Sharon Basch is a rising 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a JURIST staff correspondent in Washington DC this summer. Wednesday morning I attended a US Senate Budget Committee hearing entitled “Making Wall Street Pay its Fair Share: Raising Revenue, Strengthening Our Economy.” The hearing was called to discuss tax policy [...]
A coalition of advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday challenging a new Biden administration rule that effectively bans many asylum seekers from protection based on where and how they entered the US. On June 4, President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring asylum claims from most migrants who cross the US-Mexico border [...]
The Indian government has asked the Russian government to return the Indian citizens recruited by its army on Tuesday, with foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra confirming the request on Wednesday. This follows the death of two Indian citizens in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, as announced by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday. The Indian embassy [...]
The US Department of Treasury sanctioned Hong Kong companies under Executive Order (EO) 14024 on Wednesday in response to the companies’ alleged support of Russia’s economy amid the War in Ukraine. This comes after the US unveiled nearly 300 sanctions on May 1, including sanctions that target entities in Hong Kong for their support of [...]
The Russian Prosecutor General’s office announced Thursday that it approved an espionage indictment against Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia since March 2023, and sent his case to the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the city of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich’s detention has been condemned by his employer and press freedom groups, [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down a bid by pro-life advocates to restrict the availability of abortion drug Mifepristone. Reproductive rights laws have shifted wildly in the two years since the US Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that held abortion was a constitutionally enshrined right. In [...]
Rights groups Access Now and the Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy (CARD) called for the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) to halt its public shaming campaign in an open letter on Wednesday. The campaign involved CBE publicizing the personal information of customers who allegedly did not return the money they withdrew during the [...]
The US House of Representatives passed a resolution by a vote of 216-207 on Wednesday in finding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with the Committee on the Judiciary’s subpoena for the audio recordings of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Biden. While Garland previously told the Judiciary [...]
South Korean prosecutors indicted Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday on bribery charges for allegedly facilitating a scheme with Ssangbangwool Group to illegally transfer US$8 million to North Korea, according to reports from local media. These transactions were purportedly to secure government support and guarantee for Ssangbangwool’s business ventures in North Korea and facilitate [...]
The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan released a report (A/HRC/56/25) on Tuesday, ahead of the 56th session of the Human Rights Council taking place from June 18 to July 12, 2024, where the Special Rapporteur will address the findings. A critical analysis of the worsening subjugation of Afghan women and [...]
