Colombian police arrested a Mexican judge wanted by the U.S. on charges of taking a $2 million bribe to free a Canadian drug trafficker who was the right-hand man of a former Olympic snowboarder accused of running a major cocaine-smuggling operation.[2]  The indictment by the U.S. Justice Department, alleges that Judge Luis Benitez took $2 million to order the release of Andrew Clark after Clark was detained in Mexico. Benitez used his position to unlawfully secure the release of a major figure in an international drug organization to evade lawful detention. In return for the $2 million bribe payment, Benítez issued rulings that directly facilitated the release from custody of Andrew Clark.[3]

               On November 9, South African law enforcement arrested nine Zimbabweans after they were allegedly trying to depart the country to fight in the war against Russia-Ukraine.  A multidisciplinary team arrested the defendants who are aged between 20 and 26.  South Africa has charged the defendants with violating South Africa’s Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, which prohibits mercenary activity without government permission.  South African police arrest five persons at OR Tambo, South Africa’s largest airport, and another four at a hotel in Bruma, east of Johannesburg.  INTERPOL also participated in the law enforcement operations.

              In September 2026, European, Latin American, and Caribbean law enforcement authorities concluded Operation ATLAS NEXUS, a large-scale transnational enforcement initiative targeting organized criminal networks operating across both sides of the Atlantic.  According to participating authorities, the operation involved more than 8,680 officers from 34 countries, resulted in over 490 arrests, and led to the seizure of approximately 156.9 tons of illicit drugs.  The European Union's Delegation to Costa Rica described the operation as the largest joint EU-Latin America-Caribbean enforcement action conducted to date.

            On October 27, 2026, 21 state and District of Columbia attorneys general brought a lawsuit in the U.S. District in Oregon seeking to reverse the Trump administration’s elimination of beneficial ownership reporting requirements for more than 99.9% of previously covered persons, thereby reigniting a controversy over anti-money laundering and entity transparency rules.  In 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) with bipartisan support. It established a Treasury database of business owners that law enforcement can use to trace dirty money, track down stolen assets, and uncover bribes and political payoffs.

            On October 23, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that undocumented immigrants that are detained while their removal proceedings are pending are not entitled to an individualized bond hearing.  The 10–7 decision concerned three men from Mexico and Honduras who had lived in the United States for at least fourteen years, with one petitioner — Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez — reportedly living in the country for over twenty-two years.  The men were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following traffic stops. They established that they had substantial ties to the United States — including American-born children — and their attorneys argued that prolonged detention without an opportunity to seek release violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, but they ultimately failed to persuade the majority to guarantee their right to an individualized bond hearing.  While the ruling is a victory for the administration, advocates for immigrants and ICE detainees have decried the ruling as an “affront to the U.S. Constitution.”

               The United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry released a report on the Occupied Palestinian Territory on October 14, 2026 and examined the killing of Palestinians by security forces since October 23, 2023.  The report affirmed past analysis that the Israeli forces were committing a genocide, along with violating international humanitarian and human rights law.

            On October 30, 2026, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Miami, Florida detained former Mexican television host Inés Gómez Mont.  Media report indicate her detention was due to her stay having exceeded the allowed period of stay in the U.S. under her U.S. visa.  ICE is holding  Gómez Mont at the Broward Transitional Center Immigration facility in Pompano Beach, Florida.

            On October 21, 2026, the Bahamian Parliament continued taking steps to abolish bearer shares to comply with international entity transparency standards by deliberating on  the 2026 Companies (Amendment) Bill.  Addressing the bill in Parliament, Chester Cooper, the deputy prime minister, explained that the bill would align Bahamian company law with the law already in place under the International Business Companies (IBCs) Act and international best practices.

               On July 9, 2025, the Protocol amending the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism was adopted by the Member States of the Council of Europe (CoE) (respectively, ‘2026 Amending Protocol’ and ‘Convention’). It opened for signature in Strasbourg on May 26, 2026.[2] The Convention had been adopted twenty years earlier, on May 16, 2005.[3] The purpose of this note is to examine the 2026 Amending Protocol and to set out some questions concerning its content. Before that, there will be some brief references on the Additional Protocol to the Convention, which was adopted on October 22, 2015 (‘Additional Protocol’).[4]

               On October 26, 2026, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine submitted its latest report to the UN General Assembly at its eighty-first session. The Commission has found out that the Russian authorities have committed war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects and the crimes against humanity of other inhumane acts with continuous attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.[2]