All posts tagged: crackdown

Indonesia arrests officials in crackdown on corruption | Corruption News

Indonesia arrests officials in crackdown on corruption | Corruption News

Published by Sam Flores

Indonesia’s deputy minister for immigration affairs, Silmy Karim, has been arrested after about 10 hours of questioning. Published On 4 Jun 20264 Jun 2026 Amid a crackdown on corruption in Indonesia, the deputy minister for immigration affairs has been arrested over alleged irregularities in the administration of immigration documents. Budi Prasetyo, spokesperson for the anticorruption agency KPK, confirmed Silmy Karim’s arrest to the Reuters news agency on Thursday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The alleged corruption occurred from 2023 to 2024, said Budi, when Karim served as director general for immigration affairs under then-President Joko Widodo. Karim was questioned at the KPK office on Wednesday night, and about 10 hours later, he emerged in handcuffs and an orange jacket on Thursday morning to be transferred to detention. Budi added that the KPK has also identified seven other suspects in the case. More details about the case are expected to be released later on Thursday, he added. The action comes a day after the country’s Attorney General’s Office (AGO) arrested Dadan Hindayana, the …

Months after the regime crackdown, Iranians search for missing protesters

Months after the regime crackdown, Iranians search for missing protesters

Published by Sam Flores

His family and friends are searching everywhere for him. The official list of detainees does not feature his name. He’s not recorded among the victims identified by the Iranian Legal Medicine Organisation, the forensic department under the country’s justice ministry. Morteza Ebrahimi, 35, has been missing since January 8, a black day for many families across Iran, when the crackdown on anti-regime protests reached a brutal, bloody peak. That night, as internet access was cut across the country, the authorities unleashed hell on the streets of some Tehran neighbourhoods. Special units opened fire with military-grade weapons on protesters in the heart of the Iranian capital. Several thousand people were killed. In the days that followed, families set out to search for their missing loved ones. Many converged on the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre, a morgue in Tehran’s southern suburbs where dozens of bodies were brought in by refrigerated lorries. But there was no news, no confirmation, no closure for Ebrahimi’s loved ones. The young man had simply disappeared in the black hole of Iranian people …

Google faces regulation crackdown in UK over AI use of content

Google faces regulation crackdown in UK over AI use of content

Published by Sam Flores

Google AI Overviews shown in front of a Google webpage. Picture: Shutterstock/DIA TV In a world first, UK regulators today told Google to give publishers control over how their content is surfaced in AI answers. In response Google announced that (from today) it will test “a new control that lets website owners manage how their links and content appear in generative AI Search features”. The Competition and Markets Authority ruling tackles a number of longstanding complaints from publishers over lack of transparency and control over how their content is surfaced by Google. So far, Google has made it impossible for publishers to remove their content from its AI-written answers without also removing themselves from Google’s main search index (the way most people in the UK access the internet). Yet the introduction of AI-written Google summaries has led to plunging Google referral traffic and a rise in zero-click searches as they remove the need for readers to click through to an article source. The CMA said Google must do the following: “– provide publishers with effective …

Chile’s hard-right Kast renews crime, migration crackdown pledge

Chile’s hard-right Kast renews crime, migration crackdown pledge

Published by Sam Flores

Chile’s hard-right leader Jose Antonio Kast on Monday announced crackdowns on crime and migration as his ratings suffer less than three months into his term. Kast unveiled new measures including a “vandal” registry and longer detentions for migrants during his first-ever address to Congress as Chilean president. The 60-year-old took office in March as Chile’s most right-wing leader since the end of General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship. Source link

How Trump reversed Biden’s crackdown on gun trafficking

How Trump reversed Biden’s crackdown on gun trafficking

Published by Sam Flores

Marianna Mitchem grew up in the Denver suburbs, where she played high school soccer. One day in April 1999, her team faced off against a nearby rival, Columbine High. The next day, two teenagers went on a shooting rampage at Columbine, killing more than a dozen people. The massacre left an imprint on Mitchem. After graduating from Providence College, she joined the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “Fearing for my friends and watching what was happening — you don’t forget things like that,” she told me. “I wanted to make a difference.” She started in the ATF’s Denver office as an industry operations investigator, the bureau’s term for inspectors who ensure that firearms dealers are conducting the required background checks on buyers and maintaining sales records. When the bureau found discrepancies, it tended to settle for reprimands and improvement plans, rarely going so far as to revoke a dealer’s license. In 2021, things started to change. The country was experiencing a surge of deadly violence, with homicides up more than a third since …

