Teen Activist Is Facing a Decade Behind Bars
The trial of 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi began on February 13 behind the closed doors of an Israeli military court. The young activist, who’s become an international symbol of the Palestinian struggle, is facing up to ten years behind bars. On December...
Calls to Prevent Corrupt Foreign Officials from Using Our Banks
British-American policy advisor Bill Browder has led calls for “rule of law” nations such as Australia to enact laws similar to the ‘Magnitsky Act’ in the United States, which make it harder for corrupt foreign state officials to launder embezzled...
Woman Who Stabbed Boyfriend Avoids Prison
By Blake O’Connor An Oxford University student who stabbed her boyfriend with a knife has avoided prison, after the judge found that imprisonment would damage her prospects of a medical career. The perceived leniency of the sentence has led to...
Iceland Set to Criminalise Male Circumcision
A bill currently before the Icelandic parliament proposes to make it a criminal offence punishable by up to six years in prison to circumcise, or arrange for the circumcision of, a boy for non-medical reasons. Circumcision is the surgical removal of...
Professor Sacked after Reporting that Alcohol is the Most Harmful Drug
On October 29 2009, professor David Nutt was the chair of the UK government’s Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs. However, on the following day, he was promptly sacked after publishing a paper that assessed and compared the harms...
1984: Dystopian Prophecies Become Reality
The week after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January last year, George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four became Amazon’s number one selling book. Penguin Books had to order a reprint of 75,000 copies to keep up with the increase in demand. It seemed people...
‘Robo Cops’ Are Being Used Worldwide – But Does the Public Want Them?
A pilot programme using a robotic police officer in San Francisco has ended as quickly as it began after the machine waged a war on the homeless. The idea seemed sound enough: The San Francisco animal rescue group SPCA, (a...
Norway Benefits from Rehabilitation, While Australia Lags Behind
Studies have consistently found that sending people to prison significantly increases their chances of offending, rather than reduces it, and that alternatives to imprisonment are more likely to put offenders on the straight and narrow than full time prison custody....
Release Yanto Awerkion: An Interview with Free West Papua’s Raki Ap
West Papuan independence activist Yanto Awerkion is set to stand trial on charges of treason in Timika District Court tomorrow. Mr Awerkion was due to go before the court in West Papua last Tuesday, but the trial was postponed, as the...
New Zealand’s Progressive Medicinal Cannabis Law: An Interview with Advocate Rebecca Reider
The New Zealand government introduced a bill into federal parliament last week that will establish a local medicinal cannabis industry. NZ health minister David Clark said that cannabis medicines could be available in 24 months if the nation follows Australia’s example. However,...
