Amnesty International on Thursday called on Ecuadorian authorities to drop all legal and financial penalties against activists behind the 2023 Yasuní Referendum, warning that the looming fines are part of a broader crackdown on civic space and dissent in the country. The Yasuní Referendum was a national ballot initiative to bar oil drilling within Yasuní [...]

South Africa on Tuesday appealed to its fellow African governments to cover the full cost of deporting more than 80,000 undocumented migrants to their respective countries, presenting each nation with a bill for the airfare, ground transport, and processing of its citizens currently detained or awaiting removal from South African soil. According to the South [...]

Ousted South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday was sentenced to a suspended 18-month prison sentence by the Seoul Central District Court for lying during his 2022 campaign. Yoon was indicted over misrepresenting his connections to a fortune teller, who had connections to the controversial Unification Church, as well as lying about his connections [...]

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday called for greater cooperation among African states in tightening immigration enforcement regimes. The speech was part of the opening address to the Pan-African Parliament. Based in Midrand, South Africa, the Parliament serves as the legislative body of the African Union. Ramaphosa spoke extensively on the need to harmonize [...]

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday issued a formal warning, cautioning the international community against the increasingly sophisticated, highly adaptive, and technologically advanced nature of international crime syndicates that are currently expanding their operations across Southeast Asia. Entitled “An Interconnected Criminal Ecosystem: Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment for South-East Asia,” [...]

A French appeals court on Tuesday upheld politician Marine Le Pen’s conviction for embezzling EU funds but reduced her ban on holding elected office. The Paris Court of Appeal sentenced Le Pen to two years of imprisonment, one year of “at home electronic monitoring,” and a €100,000 fine. The ruling also imposed a 45-month ban [...]

A UN expert panel condemned the latest murder of a Mexican human rights activist on Wednesday, and called for a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation by state authorities. Sael Silva Cisneros, a prominent lawyer and advocate for Afro-Mexican and LGBTQ rights, was killed in an attack outside the town of Cuajinicuilapa on June 5, shortly [...]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announced on Tuesday that Cambodia will initiate a “compulsory conciliation” with Thailand over a maritime boundary dispute under the mediation of the UN. At issue is the so-called Overlapping Claims Area (OCA) in the Gulf of Thailand. The area is believed to be rich in natural gas. The UN Convention [...]

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel’s treatment of detained flotilla activists is “appalling” and “unacceptable” during a call between the two on Monday. This marks the latest in a wave of backlash after Israel’s Minister of Public Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, posted a video of himself taunting bound and kneeling [...]

The Federal Court of Australia fined X (formerly Twitter) aooroximately $465,000 USD in a decision on Thursday. The fine stems from the company’s failure to disclose information to Australia’s online safety watchdog regarding the steps it had taken to prevent child exploitation on the site. X has also been ordered to pay the $71,000 court [...]