A Moscow court on Wednesday ordered former Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov held in custody as authorities investigate “major fraud” allegations ahead of his June 15 trial, according to state news agency TASS. Smirnov and his first deputy, Alexei Dedov, are accused of embezzling 1 billion rubles ($12.17 million) from public funds intended for building [...]

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a law that would significantly restrict the rights to freedom of association and expression in the country on Friday, according to Human Rights Watch. The law, the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Act 2025, was originally proposed in 2021 but failed to obtain presidential assent in 2023. It establishes a [...]

Gambian national Michael Sang Correa was convicted by a Colorado jury for participating in the torture of victims in 2006, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Tuesday. Correa was a part of a paramilitary unit known as the “Junglers,” run by Yahya Jammeh, dictator and former Gambian president. The victims told the jury that [...]

US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs granted universities and university advocacy groups relief Wednesday when she approved their motion for a temporary restraining order on the federal Department of Energy’s new “Rate Cap Policy.” The DOE announced its new policy on April 11. The policy will cut funding for indirect costs that support research at [...]

The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that trans women are not legally recognised as women under the Equality Act 2010. The case arose after the Scottish Parliament passed the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, which aimed to include transgender women in quotas to achieve gender balance on public sector boards. The judges [...]

Chief Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday that there is “probable cause” to hold the government in contempt for defying his earlier order to halt the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on March 15, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, [...]

Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal dismissed a prominent challenge to the federal government’s 2020 ban on assault-style firearms on Tuesday. The ruling upheld the legality of the government’s decision to prohibit over 1,500 models of firearms deemed by Ottawa to be “assault-style” and unsuitable for civilian ownership. The challenge was led by the Canadian Coalition [...]

A federal judge in Texas vacated a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulation on Tuesday. The ruling by Judge Mark Pittman, a federal district court judge for the Northern District of Texas, removes many previous caps from credit card late fees. This comes amid a flurry of court decisions involving the CFPB, as the Trump [...]

The Associated Press (AP) filed a motion on Wednesday seeking to ensure immediate compliance with the injunction imposed last week that ordered the White House to allow AP reporters access to the press pool. The injunction was filed just one day after information was leaked regarding a new White House press policy that would once [...]

The Tunisian government has made arbitrary detention a central instrument of state policy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published Wednesday, alleging a systematic effort to quash dissent and stifle civil and political freedoms. According to the report, authorities have increasingly relied on vague anti-terrorism and conspiracy charges to jail critics, political opponents, [...]