Trump’s crackdown on trans healthcare extends into adulthood

Trump’s crackdown on trans healthcare extends into adulthood

Published by Sam Flores

An 18-year-old transgender college student tried to refill her estrogen prescription at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. She was told she needed to wait until her 19th birthday. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. In Texas, a 37-year-old U.S. Army veteran regularly went to a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital for gender-affirming care, including therapy, wigs and prosthetics. Staff suddenly cut the services. And in Colorado, a 37-year-old scientist for the federal government planned to undergo transition surgery. She discovered her insurance would no longer cover it. A decade ago, these denials wouldn’t have been allowed. The federal government widely supported access to transition care. That changed last year when the Trump administration began issuing sweeping directives across the government banning or limiting treatments for people with gender dysphoria, which is the distress felt from a mismatch between birth sex and gender identity. Those who back restrictions on transition care — including conservatives such as President Donald Trump — say they are focused on protecting trans youth …

14 nabbed in crackdown on illegal cross-border transport services

14 nabbed in crackdown on illegal cross-border transport services

Published by Sam Flores

SINGAPORE: A total of 14 people have been caught in recent enforcement operations against illegal cross-border transport services, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling on Monday (May 25). The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has been conducting the operations islandwide – including at Changi Airport and Gardens by the Bay – over the past few weeks, said Ms Sun in a Facebook post.  On Monday, LTA and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) also conducted a joint enforcement operation at Singapore’s land checkpoints at Woodlands and Tuas. This is “part of our continued efforts to safeguard commuter safety and protect the livelihoods of our local point-to-point drivers from illegal cross-border transport services”, added Ms Sun. She noted that since May 4, cross-border taxis have been allowed to drop off passengers anywhere in Singapore and across several parts of Johor under enhancements to the transport scheme. “With the school holidays coming up, please travel safe and engage licensed cross-border transport service providers,” she said, adding that the authorities will continue to work closely with …

Chile digs border trenches as Kast pushes hardline migration crackdown : NPR

Chile digs border trenches as Kast pushes hardline migration crackdown : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

On Chile’s northernmost border with Peru, military excavators carve a deep trench across the windswept pampa, part of a hardline effort to tighten control of migration and cross-border crime under President José Antonio Kast. John Bartlett/NPR hide caption toggle caption John Bartlett/NPR ARICA, Chile—Out on the wide open plain on Chile’s northernmost coastline, dust billows in the cool breeze which sweeps across the pampa. In front of a row of concrete markers tracing the border with Peru, two sandy-yellow Chilean military excavators crawl along a deep trench, digging three metres down before swinging sharply to dump bucketloads of earth into a rising embankment. A few hundred yards across the pampa from where Chilean soldiers patrol the boundary, stern-faced, the Peruvian border police sit under wind-torn blue awnings, eyeing the Chileans warily. This barrier is newly inaugurated far-right President José Antonio Kast’s answer to the migration crisis that propelled him to power in December’s runoff election, where he won 58% of the vote. It also echoes President Trump’s pledges to build a wall along the U.S.–Mexico …

Gov. Reynolds signs Iowa sweepstakes and gambling crackdown expanding enforcement and revising tax withholding

Gov. Reynolds signs Iowa sweepstakes and gambling crackdown expanding enforcement and revising tax withholding

Published by skeptic

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has approved a wide-ranging gambling bill that strengthens enforcement against unlicensed sweepstakes operators while reshaping how the state handles tax withholding on gambling winnings. Reynolds signed Senate File 2289 on May 15, giving the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission expanded authority to pursue unauthorized betting and sweepstakes businesses operating in the state. It also updates financial reporting rules tied to gambling payouts and raises reimbursement limits for commission members. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Paul Pate, Reynolds wrote, “I hereby transmit: Senate File 2289, an Act relating to matters under the purview of the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing, and including effective date provisions.” She added, “The above Senate File is hereby approved on this date.” The legislation allows state regulators to issue enforcement actions against companies or individuals offering gambling products in Iowa without proper licensing approval. This applies to sports wagering, fantasy sports contests, pari-mutuel wagering, advance deposit wagering, and sweepstakes-style gambling platforms. One section of the legislation states the commission may take action “including …

US imposes sanctions on Gaza flotilla organisers amid Israeli crackdown | Gaza News

US imposes sanctions on Gaza flotilla organisers amid Israeli crackdown | Gaza News

Published by Sam Flores

The United States has imposed sanctions on four activists for their involvement in the flotillas trying to break Israel’s siege on Gaza, alleging without evidence that organisers of the vessels are trying to reach the Palestinian territory “in support of Hamas”. The sanctions on Tuesday come as the Israeli military continues to intercept the latest fleet of Gaza-bound ships. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list While the humanitarian crisis from the Israeli blockade on Gaza has eased since the “ceasefire” brokered by US President Donald Trump came into effect in October, Palestinians have continued to suffer from shortages, including in food and medical supplies. International activists have been sailing towards Gaza in an effort to defy the blockade and show solidarity with Palestinians. “The pro-terror flotilla attempting to reach Gaza is a ludicrous attempt to undermine President Trump’s successful progress toward lasting peace in the region,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement on Tuesday. “Treasury will continue to sever Hamas’ global financial support networks, no matter where in the world they …