A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held Wednesday that power company Dominion Energy did not violate the Clean Water Act through its process of keeping a by-product of coal energy production called coal ash on site in a landfill and in settling ponds. The Sierra Club sued Dominion [...]

UN investigators released a report  on Wednesday detailing the use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces during an ongoing civil war, which has contributed to the displacement of more than one million civilians in six months. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic  documented multiple war crimes by the Syrian government, [...]

US President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday announced  a plan  to amend the 2016 New Source Performance Standards for the oil and gas industry that would weaken requirements for testing and monitoring methane gas emissions. In March the EPA announced two amendments addressing the “fugitive emissions” requirements of the Emission Standards for New, [...]

EU President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday announced the proposal of new rules for requiring the removal of terrorist content from the internet within one hour. The one-hour rule would require that the content be removed within one hour of receiving a removal notification from national competent authorities. Failure to remove content within the hour can [...]

Two Native American communities filed a lawsuit  in the US District Court for the District of Montana on Tuesday alleging President Donald Trump’s administration will violate the tribes’ treaty rights when it permits TransCanada to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. Former president Barack Obama rejected  the pipeline in 2012 and 2015 on climate change grounds, but [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Tuesday dismissed part of a lawsuit brought by protesters attacked during a 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign rally, finding that Trump’s comment did not rise to the level of inciting a riot under Kentucky law . On March 1, 2016, protestors at a rally in [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) stated Tuesday that it will continue its investigation into potential war crimes in Afghanistan despite threats from the Trump administration on Monday. On Monday, John Bolton, a national security advisor to the Trump administration, stated that the US would use any means necessary to protect both their citizens and their [...]

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday refused to retry a 1978 case regarding the torture of Irish “hooded men.” In 1971 14 men affiliated with the IRA were arrested and allegedly subject to inhumane interrogation methods inside the Ulster Constabulary. In 1976 the Irish government took the men’s cause [...]

California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 100  into law on Monday, which mandates a goal of a 100 percent renewable energy supply by 2045. Brown said , “This bill and the executive order put California on a path to meet the goals of Paris and beyond. It will not be easy. It will not be immediate. But [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Monday reversed a lower court’s decision that had blocked Missouri laws imposing certain requirements on abortion providers. Missouri law required that clinics set up to provide abortions be designated as ambulatory surgery centers and that doctors who provide abortions must have admitting privileges at local [...]