Statements Trump has made in the past have made people assume she first came to the US on a tourist visa. If that's true, then by modeling (nude or otherwise), she was working illegally in the US.
Naturally, this has caused a whole big kerfuffle, because it's August and news is slow Melania Trump's husband won the Republican presidential nomination by, among other things, being tough on unauthorized immigration.
We already knew Melania Trump was an immigrant. And honestly, Donald Trump's policies would cut legal immigration too. So if you wanted to call him a hypocrite, you could do so regardless.
But don't be obtuse. Models from Eastern Europe aren't really the immigrants that Trump and his supporters are worried about. They're worried about immigrants who they fear won't adopt American culture and values.
A joint report, published this week by Amnesty International and Human Rights First, alleges that refugees are being unlawfully held on the island of Nauru without adequate medical care and with no hope of release. Several of the refugees in the report, including children, had attempted suicide at least once.
The Australian government, which runs detention in Nauru, "strongly refutes" the allegations. Australia was mad it didn't get a chance to hear about them in advance (which would have been tricky, as it's blocked outside observation of Nauru's operations).
Australia's operations in Nauru, as well as a camp in Papua New Guinea, are the results of its policy over the past several years to detain asylum seekers offshore rather than allowing them to stay in Australia.
Amnesty and Human Rights First recognize this as a form of attempted deterrence: discouraging families from seeking asylum in Australia to begin with. It's a strategy that the US and Europe also take in handling asylum seekers, despite little evidence it works – and despite the fact that it dooms asylum seekers to harsh conditions in detention.
The Papua New Guinea detention site, on Manus Island, is in the process of being dismantled by a PNG judge, who ruled it was a violation of human rights.
The judge has asked Australia to show up for the hearings to see if it bears some responsibility for resettling the asylum seekers. Australia simply says it has nothing to do with the case.
The military government seized power in 2014 and released the draft constitution in 2015; it argues the new constitution will reduce corruption and entrench the reforms it's already made.
A Reuters analysis suggests that the military is seeking to restore stability to Thailand (which has had frequent coups) by assuming a permanent role in the country's politics and reducing the role of political parties.
That breakdown makes more sense when you consider that the government has essentially made it illegal to campaign against the referendum, and has been cracking down hard in the days before the election.
In one case, a pair of 8-year-olds were charged with obstructing the political process for tearing down a couple of pieces of pretty pink paper that turned out to be voter rolls.
"On the April day when Hilde broke the murder story, she was out covering the local Chocolate Stroll, 'sampling all the different kinds of chocolates — muffins, doughnuts, everything — milkshakes, chocolate mochas ...' she says, with the reverence of a candy-loving kid — when she got a call from her dad."
"The mayor of Stockton, California, was arrested on Thursday on a felony eavesdropping charge stemming from a strip poker game he is accused of surreptitiously recording at a summer camp he hosts for disadvantaged inner-city youths, prosecutors said."
