The Dominican Republic Constructional Court ruling ruling invalidates two articles in the justice codes that imposed criminal penalties, including prison time, on service members who engaged in same-sex relationships. File Photo by Luis Rosario/EPA
The ruling invalidates two articles in the justice codes of both institutions that imposed criminal penalties, including prison time, on service members who engaged in same-sex relationships.
The regulations, in place since the mid-20th century, imposed penalties of up to one year in prison for officers and six months for enlisted personnel under the stated aim of “maintaining discipline and institutional morality.”
However, the high court found that the provisions violated fundamental rights, including privacy, equality before the law and the free development of one’s personality.
The decision responds to a direct constitutional challenge filed by Dominican attorneys Anderson Dirocie de León and Patricia Santana. According to the attorneys, the disciplinary codes of the National Police and the Armed Forces violated fundamental rights recognized in the Dominican Constitution and in human rights treaties the country has ratified.
The measure adopted by the Constitutional Court has prompted mixed reactions in the country.
Cristian Gonzales Cabrera, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said “for decades, these provisions forced LGBT officers to live in fear of punishment simply for who they are.”
“This ruling is a resounding affirmation that a more inclusive future is both possible and required under Dominican law,” Gonzales said.
Conservative groups in the country, especially those linked to evangelical churches, described the measure as an affront to moral values.
“This ruling is a direct blow to the moral, ethical and spiritual principles that have sustained our nation since its founding. This decision by the Constitutional Court is unconstitutional because it disregards the spirit, value framework and guiding principles established in the Constitution.”
The Dominican Bar Association called the ruling “unfortunate and unnecessary.”
In comments reported by Diario Libre, the association’s president, Trajano Potentini, said the Constitutional Court applied a constitutional test that does not apply to an area that, by its nature, relies on a work ethic, discipline and special subordination inherent to military and police institutions.
In the Dominican Republic, same-sex marriage remains illegal and high levels of stigma toward LGBTQ+ people persist.
With this ruling, the country joins Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela in eliminating similar discriminatory laws and policies that criminalized same-sex conduct among military personnel.
However, activists warn that although the ruling is historic, it does not by itself guarantee a cultural shift within the armed forces.
The judgment, which still must be implemented, marks a milestone in Dominican jurisprudence and could set a precedent for future reforms in other areas of public service.
Having etched his name into Republic of Ireland folklore, Troy Parrott let the tears flow.
At the end of a whirlwind 72 hours, the striker’s raw emotion was understandable. On Thursday, Parrott upstaged Cristiano Ronaldo with two goals to sink Portugal and take the Republic of Ireland’s play-off push into the final game.
Against Hungary, his penalty brought the Irish level after they fell behind to an early Daniel Lukacs header. Then, after Barnabas Varga’s stunning strike, he equalised again with a deft finish 10 minutes from time.
The Republic of Ireland needed a win to make the play-offs, and after substitute Johnny Kenny was denied, Parrott seized the match-winning moment when he latched on to Liam Scales’ header, poked the ball into the Hungary net and wheeled away in ecstasy in a heart-stopping finale at Puskas Arena.
“I’m really, really emotional. They’re tears of joy. Ah, what a night, what a night,” the AZ Alkmaar striker, who led the line in Evan Ferguson’s absence, told RTE.
“This is why we love football, because things like this can happen. Look, I love where I’m from, so this means the world to me. My family is here.
“It’s the first time I’ve cried in years as well, I really, really can’t believe it. Everyone is crying.
“I said against Portugal that this is what dreams are made of, but this tonight, I don’t think I’ll ever have a better night in my whole life.
“That is really a fairy tale. You can’t even dream about something like that. Honestly, I have no words to describe my emotions right now.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Portugal boss Roberto Martinez held a different opinion of the incident, and having defended his captain, took a swipe at Hallgrimsson for speaking about the referee in the build-up.
“The red card is just a captain that has never been sent off before in 226 games – I think that just deserves credit – and today, I thought it was a bit harsh because he cares about the team,” said Martinez.
“He was 60 minutes or 58 minutes in the box being grabbed, being pulled, being pushed and obviously when he tries to get away from the defender.
