Russian police Monday charged independent Russian journalist Andrey Zayakin with financing extremist activity for a small dollar donation Zayakin made to Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), a foundation started by Russian dissident and critic Alexei Navalny. Zayakin faces up to eight years prison for donating 1,000 rubles ($16) to FBK. Zayakin is a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, [...]

US President Joe Biden’s administration Wednesday announced a revised student-loan forgiveness policy. For individuals making less than $125,000 per year, the policy forgives $10,000 in non-Pell Grant federal student loans and $20,000 in Pell Grant federal student loans. Biden also extended through December 31 the previous pause on federal student loan repayments, which was set [...]

A New York court Wednesday granted ex-Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein the right to appeal his sex crimes conviction, according to NBC News. Weinstein was sentenced in March 2020 to 23 years prison on charges of third-degree rape and criminal sexual act in the first degree for sexually assaulting a former production assistant and raping another [...]

Over 160 organizations Monday sent a letter to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas calling for the end of religious discrimination against Sikh migrants at US border crossing points. The letter was signed by the Sikh Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona (ACLU-AZ) and the American Civil Liberties Union [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Monday published a catalog of citizen actions that have triggered criminal charges and administrative penalties in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly cracked down on free speech rights; in the first few weeks following the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian authorities arrested over [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Tuesday held that Arkansas’ three-drug execution protocol does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The case, Stacey Johnson v. Asa Hutchinson, was initially brought by death-row prisoners seeking to avoid the execution protocol in Arkansas. Though Arkansas’ supply of the three [...]

The first plaintiff scheduled to go to trial against drug manufacturers for the heartburn medication Zantac Tuesday dropped his suit. Joseph Bayer, who claimed Zantac (also known as ​​ranitidine) caused him to develop esophageal cancer, told the court and drug manufacturers that he intended to file a notice of voluntary dismissal. Notably, there was no settlement [...]

Liberian President George Weah Tuesday suspended three government officials based on sanctions issued Monday by the US Treasury Department (DOT). DOT sanctioned Nathaniel McGill, Sayma Syrenius Cephus and Bill Twehway under Executive Order (EO) 13818 for their participation in ongoing public corruption. The purpose of EO 13818 is to implement the Global Magnitsky Human Rights [...]

German prosecutors Tuesday declined to investigate German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his involvement in a tax scandal. In an exclusive report to German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office said they found no evidence that Scholz aided or abetted anyone involved in Germany’s cum-ex scandal. The scandal consisted of a share-trading scheme [...]

The FBI Tuesday seized Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry’s cell phone, potentially in furtherance of the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. In an exclusive statement to Fox News, Perry confirmed that FBI agents approached him with a warrant and requested his cellphone. The seizure comes only one [...]