POLICE have arrested 16 people in India after two men were beaten to death by a large gang after asking directions amid hysteria over WhatsApp rumours of child kidnappers.
Abijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das were killed in Assam as rumours of child kidnappings have spread across the country via the messenger service, leading to the deaths of at least seven people in the past month.
Rumours have been fuelled by a video that purports to show two men approach a group of children on a motorcycle, snatching one of them before riding off.
VIJAY PRASHAD looks at the web of militias and drug-trafficking gangs that emerged in the Sweida region through the Syrian civil war, and how they relate to recent clashes and Israel’s intervention
The Trump government is seizing overseas students from their homes and campuses and even off the streets, with no legal grounds and no due process, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER



