内容摘要：Kiv.Kz, a wholesaler in Kazakhstan that sells household appliances, said it also had many clients from Russia, some of whom make bulk purchases of goods that are not officially available in the country due to sanctions.

Kiv.Kz, a wholesaler in Kazakhstan that sells household appliances, said it also had many clients from Russia, some of whom make bulk purchases of goods that are not officially available in the country due to sanctions.

The 49-year-old is among hundreds of residents opposing an artificial lake that would feed the crucial interoceanic waterway.“I feel sick about this threat we’re facing,” said Martinez, who lives in a wooden house with a metal roof in Boca de Uracillo with her husband and five of her 13 children.

“We don’t know where we’re going to go.”Martinez’s family has always lived in the small village surrounded by lush mountains, where locals depend on farming crops such as cassava and maize and raising livestock for their livelihoods.The community insists it will not allow its homes to be sacrificed for the benefit of the world’s multibillion-dollar global shipping industry.

Last week, hundreds of villagers took to the Indio River in motorised canoes to protest against the planned dam, which would force thousands of families to relocate.The Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the autonomous public body managing the waterway, decided to construct the reservoir to address severe droughts like the one in 2023, which led to drastic cuts in ship traffic.

The century-old canal, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, relies on formerly abundant rainfall stored in two artificial lakes that also provide drinking water.

Used predominantly by shipping clients from the United States, China and Japan, the canal operates a lock system to lift and lower vessels, releasing millions of litres of fresh water with each transit.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?