A three-judge panel of federal court in Birmingham on Tuesday barred Alabama from using its Republican-drawn congressional map in this year’s elections, ruling that the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters—a conclusion the panel reached even after a recent US Supreme Court decision that made such claims significantly harder to win. The court ordered Secretary [...]
Pope Leo XIV warned Monday of the dangers presented by artificial intelligence (AI), especially citing the threat of “increasingly autonomous weapons systems practically beyond human reach to govern effectively.” The topic of AI regulation was addressed in his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, or magnificent humanity, on safeguarding the human person in the time of AI. [...]
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 detained [...]
At a press conference on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General for National Fraud Enforcement Colin McDonald announced that federal charges were being brought against 15 defendants accused of participating in fraudulent schemes in Minnesota. These individuals allegedly stole funds from Medicaid and other social service programs accumulating over $90 million in losses. McDonald stated that at [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday condemned the forced repatriations of refugees and asylum-seekers to Afghanistan by countries in the name of concerns over national security or economic strains, deeming it a clear violation of international human rights law. In emphasizing the urgency of the humanitarian crisis affecting this marginalized group, [...]
A policy shift announced Friday by US Citizenship and Immigration Services stands to alter the most common pathway to lawful permanent residence in the United States, requiring most foreign nationals already in the country to leave and apply for a green card through a US consulate abroad. Former USCIS officials estimate that roughly one million [...]
Federal Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville on Friday dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that the charges were punitive for challenging his deportation last year. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March 2025, despite an October 2019 “withholding of removal” issued by the Board of [...]
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has settled its first national case with a school district over harm to children’s mental health. The terms of the settlement with Breathitt County School District in eastern Kentucky are confidential. However, the district initially sought over $60 million to cover the costs of treating the injuries caused [...]
A UN expert on Friday praised a ruling by Colombia’s Supreme Court upholding a 20-year prison sentence for a man found guilty of offering money to young children in exchange for sexual acts. The ruling officially recognises commercial sexual exploitation as part of the country’s wider system of violence against minors. In commenting on the [...]
The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations body, and the African Medicines Agency (AMA), an African Union body, signed a Framework Agreement for Collaboration on Friday, aiming to strengthen regulatory systems and improve access to safe, efficient and quality-assured health products across the African continent. The Framework Agreement for Collaboration establishes a partnership between [...]
