Republican members of Congress have moved to prevent the release of the ‘Epstein files’, previously undisclosed documentation about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that is causing an internal political battle among conservatives. To discuss, we SPOTLIGHT Lenese Herbert. Herbert is a professor of law at Howard University School of Law, where she teaches evidence, criminal procedure, criminal law, social media and the law, and administrative law. Prior to entering law teaching, Professor Herbert practiced extensively as agency counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in both the Criminal and Civil Divisions under former U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Eric Holder. Herbert co-authors Constitutional Criminal Procedure, a problem-based casebook adopted in a number of law schools across the U.S., as well as Criminal Law: Skills and Values. Media includes: Voice of America, Al-Jazeera English, The Washington Post, NBC News Channel 4 (Washington, DC), WTTG Fox 5 (Washington, DC).
Conditions at "Alligator Alcatraz," a large-scale immigration jail in Florida, have been criticized as being "inhumane" by lawmakers. The Miami Herald also has reported that of 700 detainees, at least 250 had no criminal records. To discuss, we FEATURE Ranit Mishori. Mishori is a physician leader with over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of medicine, public health, and human rights. As a physician and advocate, she is widely recognized for her work with forced migrants, torture survivors, asylum seekers and women affected by sexual violence. She was medical director and co-founder of Georgetown’s Asylum Program, an initiative designed to provide medical evaluations to migrants seeking asylum in the US, while also functioning as a teaching opportunity for health professionals of all disciplines and specialties. Media includes: The Washington Post, The Hill, The Today Show, Parade Magazine, NPR.
The European Union has warned that trade with the U.S. will effectively end if President Trump's 30% tariff goes through. To discuss, we FEATURE Christine Abely. Abely is an assistant professor at New England Law, Boston. Her research focuses on sanctions and international trade (including export controls and import regulations), and her courses taught include international business transactions and compliance. She has presented to the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade and the Massachusetts Export Center. She is a licensed customs broker and a member of the American Society of International Law and Trade Experettes. She also previously served on the executive board of the Organization of Women in International Trade. Before working in academia, she practiced international trade and sanctions law at a firm. She has published opinion pieces on international trade issues in The Hill, Just Security, and others.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the gutting of Medicaid could have a disastrous impact on the United States healthcare system, leading to huge budget cuts to hospitals and the closure of rural hospitals. To discuss, we FEATURE Jane Nelson Bolin. Bolin is the the senior and regent professor at the Texas A&M College of Nursing and a the senior and regent professor at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. She is an attorney, and she teaches health law and ethics and human resource management for graduate students. She also serves as director of the Texas A&M Southwest Rural Health Research Center (SRHRC). Dr. Bolin's research focus is diabetes and chronic diseases, cancer prevention and screening, rural health disparities and health law, regulation and ethics. Extensive media experience.
Planned Parenthood is in danger under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would lead to the healthcare provider losing federal funding and the closure of up to 200 clinics. To discuss, we FEATURE Julie A. Jenkins. Jenkins is the clinicians in abortion care strategist & training program manager at the National Abortion Federation. She is a sexual and reproductive health nurse practitioner with more than 15 years of clinical experience across multiple organizations. Jenkins was previously the lead plaintiff in federal ACLU litigation challenging Maine’s physician-only abortion law, an effort that ultimately succeeded through state legislation. She was the Reproductive Health Access Project's national advanced practice clinicians cluster leader from the cluster’s inception in 2020 until she became CIAC liaison to the cluster in late 2022. Media includes: Politico, The Baltimore Sun, Jezebel, Ms. Magazine, Mother Jones.
Israel’s defence minister has proposed moving Palestians to a "humanitarian city" built on the ruins of Rafah. Israeli human rights lawyers and scholars have said the planned city would be a concentration camp and forcing Palestinians to move there is ethnic cleansing. To discuss, we FEATURE Noura Erakat. Erakat is a human rights attorney and a professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick Department of Africana Studies. Her research interests include humanitarian law, refugee law, national security law, and critical race theory. Erakat is the author of Justice for Some: Law As Politics in the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019). She has served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, as a legal advocate for the Badil Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights, and as the national grassroots organizer and legal advocate at the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. More recently, Erakat released a pedagogical project on the Gaza Strip and Palestine, which includes a short multimedia documentary, "Gaza In Context," that rehabilitates Israel’s wars on Gaza within a settler-colonial framework. Media includdes: Al Jazeera English, Democracy Now, The Hill, Huffington Post, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NPR.
In an effort to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Donald Trump has laid out plans to send weapons to Kviv. To discuss, we FEATURE Irina Tsukerman. Tsukerman is a human rights and national security lawyer based in New York. She runs a boutique national security law practice. She is a member of the American Bar Association's Energy and Environment and Science and Technology Sections. She is the Program Vice Chair in the Oil and Gas Subcommittee. In addition, Tsukerman is the president of Scarab Rising, Inc., a media and security strategic advisory, and the editor-in-chief of The Washington Outsider, a project of Scarab Rising, focused on foreign policy, geopolitics, security, and human rights. She has also published on a wide range of global issues touching on energy, geostrategy, strategical alliances, Great Power competition and its impact on geopolitics, domestic policy, and business, information security and digital rights/cybersecurity, big tech, terrorism and extremism, as well as issues in intelligence and counterintelligence. Extensive media experience.
Anti-government protests have spread across Kenya as a response to corruption and police brutality. This week alone, at least 38 people were killed and hundreds were injured at the hands of the police during the latest round of widespread demonstrations. To discuss, we FEATURE Sharon W. Kiburi. Kiburi is an independent Kenyan-based data journalist. She is very passionate about development stories with the incorporation of data. She hopes through the art of storytelling to influence and impact policies to serve the mass majority. She has a keen interest in development data features news in technology, human rights, health, agriculture and finance. She works closely with the association of freelance journalists who own and runs an online publication, talkafrica.co.ke, a regular contributor. She also contributes to Standard media group, Citizen Digital and Zenger News, among others.
Liz Theran
