The National Rifle Association is suing the city and county of San Francisco and its Board of Supervisors over a unanimous vote to designate the NRA a domestic terrorist organization. The pro-gun group says lawmakers are trying to discriminate against people “based on the viewpoint of their political speech.”

In its Sept. 3 resolution, the board said San Francisco should “take every reasonable step” to limit any vendors and contractors with which it does business from also doing business with the NRA. It also said it is “urging other cities, states, and the federal government to do the same.”

The NRA calls the terrorist designation a “frivolous insult” — but it adds that the lawmakers’ actions also “pose a nonfrivolous constitutional threat.” The group says San Francisco is violating U.S. laws that protect free speech and association.

The terrorist-designation resolution is not yet official, as Mayor London Breed has not signed it. If she doesn’t endorse the bill within 10 days of passage, it will take effect without any other action. But she could also veto the resolution.

The NRA suit also warns against “reasonably expected chilling effects.”

Accusing the San Francisco board of using “McCarthyist elements” in an attempt to silence it and carry out a political vendetta, the NRA says the resolution “would chill a person of ordinary firmness from continuing to speak against gun control, or from associating… with the NRA.”

The resolution accuses the NRA of using its money and influence “to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence,” adding that the group “spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence.”

San Francisco’s resolution, which lacks explicit enforcement tools, describes the U.S. as being “plagued by an epidemic of gun violence, including over 36,000 deaths, and 100,000 injuries each year.” It also notes the mass shooting in July at the Gilroy Garlic Festival south of San Francisco, in which a gunman killed three people, including two children.

The measure’s sponsor, Supervisor Catherine Stefani, is a former prosecutor and a current gun violence prevention activist; she is a leader in the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. When her resolution was approved last week, Stefani was quoted by member station KQED as saying the NRA uses intimidation and threats to promote its agenda.

“When they use phrases like, ‘I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands’ on bumper stickers, they are saying reasoned debate about public safety should be met with violence,” Stefani said.

San Francisco’s move against the NRA follows recent efforts in Los Angeles and New York state, where officials have sought to pressure businesses to cut ties with the group. In its lawsuit, the NRA notes, “Courts have sustained First Amendment claims in both Los Angeles and New York.”

As his group responds to the San Francisco resolution, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre says, “This lawsuit comes with a message to those who attack the NRA: We will never stop fighting for our law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms.”

In their resolution, the San Francisco lawmakers state, “All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association’s influence.”

The United Nations’ human rights chief has released a long-delayed report on abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, despite substantial pressure from Beijing to block the report for the better part of a year.

The 48-page document concludes that “serious” human rights violations have been committed against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in the region in the name of counter-terrorism.

It also says “the extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention… may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

The report comes as Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, served out her last day in office, after announcing earlier that she was not seeking another term for “personal reasons.”

Xinjiang, a huge, resource-rich region in the west of China, is where the authorities since 2017 have arbitrarily detained and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uyghurs, as well as other historically Muslim minorities such as the Hui and Kazakhs.

China at first denied it was detaining ethnic minorities, but later came to characterize detention camps and the intensive digital surveillance and policing that blankets the region as counterterrorism and economic development initiatives.

However, former detainees in Xinjiang have described accounts of physical and mental torture in the region’s detention facilities and a network of expanded prisons. Leaked data and whistleblower accounts have turned up internal Chinese government documents confirming the extralegal detention of ordinary Uyghurs and the prison-like conditions in which they are held and “re-educated” to be loyal to the Chinese state.

The UN said it interviewed dozens of individuals with direct and firsthand knowledge of the situation in Xinjiang, including 26 who said they had been detained or worked in “various facilities” in the region since 2016.

“Allegations of patterns of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence,” the UN report said.

It called on China to take a number of steps, including releasing detainees, undertaking a full review of the legal framework for counter-terrorism work in the region, investigating allegations of rights violations, and providing “adequate remedy and reparation” to victims.

Before the report was released, China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said Beijing was “firmly opposed” to it.

