Headline

EU Law To Identify Online S*xual Abuse Of Children Under Fire

Published

2 years ago

June 22, 2023

Parliamentarians from European countries have voiced their concerns over the European Commission’s plans for a so-called “chat control’’ law.

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson presented the proposed Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child S*xual Abuse in May 2022.

It is designed to curb the spread of material showing the s*xual abuse of children.

The law would make it compulsory for social media platforms to scan private encrypted chats on social media platforms for certain identifiers.

This might flag child grooming or the sharing of child s*xual abuse material (CSAM) and to report any suspicious activity.

Under current law, this monitoring of online activity is voluntary.

Critics call this chat control.

They saw it as an attempt to scan all communication on the net, including encrypted messages, and they fear mass surveillance.

The 30 signatories to the document criticising the proposed law stated that although combatting s*xualised violence against children is a high priority for them.

They believed the proposal formulated by the commission would lead to serious breaches of privacy.

They argued the law would oblige providers to introduce software to check the content of communications, undermine end-to-end encryption and result in the scanning of personal cloud storage.

On the website of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe a much larger body that was not part of the EU but which counted EU states among its members.

Every member has the opportunity to sign a petition posted there, based on an initiative by Konstantin Kuhle, deputy leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) parliamentary group in Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag.

Members of the Council of Europe from Austria, Slovenia, Denmark, Ukraine, France and Switzerland were among the signatories of the document criticising the proposed chat control law.

From Germany, as well as FDP politicians, Green Party members of parliament Julian Pahlke and Max Lucks, and Norbert Kleinwächter of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) are among the signatories.

In April, the German government raised significant concerns about the European Commission’s proposal.

A statement put out by the Ministries of Family Affairs, Justice, the Interior, Family and Digital Affairs at the time said.

“In the German government’s view, significant changes are needed in the draft regulation to make it acceptable from the German point of view.’’

The EU countries and the European Parliament have not yet voted on their position on the proposed law.

Interior ministers, however, had recently shown themselves to be open to it.

Headline

Trump Birthright Citizenship Order Halted In Class-action Suit

Published

1 day ago

July 10, 2025

Editor

A federal judge on Thursday halted President Donald Trump’s order restricting birthright citizenship, as opponents of the policy pursue a new legal avenue following the US Supreme Court’s overturning of a previous block.

The high court’s conservative majority delivered a landmark decision in late June that limits the ability of individual judges to issue nationwide injunctions against presidents’ policies.

Several such judges had in fact blocked Trump’s attempt to end the longstanding rule, guaranteed in the US Constitution, that anyone born on US soil is automatically an American citizen.

However, the Supreme Court left open the possibility that orders could be blocked via broad class-action suits against the government.

Trump’s opponents quickly filed new class-action suits seeking to block again the executive order.

On Thursday, Judge Joseph Laplante of the US District of New Hampshire granted class-action status to any child who would potentially be denied citizenship under Trump’s order. The judge ordered a preliminary halt to it as legal proceedings carry on.

The judge delayed his ruling for seven days to permit the Trump administration to appeal.

Cody Wofsy, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who argued the case, called the ruling a “huge victory” that “will help protect the citizenship of all children born in the United States, as the Constitution intended.”

Trump’s executive order decrees that children born to parents in the United States illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become citizens — a radical reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

His administration has argued that the 14th Amendment, passed in the wake of the Civil War, addresses the rights of former slaves and not the children of undocumented migrants or temporary US visitors.

The Supreme Court rejected such a narrow definition in a landmark 1898 case.

The current high court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, avoided ruling last month on the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order and only addressed the issue of nationwide injunctions.

It nonetheless permitted the order to go ahead but delayed its ruling from taking effect until late July to allow for new court challenges.

Several lower courts, in issuing their previous injunctions, had ruled that the executive order violated the Constitution.

Headline

PICTORIAL: Two Undocumented Nigerians Arrested For Drug Trafficking In Libya

Published

1 day ago

July 10, 2025

Editor

Libya’s Counter-Terrorism Forces have arrested two undocumented Nigerians over alleged involvement in drug trafficking.

According to a statement shared by Migrant Rescue Watch on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, the suspects were caught with quantities of hashish and hallucinogenic pills, including Tramadol and Lyrica.

Authorities also recovered a large sum of cash suspected to be proceeds from drug sales during the operation.

Following their arrest, the two Nigerians have been handed over to the appropriate legal authorities for further investigation and possible prosecution.

The statement said, “Counter-Terrorism Forces arrested 2 undocumented #migrants of Nigerian nationality for drug trafficking. The individuals were found in possession of hashish, hallucinogenic pills “Tramadol” & “Lyrica” as well as cash from proceeds.

“Both individuals were referred to competent authorities for legal action.”

Headline

31 Workers Escape Death As Tunnel Collapses In Los Angeles

Published

2 days ago

July 10, 2025

Editor

All 31 workers escaped without injuries from a collapsed industrial tunnel in Los Angeles’ Wilmington area, after scrambling over a tall pile of loose underground soil, city officials said late on Wednesday.

The trapped workers were shuttled back to the tunnel’s entry point, more than 5 miles (8 km) away from the affected area, after they escaped the collapsed section and met several coworkers in the unaffected part of the tunnel, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement.

The tunnel, which had a diameter of 18 ft (5.5 m), trapped 27 individuals, while four workers entered the damaged section to assist with rescue, LA Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva told reporters in a media briefing.

“The workers had to climb through debris. They had to make themselves out through,” before they were assisted out, Villanueva said.

Robert Ferrante, chief engineer and general manager of Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, told the briefing that a section of the already built part of the tunnel experienced squeezing ground conditions and partially collapsed.

“LAFD has just reported that all workers who were trapped in the tunnel in Wilmington are now out and accounted for. I just spoke with many of the workers who were trapped. Thank you to all of our brave first responders who acted immediately,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a post on X.

The collapsed section was a part of the Los Angeles County’s Clearwater Project, where the new 7-mile tunnel is being built to upgrade the region’s sewer system, officials added.

(Reuters)