The Red Scare blacklist era—one in which those in the entertainment industry were targeted, investigated and ostracized for their supposed political sympathies and associates—remains one of the film industry’s darkest chapters. It was a time when fear and conformity eclipsed both principle and legality. Today, under the guise of political activism, we are watching the [...]

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The US Department of Agriculture will provide half of normal food assistance in November rather than suspend the program entirely, according to a court filing Monday responding to federal judges’ orders during the ongoing government shutdown. The agency will distribute $4.65 billion in contingency funds, which will cover half of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) [...]

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RomanDeckert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The foreign ministers of Germany, Jordan and the UK on Saturday jointly called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, describing the humanitarian crisis there as “desperate” and “apocalyptic.” This follows the reports of the capture of El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and a sharp escalation [...]

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US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he has ordered the Pentagon, or the “Department of War,” to prepare contingency plans for potential military action in Nigeria. Trump alleged that the Nigerian government has failed to protect Christian communities from violent extremist attacks. Trump stated on social media: “If the Nigerian Government continues to [...]

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Janni Rye, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

A New York judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by Texas that sought to enforce a six-figure civil judgment against a physician for unlawfully prescribing an abortion medication to a patient in the state. In the order, New York State Supreme Court Justice David M. Gandin ruled Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck acted lawfully in [...]

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Advocacy groups in Illinois filed a class action lawsuit against US federal authorities on Friday over “inhumane” conditions at a Chicago-area Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, claiming violations of detainees’ constitutional rights as well as federal regulations. The plaintiffs’ lawyers—from the MacArthur Justice Center, the ACLU of Illinois, and the Chicago office of law [...]

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Guayana arrested on Friday the incoming opposition leader on request for extradition by the United States, following an indictment by a Florida court on money-laundering, tax evasion, and gold smuggling. In a statement, the Guyana Attorney-General’s Chambers noted that Azruddin Mohamed allegedly evaded export taxes and royalties on “10,000 kilograms of gold” and attempted the [...]

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The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (UNGHREN) told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Nicaragua’s government has carried out systematic human-rights violations, some amounting to crimes against humanity. The experts urged Nicaraguan authorities to release people arbitrarily detained and end enforced disappearances. The experts’ findings draw on more than 1,900 interviews [...]

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The South African government said on Friday that the US decision to accept Afrikaners as refugees is concerning and disregards South Africa’s own “constitutional processes.” The statement released by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation noted that the determination by the US president that there is a “white genocide” happening in South Africa is [...]

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UN experts on Friday called for a swift and effective investigation into the deadliest police operation in Brazil’s history, after a raid in a Rio de Janeiro favela last week killed at least 120 people. The statement warned that the incident is part of a “disturbing pattern” of excessive force. The experts pleaded with the [...]

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