A coalition of civil society and journalists’ organizations called on the EU to act against the circulation and use of spyware in a joint statement issued on Wednesday. The demands for the EU’s next legislative term include a ban on the production, sale, and use of spyware and the introduction of safeguards against surveillance. According [...]

US climate rights watchdog Climate Rights International said in a report on Monday that the Kingfisher oil project along Lake Albert in Uganda fuels widespread human rights violations of the local population. The report stated that in addition to environmental damage that threatens their livelihoods, locals are subjected to forced evictions and disappearances, labor rights violations [...]

The president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko pardoned a German national who was sentenced to death in June, the government’s press service announced on Tuesday. Lukashenko’s statement has now commuted the German’s verdict to a life sentence. Rico Krieger, a German national and a former Red Cross employee, was convicted in June on terrorism and mercenary charges [...]

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) sent out 1000 draft orders to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men on Sunday. The move was ordered by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to equalize an increasing shortage of personnel which has been exacerbated due to casualties since the start of the war in Gaza. The move follows last month’s landmark judgment by [...]

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei defended a 2020 law which prevented a return to the JCPOA nuclear agreement in a meeting with Iranian members of parliament on Sunday. Sunday’s parliamentary session was also attended by President-elect Masoud Pezeskhian, who is seen as a reformist. Although Pezeskhian had announced that he would work more closely with [...]

Russia and Ukraine completed another exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) on Wednesday. The Russian defense ministry confirmed the exchange on Telegram, stating that all prisoners of war will receive adequate medical treatment. In a statement on X, Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenskyy confirmed the successful exchange, thanking the United Arabian Emirates (UAE) who mediated the [...]

Nicaragua on Tuesday ordered the closure and seizure of assets of Radio Maria, a Catholic radio station run by prominent government critic Bishop Rolando Alvarez. Alvarez was exiled to the Vatican after being released from house arrest on treason charges. The decision by the interior ministry was announced via the government’s official gazette. Taking full [...]

A Russian military court on Monday convicted and sentenced a playwright and a director to 6 years in jail over a play that allegedly justifies terrorism. The judge found director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk, who had been in pre-trial detention since May 2023, guilty under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian [...]

Spain’s Tribunal Supremo on Monday upheld arrest warrants for Catalonia’s former leader Carles Puigdemont and other Catalan separatists charged with embezzlement, ruling that a recent amnesty law does not relieve them of their penal responsibility. The politicians, currently living in exile, are facing charges connected to the organization of the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, which [...]

A record number of politically motivated crimes occurred in Germany last year, according to a report published by the country’s domestic intelligence agency on Tuesday. The report by the Bundesverfassungsschutz juxtaposes domestic crime statistics of 2023 with monitored data about interior threats, such as suspected extremist groups and movements, and partially connects the increase in [...]