There are evenings when I walk through my apartment as if the apartment were a badly designed republic whose entire constitutional order depends upon the imagination of one person, and I take upon myself, with a seriousness that is immediately undermined by the absurdity of the situation, the role of the president of the United [...]

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Nokia621, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

UN experts on Wednesday raised concern over Meta’s proposed multibillion-dollar settlement with US state attorneys general over alleged harms to children and adolescents, warning that privately negotiated agreements should not replace transparent regulation developed with participation from young people and affected communities. The experts described bringing social-media platform design within accountability mechanisms as a necessary [...]

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The UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries warned Tuesday that rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies are making it harder to determine who is responsible for human rights abuses linked to mercenary and private military and security operations. In a report presented during the 63rd session of the UN Human [...]

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Kuhlmann /MSC, CC BY 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

In her State of the Union Address in Strasbourg on Wednesday, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become the first “associate member” of the European Union (EU). Von der Leyen proposed upgrading the existing Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) to an “Alliance for the Future” that would create [...]

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Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nineteen consumer advocacy organizations sent a letter Wednesday to the National Association of Attorneys General, urging state attorneys general to investigate Zillow, Compass and other major real estate platforms over practices the groups say have made housing less affordable nationwide. The letter, addressed to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong as president of the association, was signed [...]

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The International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement warned on Thursday that harsh drug laws and policies continue to play a role in systemic racism against “Africans and people of African descent around the world.” They advocated a shift to approaches based on public health and respect for human [...]

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Ralf Roletschek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday that Kalshi is likely violating federal law by allowing users to wager on sporting events from tribal land. The court held that two federally recognized California tribes, the Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, were likely to succeed on claims [...]

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Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A US federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward for now with changes to a federal homelessness program, temporarily pausing a lower court ruling that had set aside the new funding plan. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit granted the request by the Department of Housing and [...]

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