Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, signed SB 2116 on Thursday, which bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. The bill was approved by the Mississippi Senate on Tuesday. A physician who performs an abortion after detecting a heartbeat in the fetus, or before checking for a heartbeat, can have their license revoked or suspended. The [...]

UN human rights experts condemned the Venezuelan government Thursday over reports that authorities violated the rights of demonstrators during a crackdown by the government. The UN experts claim that reports show a consistent, “systematic and pervasive disregard for humans rights displayed by the Venezuelan authorities during their crackdown on protestors, journalist and human rights defenders.” During [...]

India’s federal anti-corruption ombudsman, the Lokpal, officially commenced functioning on Tuesday with the country’s president appointing former Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose as the body’s first chairperson, along with eight other members. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, which mandates the setting up of anti-corruption ombudsman bodies at the federal and state levels, was enacted [...]

The Maryland House of Delegates and Senate on Wednesday approved a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2025. The bill proposes that the minimum wage be raised by 75 cents each year. The current minimum wage in Maryland is $10.10 per hour. In January 2020, the minimum [...]

Harvard University was sued Wednesday for allegedly profiting on the earliest known photographs of African-American slaves. In the complaint, plaintiff Tamara Lanier alleges that the slaves depicted in the daguerreotypes (early photographs) known only as “Renty” and “Delia” are her ancestors. Lanier outlines a rich oral history preserved in her family leading back to “Renty.” [...]

The European Commission called Wednesday for more efforts to ensure adoption of security proposals and fined Google €1.49 billion (USD $1.7 billion) for breaching EU antitrust rules. Market dominance is not illegal under EU antitrust rules. However, dominant companies have a special responsibility not to abuse their powerful market position by restricting competition, either in [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Flowers v. Mississippi, in which the state was alleged to have improperly dismissed African American jurors. The petitioner, Curtis Flowers, was convicted of a capital offense in 2010 and appealed his death penalty conviction on the grounds of racial discrimination. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday rebutted the Trump administration’s claim that no legal restrictions remained to preclude the implementation of a contentious transgender limitation on the military. In a three-page notice, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly called the administration’s assumption that it could move forward with the ban [...]

US air strikes are resulting in civilian casualties in Somalia, Amnesty International reported Wednesday. The report details five incidents resulting in 14 civilian casualties, with eight more civilians injured within the past two years. These issues began to draw increased international humanitarian attention during Barack Obama’s administration. In October 2016 the administration “broadened the president’s [...]

Mississippi senators on Tuesday passed, by a vote of 34-15, the final version of a bill that bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The Mississippi bill says a physician performing an abortion on a pregnant woman before determining if the unborn human individual has a detectable fetal heartbeat, or one who performs [...]