A tale of two media environments: in the US, journalistic freedom is increasingly under threat from demonising rhetoric and the violent personal targeting of reporters; while in Ethiopia, the country’s new leader has opened the gate to press freedom. What can we learn from both experiences?

Human rights advocates fear the Tasmanian Government's failure to make a submission against the Federal Government's religious freedom draft bill would severely undermine the state's anti-discrimination laws.

It has been 31 years since Anne-Marie Culleton was raped and murdered while she slept in her Darwin home. Her sister Eileen is now urging South Australia's Parole Board to keep killer Jonathan Bakewell behind bars.

Visually impaired children at a surfing event in the NSW Hunter region are encouraged to get into sports and not let their disability hold them back.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In a 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 dispute involving the standing of a tax exempt claimant to intervene in a challenge to an unrelated action on the constitutionality of claimed exemptions, IRC sections 107 and 265(a)(6), judgment of the district court denying intervention is affirmed in part and vacated in part because motion to intervene as a matter of right is thwarted by the presumption of adequate representation, where the district court erred in apply an incorrect rule on the issue of permissive intervention.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Held that an organization lacked standing to bring a facial challenge to an Internal Revenue Service test for determining certain tax liabilities. The conservative issue-advocacy organization contended that the test was unconstitutionally vague.

Pete Buttigieg discusses the role of federal government.

The AFP’s media raid warrant gets slapped down by the High Court.  Plus, Trump and the media’s latest bout, Boris Johnson gets released from “prison”, the Daily Mail find a bogus Barnsey, and an angry shop keeper flips the bird.

Would you like to leave the rat-race and replace your 9-5 with network marketing jobs? Here are 5 tips to financial freedom.

Angels star Shohei Ohtani picked up a new skill in the offseason, obtaining his California driver's license in November.

"We're writing off too many people," Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) says in "Immigration Battle," a feature film presentation from FRONTLINE and Independent Lens that airs tonight on PBS.

The following article, Legal Immigrant in Michigan Sends a Message to MI Gov Whitmer and Media Criticizing Freedom-Loving Protesters, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

The media and even some governors are trying to paint the Americans who are protesting to open businesses up as racists and even Nazis. The Governor of Michigan recently made a derogatory statement about the protesters implying they are racists. Painting a negative picture of the people who want their freedom and businesses demonizes our […]

Continue reading: Legal Immigrant in Michigan Sends a Message to MI Gov Whitmer and Media Criticizing Freedom-Loving Protesters ...

Invitation Only

Event participants

Leandro Prados de la Escosura, Professor, Economic History, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 

1 February 2014

Substantial gains in world human development have been achieved since 1870, but research shows that the main improvement actually occurred between the First World War and 1970.

Under 35s Forum

Event participants

Research Event

Event participants

Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Head of Technology and Human Rights, Amnesty International
Professor David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
Chair: Sonya Sceats, Associate Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House

Background: ⁶⁸Ga PSMA PET CT (PSMA) is increasingly used in men with biochemical recurrence (BCR) post radical prostatectomy (RP), but its longer term prognostic / predictive potential in these men is unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of PSMA PET for 3 year freedom from progression (FFP) in men with BCR post RP undergoing salvage radiotherapy (sRT). Methods: This prospective multi-center study enrolled 260 men between 2015 and 2017. Eligible patients were referred for PSMA with rising PSA following RP. Management following PSMA was recorded but not mandated. PSMA protocols were standardised across sites and reported prospectively. Clinical, pathological and surgical information, sRT, timing and duration of androgen deprivation (ADT), 3 year PSA results and clinical events were documented. FFP was defined as a PSA rise ≤ 0.2ng/mL above nadir post sRT, with no additional treatment. Results: The median PSA was 0.26ng/mL (IQR 0.15 - 0.59) and follow-up 38 months (IQR 31-43). PSMA was negative in 34.6% (90/260), confined to prostate fossa 21.5% (56/260), pelvic nodes 26.2% (68/260), and distant disease 17.7% (46/260). 71.5% (186/260) received sRT, 38.2% (71/186) to the fossa only, 49.4% (92/186) fossa + pelvic nodes and 12.4% (23/186) nodes alone/SBRT. PSMA was highly predictive of FFP at 3 years following sRT. Overall, FFP was achieved in 64.5% (120/186) of those who received sRT, 81% (81/100) with negative/fossa confined vs. 45% (39/86) for extra fossa disease (p<0.0001). On logistic regression PSMA was more independently predictive of FFP than established clinical predictors, including PSA, T-stage, surgical margin status or Gleason score (P < 0.002). 32% of men with a negative PSMA PET did not receive treatment. Of these, 66% (19/29) progressed, with a mean rise in PSA of 1.59ng/mL over the 3 years. Conclusion: PSMA PET result is highly predictive of FFP at 3 years in men undergoing sRT for BCR following RP. In particular, men with negative PSMA PET or disease identified as still confined to the prostate fossa demonstrate high FFP, despite receiving less extensive radiotherapy and lower rates of additional ADT than those with extra fossa disease.

