Germany’s top court on Tuesday stripped a neo-Nazi party of the right to public financing and the tax advantages normally extended to political organizations, a decision that could provide a blueprint for government efforts to head off a resurgence of the far right.

China underwent scrutiny of its human rights record at a United Nations meeting on January 23, with mostly Western countries calling for protections for Xinjiang Uyghurs and greater freedom in Hong Kong, which Beijing dismissed as guidance based on lies.

The review at the U.N. in Geneva is the first since the global body's top rights official released a report in 2022 saying the detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in China's Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity. Beijing denies any abuses.

The Philippine government will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation into a brutal anti-narcotics campaign, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on January 23.

"I consider it as a threat to our sovereignty. Therefore, the Philippine government will not lift a finger to help any investigation that the ICC conducts," Marcos told reporters, reiterating his earlier position.

North Korea has demolished a major monument in its capital that symbolized the goal of reconciliation with South Korea on the orders of leader Kim Jong Un, who last week called South Korea a "primary foe" and said unification was no longer possible.

Ecuador's police on January 22 said they have captured the leader of Colombian armed group Oliver Sinisterra and that Ecuadorean authorities will return him to Colombia. News of the capture comes amid a military offensive launched by Ecuador's government to combat criminal gangs.

President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency with nighttime curfew for 60 days at the beginning of January amid spiraling violence in the Andean country and designated 22 criminal bands as terrorist groups.

Venezuela's attorney general on January 22 said 14 arrest warrants were issued against civilians and former military personnel for allegedly conspiring against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

On January 15, Maduro told legislators who back the government that conspiracies against him and high ranking government figures had been dismantled between May and December. Attorney General Tarek William Saab said he subsequently asked a court on January 19 to issue arrest warrants against those involved in the conspiracies.

The Kenyan government is under pressure to urgently investigate and prosecute cases of femicide, after the brutal murders of two women. “This is a national crisis—we are not doing enough as a country to protect women,” said Audrey Mugeni, the co-founder of Femicide Count Kenya, an NGO that documents the number of women killed across the country each year.

Last year, Femicide Count Kenya recorded 152 killings—the highest in the past five years. Representatives from the nonprofit, which records reported cases only, says the actual number of killings is likely to be much higher.

A district court in The Hague has convicted a former member of a Syrian pro-government armed group for complicity in torture and illegal arrest in Syria and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

The court said the defendant, identified in court only as Mustafa A, was a leading member of the Liwa al-Quds, or the Jerusalem Brigade, an armed group comprised mostly of Palestinian refugees living in Syria and founded during the early years of Syria’s more than 12-year war.

The European Council (EC) has imposed sanctions on six companies for their alleged involvement in financing and arming the warring Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The six entities were responsible for “supporting activities undermining the stability and political transition of Sudan,” the EC said in a statement on Monday. Among the companies sanctioned were three controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), including the Defense Industries System conglomerate, which Brussels said had estimated revenues of $2 billion in 2020.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte has denounced a series of protests scheduled to begin the week of January 15 as a “threat to democracy,” as tensions continue to simmer in the South American nation. Boluarte’s remarks came on the eve of what is being called the third “Toma de Lima” or “Taking of Lima,” a march on the capital city that is expected to attract thousands of protesters.