The Fact-Finding Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concluded on Monday that there were no reasonable grounds to determine that toxic chemicals were used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in October 2017 at Al-Yarmouk in the Syrian Arab Republic.  In its report, OPCW found that [...]

At its core, the death penalty feeds one of the basest desires known to humankind: the craving for revenge. The 3,200+ members of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” — a group I co-founded — along with millions of other death penalty abolitionists across the world have demonstrated time and again in recent years how [...]

The court of last resort for Britain’s overseas colonies and some Commonwealth countries revived a lawsuit seeking to block the construction of an airstrip in Antigua and Barbuda over environmental concerns on Tuesday. The UK-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) concluded that the plaintiffs in the suit have standing to challenge the airstrip’s [...]

Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov has been sentenced to two and a half years in a prison colony, his organization, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Memorial, announced Tuesday. Orlov was convicted under Article 280.3 of the Russian Criminal Code, which prohibits the discrediting of the Russian armed forces. The charges arose from an article he [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on whether social media platforms may ban certain content on their platforms without violating the Constitution’s First Amendment. The court heard arguments concerning a Florida case and a Texas case, in which the state laws banned social media platforms from barring content, specifically conservative content, from using [...]

New Zealand Health Minister Shane Reti said Tuesday that the Māori Health Authority will be shut down by the end of June this year, and its functions will be absorbed into the country’s national healthcare system. The move comes amid nationwide protests and legal action by the Pacific nation’s indigenous population, who believe the new [...]

The US Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) Monday by adding the Canada-based company Sandvine to the Entity list. The Entity List identifies entities believed to have been involved with activities that contradict or do not align with the national security or foreign policy interests of the US. The US [...]

Copenhagen police concluded investigations into the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline explosions from 2022 on Monday. Although the police concluded that there was “deliberate sabotage,” they declared that there were insufficient grounds to pursue a criminal case in connection with the incidents. The police also clarified that they would not provide further comments on [...]

Hungary’s parliament voted to ratify Sweden’s membership bid to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Monday, officially becoming the final NATO nation to approve of Sweden’s accession. As a result, Sweden is poised to become the thiry-second NATO member state upon formal invitation of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Article 10 of the NATO Treaty [...]

India Hate Lab, a Washington-based research group, released a report Monday documenting the rise of anti-Muslim hate speech incidents in India, particularly in states governed by the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The report provides insights into the prevalence and distribution of hate speech across the country. According to [...]