Escalating attacks on bridges, roads and other civilian infrastructure in Sudan are disrupting humanitarian access and putting civilians at further risk, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
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World News in Brief: Call for action against child labour, ICC Prosecutor suspended, WFP raises awareness in Egypt
Ahead of World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June, the UN is urging governments and communities to accelerate efforts to end a crisis that still affects millions of children worldwide. -
Marking historic progress on rights for persons with disabilities, UN conference tackles critical gaps
Historical gains have been hard-won, but much more needs to be done to advance progress in realising promises made two decades ago, said the UN chief at the opening on Tuesday of the 19th global meeting on the rights of persons with disabilities at UN Headquarters. -
Palestinians face systematic abuse by Israeli settlers and Hamas alike: Independent investigators
Palestinian civilians are trapped between escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank and fear-based Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, investigators appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Tuesday in a new report. -
Building trust and lab testing at the heart of DRC Ebola response: WHO
In Ebola-stricken eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a massive push for early testing and contact tracing is helping to contain the virus, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. -
U.K. Targets $68M in Properties Owned by China-Born Man with Multiple Citizenships
British prosecutors are seeking to freeze about $68-million worth of London real estate purchased by Yuan Yihua, a man of Chinese origin who also holds citizenship from Cyprus, Cambodia and the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.
According to documents from the U.K. land registry, Yuan Yihua purchased at least 14 properties across London between June 2021 and January 2025, including a $32-million mansion in the affluent St Johns Wood neighborhood.
Land registry records show that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) applied for freezing orders on Yuan Yihua’s properties on May 11.
Neither the CPS nor the National Crime Agency replied to questions about why Yuan Yihua’s properties had been subjected to freeze order requests.
The CPS last week launched a new “blueprint for tackling serious organised and economic crime,” which puts “asset recovery at the forefront of prosecution strategy.” The CPS said it had already recovered more than $707 million through “confiscation orders in the last five years.”
One of the CPS targets has been the Prince Group, a Cambodian conglomerate alleged to have operated a network of scam centers partly staffed by human trafficking victims. In March U.K. authorities announced a new round of sanctions and asset freezes targeting individuals and entities allegedly linked to the Prince Group.
Among those listed in the announcement was a man named Hu Xiaowei. OCCRP recently revealed that Hu Xiaowei goes by at least three different identities, and that he held at least $45-million worth of property in the U.K.
Flight records obtained by OCCRP show that Yuan Yihua visited the Pacific island nation of Palau onboard a private jet belonging to a company controlled by Hu Xiaowei.
On that same flight with Yuan Yihua was a man named Yang Jian who has also purchased millions of dollars worth of London properties. The U.S. sanctioned Yang Jian along with Hu Xiaowei (under one of his aliases) for their alleged association with a Prince Group company involved in a real estate development in Palau.
A Prince Group spokesperson previously told OCCRP that the conglomerate is “innocent of the wild and unfounded accusations made by the U.S government, parroted in jurisdictions around the world.”
Yuan Yihua has not been sanctioned for links to Prince Group, and he is not listed as a director of any of its key corporate holding companies. He did not respond to requests for comment about the CPS requests to freeze his real estate.
Of the 14 properties subject to freezing order requests, nine were purchased by Yuan Yihua on a single day — June 23, 2021. Those nine units are all in the Legacy Building, a luxury development in London’s Nine Elms neighbourhood with a rooftop pool overlooking the U.S. embassy.
The transfer document for one of the units shows that the buyer was initially written in as a company called “Unstoppable Bird Limited.” The transfer document — obtained by Transparency International U.K. and shared with OCCRP — shows a line slashed across the name of the company, and Yuan Yihua’s name written in its place with a ballpoint pen.
According to U.K. corporate records, Unstoppable Bird Limited is controlled by a man named Qiu Wei Ren who was sanctioned in 2025 for his alleged association with the Prince Group.
Land records show that Unstoppable Bird bought six other units at Legacy Building on the same day Yuan Yihua made his purchases.
