New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday declared a public health emergency following a measles outbreak in several parts of Brooklyn. The declaration requires residents living in the identified zip codes to receive the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. According to a press release issued by the Mayor’s Office, the mandatory vaccination will be issued [...]
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Russia violated the rights of opposition leader Alexei Navalny by placing him under house arrest in 2014. Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, spent 10 months under house arrest in 2014 while Russian authorities investigated him for embezzlement charges. The court found that Navalny’s confinement violated [...]
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Tuesday signed four gun control laws, setting up a fight over the limits of municipal authority over the regulation of firearms in Pennsylvania. Following the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in October that killed 11, the Pittsburgh city council passed a series of gun control regulations aimed [...]
The Trump administration filed a notice Monday with the US District Court for the District of Maryland that it intends to appeal the court’s ruling that the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census is unlawful. On April 5 Judge George Hazel decided that the addition of a proposed question on the 2020 [...]
A Hong Kong court on Tuesday found nine members of the 2014 pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement” guilty of charges including conspiracy and inciting a public nuisance. The convictions are the latest of a series stemming from protests calling for increased democracy in Hong Kong which occurred nearly five years ago. The protests shut down parts of [...]
The Troika (the UK, US and Norway) on Tuesday released a joint statement on the current unrest in Sudan, urging the Sudanese authorities to respond to the demand from peaceful protesters for a transition to a political system that is “inclusive and has greater legitimacy.” The Troika urged a “credible plan for this political transition”, [...]
The High Court of the Indian state of Manipur on Monday ordered the government to release television journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem from police custody. He was detained in November under the National Security Act for “activities prejudicial to the security of the state and to the maintenance of public order.” Wangkhem, who works for a local [...]
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law a bill on Monday that prohibits licensed medical professionals from providing conversion therapy for anyone under 18 years old. In enacting House Bill 140, Massachusetts becomes the sixteenth state, in addition to Washington, DC, that prohibits the practice aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. [...]
US Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) announced a bill Monday that would establish a commission to study reparations for the institution of slavery and its economic, systemic and economic effects against descendants of American slaves. “I am proud to introduce legislation that will finally address many of our country’s policies—rooted in a history of slavery and [...]
A South African judge ruled Monday that Mozambique’s former finance minister Manuel Chang, charged in the US with loan fraud of more than USD $2 billion, can be extradited to the US to face trial. Chang, who was Mozambique’s finance minister between 2005 and 2015, was indicted in December for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, [...]