Research Event

Event participants

Jon Temin, Director, Africa Programs, Freedom House
Chair: Rachael Jolley, Editor-in-chief, Index on Censorship 

Privacy isn't dead, but face surveillance technology might kill it, says civil rights advocate Kade Crockford. In an eye-opening talk, Kade outlines the startling reasons why this invasive technology -- powered by often-flawed facial recognition databases that track people without their knowledge -- poses unprecedented threats to your fundamental rights. Learn what can be done to ban government use before it's too late.

Social psychology -- Australia.

Australia -- History -- 1901-1945.

Rahul Mazumder, Haolei Weng.

Source: Electronic Journal of Statistics, Volume 14, Number 1, 1348--1385.

Abstract:
Estimating a low rank matrix from its linear measurements is a problem of central importance in contemporary statistical analysis. The choice of tuning parameters for estimators remains an important challenge from a theoretical and practical perspective. To this end, Stein’s Unbiased Risk Estimate (SURE) framework provides a well-grounded statistical framework for degrees of freedom estimation. In this paper, we use the SURE framework to obtain degrees of freedom estimates for a general class of spectral regularized matrix estimators—our results generalize beyond the class of estimators that have been studied thus far. To this end, we use a result due to Shapiro (2002) pertaining to the differentiability of symmetric matrix valued functions, developed in the context of semidefinite optimization algorithms. We rigorously verify the applicability of Stein’s Lemma towards the derivation of degrees of freedom estimates; and also present new techniques based on Gaussian convolution to estimate the degrees of freedom of a class of spectral estimators, for which Stein’s Lemma does not directly apply.

A Bible study for the guardians of the pupils in Chiyembekezo School in Ntaja, Malawi, is bringing freedom to the women who attend.

Forty-seven women from all over the world are climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya this week to raise awareness of global injustices against women and children.

The Freedom Climbers have completed the first leg of their trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro. They climb to raise awareness and funds to combat slavery.

After five days of strenuous hiking and altitude sickness, the Freedom Climbers rejoice at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, fittingly called Uhuru (freedom) Peak.

150 gathered for the first Freedom Climb Conference in September to learn how to become advocates for oppressed women and children around the world.

The Freedom Climb team completes the first few days of the journey to Mt. Everest Base Came and Kala Patthar Peak. Please pray for them.

The Freedom Climbers remain encouraged through increasing altitudes and dropping temperatures as they continue upward to Mt. Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar Peak.

The Freedom Climb team has made it safely back to Kathmandu, and each climber is heading home.

The Freedom Climb becomes The Freedom Challenge to include more women in a movement to raise awareness, prayer and funds to combat slavery.

Forty women climb Machu Picchu to raise awareness about human trafficking during a five-day Freedom Challenge trek in Peru.

On 1 December, 22 women hiked Tongariro Alpine Crossing to raise awareness and funds for women and children trafficked in France and India.

About 110 men, women and children climbed five volcanoes in Auckland in the Freedom Climb New Zealand on Saturday, 16 August.

Balboa, Panama :: Crewmembers teach sewing skills to young mothers from a local tribe and donate sewing machines to the community.

At the heart of missions lies a passion for justice. In every community in which OM is involved, working for justice for the oppressed and vulnerable is part of ministry.

With the vision to raise the next generation of national leaders, OM Cambodia runs a children’s home and youth live-in centre in Phnom Penh.

Lots of companies do business in foreign countries, even Communist countries, but Google is getting singled out for its China plans as if it could bring down PRC all by itself.

