Trials, verdicts, major rulings
Courts in Fujian found Wei Huairen, his nephew Chen Dawei and Liao Jingfang responsible for cross-border fraud networks that handled more than 12.2 billion yuan and caused four Chinese deaths. Three other defendants received life sentences; 55 accomplices were jailed.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi claims armed men seized him in Libya and handed him to FBI agents with a cloth hood over his head. He argues the transfer was an unlawful rendition that strips US courts of jurisdiction to try him.
The Pentagon says the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, will be broadcast on December 3. President Trump said the final call on livestreaming is his.
Seven doctors, nurses and other staff have been on trial since April over the football legend's death in 2020. Prosecutors say warning signs were ignored and his recovery home lacked basic medical equipment.
The former Philippines president had claimed cognitive decline affected his memory and daily functioning. His trial opens on 30 November, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.
Newly filed documents show internal researchers questioned algae biofuels and carbon capture while Exxon promoted them. The US Supreme Court heard arguments in October 2026 in a Boulder case that could shape the fate of nearly 60 similar climate lawsuits.
The justices heard arguments in Suncor v. Boulder, a case brought after the 2021 Marshall Fire destroyed over 1,000 homes. The companies warn a ruling for Boulder could trigger 90,000 similar lawsuits across the country.
The publishers say OpenAI used reporting from 19 of their titles without permission to train its AI models. They want every GPT model built on their content destroyed, alongside damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work.
US prosecutors plan to add allegations that the pair played a role in the wrongful detention and torture of more than a dozen US citizens held in Venezuelan prisons. The new charges would widen an existing drug and weapons case against them.
His lawyers are challenging the legality of the warrants used to search his homes at Sandringham and Windsor before his arrest in February. If the court rules in his favour, evidence gathered in the searches could be barred from any future prosecution.
The Hague found that Merck infringed Halozyme's drug-delivery patent and ordered MSD BV to halt manufacturing, marketing and imports of Keytruda SC in Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The intravenous version of Keytruda is not affected.
A US district judge found sufficient evidence that Saudi government employees knowingly helped the al-Qaeda hijackers, denying the kingdom's motion to dismiss. Saudi Arabia has appealed the ruling, and no trial date has been set.
Abdullah Albadri, 34, tried to climb the embassy fence in Kensington carrying two knives before armed officers stopped him. He had arrived in the UK by small boat just 16 days earlier and told police he wanted to 'do something to stop the war'.
Boulder, Colorado, filed suit against Suncor and ExxonMobil in 2018, accusing them of driving climate change and misleading the public on fossil-fuel risks. A ruling against the city could end dozens of similar cases brought by nearly 60 local governments across the country.
Prison staff used at least seven needles trying to find a vein before injecting Pike with pentobarbital, which entered body tissue rather than her bloodstream. Tennessee's correction commissioner has since resigned and the governor has suspended all executions in the state for the rest of the year.
Maduro's lawyers argue he was a head of state and is shielded from prosecution abroad. But US prosecutors say Washington stopped recognising him as president in 2019 — and Venezuela's recognised government has not sought immunity on his behalf.
British prosecutors say Andrew and Tristan Tate used fake relationships to recruit vulnerable women to their Romanian webcam business, then took their passports and used violence to keep control. The brothers, arrested in Miami and denied bail, face charges including rape, assault and sex trafficking.
A proposed nationwide class action filed in Chicago alleges the company used machine-learning algorithms trained on nonpublic data to coordinate prices among franchisees who may compete with one another. McDonald's says AI does not set its prices and that store owners make their own pricing decisions.
The court accuses Habibullah Agha and Neda Mohammad Nadeem of crimes against humanity for policies that have kept girls over 12 out of school and barred women from universities since 2021. All four suspects remain in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, which rejects the court's authority.
The court finds reasonable grounds to believe the Taliban's supreme leader, its chief judge and two education ministers persecuted women, girls and others who did not conform with Taliban gender policies. Enforcement will be difficult: all four remain inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
The men and boys, some as young as 12, spent years in Kurdish-run prisons before being moved to Iraqi custody. Human Rights Watch warns of overcrowding, allegations of torture, and trials that could end in the death penalty.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading the coalition, which argues that scrapping requirements for coal- and gas-fired plants to cut greenhouse gas emissions will set climate protections back decades.
Boulder, Colorado, is one of dozens of local governments trying to hold fossil-fuel producers financially responsible for climate damages. The city hopes its case becomes an environmental counterpart to the litigation that brought billions in settlements from Big Tobacco and opioid makers.
Two young mothers and five children, all aged seven and under, have been living in tents in Gaza after the Home Office wrongly blocked them from travelling to the UK. A tribunal judge ruled their children's best interests must come first.
The case alleges Google used its grip on Android app distribution to exclude rivals and overcharge developers and consumers for more than a decade. A £260 million settlement for developers was approved just two weeks before trial, but the main claim presses on.
