The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday joined the University of Michigan Law School’s Civil Rights Litigation Initiative and the ACLU of Michigan in filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Robert Williams, who was falsely arrested last year based on faulty facial recognition technology that has been banned in several cities throughout the US. [...]

Voters in Kyrgyzstan approved an expansion of president Sadyr Japarov’s powers in a referendum that took place on Sunday. The referendum addressed constitutional amendments proposed by Japarov that would increase presidential powers, create an assembly controlled by the president, and reduce the size of the parliament from 180 members to 90. Japarov, who last year [...]

Arkansas legislators voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that will ban transgender minors from receiving gender-confirming treatments within the state, overcoming the governor’s veto. The Arkansas bill is the first such law to pass in the US. House Bill 1570, otherwise known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, prevents Arkansas physicians from [...]

Turkish prosecutors on Monday issued arrest warrants for 10 retired senior navy officials a day after 104 officials released a letter defending the Montreux Doctrine. The Montreux Doctrine is an agreement made in 1936 concerning critical waterways that run through Turkey, most notably the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. The terms of the international convention provide that [...]

The US Department of State released the 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Secretary of State Antony Blinken painted a grave picture of the deterioration of human rights in multiple countries and regions throughout the world. The 2020 reports highlight abuses in Russia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, among many other countries. The report for China is [...]

Jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny announced in a handwritten letter posted to social media on March 31 that he is going on a hunger strike to protest his lack of adequate medical treatment and sleep deprivation that amounts to torture at the IK-2 prison in Pokrov. Navalny was sentenced in February to 2 1/2 years [...]

An American citizen was arrested early Sunday morning in Fort Portal, Uganda, on charges of alleged ‘subversion against the government.’ Guy Smith, originally from the state of Kentucky, has been living in Uganda for nearly 20 years. He is married to Ugandan citizen Sharon Tusiime, and the couple has two young children. Although Tusiime was [...]

Federal prosecutor Michael Sherwin admitted in an interview aired on Sunday that evidence is “trending towards” charging some Capitol rioters with the crime of sedition. According to 18 USC § 2384, seditious conspiracy occurs “if any two or more persons … conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the [...]

The lower house of the French Parliament on Monday voted unanimously to make the minimum threshold age of sexual consent 15 years. Under current law, consent may be obtained from a sexual partner regardless of age, including children. Also under current law, prosecutors must prove “that a minor was forced, threatened or tricked into having [...]

In a notice submitted to the US Supreme Court on Monday, acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar stated that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has reconsidered its position with regard to whether possession of a small amount of cocaine base with intent to distribute constitutes a “covered offense” under Section 404 of the First Step [...]