Australia’s High Court overturned Catholic Cardinal George Pell’s sexual abuse convictions Tuesday. Australian authorities have released Pell from custody. In March 2019 a unanimous jury convicted Pell of abusing two choir boys in the 1990s. The Australian trial court sentenced Pell to six years in prison. Pell maintained an innocent plea throughout the trial. After [...]

The US Department of State on Monday designated the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) as global terrorists, the first time that the department has designated a racially or ethnically motivated terrorist group. RIM is a terrorist group that provides paramilitary-style training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and it plays a prominent role in trying to rally [...]

China released Wang Quanzhang, a human rights lawyer, from jail Sunday according to BBC reports. Wang defended political activists, religious minorities, and victims of land seizure from Chinese prosecution. Though authorities released Wang from jail, he is placed on a mandatory quarantine in the city of Jinan for fourteen days. Chinese officials contend that the [...]

The Taipei prison executed death row inmate Weng Jen-hsien on Wednesday after the Supreme Court convicted him of killing six people. Rights groups condemned the execution, stating the death penalty is a human rights violation and should be abolished. Weng was convicted of killing his parents, niece, nephew, nephew’s wife and his parents’ caregivers after setting [...]

The UN General Assembly on Thursday unanimously agreed to a resolution urging international cooperation to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the first resolution the assembly adopted since the outbreak. The resolution calls on international cooperation to “contain, mitigate and defeat the pandemic, including by exchanging information, scientific knowledge and best practices and by applying the [...]

The UN climate change conference (COP) that was set to take place in Glasgow, Scotland, in November has been postponed to 2021. The decision was announced in a press release on Wednesday night by the COP Bureau of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, along with the UK and its Italian partners. “In light [...]

The Indian Parliament issued rules Wednesday that will allow non-Kashmiris to become permanent residents in Kashmir and Jammu. According to the new rules, anyone who has resided in Kashmir or Jammu for 15 years, or spent seven years studying in regional educational institutions and appeared in class 10 or 12 examinations, may become permanent residents. [...]

The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe declared Nelson Chasima, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), illegitimate on Tuesday. The MDC is the largest opposition party in Zimbabwe. Thokozani Khuphe brought the lawsuit against the MDC and Chasima in 2018. Khuphe served as the MDC’s Deputy President for several years after the MDC’s Congress elected [...]

Michal Bobek, Advocate General to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), published an opinion on Thursday stating that individual countries and cities could lawfully place restrictions on short-term rental housing, like that popularized on the platform AirBnb. Bobek wrote that “he objective of tackling a shortage of long-term housing can … constitute an overriding reason [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic failed to uphold their obligations regarding refugee quotas as required by law. The countries could face financial penalties for their actions. In 2015 EU leaders had established a refugee relocation program in response to the large numbers of asylum seekers [...]