Human Rights Watch said Monday that the Israel’s repeated attacks on reconstruction-related equipment and other civilian facilities in southern Lebanon throughout 2025 constitute war crimes. The extensive report documented four specific strikes between August and October that killed three civilians and destroyed over 360 pieces of heavy machinery and a major cement factory. The attacks [...]

Australian authorities announced on Monday plans to heighten firearms restrictions after two gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, a mass shooting national authorities have called “an act of pure evil, an act of terror, an act of antisemitism.”  Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement following a National Security [...]

Human Rights Watch said on Monday that the M23 armed group and allied Rwandan forces that captured the city of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on December 10 have put civilians at grave risk of abuse. The warning followed the fall of Uvira, South Kivu province, in a joint offensive that [...]

A three-judge panel of Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance on Monday found media tycoon and pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper founder Jimmy Lai guilty on sedition and national security charges. These include conspiracy to publish seditious material and two counts of conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security. [...]

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released its annual report Monday, finding that, while the number of executions in the US increased last year, the number of new death sentences decreased. The following is an overview of the report’s key findings. Death Sentences Decline, Executions Rise The report drew a contrast between new death sentences [...]

UN experts expressed concern on Monday about legislative and administrative measures taken by the Estonian state against the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church (EOCC), stating that these actions may amount to impermissible restrictions on minority rights and freedom of religion or belief. The warning was issued by a group of UN Special Rapporteurs, who highlighted a series of [...]

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese deemed a mass shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney a “terrorist incident” on Sunday after the attack left 15 dead, as well as one of the shooting’s two perpetrators. The other shooter has been taken into custody, according to New South Wales (NSW) Premier Chris Minns. NSW Police reported [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, on Friday urged Pakistani authorities to take immediate and effective action to address reports of inhumane and undignified detention conditions of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, warning that they could amount to torture and other cruel or degrading treatment. Imran Khan, a cricketer turned politician who [...]

South Korea’s former acting prime minister and president Choi Sang-mok was indicted on Thursday on charges related to the brief imposition of martial law in December 2024 by then-President Yoon Suk Yeol, becoming the latest high-profile figure embroiled in legal troubles over the case. The indictment was formally announced by Special Prosecutor Park Ji-young in [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Nicolas Levrat on Friday urged Nepal to effectively implement constitutional and legislative safeguards to end discrimination against minorities, especially singling out Dalits. Speaking in Kathmandu, Levrat acknowledged Nepal’s progressive legal framework but warned that persistent failures in enforcement, accountability and institutional inclusion continue to deny Dalits and other minorities [...]