The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected Poland and Hungary’s challenge Wednesday of the EU budget’s conditionality mechanism for disbursement of funding to the EU Member States, clearing the way for the European Commission (EC) to withhold payments to the two nations. The EU budget’s conditionality mechanism regulation permits the European Council to suspend payments from [...]

Amnesty International Monday released a report attributing the “human rights catastrophe in 2021” to unequal vaccination distribution by pharmaceutical companies. The report revealed that major companies that produced the vaccinations used aggressive strategies to profit from the pandemic. Amnesty International issued a target for vaccination rollout to lower-income countries. However, it was found that Pfizer, Moderna, and [...]

The lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, the State Duma, voted Tuesday to approve a draft appeal to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) as independent states. The DPR and LPR are both quasi-states in eastern Ukraine. Chairman of the State Duma [...]

The families of Sandy Hook victims settled Tuesday with gun manufacturer Remington for $73 million, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney, Josh Koskoff. The surviving family members of five children and four adults killed in the 2012 shooting brought the lawsuit against Remington for its production and marketing of the Bushmaster AR-15. Koskoff said, “it is [...]

It’s been one full year since Myanmar has come once again under military rule. Since the February 1, 2021 coup, the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian nation has attracted international media attention, but for the wrong reasons. The country, with a 60 million population of varied ethnicities, continues to witness public protests against the junta, counter military [...]

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Tuesday published preliminary remarks about the Pegasus spyware and called for a European Union-wide ban. The controversial Pegasus spyware has been used by governments for the purpose of surveillance of journalists, activists and politicians in several EU member states and various other jurisdictions. The EDPS preliminary remarks recognise that [...]

New Zealand’s parliament Tuesday passed the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill, banning attempts to forcibly change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression through conversion therapy. The bill received 112 votes in favor and 8 votes in opposition in its third and final reading. According to the bill, a conversion practice is defined [...]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Monday to give the federal government additional powers to quell the “Freedom Convoy” protests that has now entered the third week with no end in sight, but Trudeau explicitly ruled out a military response. The Emergencies Act (“the Act”) can be invoked to grant “temporary [...]

The Karnataka High Court Monday struck down provisions of the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act, 2021 that prohibited and criminalised online gambling and offering and playing skill games, including online, by risking money or otherwise. The Karnataka Assembly passed legislation in September to amend the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, rendering all forms of gambling, including internet [...]

Kansas Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday suing top Republican state officials over Kansas’s recently enacted US congressional district map. Democrats allege that Republicans gerrymandered the map to prevent the state’s only Democrat-represented district from being competitive in future elections. Last week, the Republican-controlled Kansas legislature passed Substitute Senate Bill 355. The bill contained the state’s [...]