US President Donald Trump announced Monday that the country will place harsh tariffs on Russia’s oil trading partners if no peace deal is reached between Russia and Ukraine within 50 days. Trump declined to say which particular states would be targeted during a White House press conference with NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte. The president [...]

Amnesty International (AI) released a report on Monday charging that the Venezuelan government is using a systemic campaign of enforced disappearances to persecute political opponents. The report follows 15 people who disappeared between the July 2024 election and June 2025, 11 of whom still have their whereabouts unknown. Those detained were predominantly critics of the [...]

Amnesty International urged Thailand’s House of Representatives on Tuesday to grant amnesty to individuals accused and detained solely for political activism, including offenses related to the lèse majesté law. This appeal comes ahead of the parliament’s vote on a new amnesty law intended to address criminal offenses linked to political activities. Chanatip Tatiyakaroonwong, Amnesty International’s [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to proceed with mass layoffs at the Education Department while legal challenges continue. The court granted the administration’s request to lift a lower court injunction that had blocked the firing of more than 2,000 department employees—roughly half the agency’s workforce. Education Secretary Linda McMahon [...]

Demographic decline, once dismissed as a niche obsession of “pronatalists” on the right, has increasingly gained mainstream media and scholarly attention in the United States. In this way the US is somewhat behind the curve; falling birthrates have long obsessed policymakers abroad, particularly in East Asia and Europe. Nevertheless, in popular US discourse, demographic decline [...]

The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted resolution 2786, extending the UN Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) in Yemen until  January 28, 2026. The renewal underscores the mission’s role in sustaining the 2018 Stockholm cease-fire agreement and demilitarization of the critical docks in the port of Hudaydah, through which much of Yemen’s [...]

Thinking about writing a legal commentary on the threats to naturalized and birthright citizens in the United States, it unexpectedly occurred to me to question Grok, the large language model (LLM) Elon Musk developed after the success of ChatGPT. Having taught law for decades using the Socratic method, I was curious how Grok would handle [...]

Amnesty International expressed concern on Monday that the continued delay in the appeal hearing of an opposition member of Eswatini’s Parliament, Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza, threatens access to justice. Vongai Chikwanda, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, declared that the failure to hear Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza’s appeal diminishes the independence of Eswatini’s [...]

UN human rights experts expressed grave concern over the increased deterioration of the condition faced by lawyers in Tunisia over the past year. The experts highlighted situations of escalating harassment, arbitrary arrests, and violations of the right to a fair trial. Over 60 lawyers have been under criminal investigation since June 2024, with many facing [...]

Amnesty International’s director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, called on parties to Sudan’s armed conflict to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the most vulnerable populations as the rainy season threatens to exacerbate disease and hunger. In Sudan, more than 11 million people have fled their homes due to armed conflict between the Rapid Support [...]