“A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to start allowing Venezuelans sent to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador to return to the United States for their immigration proceedings if they choose to. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote in an order that it was requiring the administration to allow entry to any of the more than 130 Venezuelan men who were held for four months in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. ‘It is worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen had the Government simply afforded Plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them,’ he wrote.” (02/12/26)
“The European Union (EU) is considering a sweeping ban on all cryptocurrency transactions with Russia as part of new sanctions designed to choke off alternative financial channels that have helped Moscow withstand existing restrictions. Officials argue that a blanket prohibition would be more effective than targeting individual Russian entities spun out of already-sanctioned platforms. According to the Financial Times, which cited an internal European Commission document, Brussels believes such entities are being used to facilitate trade in goods that support Russia’s war in Ukraine. The commission contends that simply blacklisting individual crypto service providers is insufficient.” (02/12/26)
“Google says its flagship artificial intelligence chatbot, Gemini, has been inundated by ‘commercially motivated’ actors who are trying to clone it by repeatedly prompting it, sometimes with thousands of different queries — including one campaign that prompted Gemini more than 100,000 times. In a report published Thursday, Google said it has increasingly come under ‘distillation attacks,’ or repeated questions designed to get a chatbot to reveal its inner workings. Google described the activity as ‘model extraction,’ in which would-be copycats probe the system for the patterns and logic that make it work. The attackers appear to want to use the information to build or bolster their own AI, it said. The company believes the culprits are mostly private companies or researchers looking to gain a competitive advantage.” (02/12/26)
“The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a U.S. Marine and his wife will keep an Afghan orphan they brought home in defiance of a U.S. government decision to reunite her with her Afghan family. The decision likely ends a bitter, yearslong legal battle over the girl’s fate. In 2020, a judge in Fluvanna County, Virginia, granted Joshua and Stephanie Mast an adoption of the child, who was then 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan living with a family the Afghan government decided were her relatives. Four justices on the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday signed onto an opinion reversing two lower courts’ rulings that found the adoption was so flawed it was void from the moment it was issued. The justices wrote that a Virginia law that cements adoption orders after six months bars the child’s Afghan relatives from challenging the court, no matter how flawed its orders and even if the adoption was obtained by fraud.” (02/12/25)
“A Ukrainian athlete has been disqualified from the Winter Olympics over his insistence on wearing a helmet honoring people killed in his country’s war with Russia. The International Olympic Committee said in a statement early Thursday that skeleton racer Vladylsav Heraskevych, the Ukrainian flag bearer, was ‘not allowed to participate at Milano Cortina 2026 after refusing to adhere to the IOC athlete expression guidelines.’ The decision was announced shortly before Heraskevych was due to compete in the men’s skeleton competition, in which he was considered a legitimate medal contender. ‘This is price of our dignity,’ he said in a post on X. Heraskevych indicated he would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Kyiv labeled his disqualification a ‘moment of shame’ for the IOC.” (02/12/26)
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has selected his daughter as his heir, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday. Kim Ju Ae — who is believed to be 13 — has in recent months been pictured beside her father in high-profile events like a visit to Beijing in September, her first known trip abroad. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it took ‘a range of circumstances’ into account including her ‘increasingly prominent public presence at official events’ in making this assessment. The NIS also said it would keep close tabs on whether she will attend the North’s party congress later this month — its largest political event that is held once every five years. The party Congress is where Pyongyang is expected to give more details about priorities like foreign policy, war planning and nuclear ambitions for the next five years.” (02/12/25)
“A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from transferring 20 former death row inmates to a notorious maximum-security prison in Colorado, concluding that President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi had dictated the decision before the men had a chance to contest it. ‘The Constitution requires that whenever the government seeks to deprive a person of a liberty or property interest that the Due Process Clause protects — whether that person is a notorious prisoner or a law-abiding citizen — the process it provides cannot be a sham,’ U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly wrote in a 35-page opinion requiring the men to remain in their current prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Kelly, a Trump appointee, emphasized that he was not ordering the release of any of the convicts, who were convicted of ‘some of the most horrific crimes imaginable.'” (02/11/26)
“Bangladesh on Thursday held its first election since 2024 mass protests toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government with balloting being largely peaceful in a vote seen as a test of the country’s democracy after years of political turmoil. A projection showed that an alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, took the lead with 127 seats, while its main challenger, an 11-party alliance led by the Jamaat-e-Islami party, garnered 32 seats and three seats by others, according to Dhaka-based Jamuna TV. Official results were expected on Friday.” (02/12/25)
“A Paris appeals court said Wednesday it will rule on July 7 in a fraud case against far-right leader Marine Le Pen in what is expected to be a pivotal moment for French politics. A lower court last year handed the 57-year-old veteran politician a five-year ban from public office over a fake jobs scam at the European parliament, dashing her presidential ambitions. If the appeals court upholds last year’s bombshell ruling, the three-time presidential candidate would be banned from running in 2027, widely seen as her best chance at the top job.” (02/11/26)
“Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino praised a federal agent who shot a Chicago woman during an immigration crackdown last year, according to evidence released Wednesday by attorneys who accused the Trump administration of mishandling the investigation and spreading lies about the shooting. Marimar Martinez, a teaching assistant and U.S. citizen, was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in October while in her vehicle. She was charged with a felony after Homeland Security officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. But the case was dismissed after videos emerged showing an agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s vehicle. Her attorneys pushed to make evidence in the now-dissolved criminal case public, saying they were especially motivated after a federal agent [murdered] Minneapolis woman Renee Good under similar circumstances.” (02/11/26)
