UN experts on Thursday urged Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to immediately impose a moratorium on inhumane punishments, including capital and corporal punishments, in response to public executions carried out on April 11. The Taliban’s de facto supreme court last week imposed four public executions across the provinces of Badghis, Nimroz and Farah. The experts stated: “Friday’s [...]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday ordered Harvard University to give records on student visa holders’ “violent activities” by April 30, or risk losing Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification. DHS also canceled $2.7 million in grant funding, finding the school to be “unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”  [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the Maine Department of Education (DOE) on Wednesday over its policies that allow transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. The lawsuit alleges Maine’s policies violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which protects citizens under any education program or activity receiving federal funding from being [...]

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled Thursday that tech giant Google LLC had violated federal anti-trust law by engaging in anti-competitive acts to attain monopoly power and depriving competitors of the ability to compete. An accompanying order issued by the judge required both Google and the US Department of Justice to submit a joint proposed [...]

The US Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear oral arguments over President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship, or the guarantee of citizenship to nearly any individual who is born inside the US. President Trump issued his order in January of this year seeking to end birthright citizenship in the US. The [...]

UN Special Envoy Huang Xia called for greater coordination of efforts to resolve the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday, amid escalating violence by the M23 rebel group and a deepening humanitarian crisis. Huang Xia, special envoy for the Great Lakes Region, stressed the urgent need to resolve the root causes [...]

A Moscow court on Wednesday ordered former Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov held in custody as authorities investigate “major fraud” allegations ahead of his June 15 trial, according to state news agency TASS. Smirnov and his first deputy, Alexei Dedov, are accused of embezzling 1 billion rubles ($12.17 million) from public funds intended for building [...]

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a law that would significantly restrict the rights to freedom of association and expression in the country on Friday, according to Human Rights Watch. The law, the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Act 2025, was originally proposed in 2021 but failed to obtain presidential assent in 2023. It establishes a [...]

Gambian national Michael Sang Correa was convicted by a Colorado jury for participating in the torture of victims in 2006, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Tuesday. Correa was a part of a paramilitary unit known as the “Junglers,” run by Yahya Jammeh, dictator and former Gambian president. The victims told the jury that [...]

US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs granted universities and university advocacy groups relief Wednesday when she approved their motion for a temporary restraining order on the federal Department of Energy’s new “Rate Cap Policy.” The DOE announced its new policy on April 11. The policy will cut funding for indirect costs that support research at [...]