Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo named China, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela as some of the worst human rights violators in his remarks while presenting the State Department’s 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Wednesday. The reports cover internationally recognized individual, civil and political rights in almost 200 countries and territories, including all [...]

President Trump declared a national emergency today in a press conference at the White House Rose Garden. Trump did not cite the provision he would use to declare the emergency but did state that under the Stafford Act he had “very strong emergency powers…and if I need to do something, I’ll do it.” If the [...]

US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle proposed a bill Wednesday, entitled the “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” to restrict goods from China. The legislation, co-sponsored by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Representative James McGovern, would require importers to get certification from the US government stating that their goods were not produced using [...]

The US House of Representatives voted 278-136 Wednesday to approve a bill that would reauthorize several soon-to-expire laws that govern surveillance by federal law enforcement. The legislation has been a hard-fought compromise among lawmakers from both parties with differing priorities about privacy protections, reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts, and allowing continued [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on Wednesday rejected state officials’ and universities’ arguments to dismiss a transgender discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges the North Carolina State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees (NCSHP) discriminates against transgender employees because it excludes coverage for gender dysphoria. First, [...]

The Kisutu Resident Magistrate Court in Tanzania convicted nine Chadema leaders and legislators Tuesday of making “seditious statements.” Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simba was convinced that they were unlawfully assembled, rioting and making seditious statements. The Chadema party is an opposition party to Tanzania’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which is led by the country’s [...]

The National League for Democracy (NLD), headed by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, failed Tuesday to reduce the role of the military in Myanmar’s parliament. The NLD proposed amendments to the 2008 constitution, which requires more than 75 percent of members of parliament to pass constitutional amendments while giving the military 25 percent of [...]

Before a meeting between Indonesian President President Joko Widodo and the Netherlands King Willem-Alexander on Tuesday, the Dutch monarch publically apologized for his country’s “excessive violence” against Indonesia during its colonial rule. This was the first time a monarch from the country has made such a statement to the people of Indonesia, which was colonized [...]

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission released a 122 page report on Wednesday via livestream aimed at creating a “layered cyber deterrence” to defend the US against cyber attacks. “The U.S. government is currently not designed to act with the speed and agility necessary to defend the country in cyberspace,” the report asserted. The Cyberspace Solarium Commission [...]

The US State Department has announced Wednesday that the G7 Summit will be held virtually to better accommodate efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (the novel Coronavirus). The G7 was originally set to be hosted in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania later this month. The G7 has included Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the [...]