A total of 24 Hong Kong activists appeared Friday in the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on charges stemming from their participation in the June 4 vigil commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The vigil has been an annual event in Hong Kong ever since the Chinese People’s Liberation Army opened fire on a crowd [...]
Brazilian mining giant Vale Thursday reached a settlement for damages caused by an iron ore waste dam rupture that killed at least 270 people. Several company officials are also charged with murder. The Vale dam burst in January 2019. Without warning, an inundation of toxic sludge buried the mining site’s cafeteria while hundreds of employees were having [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called Friday on Indian authorities and protesters alike to “exercise maximum restraint” amid the ongoing farmers’ protests. #India: We call on the authorities and protesters to exercise maximum restraint in ongoing #FarmersProtests. The rights to peaceful assembly & expression should be protected both offline [...]
Judging by much of the debate over the Senate filibuster rule, you’d think it was some honorable tradition worth keeping — “an elegant weapon of a more civilized age,” as Obi-Wan Kenobi described the lightsaber to Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars. Not so. The filibuster is a dangerous relic with a deeply destructive [...]
Scotland’s Court of Session dismissed a case Friday suggesting that Scotland could hold another independence referendum without the approval of the UK. The case, brought by Martin Keatings, a staunch advocate for Scottish independence, was a long-shot effort to overturn the 2014 referendum, when Scots voted to stay in the UK by a 55-percent majority. [...]
Hong Kong’s Education Bureau released guidelines Thursday for a new “national security education” curriculum that would see children as young as six being taught about the offenses of secession, collusion, terrorism and subversion under Hong Kong’s national security law (NSL). The guidelines come as the latest development in the government’s implementation of the NSL that [...]
The Supreme Court of India on 12th January 2021 stayed the three controversial farm laws and ordered the constitution of an expert committee to deliberate and facilitate dialogue between the farmers and Government. The stay order of the apex court comes at a time when petitions challenging the constitutionality of the laws are already before [...]
Conservation advocacy groups filed an appeal Wednesday to the Environmental Appeals Board challenging the EPA permit for one of the nation’s largest refineries, which reopened last week after previous controversies prompted an 8-year shutdown. The Limetree Bay refinery, located on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix, has a history of harmful environmental practices. The former [...]
In a divided decision, the Supreme Court ruled Friday against a California ban on indoor church services. However, it did not strike down California’s restrictions on indoor singing, chanting, and limits to the number of worshipers. The ruling permits California churches to hold in-person services with a capacity limit of 25%. The restrictions and bans [...]
German prosecutors issued Friday an indictment against a 95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp secretary, alleging 10,000 counts of aiding, abetting, and being complicit in attempted murders as part of the Nazi apparatus of terror. According to the prosecutors, she “assisted those responsible at the camp in the systematic killing of Jewish prisoners, Polish partisans and Soviet [...]
