Ralph Alswang, White House photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, declined to answer questions from the US House Oversight Committee on Monday, following the Justice Department’s (DOJ) release of unredacted Epstein files to congressional leaders. Republican committee chair James Comer announced that Maxwell would be exercising her Fifth Amendment privilege after she was subpoenaed to discuss her involvement in [...]

(Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Editor’s note: This story is part of ongoing coverage of the lead up to Mangione’s trial. Read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Days 5-7, Day 8, and Day 9 of state suppression hearings on the case. Luigi Mangione’s state trial is set to begin on June 8, Judge Gregory Carro of the [...]

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Opening statements in a landmark trial involving some of the world’s biggest social media companies, including Google, YouTube, Meta, and TikTok, began on Monday to determine the platforms’ alleged harmful effects on children. The case will test claims about addiction and whether the tech giants can be held liable for harming children or if they [...]

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The X app, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The UN’s top human rights official on Monday warned of increasing atrocities in Sudan and demanded the international community take quick action to de-escalate violence in the country. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk told member states at the Human Rights Council in Geneva that “we can only expect worse to come” unless international action [...]

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VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado on Monday sounded the alarm via X on the re-arrest of former senior politician Juan Pablo Guanipa, raising renewed concerns over arbitrary detention and political repression in the country.  According to Machado’s public statements on social media, Guanipa, former vice president of the Venezuelan national assembly, was detained by [...]

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A US federal judge on Monday temporarily halted her prior order requiring the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to release funds to New York and New Jersey for the Hudson Tunnel Project, to allow the administration time to appeal. The order denied the Trump administration’s request for a longer stay, only granting the pause until [...]

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The Hong Kong Court of First Instance jailed media tycoon and Apple Daily newspaper founder Jimmy Lai for 20 years on Monday following his national security conviction in December. This marks the latest development in a years-long legal battle and the heaviest sentence since the promulgation of the 2020 National Security Law. Lai was one of the [...]

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Nicaragua ended visa-free travel for Cuban citizens on Sunday, cutting off a pathway for Cubans seeking to enter the US. The order requires Cuban citizens to now carry more than an ordinary passport to travel in Nicaragua. The move is a shift away from Nicaragua’s “visa-free” policy for Cuban citizens, implemented in 2021 to promote [...]

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Guillaume Paumier, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

France’s former culture minister resigned from his leading role at a French cultural institute, Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), after the US Department of Justice’s recent “Epstein files” release revealed financial links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prompting a tax investigation. Jack Lang, who served as cultural minister in under president François Mitterrand, is accused [...]

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Cuban authorities are escalating surveillance and harassment of families of political prisoners while denying adequate medical care to jailed dissidents, Amnesty International said Monday. The human rights organization reported that relatives of prisoners of conscience face police cordons around their homes, movement restrictions, and threats, and that these actions are occurring in the absence of [...]

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