Good Tuesday morning.
We interrupt what has been some pretty frivolous holiday programming, generally speaking, to speak of a serious – yet very important topic: Human rights.
First, perhaps it would be helpful to define what we mean when we say “human rights.” We toss around the word “rights” a lot – especially here in the U.S., where we are free to do pretty much anything (within reason, of course, and assuming the government hasn’t banned or restricted it, which is a topic for another post entirely).
So, yes, there are limits, but we have quite a bit more in the way of personal freedom than a lot of other countries do.
But when we speak of human rights, specifically, we are actually NOT talking about the rights afforded by any state or government entity, according to the United Nations. We are speaking of the rights afforded to us simply because we exist, regardless of our race, nationality, religion, sexual preference, socioeconomic status etc.
At its most fundamental, we’re speaking of the right merely to exist, and then after that things get more complicated, encompassing the right to the sorts of things that make existence better and worthwhile. Things like food, clean water, good health, education, the ability to support oneself through work and so on.
Here in the U.S., of course, we have the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791. Many years later, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), was adopted by the UN General Assembly.
This was the first legal document to set out universally protected fundamental human rights. The UDHR, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, is the foundation of all international human rights law. Today is the UDHR’s birthday, which means it’s National Human Rights Day.
Without delving too deeply into the political, which I try to avoid here, those who pay close attention to this sort of thing are concerned about the incoming Trump administration’s record on human rights and what that might mean for the next four years.
In this instance, we are talking broadly about human rights both here and abroad, encompassing everything from women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom to keeping immigrant families in fact (here in the U.S., we’re talking now) to international climate and trade policies that have significant implications for working people and those in developing countries.
I think that perhaps Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, sums it up pretty well:
In a world where conflicts and crises are multiplying, Human Rights Day – 10 December – affords us the opportunity to reaffirm our unwavering dedication to this vision of a common humanity, one which is rooted in shared values. For when basic rights are threatened, all our societies are endangered.
Yup. I can get down with that. Too bad it’s only one day that we’re all making a conscious effort to focus on this, which seems like it should be an every day priority. One must start somewhere, though, I guess.
The weather has been pretty blech of late, and there’s more of the same in the forecast. It will be cloudy with a slight chance of rain and temperatures will be in the low 40s. (Yes, that’s on the warm side for this time of year, but since it’s also kind of damp and gray, it feels chiller than it is – at least to me).
In the headlines…
Luigi Mangione, 26, of Maryland, the suspect in the fatal shooting last week of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, was ordered held without bail after his arrest on five charges in Pennsylvania.
Mangione did not enter a plea at his first court appearance yesterday evening, which took place just hours after he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after being recognized by a restaurant employee, who called the police.
When two police officers arrived at the McDonald’s where Mangione was eventually arrested, they found a man “wearing a medical mask and a beanie” and sitting “in the rear of the building at a table,” looking at a laptop, according to a criminal complaint.
Asked whether he had been in New York recently, the complaint says, Mangione “became quiet and started to shake.” He carried with him a three-page handwritten manifesto condemning the health care industry for putting profits over patients.
During the arraignment, the judge read the entire criminal complaint out loud, per CNN. Mangione was ordered held without bail. He is set to appear in court next on Dec. 23 in Pennsylvania.
Mangione, an Ivy League tech graduate from a prominent Maryland family, recently suffered physical and psychological pain. He was in regular contact with friends and family until about six months ago when he suddenly stopped communicating with them.
He was reported missing by his family last month after losing touch with them following a recent back surgery, according to sources and reports.
Mangione, whose last known address was in Honolulu, was identified as a person of interest in Thompson’s shooting in midtown Manhattan last week, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference.
The pistol reportedly used by the assassin who gunned down Thompson was a VP9: a weapon sold to vets to put down wounded animals adapted from a Second World War spy gun. They can be bought online for around $5,700.
Mayor Eric Adams once again spoke about his strongly encouraged suggestion for businesses to have people lower their face masks following Mangione’s arrest.
There’s still more than a month until Inauguration Day, but President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is already off to a rocky start.
Trump’s picks for top jobs in his administration were making the rounds on Capitol Hill yesterday ahead of potential confirmation hearings next month.
Trump has announced two of the highest-profile ambassador jobs — but many of the most significant ones are still to come.
A group of human rights activists, former corrections officials, and families of crime victims asked President Biden to use his clemency power to take all 40 inmates off federal death row before he hands over power to Trump.
Biden has effectively disappeared from the radar in the wake of Democrats’ bruising electoral loss.
Lara Trump will step down as co-chair of the RNC as she considers a number of potential options with her father-in-law set to return to the White House. Among those possibilities is replacing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the likely next secretary of state.
“It is something I would seriously consider,” she told The AP in an interview. “If I’m being completely transparent, I don’t know exactly what that would look like. And I certainly want to get all of the information possible if that is something that’s real for me.”
