Uganda: 72 arrests in August alone as authorities continue to crack down on human rights defenders opposing oil development projects
Ugandan authorities have once again intensified their repression of activists protesting the oil mega-projects that are being developed in the country’s Lake Albert region. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has documented at least 81 arrests and detentions having taken place since May 2024, 72 of which in August alone.
Why everyone is suddenly worried about Mexico’s democracy
The lower house of Mexico’s Congress approved a radical reform of the judicial system — a constitutional amendment that has raised alarms in Washington and in the business community. Under the new system, voters would choose nearly all the country’s judges, even those on the Supreme Court. The Biden administration, legal scholars and business groups warn that the reform could undermine Mexico’s young democracy and damage its economic partnership with the United States.
US police use force on 300,000 people a year, with numbers rising since George Floyd: ‘relentless violence’
Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them, according to a groundbreaking data analysis on law enforcement encounters. Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group that tracks killings by US police, launched a new database, policedata.org, cataloging non-fatal incidents of police use of force, including stun guns, chemical sprays, K9 dog attacks, neck restraints, beanbags and baton strikes.
Border Patrol agent arrested for allegedly forcing women to undress during processing
Authorities in upstate New York arrested a border patrol agent for allegedly forcing multiple women to expose their chests during virtual processing to enter the U.S. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York said that on three separate occasions, the agent ordered women seeking admission into the U.S. to undress and expose their bare chests over webcam while on a fourth occasion, a woman’s bra remained on. Each time, the agent allegedly lied to the women that the strip was part of protocol.