In a preliminary hearing Thursday, prosecutors requested a Rome court to place four Egyptian security officials on trial over their alleged involvement in the murder of Giulio Regeni. Regeni, an Italian PhD student, disappeared and was found dead in Cairo in February 2016. His body showed evidence of significant trauma, and it was suspected that Regeni’s involvement [...]
The Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG) recorded the largest-ever number of Austrian anti-Semitic incidents in 2020, detailing more than 580 incidents in its 2020 annual report released Monday. These incidents ranged from physical attacks and vandalism to verbal abuse and anti-Semitic commentary online, and notably included incidents linked to coronavirus lockdowns. The IKG uses the [...]
A rally in Japan on Thursday highlighted major opposition to proposed immigration reform currently under consideration in the National Diet. The proposed reform is seen as an even further tightening of Japan’s selective refugee system. The rally, “Open the Gate For All”, was attended by opposition lawmakers and human rights organizations like Amnesty International Japan and [...]
The French government bears significant responsibility for enabling the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, according to a Monday report from the Rwandan government. The report was commissioned by the Rwandan government in 2017 and compiled by Robert Muse of the Washington, DC, law firm of Levy Firestone Muse. While the report acknowledges French humanitarian intervention after the [...]
A bipartisan group of US senators reintroduced a bill Thursday that would prevent a president from unilaterally deciding to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or for using any public funds to do so, without the approval of Congress. The legislation reintroduces a 2018 bill that failed to progress out of committee. This resolution [...]
New Zealand announced the introduction of legislation Tuesday that will make it the first country in the world to require its financial sector to disclose the impacts of climate change on its business. The legislation, The Financial Sector (Climate-related Disclosure and Other Matters) Amendment Bill has been introduced to New Zealand’s Parliament and is scheduled [...]
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) announced Friday that it would file Objections and Unfair Labor Practice Charges (ULPs) against Amazon with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the wake of the RWDSU’s unsuccessful union election this year at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, fulfillment center. The RWDSU is alleging that Amazon illegally interfered [...]
The appeal of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak began at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya on Monday, as Najib attempts to overturn his 2020 conviction on corruption charges related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. Najib’s conviction arose from charges involving money laundering, abuse of power, and criminal breach of trust from [...]
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced Thursday that the popular video-sharing social media app TikTok would be unblocked in Pakistan after the Peshawar High Court rescinded its March ban on the Chinese app over concerns of alleged “obscene content . . . unacceptable for Pakistani society.” The PTA announced that while the ban would be [...]
A court in Crimea sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to 6.5 years in a penal colony Monday for violation of Russian law on membership in an extremist organization. The accused, Viktor Stashevskiy, was tried in the Gagarinsky District Court of the City of Sevastopol for continuing activities and promoting the ideas of Jehovah’s Witnesses, holding meetings [...]
