Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan filed a criminal complaint against Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders with Turkish authorities Tuesday. In his complaint, Erdoğan alleges that Wilders insulted him on social media. Since assuming office in 2014, Erdoğan has consistently sued people over alleged insults, and thousands have been convicted. In Turkey, insulting the president carries a [...]

The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, approved on Wednesday a bill prioritizing national law in cases in which international treaties or rulings by international bodies conflict with the constitution. The bill still needs to pass the upper house of parliament, but is expected to do so unchallenged. President Vladimir Putin proposed the bill, [...]

Lord Iain Bonomy, a judge for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals that is handling the remaining business of the former international criminal courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, approved the transfer of Félicien Kabuga to The Hague Wednesday. Arrested in May in Paris after two decades as a fugitive, Kabuga is suspected of financially supporting the [...]

The California Court of Appeal First Appellate District has ordered San Quentin State Prison (SQ) to reduce its population by half. The move is intended to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Tuesday order follows a writ of habeas corpus filed by Ivan Von Staich, an inmate in the prison. Staich, 64, suffers from respiratory problems. [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted six military officers from the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Monday. The charges against the officers include using malware to cause blackouts in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016; $1 billion in losses to three corporations in 2017; disrupting computers supporting the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics; hack-and-leak efforts against French [...]

In 4-4 decision Monday, the US Supreme Court denied the application by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania for stay of an order by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court extending the deadline for receiving absentee and mail-in ballots. Under the Pennsylvania court’s order, the absentee ballots must be mailed before or on Election Day and received within the [...]

Chinese officials announced Monday that Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been charged with espionage. Yang was detained by Chinese authorities in January 2019 and has not been released since. A former Chinese diplomat and spy novelist, Yang wrote on Chinese politics for several years. He became an Australian citizen in the early 2000s. Yang claims his spy [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee began the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Monday. Republican Senators sought to make the hearing about Barrett’s Catholicism, while Democrats focused on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Roe v Wade. In addition, Democrats focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. Criticism included the lack of contact [...]

The Sendai High Court has ordered the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, to pay 1 billion yen ($9.5 million) in damages to victims of the 2011 disaster. Affirming the decision and rationale of a Fukushima district court, the Sendai High Court made its decision Wednesday [...]

Swiss voters upheld an accord with the EU that allows people to travel freely through Switzerland in a referendum on Sunday. While 62 percent voted in favor of keeping the accord, 38 percent voted to end it. The referendum on the accord was proposed by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). A conservative group, the SVP [...]