The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that it will streamline the process of determining eligibility for student loan forgiveness for borrowers with claims that their institutions engaged in misconduct. The Department expects to receive $1 billion in loan cancelation requests to help approximately 72,000 students. Forgiveness under the borrower defense to repayment provision is [...]

Turkey withdrew from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, popularly known as the Istanbul Convention, by a presidential decree announced in the official gazette early Saturday. The Istanbul Convention seeks to “protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence.” It [...]

Minnesota Judge Peter Cahill denied motions for continuance and change of venue on Friday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the man charged with the murder of George Floyd. In its memorandum to the court, the defense argued that “a fair trial cannot be had for Mr. Chauvin in Hennepin or Ramsey counties.” However, Judge Cahill [...]

The US House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation condemning the Myanmar military junta that began on February 1st and led to the overthrow of the democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The bill condemned the Myanmar junta’s violent dispersal of protestors and called for the release of all detained protestors and elected political [...]

A Mexican court issued a definitive suspension Friday against the new electricity law that aims to strengthen the state-run company, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). The law is supported by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who wants to increase state control of the energy market. López Obrador claimed that under the previous administration, the electricity [...]

A federal district court judge on Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of South Carolina’s fetal heartbeat abortion act. The act, which was signed into law by Governor McMaster last month, would prohibit an abortion if a physician is able to detect a fetal heartbeat, which can be detected as early as six weeks [...]

A Tunisian appeals court released activist Rania Amdouni from jail on Wednesday. Amdouni had been charged with “insulting police and abuse of morals,” which sparked concerns from human rights groups over suppression of free speech. Amdouni is the president of Chouf Minorities and a member of DAMJ, the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality. She [...]

On Friday, unsealed court records from a federal grand jury indictment revealed four Proud Boys leaders have been charged with six counts including conspiracy in relation to the January 6 Capitol attacks. Count one of the indictment claims a conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, under which one may be charged if, “two [...]

Archbishop of Hamburg Stefan Hesse offered to resign Friday after allegations that he mishandled sexual abuse cases appeared in a lengthy report on abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne. Professor Bjorn Gercke, who compiled the 800-page study, said it identifies more than 200 perpetrators and more than 300 victims of abuse from 1975 to 2018. [...]

The EU on Wednesday agreed to a new package of sanctions on four Chinese individuals and one entity, whose names will be made public after formal approval by EU foreign ministers on March 22, as part of a sanctions list aiming to punish several countries over human rights abuses. Those sanctions are the first European [...]