By Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Pope Leo XIV warned Monday of the dangers presented by artificial intelligence (AI) systems, citing the threat of “increasingly autonomous weapons systems practically beyond human reach to govern effectively.” The topic of AI regulation was addressed in his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, or magnificent humanity, on safeguarding the human person in the time of AI. [...]

C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel’s treatment of detained flotilla activists is “appalling” and “unacceptable” after a call between the two on Monday. This marks the latest in a wave of backlash after Israel’s Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, posted a video of him tormenting bound and detained [...]

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A 19th century technical illustration depicting the lower deck of a ship transporting enslaved people across the Atlantic Ocean.

No amount of money can pay for slavery and colonialism, and offering it, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. argues, is itself an insult. That was the premise the Ghanaian journalist and Pan-Africanist — widely known as “Comrade Kwesi Pratt” — brought to the University of Cape Coast’s Faculty of Law this month in a public lecture on [...]

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Pulakit Singh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Samridh Chaturvedi is a JURIST correspondent and a third-year law student at the School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University) where he covers legal, policy, and human rights developments in India. On May 22, 2026, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale, referred a set [...]

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At a press conference on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General for National Fraud Enforcement Colin McDonald announced that federal charges were being brought against 15 defendants accused of participating in fraudulent schemes in Minnesota. These individuals allegedly stole funds from Medicaid and other social service programs accumulating over $90 million in losses. McDonald stated that at [...]

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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday condemned the forced repatriations of refugees and asylum-seekers to Afghanistan by countries in the name of concerns over national security or economic strains, deeming it a clear violation of international human rights law.  In emphasizing the urgency of the humanitarian crisis affecting this marginalized group, [...]

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A policy shift announced Friday by US Citizenship and Immigration Services stands to alter the most common pathway to lawful permanent residence in the United States, requiring most foreign nationals already in the country to leave and apply for a green card through a US consulate abroad. Former USCIS officials estimate that roughly one million [...]

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On May 18, President Donald Trump moved to voluntarily dismiss his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), just two days before US District Judge Kathleen Williams imposed a May 20 deadline requiring both sides to argue whether the lawsuit involved unconstitutional collusion or executive self-dealing. The dismissal came as the Department of [...]

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othree, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Taiwan’s three-day Review Meeting on its National Reports on the Two International Human Rights Covenants concluded, followed by a press conference, on May 15. The review committee expressed concern over the operation of the Constitutional Court, which currently functions with only eight incumbent justices, out of the statutory total of 15. The Constitutional Court had [...]

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Chris Van Hollen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Federal Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville on Friday dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that the charges were punitive for challenging his deportation last year. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March 2025, despite an October 2019 “withholding of removal” issued by the Board of [...]

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