Former prosecutor Nathaniel Akerman urged a federal judge overseeing the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams to appoint a special counsel to review the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) abrupt request to drop charges on Monday. Akerman was a Watergate prosecutor, and his move comes amid growing criticism of the DOJ’s handling of [...]

President Trump said in a news conference Tuesday that he plans to continue restricting the Associated Press’s (AP) access to presidential events until the news outlet updates its style guide to reflect recent changes by the Trump administration. Trump called phrases the outlet continues to use “obsolete”. Specifically, the president criticized AP’s continued use of [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday urged the world’s governments to lift sanctions against Syria. The group maintained that the sanctions, imposed by the US, the EU and the UK on the former Assad regime, hinder reconstruction efforts, the restoration of critical services, and protection of human rights. Hiba Zayadin, senior Syria researcher at HRW, [...]

Tarek Rabie Safi, a Palestinian medical and ambulance worker who had been detained in an Israeli jail, said in a video released by Reuters on Monday that he was abused and subjected to poor living conditions while in prison. In his statements, Saifi alleged that the prisoners were subject to physical torture and did not [...]

Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized a proposed French bill that seeks to ban “ostensibly religious” clothing and symbols in all sports competitions, arguing it would violate human rights and disproportionately target Muslim women and girls. The French Senate is set to debate and vote on the bill, which would extend existing restrictions to all sports [...]

The spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, expressed serious concerns on Tuesday about the “sharply deteriorating” human rights situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following the takeover of much of the region by M23 fighters. The spokesperson stressed that the capture of Bukavu, the second-largest city [...]

The UN and its partners on Monday launched a Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan as well as a Regional Refugee Response Plan to aid Sudan amid its humanitarian crisis. Approximately 30.4 million people are to be assisted by the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, and 4.8 million people will be aided by the Regional Refugee [...]

Human Rights Watch reported Tuesday that successive governments in Guatemala have failed to meet their obligations to girls facing forced pregnancies due to sexual violence. The right’s organization’s new 85-page report focused on several obligations, including access to abortion, healthcare, education, financial support, and justice. HRW interviewed 31 representatives of civil society organizations, 41 government [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner published a report on Friday detailing North Korea’s ongoing and worsening human rights crisis. The report, which consists of numerous interviews with North Korean escapees and former officials and detailed accounts of human rights crises developed from consultations with human rights organizations, documents the abuses of human rights [...]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed authorities to begin the immediate enforcement of a law banning the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees on Tuesday. The UNRWA law was passed by the Knesset with broad support, and prohibits the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating in Israel and bars Israeli [...]