A French man met in the street prefered to live without God, thinking He would take away his freedom.

CNA Staff, May 1, 2020 / 12:09 pm (CNA).- The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected Turkey's inclusion in a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, charging that the report comes from a “biased mindset”.

“The report contains baseless, unaccredited and vague allegations as in the past years while trying to portray isolated incidents as violations of religious freedoms through far-fetched accusations,” Hami Aksoy, a spokesperson for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said April 29.

“The importance attached by Turkey to protect religious freedoms, including those of religious minorities, is expressed at the highest level by our Government officials. Our authorities make it clear that any harm to the religious freedoms of our citizens will not be tolerated,” Aksoy added.

In its 2020 report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department add Turkey, as well as 10 other countries, to a “Special Watch List” of countries where abuses of religious minorities are taking place, but not at a level as severe as in those designated as “countries of particular concern.”

The commission wrote that “religious freedom conditions in Turkey remained worrisome” in 2019, “with the perpetuation of restrictive and intrusive governmental policies on religious practice and a marked increase in incidents of vandalism and societal violence against religious minorities.”

It cited the Turkish government's prevention of the election of board members for non-Muslim religious groups and its limitations on the election of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

The report added that Alevis, a group related to Shia Islam and the country's largest religious minority, “remained unable to gain official recognition for their gathering houses (cemevleri) as places of worship or to exempt their children from compulsory religious classes, despite European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings finding that these policies violated Alevis’ rights.”

According to the US commission, Turkish religious minorities “expressed concerns that governmental rhetoric and policies contributed to an increasingly hostile environment and implicitly encouraged acts of societal aggression and violence.”

The report also drew attention to the permission given for a museum, that was originally a Greek Orthodox church and later a mosque, to be reconverted into a mosque. It noted also that president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the same thing to happen to the Hagia Sophia, which has the same history.

USCIRF also said the Turkish government has “continued to dismiss, detain, and arrest individuals affiliated with, or accused of affiliation with, the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, for alleged complicity in a July 2016 coup attempt or involvement in terrorist activity.”

Gülen has lived in the US since 1999, and is considered a terrorist by the Turkish government.

The Turkish foreign ministry charged that Gülen's mention in the report “amounts to deliberately turning a blind eye” to the coup attempt, and added: “We invite the US authorities to earnestly examine the evidence we have provided” about the Gülen movement “and to engage in effective cooperation in line with the spirit of alliance in order to reveal the true nature of this terrorist organization.”

Aksoy added that the recommendation of adding Turkey to a “special watch list” for religious freedom “is a clear indication of the biased mindset behind it and the circles under whose influence it was drawn up.”

“In the report that is supposed to include global trends that threaten religious freedoms, the Commission does not mention a single word about xenophobia, Islamophobia and discrimination on religious grounds that is on the rise in the West and the US,” Aksoy stated.

“This clearly reveals that the purpose of the report is not to protect religious rights and freedoms. It is clear that the Commission, which has been accused of being anti-Muslim in the past, has drawn up this report based on its unwarranted agenda and priorities under the influence of circles that are hostile to Turkey, rather than objective criteria. We recommend the authors of this report to look in the mirror and engage in self-criticism.”

Earlier this year, Turkish authorities arrested a Syriac Orthodox priest on terrorism charges after he provided bread and water to members of a Kurdish separatist group that has been deemed illegal.

Gildelia Moromisato is starting a Freedom Climb initiative in Brazil after attending the annual conference of the OM ministry focused on oppressed women and children.

Brazil’s mission training programme provides practical experience and cross-cultural knowledge for participants heading overseas.

Antofagasta, Chile :: Logos Hope crewmembers tell men who've battled with addiction and crime about Jesus' love for them.

When/Where: Saturday, July 7th, 2018 @ 9:00am (Rain or Shine). Registration starts at 8am. Silver Lake Park, Dover, DE                               (Use Washington Street entrance off of State Street) We’re back and ready for all our great supporters to register for our annual ‘Freedom 5K!’ It’s not too late to convince your family and friends to come help […]

Activities to include demonstrations by the First Delaware Regiment and "Caesar Rodney in his Own Words," a historical play exploring the views of the famed Delaware patriot.