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A memorial for Dr. Li Wenliang, who was the whistleblower of the Coronavirus, Covid-19, that originated in Wuhan, China and caused the doctors death in that city, is pictured outside the UCLA campus in Westwood, California, on February 15, 2020.

One Doctor’s Place in China’s Battle for the COVID-19 Narrative

The Chinese Communist Party’s evolving effort to re-brand Dr. Li as a loyal soldier in their fight against COVID-19 captures the dramatic, unsettled state of the Chinese Communist…
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives to attend a meeting to discuss a potential economic bill in response to the coronavirus, COVID-19, in Washington, DC, on March 20, 2019. He walks with a group of people. No one wears a face mask.

We Badly Need Congress to Act. We Don’t Need Congress to Act in Person.

Remote voting critically helps ensure that Americans are not effectively disenfranchised if and when their representative becomes unable to show up in person.
Copies of the New York Times sit for sale in a rack July 23, 2008 in New York City.

The Espionage Act Reform Bill Addresses Key Press Concerns

On March 5, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced sorely needed legislation to reform the Espionage Act.
Side by side photographs or Dr. Li Wenliang in a lab coat and face mask and of him in bed on a ventilator.

Moral Courage in the Coronavirus: A Guide for Medical Providers and Institutions

Times of crisis generate extreme moral dilemmas: situations we can’t begin to imagine, unthinkable choices emerging between options that all seem bad, each with harms and negative…
Classified stamp

The Legally Troubling Treatment of COVID-19 Meetings as Classified

I represented the government until late 2018, and I've got serious concerns, writes former Deputy Director of Appellate Staff of Department of Justice's Civil Division.

Blowing the Transatlantic Whistle

U.S. courts have been reluctant to extend the same protections they afford domestic informants to employees of American companies based abroad.
People cross a burning street in Cadjehoun on May 1, 2019. Protestors in Benin set up burning barricades on the streets on May 1, as soldiers encircled the home of ex-president Thomas Boni Yayi after he led calls for an election boycott. Hours after initial results showed a record low turnout in Sunday's controversial parliamentary polls, soldiers in tanks were posted on the main roads leading to Boni Yayi's home in the economic capital Cotonou.

West Africa’s Democratic Progress is Slipping Away, Even as Region’s Significance Grows

Democratic norms may erode further in 2020, says Freedom House. The fundamental rights of West Africa’s nearly 400 million people are in jeopardy.
An email from Mark Paoletta on August 12, 2019 reading, “Alternative language. [Redacted] Mike Paoletta General Counsel Office of Management & Budget [Redacted] (office) [Redacted] (cell)”

Exclusive: New Unredacted Emails Show How Deeply OMB Misled Congress on Ukraine

New unredacted emails confirm that OMB, including the general counsel’s office, was fully in the loop about the Pentagon’s Ukraine funding worries, and took active steps to…
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, National Security Council Director for European Affairs, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill November 19, 2019 in Washington, DC.

The Friday Night Massacre’s Broader Context: Trump’s Redesign for American Democracy

As we discussed with one of the authors of the book, How Democracies Die, the purges fit an ominous path followed by elected autocrats.
William Colby points at a map using a pointer stick.

How Late DCI William Colby Saved the CIA, and What That Can Teach Us Today

His willingness to tell truth to power and the challenges he faced in overseeing previously unimagined institutional reforms offer important lessons at this momentous juncture…
The number 30 on a calendar is surrounded by a big red box.

The 30-Day Clock: Recent Law Requires Trump Admin. to Make Full Public Report on Soleimani and Shahlai Strikes

A classified war powers report won't do it. A formal, public explanation of the facts and legal justifications is legally required thanks to Congress’ having recently passed…
The pages of a redacted court filing from the Special Council Robert Mueller in the Paul Manafort case are spread out on a flat surface.

How Should FOIA Be Reformed to Prevent Further Abuse of Redactions?

To ensure the FOIA is not weaponized and used as an instrument of secrecy, Congress should reform the statute to mirror how the deliberative process privilege is treated in the…
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