A Massachusetts federal judge sentenced a Texas man to serve three months in federal prison on Thursday for threatening a Boston, Massachusetts doctor affiliated with the national LGBTQIA+ health education center. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Matthew Jordan Lindner’s sentence after he previously pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transmission of threatening [...]
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Taliban Accountability: International Sanctions Won't Work Unless They Bite
Last December, US authorities marked Human Rights Day and the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by imposing a tranche of sanctions against human rights abusers spanning the globe, targeting perpetrators from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. In Afghanistan, two members of the Taliban government were targeted, as announced by a State Department press [...]
In what proved to be a constitutionally fraught week, the Governor of the State of Texas, Greg Abbott, stated on January 26 he will oppose any measure to infringe on Texas’s placing of razor wire on the US-Mexico border, a move that has bolstered Texas nationalists and increased calls that Texas should secede from the [...]
Iowa lawmakers decline to advance bill removing gender identity as protected class
Iowa lawmakers declined to advance a piece of legislation on Wednesday that would have removed gender identity as a protected class under the state’s civil rights law. In a 3-0 tally, a subcommittee of the Iowa legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted against moving the bill forward. Although the bill sought to add a new category to [...]
Deaths on the Border: The Argument for Charging the Texas Army National Guard
Immigration is one of the hottest hot button issues going into the 2024 US presidential election. It has divided Americans, and the Republican party continues to go to extremes on the matter, with some 81% of GOP voters in the Iowa primary agreeing with former president Donald Trump’s description of immigrants as “poisoning the blood [...]
Ohio legislature overrides governor's veto of transgender care and sports ban
The Ohio Senate voted on Wednesday to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of HB 68, which bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth and restricts transgender participation in sports. The Ohio House previously voted to override the governor’s veto on January 10. The two votes to override means the governor’s veto is void and the law [...]
Ihor Kolomoyskyi as a Case Study in Ukraine's War on Corruption
Since 2014, Ukraine has taken decisive steps toward combating corruption. This has included the adoption of anti-corruption legislation and the establishment of anti-corruption bodies that operate in accordance with international standards. Furthermore, there has been a concerted effort to identify and address the root causes of corruption in Ukraine. Notably, the presence of an oligarchy [...]
West Virginia State Senator Mike Azinger introduced a slew of bills targeting transgender people on Wednesday, including a bill to classify transgender people as “obscene matter” and a bill banning gender-affirming care for people under the age of 21. Senate Bill 195 amends the state’s indecent exposure law to criminalize engaging in “obscene matter.” It [...]
Trial of Jimmy Lai: 'It's About Freedom and Democracy,' Says Hong Kong Freedom Committee Director
The Hong Kong trial of prominent pro-democracy activist and media mogul Jimmy Lai has garnered widespread attention globally. Lai, a 76-year-old British citizen and high-profile critic of Beijing, faces national security charges, and his trial is expected to take months. Lai is a prominent figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. His detention and subsequent trial exemplify [...]
Colombia ombudsman's office reports 181 activist murders in 2023
The Colombian Ombudsman’s Office (DPC) reported Tuesday that 181 social leaders and human rights defenders were murdered in 2023. The figure dropped 16 percent from the data reported for 2022. The ombudsman’s office, in its “Annual report on the killings of social leaders and human rights defenders,” highlighted the alarming situation faced by individuals dedicated [...]