5 October 2026: World Space Week Human interest in space has been multifaceted, ranging from the deep-seated desire to seek out the origins of our existence to the search for extraterrestrial life and habitable worlds. Prior to the modern technology used to explore space today, ancient civilizations tracked the movement of stars, planets and eclipses [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday reported that US immigration authorities detained eight Nicaraguan exiles who were previously granted protected status in 2023 after fleeing political prosecution. On February 9 2023, the Nicaraguan government declared 222 political prisoners as “traitors” and expelled them to the United States, stripping 94 government dissenters and critics of their [...]
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Spain on Saturday, after lawmakers rejected proposed measures to protect citizens amid a housing crisis. The protests were sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman. Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her Madrid apartment on September 23, having lived there for 71 years. Her apartment was purchased [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Friday that US forces intercepted and destroyed eight Ecuadorian fishing vessels between August 28 and September 16, detaining more than 140 of the 160 crew members aboard and allegedly subjecting some of them to abuse. Juanita Goebertus, HRW’s Americas director, said the operations cannot justify arresting people without evidence: Intercepting [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated Friday before the UN Human Rights Council that the ongoing war in Ukraine has become an escalating “human rights catastrophe” amid a sharp surge in civilian casualties. Addressing the council in Geneva, Türk reported that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [...]
A US district judge for the Southern District of Florida ruled on Thursday that a federal law barring non-citizens from voting is unconstitutional because only states can regulate voting. Judge David Leibowitz dismissed a federal criminal case against Chelsea Cox, a Jamaican citizen accused of voting in multiple elections from 2012 to 2020, on constitutional [...]
Bolivia on Thursday confirmed the arrest of the country’s Attorney General Roger Mariaca on suspicion of drug trafficking and money laundering. This comes just days after the US Department of State imposed visa restrictions on Mariaca under similar grounds. Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo announced that Mariaca was among 14 individuals arrested in a [...]
The family of Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in January, filed two federal civil lawsuits Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota. The lawsuits were filed nearly nine months after her death. The first complaint [...]
In May 2026, The Gambia’s High Court acquitted three women prosecuted in connection with the death of an infant following female genital mutilation (FGM). The court found that the child had died from injuries sustained during FGM, but in her ruling, Justice Isatou Janneh upheld a “no case to answer” submission by the defense on [...]
Editor’s note: With the November 3 US congressional midterm elections a month away, JURIST is publishing this open letter from Gary J. Simson, a constitutional law scholar and two-time law school dean who has taught for more than 50 years. Writing directly to college, university, and law students, Simson argues that the federal executive branch [...]