Qiu Wei Ren did not respond to requests for comment regarding the alteration of the document, and whether he had any business relationship with Yuan Yihua.
Among Yuan Yihua’s targeted properties are a $14-million luxury home in a gated development in Weybridge, Surrey, and a mansion on Avenue Road, a street lined with some of London’s most expensive real estate. He bought the Avenue Road property in January 2025, and a visit to the site showed it is undergoing major renovations.
Fact-checking was provided by the OCCRP Fact-Checking Desk.
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American Reflections on Magnifica Humanitas
Could there be a starker contrast between the two best-known American leaders in the world today? One pursues wars of choice; the other prays for peace. One posts dyspeptic diatribes daily; the other pens graceful reflections on matters of ultimate concern. One wants to accelerate AI to the limit, preempting state regulation and bullying Europe into techno-laissez-faire. The other has published…
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Filmmakers and ISP WOW! Settle Piracy Liability Lawsuit Before Trial
In 2021, a group of film production companies including Millennium Media and Voltage Pictures sued internet provider WOW! at a federal court in Colorado, accusing it of turning a blind eye on piracy.
The stakes in this legal battle were incredibly high. After filing their original complaint, the plaintiffs recently expanded their claims to cover roughly 375 films, meaning potential statutory damages could be as high as $56 million.
WOW! previously tried to have the case dismissed, but a federal judge in Colorado rejected that attempt last year. After that, the case moved forward with both sides submitting cross-motions for summary judgment, hoping to get the matter resolved before trial.
DMCA Safe Harbor
The summary judgment requests focused on a single but important question: whether WOW! is protected by the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Under Section 512 of the DMCA, an internet provider can avoid liability for pirating subscribers if it has adopted and reasonably implemented a policy to terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. This safe harbor is an affirmative defense, which means WOW! must show that it qualifies for this protection.
WOW! argued that it did, pointing to its documented policies and procedures for handling copyright complaints. However, the film companies argued the opposite, claiming WOW! failed to enforce its policy in any meaningful way and did not terminate subscribers who were repeatedly flagged for piracy.
Summary Judgment Denied
In March, Judge Daniel D. Domenico ruled on the competing motions. After reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to each side in turn, he declined to rule for either party, finding that neither was entitled to win as a matter of law.
“I cannot say that WideOpenWest is entitled to the DMCA safe harbor as a matter of law. Nor can I say, construing the evidence in the light most favorable to WideOpenWest, that the plaintiffs are entitled to judgment as a matter of law that it is not. A reasonable juror could find for either side on a number of material fact issues,” Judge Domenico wrote.
This order was initially shielded from public view, but it was published a few days ago, after both parties informed the court that their legal battle was over.
Settlement Instead of a Verdict
Instead of going to trial, the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal, and the court terminated the case on May 28.
The dismissal is with prejudice, which means that the film companies can’t bring these claims against WOW! again. Each side agreed to pay for its own costs and attorneys’ fees. There is no mention of a settlement payment by either side.
Dismissal 
Denying summary judgment left the safe harbor question unanswered. However, in light of the Supreme Court’s Cox decision earlier this year, that question matters less than it might seem. Cox had already lost its own safe harbor years earlier, but still won at the Supreme Court on the liability standard itself.
This means that even if WOW! would have ultimately lost its safe harbor, the film companies would still be required, under the new Cox precedent, to show that the Internet provider intended its service to be used for copyright infringement. This intent can be shown in only two ways: the ISP actively induced infringement, or the service it offers has no substantial lawful uses.
The new liability rules have significantly changed the legal playing field for copyright infringement cases and several lawsuits have been settled or voluntarily dismissed after the Cox ruling came out in March.
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A copy of the stipulation of dismissal is available here (pdf). Judge Domenico’s order on the motions for summary judgment can be found here (pdf).
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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Sabotaging America’s Future: The Catastrophic Cost of Federal Research Cuts
The gleeful efficiency of an arsonist who mistakes the blaze for proof of his power
The post Sabotaging America’s Future: The Catastrophic Cost of Federal Research Cuts first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.