Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday urged South African authorities to thoroughly investigate the assassination of an openly gay imam last week, demanding the country determine whether the killing was a hate crime and uphold its commitment to protecting all residents, including the LGBTQ+ community. HRW stated: South African authorities should intensify efforts to bridge [...]

The United States on Thursday declined to co-sponsor a draft UN General Assembly resolution marking three years since the invasion of Ukraine, according to a source for Interfax-Ukraine. The resolution, sponsored by more than 50 countries and scheduled for a vote on February 24, condemns Russian aggression and reaffirms a commitment “to the sovereignty, independence, [...]

The US Senate on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump’s appointee Kash Patel as the new director of the FBI with a party-line vote of 51-49. Only two Republican senators voted against confirmation. Arkansas Senator Lisa Murkowski and Maine Senator Susan Collins both voted nay, following through on vows to reject the nomination based on Patel’s partisan [...]

A key organizer of the Freedom Convoy protests that paralyzed Canada’s capital city for a month in 2022 was sentenced on Wednesday to three months of house arrest. Ontario Superior Court judge Charles Hackland also sentenced organizer Pat King to 12 months of probation, to begin once King’s house arrest ends. The sentence additionally includes [...]

US conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the administration of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, claiming the administration violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by issuing an executive order reversing withdrawals of oil and gas leases. The conservationists filed the suit in the US District Court for the District of Alaska, alleging that the [...]

A Montana judge on Wednesday struck down a state law defining sex in binary terms, finding that the law violated the Montana Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and privacy. Judge Leslie Halligan of the Montana Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County, denied the state’s motion for summary judgment and held that the plaintiffs, a group [...]

Media companies tied to US President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against Brazillian Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of violating a US-based far-right commentator’s right to free speech when issuing orders suspending social media accounts for spreading disinformation. The lawsuit, filed by Rumble Inc. and Trump Media & Technology Group, [...]

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child stated on Thursday that children are facing extreme violations of rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The committee, established to help protect child rights in its signatory states, including the DRC, has expressed concern over violence, abduction and military recruitment of children in the [...]

Amnesty International on Thursday condemned the US government for systematically violating the right to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border, asserting that current policies violate both domestic and international human rights obligations. In its briefing titled “Lives in Limbo: Devastating Impacts of Trump’s Migration and Asylum Policies,” Amnesty International detailed how executive actions and increased [...]

The US Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas announced on Tuesday that the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas sentenced former Guatemalan lawmaker Jose Armando Ubico Aguilar to 18 years in prison for international drug trafficking. US District Judge Michael Truncale rendered the verdict on February 11 after Ubico Aguilar pleaded [...]