On December 12, 2024, Europol released its annual “European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT),”^[1] which it has produced since 2007.

On December 12, 2024, a Danish court convicted Sanjay Shah, a 54-year-old English financier, of cum-ex dividend fraud and sentenced him to twelve years in prison.[1]

The United States and China have furthered their diplomatic relations through a recent prisoner swap. The swap secured the release of three Americans who, per the United States government, had been wrongfully detained in Beijing. In return, the US released four Chinese citizens. Per the Chinese Foreign Ministry, three individuals were wrongfully detained, while one is a fugitive.

The 23^rd session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP or Assembly) to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) was held from December 2 to 7, 2017, in the Hague.[1]

One of the sessions was devoted to cooperation. It offered an opportunity for an enhanced dialogue between States Parties, the Court, and members of civil society on voluntary cooperation, as well as a more technical discussion regarding how States Parties can strengthen their support for the Court with existing tools. Following the debate, an “omnibus” resolution was drafted, submitted, and adopted at the end of the ASP session.

On November 27, 2024, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC announced he was applying for a warrant of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court in response to the situation in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

On December 3, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction, making it effective nationwide.[1]  Judge Amos L. Mazzant preliminarily enjoined the Corporate Transparency Act and Reporting Rule enforcement. The decision also postponed the effective date of the Reporting Rule.

On November 25, 2024, police in North Wales detained Daniel Andreas San Diego on charges that he planted two bombs that detonated in the San Francisco region in 2003: two on the grounds of a biotechnology company in Emeryville on August 28 and a second one at a nutritional products company headquarters in Pleasanton on September 26.  The second one was strapped with nails.  No deaths or injuries occurred at either location.  The UK has detained him for potential extradition to the U.S.[1]

Since October 7, 2023, when Israel officially declared war on Hamas, at least 137 journalists have died in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon. Among these casualties, 129 were Palestinian, two were Israeli, and six were Lebanese.[1] Additionally, 49 journalists were reported injured, two are missing, and 74 have been arrested. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), this is one of the deadliest periods for journalists since 1992[2], and in the first ten weeks of the war, more journalists were killed than in any country over an entire year.[3] Many onlookers claim Israel has a pattern of killing journalists and accusing them of being fighters, and such repression has made it difficult to know what is happening in Gaza.

On December 4, 2024, the General Assembly adopted, without a vote, the resolution “Crimes Against Humanity,”[1] to launch the process of codifying into an international binding agreement the International Law Commission’s 2019 draft articles on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. This text reflects two resumed sessions in 2023 and 2024 and formal and informal discussions during the seventy-ninth session.

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) held its 86^th plenary session on November 20-22, 2024.^[1]