola, Lipton, Lindt, Geisha, Tchibo and Pringles are still displayed on shelves despite officially exiting the country.

While government officials have financial disclosure requirements, and regulatory agencies can monitor the goings-on of officials, critics have warned of conflicts of interest, as Trump backs crypto after once opposing it, potentially using policy to boost his own gains.By offering security and counterterrorism courses to students from repressive regimes without appropriate checks, British institutions risk complicity in torture.

Across the UK, pro-Palestinian protests in reaction to the war in Gaza have placed universities’ response to human rights concerns under the spotlight. But concerns about links between Britain’s higher education institutions and human rights abuses are not limited to one area.A new investigation by Freedom from Torture has found that UK universities are offering postgraduate security and counterterrorism education to members of foreign security forces, including those serving some of the world’s most repressive regimes. These institutions are offering training to state agents without scrutinising their human rights records, or pausing to consider how British expertise might end up being exploited to silence, surveil or torture.The investigation reveals that British universities may not just be turning a blind eye to human rights abuses, but could also be at risk of training some of the abusers. Some universities have even partnered directly with overseas police forces known for widespread abuses to deliver in-country teaching. Others have welcomed individuals on to courses designed for serving security professionals from countries where torture is a standard tool of state control. All of this is happening with virtually no oversight of the risks to human rights.

These are not abstract concerns. They raise serious, immediate questions. What happens when the covert surveillance techniques taught in British classrooms are later used to hunt down dissidents? Why are universities not investigating the backgrounds of applicants from regimes where “counterterrorism” is a common pretext for torture and arbitrary detention?Freedom from Torture’s investigation found that universities across the UK  are accepting applicants for security education from some of the world’s most repressive states. Yet just one university in the study said they are screening out applicants who they believed have either engaged in human rights violations or “intend to”.

Torture survivors in the UK have

about their shock that members of the security forces from countries they have fled can access UK security education without meaningful human rights checks. British universities, long considered beacons of liberal values and intellectual freedom, appear to be overlooking the fact that the knowledge they produce may be used to further oppression and state violence.Much of the Old Town now stands abandoned, with only about one-third of its buildings inhabited.

“Our biggest problem is desertification. Oualata is covered in sand everywhere,” Sidiya said.According to Mauritania’s Ministry of Environment, approximately 80 percent of the country is affected by desertification – an advanced stage of land degradation caused by “climate change (and) inappropriate operating practices”.

By the 1980s, even Oualata’s mosque was submerged in sand. “People were praying on top of the mosque” rather than inside, recalled Bechir Barick, a geography lecturer at Nouakchott University.Despite the relentless sands and wind, Oualata still preserves relics from its days as a key stop on trans-Saharan caravan routes and a renowned centre of Islamic learning.