The US Department of Justice (DOJ) outlined the need for Congress to update and improve the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in a report Tuesday. The APA governs the procedures that agencies must follow when they regulate private parties. It has remained largely unchanged since its enactment in 1946. The DOJ called for an update to [...]
During a teleconference on Monday, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that the Trump administration failed to show that emails about the hold placed on US aid to Ukraine in 2019 were eligible for protection under executive privilege. The emails were between White House aide Robert Blair and Office of Management and Budget official [...]
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a decision Monday to keep oil companies from moving lawsuits that blame them for coastal wetlands loss in Louisiana to federal court. In 1972 Congress enacted the Coastal Zone Management Act, which led Louisiana to enact the Louisiana State and Local [...]
In a press briefing on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijan announced sanctions on 11 US citizens. This decision comes in response to the sanctions imposed by the US on Hong Kong and Chinese officials accused of curtailing political freedoms in Hong Kong. On Friday the US imposed sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and [...]
California Judge Ethan Schulman of the San Francisco Superior Court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday against Uber and Lyft, blocking the companies from classifying their drivers as independent contractors. California passed a new law, Assembly Bill 5, that required companies to classify workers as employees if they controlled how workers did their jobs. The [...]
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced on public television Monday that his cabinet was resigning following three days of protests over the Beirut explosion and alleged government corruption. On August 4 an explosion at Beirut’s shipping port, believed to have been caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, killed at least 220 people and injured [...]
The French Constitutional Council, France’s highest constitutional authority, has rejected as unconstitutional legislation that included special parole conditions and electronic tracking for those who served prison terms for terrorist offenses. The Constitutional Council found Friday that the legislation unfairly discriminated against former detainees who had served full sentences. The law prohibited former detainees from changing [...]
Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita appointed nine judges to the Mali Constitutional Court by decree. This action was taken on Friday as part of a compromise to ease the current political crisis between Keita and opposition groups. The opposition alliance, called the June 5 Movement, has participated in mass protests demanding Keita’s resignation over his [...]
During a Peace Declaration speech marking the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Sunday, Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged world leaders to do more for a nuclear weapons ban. During World War II, the US detonated nuclear bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The US bombed Hiroshima on August [...]
A Venezuelan court sentenced two former members of the US Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets, to 20 years in prison for their role in an attempt to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro. In the ruling on Friday, the two men were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms and terrorism. According to [...]
