The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a homeless person cannot be cited for violating city ordinances against camping or disorderly conduct for sleeping in outdoor public spaces if they do not have access to city shelters. The case was brought by six homeless and formerly homeless individuals in the [...]
Amnesty International on Tuesday accused South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) and Military Intelligence Directorate of continued arbitrary detention and torture of individuals accused of supporting opposition forces in the country. A cessation of hostilities agreement was signed by the government of South Sudan and opposition forces on December 21, 2017, that required the release [...]
A Myanmar judge sentenced two Reuters journalists on Monday to seven years in jail for breaching a law on state secrets. A judge found that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo breached the Official Secrets Act by obtaining confidential documents. The journalists were arrested on December 12, 2017, while investigating military operations in northern Rakhine [...]
The confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh began Tuesday morning. In his opening statements , Kavanaugh began by thanking both the president and the 65 senators he met with over the previous months. He also took time to pay tribute to Justice Anthony Kennedy, the justice Kavanaugh would replace on the Supreme Court [...]
Amnesty International called Tuesday for the release of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, detained since June, and her husband Reza Khandan, who was arrested Tuesday. Reza Khandan was charged by Tehran’s Office of the Prosecutor with spreading propaganda against the system, colluding to commit crimes against national security, and promoting the practice of appearing [...]
The government of the island nation of Mauritius presented its claim Monday to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the British government forced the transfer of the Chagos Islands as a condition of independence in the 1960s. The UK leased the Diego Garcia island within the Chagos Archipelago to the US in 1966, which was [...]
American lobbyist Samuel Patten pleaded guilty on Friday of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act , which requires foreign agents to register with the US government. Patten formed a political consulting company with an unidentified Russian agent. The company advised a Ukrainian political party, the Opposition Bloc, making Patten an agent for a foreign principal. Patten met with members of the [...]
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Chinese government on Thursday to release the Muslim minorities known as Uighurs from involuntary detention. The Committee put forth a report estimating up to one million Uighurs could be held in detention centers. The report found that members of the Uighur ethnic group were allegedly [...]
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled Thursday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can stop paying for emergency relief housing for Puerto Rican civilians. After Hurricane Maria stuck the US island territory nearly a year ago, FEMA has provided temporary housing assistance for victims. The program is known as “Transitional Shelter Assistance” (TSA). On [...]
US District Judge Dana Christensen in the District of Montana on Thursday ordered an immediate halt to a scheduled grizzly bear hunt near Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Idaho—what would have been the first grizzly hunt since 1974. The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced in June 2017 that grizzlies in and around Yellowstone [...]
