Amnesty International on Tuesday verified evidence confirming the death of more than 100 protesters in Iran as the country entered its fifth day of a state-imposed communication blackout after protests erupted on Friday in response to a sharp increase in fuel prices. Amnesty is alleging numerous specific charges that they believe “reveal a harrowing pattern [...]

US Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Bill Cassidy sent a letter to Google Wednesday requesting more information about their new partnership with Ascension in which Google stands to access millions of patient health records. The letter alleges that patients of health care entities owned by Ascension have not properly consented to sharing their information [...]

A former staff member of the British Consulate-General in Hong Kong issued a statement via Facebook on Wednesday describing an “illegal process” of “torture, threats, and coercion” by Chinese authorities. Simon Cheng, the consulate employee and a Hong Kong citizen, was detained for 15 days while returning from a business trip to mainland China in [...]

The Massachusetts Senate passed legislation regulating e-cigarettes on Thursday. The regulation bans the sales of flavored e-cigarette products and levies a 75 percent excise tax on e-cigarettes. If signed into law by Republican Governor Charlie Baker, it will be the strictest regulation on e-cigarettes in the country. E-Cigarette use has greatly increased, especially among young [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of California ruled Tuesday that asylum-seekers at the US border before mid-July would not be subject to the asylum limitations on non-Mexican nationals that had not first sought asylum in Mexico. The relevant ban mandates: Additional limitation on eligibility for asylum. Notwithstanding the provisions [...]

Three refugee resettlement agencies filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an executive order from US President Donald Trump that requires states and localities to sign off before refugees are settled in their jurisdiction. HIAS, Church World Service and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service brought the action in the US District Court for the District of Maryland. [...]

Car giant General Motors (GM) filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against its competitor, Fiat Chrysler alleging Fiat Chrysler illegally bribed union officials, resulting in an unfair advantage in labor discussions over the course of a decade. The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as United Auto Workers [...]

A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) sentenced Frederic Masudi Alimasi to life in prison on Tuesday after a two-month trial. Alimasi, also known as Kokodikoko, is head of the Raia Mutomboki, one of the most powerful militia groups operating in the Eastern DRC. He and four others were arrested in April [...]

The US House Judiciary Committee approved a bill on Wednesday that would remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I narcotics, effectively legalizing it at the federal level if passed into law. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act passed by a vote of 24-10 following the Committee’s markup, thereby sending the bill to the [...]

The US House Intelligence Committee heard testimony Wednesday morning from Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the EU, followed by testimony from Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affiars, and David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, in the evening. In his opening statement, Sondland emphasized that he agreed [...]