The class action alleges the government knew the fires were coming and failed to act. It seeks a national disaster declaration to unlock emergency funds as the haze spreads to Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
A US federal court rejected calls to split up Google or sell Chrome, settling instead for limits on its search deals and data-sharing rules. Two appeals are pending, and a ruling on Google's ad technology empire is still to come.
A Florida woman charged with voting illegally in 2020 had her case dismissed after the judge found Congress has no constitutional authority to set voter qualifications — only states do. The ruling could complicate the Trump administration's push to prosecute noncitizens for voting, with about 45 similar cases pending across the country.
A federal judge in Oklahoma ruled the warrantless Flock query gave police a month's worth of a driver's movements and amounted to mass surveillance. She suppressed the camera records and everything found in the subsequent vehicle search.
The Independent Community Bankers of America is asking a federal court to revoke an OCC rule that lets crypto firms obtain national bank charters. The group says it gives digital asset companies the legitimacy of a federal charter without the capital, insurance and oversight requirements traditional banks must meet.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order removing the Tompkins County district attorney after Cornell police left the victim's rape allegation out of material sent to prosecutors. Attorney General Letitia James will now lead the investigation and may bring the case to a grand jury.
The Spanish airline was fined €225,000 — the maximum penalty — after a Paris court found its training failures contributed to the loss of Air Algérie flight AH5017 over Mali. Spanish prosecutors had previously closed their own investigation without charges.
The Abu Dhabi Declaration, agreed by acclamation at the UN's largest crime congress, sets out 67 initiatives covering cybercrime, trafficking, corruption and criminal asset recovery. It calls for AI to be used in justice systems, but only with human oversight and data protections in place.
A Santa Fe jury found over 43 million violations of New Mexico's consumer protection law, ruling that Facebook misled users about how it protected their personal data. The judge will set penalties at a hearing on Oct. 1; the state is seeking the maximum $5,000 per violation.
Prosecutors in Dortmund are looking at his alleged role at Stalag 326 in Senne, one of the largest Nazi PoW camps, where up to 70,000 prisoners are thought to have died. No charges have been filed and prosecutors have not set out his alleged individual role.
Mahamat Said Abdel Kani was found guilty on four counts, including torture and persecution of prisoners in Bangui. He is the first Seleka member to be convicted by the court; sentencing will be set at a separate hearing.
The children were toddlers in Crimean orphanages when Russia seized the peninsula in 2014. They were granted Russian citizenship and placed with adoptive families — and Ukrainian authorities have had no information about them since.
A High Court found the men guilty on all charges, including murder and conspiracy to commit terrorism, after a five-year trial. Sentencing was due later on Tuesday.
Fourteen defendants were found guilty on all counts, including murder and terrorism charges, after a five-year trial. Each of the 15 received a 220-year prison term.
Three British World Central Kitchen workers were killed when Israeli drones hit their convoy in Gaza on 1 April 2024. The coroner is considering giving the Israeli military and the commanding officer formal standing in the proceedings, which may also examine a RAF surveillance flight over Gaza that day and alleged UK-made components in the drone used.
Dr Vincent Brown, 65, formerly known as Dr Vincent Bajinya, faces one count of conduct ancillary to genocide and six counts of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity. Prosecutors allege he directed and incited killings carried out by others in Kigali in April 1994.
They will face trial in Florida, where four men were convicted in May. The case has produced 30 indictments, and prosecutors say they are not finished pursuing those who financed or supported the 2021 killing of Jovenel Moïse.
Every Crown Court will set aside at least one courtroom for rape and serious sexual offence cases. Fixed trial dates, private victim entrances and trauma-informed staff training are all part of the plan, with specialist police teams across all forces due by December 2027.
The company is contesting Ofcom's decision to place WhatsApp and Instagram in a higher-duty category, its use of global revenue to calculate charges, and its demands for internal data. TikTok, X, Roblox and Quora are also challenging parts of the Act's rollout, which begins in April.
An arbitrator ruled that Uber, as a common carrier, could not escape responsibility for the actions of its driver by hiding behind Proposition 22. Emily Normandin-Parker, 23, was struck and killed after being abandoned at a roadside on State Route 73 in Orange County in 2023.
The lawsuit claims that public statements by the companies' chief executives amounted to an illegal agreement to hold back product improvements. The defendants together account for roughly 80% of paid consumer AI subscriptions, though the allegations have yet to be tested in court.
Isaac Herzog erased Elor Azaria's manslaughter conviction on the eve of Yom Kippur, citing the passage of time and regret expressed by the former soldier. Azaria had served two-thirds of an 18-month sentence for the 2016 shooting in Hebron.
Mohammed Sharifullah scouted a road to Kabul airport hours before the 2021 attack, reporting it clear. Jurors convicted him of supporting ISIS-K but deadlocked on whether his actions directly caused the deaths — ruling out a life sentence.
A US federal judge rejected calls to force Google to sell its AdX advertising exchange, ordering conduct changes and six years of antitrust oversight instead. The Justice Department had also sought a 15-year compliance period.
