Nicaragua strips lawyers of certification in crackdown on dissent
Nicaragua's government has removed the licences of a large number of lawyers from the official registry, in a move critics say is the latest step in a widening crackdown on dissent. Lawyers in the country noticed in recent days that their authorisations to practise had disappeared from the Supreme Court of Justice registry without explanation. The action has drawn criticism from a United Nations expert, who described it as a purge of the legal profession.According to Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer and member of a UN panel of experts on Nicaragua, there was no official notification from the... [Continue Reading]
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Trump removes final members of US Election Assistance Commission ahead of midterms
President Donald Trump has removed the last remaining members of the US Election Assistance Commission, leaving the federal election body without sitting commissioners months before November's midterm elections. The White House confirmed the move on Friday, after two Democratic appointees were fired by email and the lone remaining Republican commissioner resigned. The commission is now vacant at a time when Trump is pressing for broader changes to voting rules.The Election Assistance Commission, often referred to as the EAC, is a bipartisan federal body created by Congress in 2002 to support state and local election officials. Its responsibilities include issuing non-binding... [Continue Reading]
Trump signals lifting sanctions on Turkiye and possible F-35 sales at Ankara summit
US President Donald Trump has said he will lift sanctions on Turkiye and will soon decide whether to resume sales of F-35 fighter jets, in remarks made during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. The comments came on the sidelines of a NATO leaders' summit and point to a possible shift in Washington's long-running defence dispute with Ankara. Trump said the United States would be taking the sanctions off and described the F-35 as a plane the US would consider selling.The issue dates back to Turkiye's purchase of Russian S-400 air defence systems in 2019, which... [Continue Reading]
Fear the Shia, Arm the Sunnis: The Uncomfortable Numbers Behind America’s War Narrative
“When fear is managed carefully enough, a nation can be taught to look away from the blood on the floor and stare instead at the shadow on the wall.” A friend of mine, whose name I will not reveal because he asked me not to, sat across from me over dinner and placed a question on the table that would not leave me alone. He was born into a Muslim Shia background, and for the angle of this article, that detail matters, not because I wish to reduce a man to a sect, but because sect has become one of... [Continue Reading]
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