Search Results for: \"state department\"

The US Department of State released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Monday, amidst the seventy-fifth anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or UDHR. The report emphasized “several new commitments, including to renew investments around the world in democracy and human rights, to help protect human rights defenders online, [...]

A referendum to remove Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo failed on Sunday following low turnout. The Central Commission of Elections of Kosovo declared that until 15:30 only 203 citizens voted in the referendum, with around one percent turnout at the end of the process. The referendum comes at heightened tensions between [...]

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Bill 4156 on Thursday by a vote of 77-20, which proposes the creation of the criminal act of impermissible occupation, targeting individuals who willfully enter and remain in Oklahoma without legal authorization to be in the United States. Under the provisions of HB 4156, impermissible occupation is defined as [...]

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed new sanctions Friday on multiple entities that back extremist settlers in the West Bank, including the Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich. These sanctions were a response to both the Mount Hebron Fund and Asiraich’s involvement in fundraising campaigns for violent extremists Yinon [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled against former Republican campaign consultant Jesse R. Benton on Friday, upholding Benton’s conviction for allegedly funneling $100,000 in campaign donations from a Russian businessman to his consulting firm. Of the $100,000, Benton was convicted of keeping $75,000 of the donation for himself and giving the [...]

The Michigan Court of Appeals ordered on Thursday the dismissal of charges against James Holkeboer, who had been charged with election fraud for actions he undertook working as an election inspector in the August 2022 primary election in the Gaines Township part of Kent County, Michigan. Holkeboer was charged with using a personal USB drive [...]

Indian security forces killed at least 29 left-wing extremists called Naxals, or Maoists, in the Indian Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected state of Chhattisgarh’s sensitive region Bastar this week. The Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala are all considered LWE affected, albeit to varying degrees. [...]

The US Senate voted Wednesday to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The US House of Representatives impeached Mayorkas in February over his handling of the migrant situation at the US-Mexico border. The articles of impeachment asserted that Mayorkas did not comply with his duties under the Immigration and Nationality [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Friday for a comprehensive and transparent inquiry into recent events where Ukrainian military officials allegedly tried to serve an investigative summons to Yevhen Shulhat, a journalist working for the Ukrainian investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info. According to reports from Slidstvo.Info, this incident was orchestrated by Ukraine’s Internal Security Service [...]

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in Snyder v. United States, a case involving illegal gratuities paid to a local government official. The issue is whether the federal government can use 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B)—known as federal funds bribery—to prosecute those who give and take illegal gratuities or whether the statute only [...]