“I think the action looks worse than what it actually is, I don’t think it’s an elbow, I think it’s a full body, but from where the camera is, it looks like an elbow. But we accept it.
“The only thing that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth is at the press conference yesterday, your coach was talking about the aspect of the referees being influenced, and then a big centre-half falls on the floor so dramatically at the turn of Cristiano’s body.”
Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has named his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers with Evan Ferguson included despite struggling with an ankle problem.
The forward – on loan at Roma from Brighton, who scored in the 1-0 win against Armenia in October, picked up the injury against Parma on 29 October. However, he is included in the 25-man squad for the final two group games that begin at home to Portugal on Thursday, 13 November (19:45 GMT) before a trip to Hungary on Sunday, 16 November (14:00 GMT).
Hallgrimsson’s side go into the final round of matches in Group F sitting in third, one point behind Hungary who travel to Armenia in the first of their games, knowing qualification for the 2026 World Cup could be out of their grasp with a game to spare should they lose to runaway leaders Portugal.
Missing for that game will be Jayson Molumby and Ryan Manning through suspension, but both are included in the squad.
There is a return for Mark Sykes despite his club Bristol City revealing he would miss their next two games after sustaining a gash on his leg in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat by Blackburn Rovers.
With Callum O’Dowda out, Jimmy Dunne retains his place in the squad after coming in as a late replacement for the October internationals, while American-born 26-year-old Kevin O’Toole receives a call-up with the left-sided New York City player eligible through his grandfather.
However, there is no call for Celtic’s Johnny Kenny – despite scoring three goals in his last two games, including the opener in the League Cup semi-final win over Rangers at the weekend – even though Hallgrimsson is without the injured Sammie Szmodics.
“Death By Lightning,” premiering Thursday on Netflix, introduces itself as “a story about two men the world forgot,” and while it is undoubtedly true that few in 2025 will recognize the name Charles Guiteau, many will know James A. Garfield, given that he was one of only four assassinated American presidents. There are less well remembered presidents, for sure — does the name John Tyler ring a bell? — and assassins better known than Guiteau, but if you’re going to make a docudrama, it does help to choose a story that might be more surprising to viewers and comes with a murder built in. It is also, I would guess intentionally, a tale made for our times, with its themes of civil rights, income inequality, cronyism and corruption.
Indeed, most everything about the Garfield story is dramatic — a tragedy, not merely for the family, but for the nation. For the sense one gets from “Death by Lightning” and from the historical record it fairly represents, is that Garfield, killed after only 200 days in office, might have made a very good chief executive. (The stated source for the series is Candice Millard’s 2011 book “Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President”; Millard is also a voice in the more briefly titled, illuminating “American Experience” documentary “Murder of a President.”)
That the longtime Ohio congressman did not seek but was drafted for the job — a compromise chosen, against his protests, on the 36th ballot at the 1880 Republican National Convention, where he’d given a stirring speech to nominate a fellow Ohioan, Treasury Secretary John Sherman — made him, one might say, especially qualified for the job; unlike some politicians one might name, he was self-effacing and humble and not out for personal gain. But he saw, finally, that he had a chance to “fix all the things that terrify me about this republic,” most especially the ongoing oppression of Black citizens, a major theme of his inauguration speech (with remarks transferred here to a campaign address delivered to a crowd of 50,000 from a balcony overlooking New York’s Madison Square Park). “I would rather be with you and defeated than against you and victorious,” he tells a group of Black veterans gathered on his front porch, from which he conducted his campaign. (Some 20,000 people were said to have visited there during its course.)
Political machinations and complications aside, the narrative, which stretches two years across four episodes, is really fairly simple, even schematic, cutting back and forth between Garfield (Michael Shannon, between tours covering early R.E.M. albums) and Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), a drifter with delusions of grandeur, as they approach their historically sealed date with destiny. Garfield is goodness personified; we meet him on his farm, cooking breakfast for the family, planing wood to make a picnic table. (A table we will meet again.) Guiteau goes from one failed project to another, living it up on money stolen from his sister, running out on restaurant checks and rooming house bills, telling lies about himself he might well have thought were true, until he decides that politics is the place to make his mark. Under the impression that he was responsible for Garfield’s election, he believed the new president owed him a job — ambassador to France would be nice — and when none was coming, turned sour. A message from God, and the belief that he would save the republic, set him on a path to murder.
