The UK House of Commons began its first reading on Tuesday of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which aims to restrict the legal age to purchase tobacco each year to create the “first smoke-free generation”. The bill was proposed under former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s government, and advanced by Parliament in April 2024. The 2023 [...]

Human rights organizations sounded the alarm on Tuesday over the deteriorating health of Chinese legal scholar and human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, who has been on a hunger strike for nearly a month to protest his ongoing ill-treatment in detention. Xu, a key figure in China’s New Citizens’ Movement, has been held since February 2020, [...]

India’s Delhi High Court on Tuesday lifted the ban on Salman Rushdie’s novel ‘The Satanic Verses” due to the government’s failure to promulgate the ban in 1988. The controversial novel is especially known for being considered blasphemous by Muslims. The petitioner challenged the ban, reportedly imposed on October 5, 1988, as unconstitutional and requested the [...]

Amnesty International condemned Lebanon’s military courts on Tuesday for failure to hold accountable the security forces officers accused in the death in custody of Syrian refugee Bashar Abd Saud. Bashar Abd Saud, 30, was arrested on August 30, 2022, by Lebanon’s State Security agency on accusations of possessing a counterfeit $50 bill. A day later, [...]

Amnesty International (AI) called on the Mozambican government Wednesday to immediately cease its violent crackdown on civil rights ahead of a significant opposition march scheduled for November 7 in Maputo. This call comes in the wake of escalating unrest following the October 9 elections, which have been marred by allegations of fraud and brutal police [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and 16 other organizations urged the European Union on Wednesday to confront Azerbaijan’s government on human rights abuses during the upcoming COP29 climate conference. The organizations call for EU leaders to help end the increasing politically motivated arrests, detainments, and restrictions on free speech in Azerbaijan. The joint statement was released [...]

South Korea and the EU condemned North Korea’s contribution of military arms and personnel to Russia as illegal under international law in a joint statement on Tuesday. The statement follows recent reports that Russia has deployed North Korean troops in its war against Ukraine. According to a White House press briefing, over 3,000 North Korean [...]

The Federal Police in Brazil announced on Monday that they identified and arrested the murderer of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, ending a two-year investigation into the double homicide of the Brazilian indigenous activist and the British journalist who were killed in the Javari Valley in the Amazon. The Federal Police stated that their investigations [...]

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch addressed a letter to France’s new Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, urging him to prioritize human rights when crafting national and international policies. The 2024 France parliamentary elections were marred by a rise in racist and xenophobic rhetoric, alongside extreme political polarization. According to a report published by the French National [...]

In the early morning hours Wednesday, following a historically contentious presidential election, Donald Trump announced his victory before a crowd of supporters in Florida, and vowed to “seal up” the US borders to ensure immigrants are only able to enter the country legally. Trump took the stage at approximately 2:30 am, having attained 267 of [...]