The District Court of Hong Kong convicted Hong Kong activists Gregory Wong, Ng Chi-yung, Ho Chun-yin and Lam Kan-kwan on Thursday over rioting at Hong Kong’s Legislative Council Complex on July 1, 2019. The riot occurred on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China and occurred in the broader context of the 2019 Hong [...]

Canadian Minister of Health Mark Holland stated Thursday that the planned restrictions for transgender youth in the Alberta province are “extremely dangerous” and place children “at risk.” Holland’s statement came one day after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced plans to implement new policies regarding transgender minors’ access to medical treatment, pronoun use in school and participation [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked on Thursday prison inmates’ lawsuit against Oregon Governor Kate Brown and others for putting the inmates on the lowest tier of priority for access to the COVID-19 vaccine. The court found that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act immunized state officials and the vaccine [...]

Iowa lawmakers declined to advance a piece of legislation on Wednesday that would have removed gender identity as a protected class under the state’s civil rights law. In a 3-0 tally, a subcommittee of the Iowa legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted against moving the bill forward. Although the bill sought to add a new category to [...]

The Pakistan court that sentenced former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for leaking state secrets released its full opinion on Thursday. The court, which sentenced Khan to ten years imprisonment, found that as a result of the actions of Khan and Vice President of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mahmood Qureshi, “Pakistan has faced serious economic, [...]

US President Joe Biden issued an executive order Thursday enabling sanctions to be issued against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The first round of sanctions under the order targets four individuals implicated in settler violence towards Palestinians: David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjjl, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi. The sanctions imposed include blocking the [...]

A Sovetsky District Court in Kazan, Russia extended on Thursday the pre-trial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who stands accused of violating a law on “foreign agents.” The Kazan court previously determined the journalist’s pre-trial detention would last until February 5, though this has now been extended by two months to April 5.   [...]

A federal judge blocked a California law on Wednesday which would have required background checks for individuals seeking to buy ammunition. The judge found that the California law, known as Proposition 63, violated the US Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. In 2016, California voters passed Proposition 63, which established background check [...]

A new Amnesty International report showed on Wednesday the increasing limits of Western sanctions as Myanmar finds alternative to sanctioned American and European jet fuel.  In spring of 2023, the US, UK, Canada, and the EU imposed sanctions on the importation of jet fuel by the central government in Naypyidaw. This was allegedly to prevent [...]

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) agreed Tuesday to the UK government’s deal regarding the restoration of Stormont power-sharing in Northern Ireland and the operation of the Windsor Framework. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announced the decision on X (formerly Twitter), stating the government will “publish new measures that are designed to restore Northern Ireland’s place [...]