Tierra Walker, 37 and 20 weeks pregnant, requested an abortion and was turned away at a San Antonio hospital. She died two days later. Her family's lawsuit is the first to directly name the Texas attorney general over a death linked to the state's abortion ban.
Newly unredacted filings in The New York Times' copyright case against OpenAI and Microsoft reveal internal warnings about paywall circumvention, copyright removal and the effect of AI on publishers. Microsoft's own data showed Copilot sent 93% fewer readers to the Times than traditional search.
The 81-year-old former Philippine president sat silent at the ICC in The Hague as his defence team argued severe memory loss makes him unfit to stand trial. Prosecutors say he is fit to face crimes against humanity charges over killings linked to his anti-drug campaign.
The international tribunal in The Hague found him guilty of murdering 96 political opponents, illegally detaining 385 people and torturing more than 300 during the 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia. Thaci later became a central figure in Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence.
Judge Timothy Boyer heard arguments over the deal, which would resolve around 65,000 US lawsuits. Some plaintiffs' lawyers object that the payments are too low and that the terms would block claimants who want a trial from pursuing one.
The New Mexico Supreme Court held Santa Fe attorney Stephen Aarons in contempt after a brief in a murder appeal included invented witnesses and false police testimony generated by ChatGPT. Aarons, who said he expected the tool to produce a reliable summary, will be referred to an attorney disciplinary board.
The Justice Department and Department of Education allege the school used race, essay prompts and other mechanisms to favour Black applicants. The finding comes three years after the Supreme Court banned race-based affirmative action in college admissions.
Four former employees allege the company denied basic accommodations — chairs, bathroom breaks, prenatal leave — and threatened workers who missed time due to pregnancy. Amazon says it approves more than 99.9% of accommodation requests and disputes the claims.
A delegation led by Culture Minister Olivia Grange will present the King with a petition seeking judicial clarity on whether enslavement was lawful and whether Britain has a legal duty to provide redress. Jamaica says it is the first Commonwealth country to pursue reparatory justice through this legal route.
A federal judge halted the Grota do Cirilo mine in Minas Gerais after finding it may lie within the protected area of the Baú Quilombola community, an Afro-Brazilian traditional community with legal consultation rights. The ruling also voids an August deal that had allowed mining to restart after a separate embargo.
Four days of hearings in The Hague will examine whether Nicaragua's case over Germany's military support for Israel can proceed at all. A ruling on Germany's preliminary objections is expected within six months.
About 70 survivors and relatives have filed a High Court challenge to the 1961 Indemnity Act, which shielded police from prosecution after at least 69 people were shot dead at a peaceful protest. The case seeks damages, community reparations and — if any perpetrators are still alive — criminal charges.
Tyler Robinson, 23, faces seven charges over the killing of the Turning Point USA co-founder, who was shot in the neck while addressing 3,000 people at a Utah university in September. A trial date is expected to be set in October.
Han Hak Ja, 83, was sentenced to two years in prison by a Seoul court for passing luxury gifts to Kim Keon Hee in exchange for political favours. Kim herself was convicted separately and is now facing a four-year term.
The publishers are seeking up to $150,000 per infringed work and want all illegally obtained training data destroyed. Anthropic says it will defend itself in court.
The Hague District Court found Eugene N., a 66-year-old Dutch national, guilty of genocide and war crimes for throwing a grenade into a crowd of Tutsis sheltering at a stadium in Mbazi and directing attackers to let none escape. Rwanda had sought his extradition in 2014, but Dutch law bars handing over citizens, so Dutch authorities opened their own investigation in 2020 and arrested him in 2024.
A coalition of 52 state attorneys general alleged the company deliberately hooked young people on its platforms, collected children's data without consent, and misled the public about the risks. Beyond the payout, Meta must now introduce overnight access blocks, two-hour daily limits and other restrictions for teenage users — though only in the states that signed on.
Prize courts, rooted in 18th-century naval law, allow the US to formally condemn and sell enemy vessels captured at sea. The administration says the revival will reinforce its Iran blockade and help cover the cost of the conflict through cargo sales.
Sergei Karpilovich is accused of repeatedly raping a woman sheltering in a basement during two months of Russian occupation. His trial is one of two landmark cases in a slow effort to hold Russian forces accountable for sexual violence that the UN says was widespread and systematic.
Washington has frozen the assets of Tomoko Akane, the court's Japanese president, and a senior trial lawyer, barring them both from the US financial system. The ICC said the move puts the entire international legal order at risk.
An appeals court lifted a three-day pause on the rollout, allowing the city to keep pushing ahead with the surcharge on non-primary residences, expected to raise $500 million a year. A lower-court hearing on August 31 could still complicate things.
A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 that Trump cannot build the vast 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the former East Wing site without congressional approval. The administration had planned to fund it entirely through private donations, bypassing legislators — and a Supreme Court fight now looks likely.
Three guilty pleas for obstruction at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers have given legal weight to long-standing concerns that the evidence underpinning earlier acquittals of KLA commanders may have been compromised — while former president Hashim Thaçi now faces a separate indictment for alleged interference in his own ongoing war crimes trial.
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