Matthew Macfadyen plays Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, in the miniseries.
(Larry Horricks / Netflix)
The series largely belongs to them — both actors are terrific, Shannon imbuing Garfield with a gravity leavened with kindness and humor, Macfadyen’s Guiteau, optimistically dedicated to his delusions yet always about to pop. But it’s a loaded cast. The ever-invaluable Betty Gilpin, in her fourth big series this year after “American Primeval,” “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” and “Hal & Harper,” plays Garfield’s wife, Crete, fully up on the political scene and free with her opinions. Shea Whigham is New York senator and power broker Roscoe Conkling, Garfield’s moral opposite, and the series’ villain, if you excuse Guiteau as mentally ill. (The jury didn’t.). As wise Maine Sen. James Blaine, Bradley Whitford exudes a convincing, quiet authority, honed over those years working in the pretend White House on “The West Wing.” All the men have been whiskered to resemble their historical models.
Where most of them, even Guiteau, remain consistent from beginning to end, it’s Nick Offerman’s Chester A. Arthur who goes on a journey. Conkling’s right hand, in charge of the New York Customs House — which generated a third of the country’s revenues through import fees — he’s offered the position of vice president to appease Conkling, New York being key to winning the election. Arthur begins as a thuggish, cigar-smoking, sausage-eating, drunken clown, until he’s forced, by events, and the possibility of inheriting the presidency, to reckon with himself.
When First Lady Crete Garfield wonders whether there should be a little extra security (or, really, any security at all) around her husband, he responds, “Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning — it’s best not to worry too much about either one,” giving the series its title and clearing up any confusion you may have had about its meaning. Indeed, Guiteau moves in and out of what today would be well guarded rooms with surprising ease, managing encounters (some certainly invented) with Crete, Blaine, a drunken Arthur and Garfield, whom he implores, “Tell me how I can be great, too.”
Created by Mike Makowsky, it isn’t free from theatrical effects, dramatic overreach or obvious statements, but as period pieces go, it’s unusually persuasive, in big and little ways. Only occasionally does one feel taken out of a 19th century reality into a 21st century television series. The effects budget has been spent where it matters, with some detailed evocations of late 19th century Chicago and Washington that don’t scream CGI. The first episode, which recreates the 1880 convention, held at the Interstate Exposition Building in Chicago, aligns perfectly with engravings of the scene and brings it to life, supporting the wheeling and dealing and speechifying in a way that one imagines is close to being there.
Because we know what’s coming, the series can be emotionally taxing, especially as a wounded Garfield lingers through much of the final episode, while being mistreated by his doctor, Willard Bliss (Zeljko Ivanek), who ignores the advice of the younger, better informed Dr. Charles Purvis (Shaun Parkes), the first Black physician to attend to a sitting president; many, including Millard, believe it was the doctor who killed him through a lack of sanitary precautions, and that Garfield might have recovered if he’d just been left alone, an idea the series supports.
But you can’t change history, as much as “Death By Lightning” makes you wish you could.
Iceland and Ukraine have also been placed in Group A3 alongside Sarina Wiegman’s side.
Qualifying for the World Cup, which will be held in Brazil, follows the same format as the Nations League and is split into three tiers.
Only the four group winners in League A will automatically qualify for the finals, with the remaining teams having to go through the play-offs for the remaining eight places.
Scotland have been paired with Belgium, Israel and Luxembourg in Group B4, while Wales will face the Czech Republic, Albania and Montenegro in Group B1.
Northern Ireland have been placed in Group B2 with Switzerland, Turkey and Malta, and the Republic of Ireland are in Group A2 alongside the Netherlands, France and Poland.
The qualifiers will be played across six matchdays, on a home and away basis, during 2026, starting on 3 March and finishing on 9 June.
Uefa has been allocated 11 places for the 32-team 2027 World Cup.
An additional European team could also qualify through Fifa’s intercontinental play-offs.
