Tennessee filed an emergency request on Monday asking the US Supreme Court to reinstate a 48-hour mandatory waiting period for abortions pending appeal. The law was challenged by several doctors and a medical center on behalf of their patients. US District Judge Bernard Friedman held in October that the waiting period was unconstitutional, following “five [...]

China on Saturday announced sanctions against the chair and vice chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins, Canadian parliament member Michael Chong, and Canada’s House of Commons foreign affairs subcommittee on international human rights. These sanctions were in direct retaliation for sanctions imposed by the US, UK, Canada [...]

The US, Canada, EU and UK sanctioned Chinese government officials on Monday for what Canada’s Global Affairs described as “gross and systematic human rights violations.” Canada’s sanctions are against four officials and one entity that have been linked to human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, particularly against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Friday that Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act by conducting financial dealings with companies identified as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers. Oseguera Gonzalez is the daughter of Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, who is also known as “El Mencho,” a prolific cartel [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Monday in favor of former Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan, finding that it cannot penalize him for his allegedly unethical behavior. The court noted that throughout Madigan’s long career in politics—he is “the longest-serving head of any state or [...]

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Sunday aimed at promoting access to voting. It was passed on the 56th anniversary of a famous march known as “Bloody Sunday,” during which “state troopers beat and tear-gassed hundreds of peaceful protesters crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The protesters were seeking justice [...]

Tens of thousands of Syrian civilians have been detained, forcibly disappeared, or subject to torture, sexual violence, or death in detention throughout the decade of conflict in Syria, a UN human rights report said Monday. The report was a result of various resolutions passed by the UN Human Rights Council requesting a report on “arbitrary [...]

The US Supreme Court heard arguments in the consolidated cases Wilkinson v. Dai and Wilkinson v. Alcaraz-Enriquez on Tuesday. The main issue before the court is”hether a court of appeals may conclusively presume that an asylum applicant’s testimony is credible and true whenever an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals adjudicates an application [...]

During confirmation hearing on Monday, US Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland spoke out against White supremacy and vowed to keep politics out of his prosecution of the US Capitol attacks that occurred on January 6. Garland stated that he would “begin with people on the ground and work way up to those” involved with the [...]

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on Monday proposed creating an independent, “9/11-type Commission” to investigate the January 6 attacks on the US Capitol building. Pelosi released the letter, titled “Dear Colleague: Security, Security, Security,” with recognition of President’s Day and the efforts of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to protect the [...]