On November 10, right-wing Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir proposed a bill that would use the death penalty to punish Palestinian terrorists convicted of killing Israeli citizens. Some Knesset members have argued that such a law would prevent future prisoner release swaps, as there would be little value for a dead prisoner in such an exchange. [...]
Is it possible to advocate for universal human rights while quietly dismantling the institution one of its core articles was written to protect? Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) calls the family “the natural and fundamental group unit of society.” Yet modern ideologies of left and right alike have treated the [...]
On November 5, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections Inc., two consolidated cases challenging President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs imposed on China, Mexico, Canada and other countries. The plaintiffs argue, and the lower courts agreed, that the president’s use of the International [...]
In recent years, several countries—including Croatia, Malta, and others—have recognized femicide as a distinct crime. The Italian government and parliament also took this step, acknowledging that killing a woman solely because of her gender is not just homicide, but a crime rooted in gender-based violence. These legislative shifts are historic because they name what was [...]
A recent article in the Washington Post concerning widespread internet shutdowns in Russia for alleged wartime defense purposes got me thinking: How hard would it be for this to happen in the US? It took me about a minute of online research to answer my own question: not hard at all. Express Presidential Powers over [...]
At the beginning of the pestilence and when it ends, there’s always a propensity for rhetoric… It is only in the thick of a calamity that one gets hardened to the truth, to silence. —Albert Camus, The Plague World system chaos is not emerging ex nihilo, out of nothing. There have been conspicuous warnings. In [...]
It was a late September afternoon when I spotted a pair of beautiful earrings on Instagram. Curious, I followed the account’s links to an online shop. Alongside the other items, they offered curated gift packages. When I messaged them, I learned the owner was a young woman. The shop owner, Diana (a pseudonym), responded with [...]
It is Thanksgiving Day. The aroma of turkey; of dressing; candied sweet potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; freshly baked yeast rolls; giblet gravy, and of pies emanating from the kitchen fills our nostrils. Home is the place to be today. But have you ever given thought to the law of the gobbler? This Day in [...]
Once again, the US is politically meddling with the conflict in Ukraine. The back-and-forth of Washington’s destabilizing efforts to bring “peace” to the country is a blatant attempt to secure the Nobel Peace Prize for President Donald Trump, whose proposed 28‑point “peace plan” for Ukraine is not a blueprint for stability but a capitulation to [...]
It has been almost two years now since my father and his wife fled from Haiti. Men and boys, armed with assault rifles, descended upon their home in the middle of the night and riddled it with bullets. Using machetes, they tormented my family, hacking away at my cousin’s neck and fatally injuring my father’s [...]
