The Canadian government on Friday announced that it will resettle 20,000 vulnerable Afghans facing threats from the Taliban and being forced to flee as Taliban edges closer to assuming total control of Afghanistan. The Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) stated that the government is deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and assured [...]

The lower house of Poland’s parliament voted 228-216 to narrowly pass a media reform legislation on Wednesday that the US Department of State fears will “significantly weaken the media environment the Polish people have worked so long to build.” Stating that he is “deeply troubled” by the legislation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasised the importance of media freedom [...]

Myanmar’s armed forces (the Tatmadaw) has carried out 252 attacks on healthcare workers since the Tatmadaw illegally seized control of the country in a coup d’état in February, according to a report published on Tuesday. Violence Against or Obstruction of Health Care in Myanmar, published by Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, identified 252 reported incidents involving [...]

India’s deputy defense minister issued a written response to a question raised in the Indian Parliament on Monday stating that the Defense Ministry has had “no transaction” with the Israeli company NSO Group Technologies, which developed the Pegasus spyware allegedly used to illegally surveil journalists, constitutional authorities, opposition leaders and other civilians. The statement was [...]

The upper house of the Indian parliament (Rajya Sabha) on Monday approved The Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (“tax bill”) aiming to end all retrospective taxation imposed on indirect transfer of assets in India. Specifically, the purpose of the tax bill is to nullify the effect of amendments brought forth by the Finance Act of 2012, which sought to retroactively [...]

The Supreme Court of India on Friday upheld an order of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) as legally enforceable in India, effectively blocking the sale of Future Group (“Future”) to Reliance Industries Limited (“Reliance”). The sale was part of a ₹247.3 billion (US$3.4 billion) acquisition deal between Future and Reliance. Amazon initiated the emergency arbitration [...]

A California appeals court on Monday upheld an $86 million verdict against The Monsanto Company, a subsidiary of German pharmaceutical and life sciences company, Bayer AG. The decision comes amidst a number of lawsuits filed against Monsanto, which Bayer inherited as the parent company. The suit was filed in 2019 by a couple, Alberta and Alva [...]

The Higher People’s Court of Liaoning (“appellate court”) in China on Tuesday upheld Canadian citizen Robert Lloyd Schellenberg’s death sentence for methamphetamine smuggling. Initially, the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Schellenberg to 15 years in prison for smuggling drugs. On Schellenberg’s appeal, the appellate court remanded the case for retrial concluding that the punishment was [...]

The UK on Monday imposed tighter sanctions on Belarus in a bid to repress its totalitarian regime. The sanctions, which were effected by an amendment to the Republic of Belarus(sanctions)(EU Exit) Regulations 2019, include aviation, trade, and economic measures.  These sanctions are subsequent to a joint designation imposed in June this year by the UK, [...]

The Central Government of India introduced Monday a bill that would empower state governments to specify socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs) in the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021 proposes to amend Article 342A of the Constitution of India, which gives the power to specify [...]