Two more of Alexei Navalny’s key supporters ran afoul of Moscow authorities this week in actions they say are intended to further undermine Navalny’s political movement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a new gold rush in Central Africa, with organized groups cashing in on the surge in the commodity’s price and smuggling illicit gold to neighboring countries via air or inland, Interpol said Wednesday in a new report.

Several close associates of Zagreb’s former mayor, including the head of the state media HRT, were arrested in Croatia on suspicion of corruption, bribery and abuse of power.

Police in Moscow on Tuesday raided employees of Proekt (Project), an independent media outlet, on the same day the media published its investigation about Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

A grassroots organization in Burkina Faso filed a complaint against the government Tuesday, citing an OCCRP investigation that connected the state to a massive smuggling operation which financed regional terrorism.

The online sex trafficking industry has become more fragmented  since passage of a new federal sex trafficking law and the seizure of online sex trafficking marketplace backpage.com in 2018,  according to a report released last Monday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Last week, just as Egyptian authorities were celebrating the return of more than 100 artifacts which had been smuggled to France, Egyptian authorities had closed in on Alaa Hassanein, a Mubarak-era parliamentarian who they believed was in charge of the ring. 

In two separate incidents this week, journalists have faced repression in Turkey, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

Brazil will suspend its US$324 million contract for India’s Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine upon the recommendation of Brazil’s Comptroller General office (CGU), Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Tuesday.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Facebook can be sued for sex trafficking that occurs via its platforms.