It sounded like the fear-fostering fantasies of far-right fanatics in Europe.

It spoke of a “criminal plan” afoot to alter the country’s “demographic make-up” through “successive waves of irregular migration.”

But this time, the words came from Tunisian President Kais Saied – and they have sparked havoc in the country.

Following Saied’s racist, conspiracy-minded language in a speech on February 21, Tunisia has suffered a wave of attacks against Black Africans. There’s been a surge in violent assaults, robberies, and vandalism by Tunisian citizens against them.

Police are arresting Black Africans for no reason. Landlords are kicking them out, and employers are firing them.

Scores of Black African foreigners, asylum seekers, and refugees – many suddenly homeless – are now camping in front of international organizations’ offices in the hope it might be safer. Others avoid venturing outside as much as possible.

That Saied’s language was politically irresponsible is obvious. And as with other cases, notably in Europe and the US, when politicians spout this kind of racist “great replacement” conspiracy nonsense about foreigners supposedly taking over, the claims are not connected to reality.

Tunisia is a country of 12 million with a miniscule 21,000 Black Africans.

Amnesty International said President Saied was, “finding scapegoats for Tunisia’s economic and political woes.” It’s also possible he’s trying to distract public attention from his power grab, which we’ve previously discussed in this newsletter.

In any case, nothing the presidency has done since the inflammatory speech will reverse the country’s dangerous course. Authorities have not condemned the criminal assaults nor instructed security forces to protect those at risk.

Most critically, they are not pushing prosecutors to hold perpetrators accountable. Throughout the wave of assaults, the authorities have announced only one arrest.

All this will only embolden potential attackers.

Last week in this newsletter, we looked at the whirlwind of horror and illegality surrounding Russia’s mass child abductions in Ukraine.

Today, we have a new report that focuses on the traumatic and devastating consequences of Russia’s invasion for children in Ukraine’s residential institutions in particular. We document the risks to children from institutions in areas directly affected by the conflict, like forced transfer to Russia, as well as to those evacuated to other areas of Ukraine or to EU countries.

Ukraine’s Soviet legacy means institutionalization of children has long been an issue there. The country had more than 105,000 children in residential institutions before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. That’s the largest number in Europe after Russia. Nearly half were kids with disabilities.

However, more than 9 in 10 children in Ukraine’s institutions have parents with full parental rights. The kids were institutionalized due to their families’ poverty or difficult life circumstances, or because the child has a disability, and institutions were mistakenly presented as the best option.

Ukrainian officials have acknowledged (and as decades of studies have shown) that institutions are inherently harmful to children. It’s bad enough in peace time. Russia’s war against Ukraine adds new urgency to the problem.

There needs to be concerted international effort to identify and return children stolen by Russia. That should be an international priority.

And Ukraine, with support from foreign governments and humanitarian agencies, should stop institutionalizing children and expand family- and community-based care.

“Navalny,” a film spotlighting Russian government abuse through the story of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

The film has gripping scenes detailing how his team and Bellingcat investigative journalists came to accuse Russia’s security services of orchestrating the 2020 assassination attempt on Navalny using a Novichok nerve-agent.

Apparently failing to get him that way, Russian authorities took another route: launching criminal charges against Navalny so baseless they speak more of officials’ desperation than anything else. Of course, he was found guilty. He’s been behind bars since 2021.

Authorities clearly intended to demonstrate to millions of Russians the risks of involvement in anything resembling authentic political opposition. And since Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin’s repression of dissent has only widened and become more draconian.

Russia is counting on Navalny rotting in prison long after Oscar publicity fades. As my colleague and Russia expert Rachel Denber says: We can’t let that happen.

(compiled by Emily Palomo)

• Concrete UN security council action needed for Myanmar (HRW) 
• 8 dead after smuggling boats capsize off San Diego coast (AP News) 
• Germany sees record number of crimes against press (DW) 
• Extreme poverty could be eradicated globally by 2050 – report  (The Guardian)