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky expressed “deep gratitude” for the “strong resolve” shown by Trump to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, after the pair met for three-way talks organized by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Saturday.
The president-elect used a photo of Jill Biden smiling at him to promote his fragrances. Jimmy Kimmel thinks that’s because Melania has never smiled at him on camera.
Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, signaled that she would not oppose Pete Hegseth’s bid for defense secretary, hinting at a turnabout after days of hectoring by Trump’s hard-right supporters who threatened political retribution if she failed to fall into line.
More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
The letter marks the first time in recent memory that Nobel laureates have banded together against a Cabinet choice, according to Richard Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine, who helped draft it.
New York would offer a one-time payment of up to $500 to low- and middle-income taxpayers to help offset higher costs brought on by inflation in recent years under a plan announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The proposal, which Hochul intends to include in next year’s state budget, would send $3 billion in refunds to roughly 8.6 million New Yorkers.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres has become a political thorn in Hochul’s side in recent weeks and is now using that posture to pressure her into signing a state spending transparency bill.
State Sen. Kevin Thomas said that the state Democratic Party chair, Jay Jacobs, offered him something in exchange for dropping out of a congressional race – which could violate the law. Jacobs denies this happened.
Every school district in New York must revert to teaching phonics in prekindergarten through third grade, starting this fall, the Board of Regents decided.
A onetime aide to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has voluntarily dismissed a federal lawsuit she had filed against him and several of his aides alleging he sexually harassed and smeared her after she became the second woman to publicly accuse him of misconduct.
January will mark three years since mobile sports betting was legalized in New York. And while the market has already generated billions of dollars in wagers, it continues to pique concerns about gambling addiction.
A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.
A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely ’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.
Cheers and shouts broke out in the courtroom as the jury announced its verdict of not guilty on the remaining charge of criminally negligent homicide. Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, was escorted out of the room after raising his voice following the verdict.
As New York politicians split along partisan lines in their reactions to a jury’s acquittal of Penny on a charge of criminally negligent homicide, Mayor Adams walked a careful line down the middle.
Adams has become more outspoken about his desire to detain “dangerous” immigrants, a view more closely aligned with Trump.
Adams’ administration has chosen two foreign firms to run the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, raising concerns in some national-security circles because the president’s Marine One chopper uses it.
The New York City Council and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams are taking the Adams administration to court over the mayor’s emergency executive orders suspending parts of a law banning solitary confinement in the city’s jails.
The Council’s lawsuit argues the mayor violated New York State Executive Law 24, which states the mayor of a municipality can declare an emergency only in the event of an extreme situation such as a disaster or public emergency.
A coalition of housing advocates and renters launched “Tenants Not Tourists,” a campaign to challenge New York City Council’s recent introduction of a bill that critics say threatens to exacerbate the city’s housing crisis.
An NYPD sergeant who made more than $200,000 last year including nearly $55,000 in overtime assigned to a headquarters unit was arrested Saturday for allegedly shoplifting cough medicine, according to officials, records and police sources.
Macy’s just staged a fire sale to kick off the holidays – only this time the discount was on a chunk of real estate in downtown Brooklyn.
Manhattan remains the peak of fine dining, at least according to the anonymous inspectors of the Michelin tire company.
Jason T. Schofield, Rensselaer County’s former Republican elections commissioner, was sentenced yesterday to a year of probation and a $2,000 fine for charges related to ballot fraud in the 2021 elections.
The chairman of the Saratoga Springs Republican Committee has filed another lawsuit — this time to force the Saratoga County Board of Elections to hold an election early next year to fill the seat for public safety commissioner.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation yesterday scaled back its week-long hunt for hiker Leo DuFour from an “active search” to a “limited continuous” one.
National Grid awarded Regan Development, the owner of the Lion Factory affordable housing complex in Troy, a $1 million grant to install geothermal system that heats and cools.
NY CREATES, the nonprofit that oversees the Albany NanoTech complex on Fuller Road, will partner with the Japan External Trade Organization on computer chip research and development.
Another new tenant is coming to Stuyvesant Plaza, and the Capital Region, next year. Lifestyle brand Anthropologie is slated to join the remodeled outdoor shopping center in late 2025.
Several weeks before Jay-Z was accused in a lawsuit of raping a minor with Sean Combs, he received a letter from a plaintiff’s lawyer threatening to “immediately file” a “public lawsuit” against him unless he agreed to resolve the matter.
A Nevada commissioner ruled resoundingly against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust to consolidate his eldest son Lachlan’s control of his media empire and lock in Fox News’s right-wing editorial slant.
The 82nd Golden Globes nominations were announced yesterday and the unconventional musical “Emilia Pérez” had plenty to sing about: The Netflix film topped all movies with 10 nominations, followed by “The Brutalist” and “Conclave.”
Photo credit: George Fazio.
