The US Department of Justice announced Monday that it had reached a settlement agreement with Antero Corporation for their improper disposal into waterways violating Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection filed a complaint against the company for their hydraulic fracking projects that impacted [...]

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), a judicial body that adjudicates environmental matters in India, has dismissed a petition filed by the Karnataka state government to review its earlier order penalizing the state for damage to lakes. The impugned order directed the government to deposit 5 billion Indian Rupees (approximately USD 70 million) in an escrow [...]

A UN expert on Monday warned that the dismissal of Nigeria’s Chief Justice by President Muhammadu Buhari violated international human rights standards on independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers. The president of Nigeria suspended Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen on January 25. The president insisted that he had acted in compliance with an [...]

Acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker testified on Friday before the House Judiciary Committee concerning his involvement in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential campaign. Whitaker said he had not spoken with President Donald Trump about the matter in his tenure as acting Attorney General. “There has been no [...]

Two “Personhood Acts” were introduced in the South Carolina legislature this week that would criminalize receiving or performing an abortion. State Senator Richard Cash introduced the bill in the Senate on Wednesday, and State Representative Josiah Magnuson introduced a similar bill on Thursday. The Senate bill reads, “The General Assembly acknowledges that personhood is God-given rather than an endowment of [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday condemned Egyptian authorities for the execution of three Muslim Brotherhood members. The three men were sentenced to death last year following their confessions related to the 2014 killing of a judge’s son in Mansoura. These confessions, though, were reportedly extracted through torture, which included electrical shocks and beatings and threats [...]

US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday extending for another 90 days an earlier proclamation that banned migrants caught entering the US illegally from seeking asylum. The initial order was blocked by federal judge in the Northern District of California. The judge ruled that the policy directly conflicted with the text of 8 USC § 1158(a)(1). The judge’s ruling was [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Thursdayupheld a ruling that Georgia’s electronic voting system poses a security risk and would potentially deny voters due process under the Fourteenth amendment. The plaintiffs brought an action against the state for their use of direct record electronic (DRE) machines for the midterm elections in [...]

Dominique Ray, a Muslim inmate in Alabama, was executed on Thursday after the US Supreme court voted 5-4 to lift a stay of execution in place over his request to have an imam present in the room with him at the time of death. Ray’s attorneys argued that Alabama’s execution policy favored Christian inmates, who [...]

UN experts on Friday urged action against attacks on people with albinism leading up to Malawi’s elections in May. This declaration comes on the heels of the killing of one person and the separate abduction of a baby. Discrimination against people with albinism has been a problem in the past in Malawi—150 cases of these [...]