“We all know so well that the so-called Xinjiang issue is a fabricated lie [made] out of political motivations, and its purpose definitely is to undermine China’s stability and to obstruct China’s development,” he told reporters.

Bachelet, the former president of Chile, expressed a desire to visit the region herself after beginning her tenure as the UN’s top human rights officer in 2018.

In May this year, she finally managed to visit Xinjiang as part of a controversial, six-day fact-finding mission, which human rights activists criticized for being highly stage-managed by Chinese authorities. On the visit, she also talked to China’s leader Xi Jinping by video, a conversation in which Chinese media quoted her as praising the country’s human rights record.

“She expressed admiration for China’s efforts and achievements in eliminating poverty, protecting human rights and realizing economic and social development,” according to a readout from China’s state news agency Xinhua.

But nearly 10 months after Bachelet floated the idea of putting together a report on Xinjiang’s human rights conditions, her office had yet to finalize a date, confounding diplomats and activists.

Reuters reported earlier this summer that Chinese diplomats at the UN were circulating a petition lobbying other countries to help China bury the report.

And as late as this week, Bachelet appeared to backpedal on her commitment to release the report, saying that there was “tremendous pressure to publish or not publish.” She said her office received “substantial input” from China on the report, which they had to review before releasing it.

Human rights groups say China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has been rapidly building up coercive leverage within the multinational institution in part to stymie meaningful investigation into human rights abuses.

“China’s introduced competing narratives at the UN that try to block or weaken UN resolutions on civil society and human rights,” said Maya Wang, a senior China researcher at advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

Michele Kelemen contributed reporting.

A database of reports of UFOs now includes about 400 incidents, up from 143 assessed in a report released about a year ago, a Navy intelligence official told lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

The military’s 2021 report said no evidence of aliens had been found. Scott W. Bray, the deputy director of Naval intelligence, told lawmakers that they still haven’t uncovered anything “nonterrestrial in origin,” even though there are incidents they can’t explain.

None of the documented objects had attempted to communicate with U.S. aviators, and no attempt had been made to communicate with them, he said, as they all appeared to be unmanned.

Reports of unidentified flying objects – now called unexplained aerial phenomena or UAPs by the military – have been increasing, said Bray. He cited improved sensors, an increase in drones and other non-military unmanned aerial systems, and “aerial clutter” such as Mylar balloons as causes for the uptick.

Encouraging more pilots to come forward

Incidents in the 2021 report date as far back as 2004 and were based on both sensor data and observations by military aviators, said Bray.

Many of the latest entries do not have sensor data — they’re from people coming forward with older stories that they chose not to report at the time, Bray said. That’s evidence that the military’s drive to destigmatize such reports is working, he added.

“Navy and air force crews now have step-by-step procedures for reporting UAPs on their kneeboard, in the cockpit,” Bray said.

It’s an important effort, said Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., who noted that skepticism around UFOs likely has led pilots to avoid making the reports, or getting laughed at when they did.

Transparency vs. secrecy

Tuesday’s session, the first public hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years, also included testimony from Ronald S. Moultrie, the Pentagon’s top intelligence official. He noted the competing needs for transparency and secrecy in the hearing.

Moultrie noted that he’s a science fiction fan, and that simple human curiosity means that “we want to know what’s out there just like you want to know what’s out there.” But he added that his top goal was to keep U.S. military personnel and bases safe.

“We are also mindful of our obligation to protect sensitive sources and methods,” Moultrie said in his opening remarks. “Our goal is to strike that delicate balance – one that will enable us to maintain the public’s trust while preserving those capabilities that are vital to the support of our service personnel.”

“We do not want potential adversaries to know exactly what we see or understand,” Moultrie said later in the hearing, which was followed by a closed-door, classified session.

As the effort moves forward, Moultrie told lawmakers, a major focus will be on improving cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration and other government agencies.

In a back-and-forth with Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, Bray agreed that standardizing the civilian reporting process would also be useful. While the military’s database does include some civilian reports, the vast majority have come from within the military.

It’s the first congressional hearing held on the subject since a push by then-Rep. Gerald Ford led to an Air Force report and hearing in 1969.