The U.S. government’s expressed commitment to human rights is routinely undermined by its actual commitment to maintaining America’s global military primacy. Since the 1970s, Washington has cast itself as a defender of global human rights, when Congress passed laws to bar the U.S. from providing security assistance to human rights violators. Yet America’s interest in human rights has long been sublimated to the logic of hegemony, from Cold War containment to the Global War on Terror and beyond. Congress has still never successfully voted to block a weapons sale. Today, the myth that American power upholds human rights lies buried beneath the rubble of Gaza. This research brief traces the emergence of human rights within U.S. foreign policymaking in the waning decades of the Cold War — alongside Washington’s rise to the top of the global arms trade — and surveys the various U.S. government efforts to codify human rights considerations in the practice of U.S. foreign policy, particularly arms sales, through the Biden administration. This history reveals how American leaders, regardless of political party, have consistently instrumentalized human rights concerns to target perceived adversaries, while tossing aside such concerns when they apply to U.S. partners.

China tariffs will go up to 125 percent while other countries get a 90-day reprieve.

A retired judge from São Paulo, Brazil, has been indicted on suspicion of ideological falsehood and use of a forged document. According to the charges, the deception of Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd-Canterbury Caterham Wickfield—who claimed to be of British descent—lasted more than four decades. The state Public Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the judge’s real name is José Eduardo Franco dos Reis. He had been using documents under the false name since 1980, gaining admission to law school at USP and passing a judicial exam under that identity. He retired in 2018.

Forty-one anti-protest bills in 22 states have been introduced since start of 2025, according to law tracker

The administration has increased surveillance flights over Mexico as it tries to track the powerful cartels that dominate the fentanyl trade.

A decade ago, it was easy to believe US identity was a settled question. Now, as our institutions acquiesce to barbarism, the US’s promise has been traded for chaos

When Hurricane Helene swept through the southeastern United States in September 2024, the storm caused catastrophic damage and nearly 250 deaths. But a rare bright spot has emerged amid the destruction. Dozens of threatened gopher tortoises have taken up residence at Fort de Soto Park near St. Petersburg, Florida, after presumably being swept more than two miles across open water during the storm. Before the hurricane, the 1,136-acre park was home to roughly eight of the land-dwelling reptiles. Now, their population has ballooned to at least 84 individuals—and counting. The creatures seem to be adapting well to their new home, too. Park rangers have spotted them burrowing, roaming around and even mating. Gopher tortoises live on land and are not strong swimmers—which is why park rangers were so surprised when dozens of them began washing up at Fort de Soto Park. Where had the tortoises come from? And how did they survive the journey?

Businesses were already bracing for a crash. Then came another 50% tariff on Chinese goods.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders on Tuesday that aim to boost coal production in his latest action that runs counter to global efforts to curb carbon emissions. Have to power A.I. somehow.

The MTA and the Trump administration have reached an agreement that could keep New York City congestion pricing in place into the fall.

Attorneys for student Yunseo Chung asked a judge to make public materials related to a federal search warrant to determine whether government officials “provided incorrect or false information” to obtain it.

The festival was scheduled for April 27, expected to draw the estimated 15,000 revelers who have made it one of the largest carnavals on the East Coast.

Dearborn lawyer says feds tried to seize his cellphone at Detroit Metro Airport as he returned from a spring break trip with his family.

The Department of Homeland Security is telling migrants who entered the country using an online app to leave the United States immediately.

The White House is asking the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority for a Fifth Amendment pass.

What’s behind the current state of alarm around avian influenza? Abby Cartus examines the epidemiological science and how action is constrained by the political context—namely, RFK Jr., the Trump administration, and the nation's worsening anti-science and anti-vaccine attitudes.

Protesters at an anti-Trump rally in downtown Lafayette said a man angry about traffic jumped out of a truck, pulled out a gun and threatened them, but police release that man and seek another who head-butted the man with the gun.

Immigrant advocates are pressuring Houston city officials and law enforcement to be clearer about their stance on cooperation with ICE.

On a quick drive around the small Ohio town of Delta, you can spot nearly as many Trump flags as American stars-and-stripes banners. And at the petrol station near the Ohio Turnpike, the pumps bear relics of the last administration, with slogans slamming Trump's predecessor: "Whoever voted for Biden owes me gas money!" This is Trump country - the Republican ticket easily won here in November's presidential election by a margin of almost two-to-one. And while the markets are in turmoil following Trump's unveiling of expansive global tariffs this week, plenty of people in Delta and hundreds of Midwestern towns like it still back the president's plans.

Though porn addiction is not diagnosable, and never has been, there is a large self-help industry surrounding the concept. Mostly online (though in religious areas, such as Utah, there are numerous in-person treatment sites), this industry promotes the idea that modern access to the Internet, and the porn that thrives there, has led to an epidemic of dysregulated, out-of-control porn use, and significant life problems as a result. Over recent years, numerous studies have begun to suggest that there is more to the story than just porn. Instead, we’ve had growing hints that the conflicts and struggles over porn use have more to do with morality and religion, rather than pornography itself. I’ve covered this surge of research in numerous posts and articles. Now, researchers have put a nail in the coffin of porn addiction. Josh Grubbs, Samuel Perry and Joshua Wilt are some of the leading researchers on America’s struggles with porn, having published numerous studies examining the impact of porn use, belief in porn addiction, and the effect of porn on marriages. And Rory Reid is a UCLA researcher who was a leading proponent gathering information about the concept of hypersexual disorder for the DSM-5. These four researchers, all of whom have history of neutrality, if not outright support of the concepts of porn addiction, have conducted a meta-analysis of research on pornography and concluded that porn use does not predict problems with porn, but that religiosity does.