The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on Friday on the groundbreaking proposal for the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), marking the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing artificial intelligence. The primary objective of the AI Act is to regulate AI based on its potential risks to [...]

Dutch police arrested a 55-year-old Syrian refugee on Friday in the town of Druten in the province of Gelderland on suspicion of crimes against humanity, including complicity in torture and sexual violence in Syria during the civil war. This is the first time that the Netherlands has accused someone of committing crimes against humanity. The [...]

The Scottish Court of Session, Scotland’s supreme civil court, ruled on Friday that UK ministers acted lawfully when they blocked reforms proposed by the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. The Bill sought to allow people of Scotland to self-identify their gender and was passed in Scottish Parliament in December 2022.  The UK government previously invoked [...]

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned on Saturday the Russian Federation’s plans to hold presidential elections on occupied Ukrainian territory early next year, following the decision taken by Russian lawmakers on Friday. Russian authorities, in addition to setting a date for the presidential election, also announced that they plan to arrange voting in Donetsk, Luhansk, [...]

Indian politician Mahua Moitra was expelled from the lower house of the Parliament, known as the Lok Sabha, for indulging in “unethical conduct” and committing “serious misdemeanours” following a recommendation by the Ethics Committee. Moitra belongs to the opposition party, Trinamool Congress, headed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee. The Ethics Committee Report accused [...]

The Hong Kong Court of Appeal on Friday granted seven activists a certificate to appeal against their conviction of taking part in an unauthorized assembly. At the same time, the court dismissed the government’s appeal to the Appellate Court’s overturn of convictions of organizing an unauthorised assembly. Applying to appeal their convictions, the activists contended [...]

The UK, the US and Canada announced coordinated sanctions on Friday against individuals and entities linked to human rights abuse, approaching the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UK has imposed 46 sanctions of asset freezes and travel bans. The first category of these focuses mainly on forced labour [...]

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce opened a formal investigation on Thursday into three of the US’s top universities’ and their responses to increasing antisemitism on campuses. The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology previously appeared before a congressional committee for a hearing on December [...]

The Sri Lankan government announced Friday the establishment an independent Commission for Truth, Unity and Reconciliation through an act introduced in Sri Lanka’s Parliament. The government stated that the commission is intended to “ensure an inclusive process in developing legislation that strengthens and safeguards national unity through truth, transitional justice, reconciliation, reparation and social cohesion.” The [...]

A California federal grand jury indicted Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, on Thursday on nine new federal criminal tax charges. The new charges join the two previous charges filed against him in a federal court in Delaware. Biden now faces 11 charges in total—three felonies and eight misdemeanors. The indictment concerns [...]