By the seventh day of deliberations in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial, the courtroom dispute had shifted away from her mental state and toward the conduct of a single juror. The jury foreperson had sent Judge William Sullivan notes indicating that one juror had acknowledged doubt but, in the foreperson’s account, was refusing to apply the [...]

Scrolling on my phone, I happened upon a video so violent that it seemed to cross the threshold at which ordinary language begins to fail. In it, a man was seen walking down a street in Ahvaz carrying the severed head of a young woman. She was Mona Heydari, 17, killed in 2022 by the [...]

The United States committed two acts of aggression in 2026—first against Venezuela, then against Iran—and no amount of political spin, strategic framing, or patriotic rhetoric changes that fact. If the world is willing to call Russia an aggressor state, it must be willing to say the same about the United States. In January and March [...]

On July 7, the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus Resolution 62/18, recognizing forced pregnancy as a form of reproductive violence. It was the first time a UN-negotiated document named reproductive violence as a distinct form of sexual and gender-based violence, covering forced or denied contraception, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, and forced sterilization, including [...]

On Tuesday, August 11, after 22 years without an execution in Lebanon, the country’s parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, making it the first Arab country to formally scrap capital punishment. The new law replaces death sentences with life imprisonment with hard labor. And what was the only party on record in that country to [...]

The international system stands at an inflection point. The simultaneous rise of strongman leadership in China, Russia and the United States—three states whose power shapes global order—has accelerated a worldwide retreat from liberal democracy, multilateralism and the rule of law. This trend is not isolated. It has emboldened authoritarian figures across the globe, weakened international [...]

Israel has ignored three binding International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders on Gaza for more than two years, a United Nations commission of inquiry concluded June 18, finding that it “continues to blatantly disregard” measures issued in January, March and May 2024 (A/HRC/62/CRP.2, para. 330). The finding is not just another entry in a long [...]

Whether the issue is redistricting, affirmative action, voting rights, abortion, presidential immunity, or any of the other country-defining questions that the Roberts Court has decided over the last two decades, there can be no doubt that the justices dramatically changed our nation’s politics and national identity. But the Roberts Court is not unique in its [...]

In mid-June, 17-year-old Shakiba* was arrested by the Taliban’s morality police (the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) along with dozens of other women. Her alleged crime was “improper hijab.” Shakiba was fully covered in a chadar namaz—a full-body prayer veil—but she was wearing a little eye makeup, and that was [...]

An aggravating circumstance is any factor surrounding a criminal act that increases the severity of the harm or the culpability of the offender. When present, an aggravating circumstance elevates the charge to a higher classification. The result is a harsher penalty at sentencing. The International Criminal Court should consider designating evidence of drugged action (combatants [...]