The Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has reversed a recently implemented policy that sought to prohibit incarcerated people from purchasing physical copies of books or having physical books purchased on their behalf from pre-approved third parties. The ban lasted just over two weeks following strenuous online criticism, and was ended Wednesday. Warden Orlando [...]

A majority of members of the lower house of Tasmania’s parliament voted Saturday in favor of voluntary assisted dying legislation, the End-of-Life Choices Bill 2020. The legislation provides eligible persons access to voluntary assisted dying, “an efficient and effective process to enable them to exercise the chose to reduce their suffering by ending their lives [...]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that the US Department of State would place new visa restrictions on Chinese Communist Party officials and others participating in propaganda or influence campaigns affiliated with the Party’s United Front Work Department. The United Front Work Department is a department within the party that reports to the [...]

UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Michele Bachelet Friday condemned ongoing human rights violations in Belarus and called on the government of that country to release imprisoned protestors. Mass protests erupted in August after President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner for a sixth term in a disputed election. Since then, police have cracked down [...]

The New Zealand parliament has passed a motion declaring a climate emergency in recognition of the ongoing global crisis. It joins jurisdictions in thirty-two other nations that have formally acknowledged the crisis and declared a climate emergency. The motion approved Wednesday was supported by the Labour Party, the Greens and te Pāti Māori while the [...]

The Attorney General of California announced Friday that Dish Network has agreed to pay $210 million in a settlement agreement concluding a legal dispute concerning the company’s telemarketing practices that had played out over more than a decade. The settlement order held Dish accountable for making telemarketing calls to numbers on the National Do Not [...]

Massachusetts lawmakers have approved a police reform bill that aims to increase police accountability, restricts no-knock warrants and bans chokeholds. Massachusetts leaders say this is the most thorough reform package in the nation in the wake of the national movement to address racial justice and police reform after George Floyd’s death. The bill passed Tuesday [...]

A US federal district court judge in New York on Friday ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reinstate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The DACA program allows people who immigrated to the United States illegally as children to apply for a forbearance of removal, and permits them authorization to [...]

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights Friday held that vagrancy laws violate the rights of individuals under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the charter), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the children’s rights charter) and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ [...]

The US House of Representatives voted 228-164 to approve the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act) on Friday, which would decriminalize and deschedule cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances. The legislation would provide for the expungement of some federal cannabis offenses and create incentives for minority-owned businesses to take part in [...]