The US and Japan on Wednesday reached a trade agreement in agriculture, industrial goods and digital trade. Japan will eliminate or lower tariffs for some US agriculture products and will set quotas for other products from the US, which will lead to more than 90 percent of US food imported into Japan being duty free [...]
Seventeen US states sued the Trump administration Wednesday over its attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The suit was brought in response to three rules that the states believe “undermine key requirements of the federal Endangered Species Act.” The ESA “protects more than 1,600 plant and animal species in the United States and [...]
German prosecutors have filed charges against Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch and former CEO Martin Winterkorn, according to a statement Tuesday. The indictment charges the executives with intentionally misleading shareholders by withholding information about the company’s 2015 emissions-cheating scandal. In September 2015, authorities in the US revealed that Volkswagen had rigged millions [...]
Indiana Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm, filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of four Indiana citizens against the federal government, claiming Indiana’s plan to enforce work requirements for Medicaid recipients improperly jeopardizes health coverage for thousands. Work requirements have recently been endorsed by the Trump Administration, but various courts have blocked state implementation. The [...]
The US Department of Labor issued a final ruling on Wednesday that set the minimum salary level for exempt employees at $684 per week ($35,568 per year) regardless of actual duties. Under the Federal Labor Standards Act, “white collars,” such as executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer employees, are exempted from the minimum wage [...]
The US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) on Tuesday alerted the President and Congress that several Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety inspectors were not sufficiently trained to certify pilots, including some who piloted the dangerous Boeing 737 MAX aircrafts. According to the Disclosure of Wrongdoing, OSC sent letters to the President and Congress alerting them [...]
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) Tuesday, urging action to protect human rights. The report focuses on the impact of global climate change on individuals who live in mountainous, coastal and Arctic regions. Roughly 1.42 billion people live in communities [...]
Massachusetts officials on Tuesday announced a four-month ban on the sale of vaping products, starting immediately. The ban comes in response to the outbreak of lung diseases that are being traced back to the use vaping products. It will include both flavored and non-flavored products, and will apply “to all vaping products and devices, including [...]
The UK’s High Court ruled Wednesday that a transgender man who had given birth to a child must be legally registered as the mother of the child. The issue arose when a transgender man gave birth to a child and wished to be legally registered as the father or, alternatively, the parent of the child. [...]
President Trump lodged a stunning claim in federal court last week when he filed suit against the Manhattan district attorney to halt a criminal investigation into hush-money payments that he made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The claim? That the President is absolutely immune from any criminal process, including a criminal investigation. In [...]
