- World Report 2024: Iraq (hrw.org)
Following decades of armed conflict, Iraq enjoyed its most stable period since before the US-led invasion of 2003. However, the country remained fragile and deeply divided, and grievances driving the 2019 mass protests remained unresolved, including discontent with the current political system, failing public services, deteriorating infrastructure, and rampant corruption. Violent repression of protesters and arrests of journalists covering protests continued in 2023.
- Prison film (Wikipedia)
A prison film is a film genre concerned with prison life and often prison escape. These films range from acclaimed dramas examining the nature of prisons, such as A Man Escaped, Cool Hand Luke, Midnight Express, Brubaker, Escape from Alcatraz, The Shawshank Redemption, and Kiss of the Spider Woman to actioners like Lock Up and Undisputed, and even comedies satirizing the genre like Stir Crazy, Life, and Let’s Go to Prison. Prison films have been asserted to be “guilty of oversimplifying complex issues, the end result of which is the proliferation of stereotypes”. For example, they are said to perpetuate “a common misperception that most correctional officers are abusive”, and that prisoners are “violent and beyond redemption”.