Seattle’s city council voted on Tuesday to repeal a proposed tax on businesses, in which large businesses would have been taxed $275 for every full-time employee, with the revenue going towards Seattle’s homeless population. The city council had passed the tax unanimously a few weeks ago. However, the council voted 7-2 to repeal the tax [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday that Israel’s use of deadly force in Gaza Strip “may amount of war crimes.” HRW reports that between March 30 and June 8, the Israeli government used lethal force against Palestinian protesters, although the protesters provided “no imminent threat to life.” According to the report, 118 people were killed [...]
The Irish cabinet voted on Tuesday in favor of the Removal of Blasphemy Bill , which will “provide for a referendum on removing the crime of blasphemy from the Constitution.” Charlie Flanagan , the Minister for Justice and Equality, proposed the bill. Article 40.6.1(i) of the Irish Constitution says, “The publication or utterance of blasphemous, [...]
Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday that AT&T could go through with its multi-billion dollar acquisition of Time Warner. The Department of Justice (DOJ) had brought suit in November arguing the merger would violate section 7 of the Clayton Act. The DOJ claimed that the acquisition [...]
The National Assembly of Vietnam on Tuesday passed a cybersecurity law that will affect the operations of global tech companies, such as Facebook and Google. The law will require global tech companies to store important personal data on Vietnamese users locally, as well as requiring them to maintain offices in Vietnam. The law further requires [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday decided to release Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo , the former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While Bemba’s conviction of crimes against the administration of justice still stands, the court found it improper to detain him when he already served most of the maximum sentence. The court [...]
US President Donald Trump signed an agreement with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Singapore on Tuesday. The agreement is supposed to establish relations between the two countries, “build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” and repatriate prisoners of war. The statement reads that the “DPRK commits to work [...]
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a decision Monday calling for immigration judges to adopt a narrower interpretation of “membership in a particular social group” when deciding whether to grant asylum to undocumented immigrants. This interpretation would deny most asylum seekers who are victims of domestic abuse and gang violence. The Immigration and Nationality Act [...]
Qatar filed an Application Instituting Proceedings against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday, accusing the UAE of discriminating against Qataris in violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) . Qatar accuses the UAE of, among other things, “prohibit by [...]
Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli was extradited to Panama Monday to face four charges of illegally monitoring private communications, and for embezzling over $10 million in public funds. The extradition honored a 1905 treaty . Martinelli fled Panama in January 2015. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Panama issued an arrest warrant [...]
