UN experts issued a strong rebuke on Monday against a new Taliban policy banning female students from medical training in Afghanistan, which has been denounced for further eroding the rights of women and girls in the country. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett emphasized, “Barring female students from education at medical institutions will [...]

Environmental organization Greenpeace announced Tuesday that it reached a settlement with British-Dutch oil and gas company Shell, which had sued the group over a protest. The legal dispute stemmed from an incident in 2023 when Greenpeace activists boarded a Shell oil production vessel to demonstrate against fossil fuel extraction and its environmental impact. Shell brought [...]

The UK and Germany agreed on Tuesday to a new joint action plan to tackle people-smuggling. The plan aims to “fight to save lives in the Channel and disrupt the migrant smuggling trade.” It will provide a joint framework between the two countries, which “strengthens operational capabilities of UK and German law enforcement” to tackle [...]

Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized Iran’s newly implemented mandatory veiling law, saying that it intensifies the systemic subjugation of women and girls. The law enforces harsh penalties, including imprisonment, corporal punishment, and even the death penalty for individuals who violate obligatory hijab rules. The “Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture [...]

My grandfather told me once I was meant to be the heiress of a family-owned winery. Inside the courthouse gates, the ghosts of unfinished stories sit beside me in the cold, marble-columned silence. My grandfather’s voice echoes in my mind, recounting a spiel riddled with missing pieces about a winery that was never mine — [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report on Tuesday detailing allegations of widespread human rights abuses committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. The report documents a pattern of violence in the towns of Habila and Fayu between December 2023 and March 2024, including the killing of scores of civilians, [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday criticized the inhumane treatment of migrants attempting to cross into Poland from Belarus, especially criticizing the actions to Polish border guards. According to the organization, Polish law enforcement “unlawfully” pushed migrants back into Belarus, sometimes using violence, while also denying them access to asylum procedures in violation of international [...]

The lightning-fast overthrow of Bashar al-Assad by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in late 2024 has dramatically changed the regional balance of power in Syria. After years of military dominance patronized by Iran, Russia and Hezbollah, the regime of Assad crumbled due to a combination of internal decay, declining morale among his forces, and strategic miscalculations. [...]

President Joe Biden designated the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania as a national monument Monday, marking a historic step to acknowledge the dark legacy of Native American boarding schools in the United States. The school was part of a broader system of Native American boarding schools aimed at erasing indigenous cultures and assimilating [...]

South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) on Monday confirmed it had requested and secured a travel ban on President Yoon Suk Yeol, following his controversial martial law declaration last week. CIO Chief Oh Dong-Woon announced during a parliamentary hearing that he instructed investigators to file the request, which the Justice Ministry approved shortly [...]