A commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is resigning in protest over what she says are attempts to muzzle the panel.

Commissioner Kristina Arriaga cited a legislative attempt to “undermine the independence of the commissioners” to the point “where I can no longer be an effective advocate for religious freedom,” she told me.

While USCIRF commissioners have at times disagreed on various religious freedom issues, a commissioner resigning over being unable to perform her role effectively is unprecedented.

WASHINGTON—For several months in 2018, U.S. sanctions gutted the value of Turkish currency as Turkish authorities held American Pastor Andrew Brunson on phony charges. The United States lifted the sanctions once Turkey released Brunson, WORLD’s 2018 Daniel of the Year, in October of that year, proving U.S. economic pressure can be an effective tool in getting countries to uphold human rights. Now the U.S.

WASHINGTON—With the first public impeachment hearing completed, House Democrats and Republicans are fighting to win over a polarized American public to their interpretation of events.

WASHINGTON—The United States will repatriate one of its citizens who is suspected of fighting for Islamic State (ISIS), the Turkish Interior Ministry said Thursday. The man, identified by Turkish media as 39-year-old Mohammed Darwis B., got stuck in a militarized border zone when Turkey deported him and Greece refused to let him enter.

WASHINGTON—As the U.S. House of Representatives’ televised impeachment hearings kicked off Wednesday morning, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., called them “nothing less than an impeachment process in search of a crime.” Acting U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent are the first witnesses to testify in front of TV cameras. Both have already answered questions behind closed doors.

WASHINGTON—Survivors and relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting can sue the maker of the rifle used in the deadly tragedy, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. Gunman Adam Lanza, 20, used a Bushmaster XM15-E2S .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle to kill 20 first graders and six teachers in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012 before killing himself as police arrived.

A U.S. college student received a response to a message in a bottle he tossed into the ocean nine years ago. Max Vredenburgh posted a photo of the letter and reply on Twitter on Friday saying, “I am mind blown.”