Five Quaker groups filed a lawsuit Jan. 26 to stop immigration agents from conducting raids on houses of worship. The complaint alleges that the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy that allows Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to conduct searches and arrests at schools and religious institutions violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

During his first days back in office, Donald Trump rapidly started implementing his hardline migration agenda, including by declaring a state of emergency at the US southern border. The move allows his administration to access billions of dollars to expand the building of a border wall and to deploy the military and national guard to the area. Around 1,500 active duty soldiers are already being deployed. Trump also reinstated the controversial "Remain in Mexico" program from his first administration. This policy, which requires people to wait for asylum appointments in Mexico, helped to create a now-perennial humanitarian crisis in northern Mexico. The Trump administration has also shut down CBP One—a cell phone app for scheduling asylum appointments—leaving thousands of people stranded in Mexico, and suspended the US refugee resettlement program, as well as cancelling travel plans for refugees who had already been approved to enter the country. Trump's promised mass deportation of millions of undocumented people has yet to get underway, but his administration has begun laying the groundwork for expanded immigration raids—potentially including on schools, churches, and hospitals—and has threatened to prosecute any local officials who don't comply.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Dec. 27 called on the Chinese government to immediately release Liu Hanbin, a blogger who was arrested one month earlier following his publication of information regarding a protest by farmers against forced land seizures. RSF's Asia-Pacific bureau director Cédric Alviani stated:

Chinese blogger Liu Hanbin was only serving the public interest by shedding light on abuses linked to land seizures, and should never be detained, let alone denied the right to meet with his lawyer. We call on the international community to build up pressure on the Chinese authorities to secure Liu's release alongside the 124 other journalists and press freedom defenders detained in the country.

The organization condemned Liu's detention as part of a broader pattern of repression against journalists and activists in China. The incident marked Liu as the 125th journalist currently detained by the Chinese authorities, raising significant concerns about freedom of expression in the country.

The monitoring group Iran Human Rights reported Jan. 6 that at least 31 women were executed in the country in 2024, which marks the highest annual toll since the group began tracking executions in the Islamic Republic 17 years ago. The report found that between 2010 and 2024, at least 241 women were executed in Iran. Approximately 70% of them were accused of killing their male partners, often in the context of an abusive marriage, including child brides. However, Iran's judiciary does not recognize mitigating circumstances such as spousal abuse or marital rape under sharia law. Furthermore, Iran's practice of qisas (retributive justice) allows the victim's family to demand either execution, forgiveness or diyya (blood money). The doctrine has contributed to the surge in the execution of women.

The Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective "Nunca Más" issued a report Dec. 10 charging that at least 229 individuals detained in the country for political reasons have endured various forms of torture and other acts that could be classified as "crimes against humanity" over the past seven years. The report documents claims of physical and psychological torture, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and other severe human rights violations committed by the Nicaraguan government. The victims, identified as individuals who were arrested during anti-government protests and in connection with opposition activities, have reportedly faced beatings, sexual violence, and prolonged solitary confinement.

Several non-governmental organizations on Dec. 3 demanded access to Cuban prisons, calling for international support following the death of a man imprisoned for participating in the July 2021 anti-government demonstrations on the island.

Several NGOs including Justicia 11J and the Centro de Documentación de Prisiones Cubanas (Cuban Prison Documentation Center), operated by Mexico-based non-profit organization Iniciativa para la Investigación y la Incidencia (Research & Advocacy Initiative), released statements denouncing the conduct of the Cuban authorities and demanding access to Cuban prisons to ensure an end to the systemic violation of prisoners' rights. Justicia 11J and the Center for a Free Cuba urged "governments, the United Nations, international human rights organizations and medical associations around the world" to "pressure the Cuban regime" and "provide the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to all Cuban prisons," and to provide care and treatment for sick or injured prisoners.

As the Trump team's plans fall into place for mass detention of millions of undocumented immigrants—perhaps even naturalized citizens—and establishment of a concentration camp system, invocation of the Insurrection Act to mobilize the army for the round-ups has been broached. Sending National Guard troops from red states into blue states to carry out round-ups and put down protests—over the objections of governors who have refused to cooperate—could portend civil war. And despite the absurd fiction that Trump is an isolationist peacenik, the latest ominous appointment to his cabinet is Islamophobe GWOT ultra-hawk Sebastian Gorka as senior director for counterterrorism. There is still time to invoke the 14th Amendment to bar Trump from the presidency—just as Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, indicted for leading a Trump-style attempted auto-golpe in 2022, has been barred from office. And just as the Congressional Black Caucus sought to bar Dubya Bush from office over considerably lesser matters on Jan. 6, 2001.

The Hong Kong Court of First Instance on Nov. 19 sentenced 45 defendants for conspiracy to commit subversion, with prison terms ranging from 50 to 120 months, depending on their alleged roles in an unauthorized primary election staged by pro-democracy groups in 2020.

The case stems from pro-democracy activists' efforts beginning in January 2020 to gain a majority in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. Their goal was to pressure the government to meet five demands: withdrawing a pending bill to ease extradition to mainland China, stopping the labeling of protests as "riots," dropping charges against activists, investigating police brutality, and implementing universal suffrage for Legislative Council and chief executive elections. In June 2020, Beijing imposed a National Security Law (NSL), broadly viewed as a means of stifling the ongoing protests. Hong Kong has in recent decades operated under a unique framework that grants it certain autonomy from mainland China's political system, an arrangement stemming from its 156-year history as a British colony before its 1997 handover to Chinese sovereignty.