The US Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit blocked an appeal Friday from Texas gun owners and state Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking judicial approval of a Texas gun law that exempts the state from federal firearm silencer regulations. In a short 14-page decision the court affirmed a lower court decision dismissing the case [...]

Alabama inmate Alan Eugene Miller on Friday requested the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama block his scheduled nitrogen gas execution, which would be the second of its kind in US history. In 2000, Miller was sentenced to death for the murder of three people. Alabama law lets death row inmates choose [...]

A San Francisco jury on Friday found David DePape guilty on all counts related to his attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The charges against him included first-degree burglary, false imprisonment of an elder, threatening a family member of a public official, and dissuading a witness by [...]

The Punjab, Pakistan government imposed protest restrictions on Friday citing the “law and order situation” and security threats posed by demonstrations. The order came at the time when Pakistan’s previous ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had called for a nationwide protest to release its leader and Pakistan’s ex-prime minister, Imran Khan from jail. Section 144 [...]

Amnesty International on Friday raised alarm regarding a wave of legal initiatives across the Americas that threaten to curtail the activities of civil society organizations. These measures, currently under consideration in Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela, pose severe risks to the promotion and defense of human rights in the region. Peru’s congress is rapidly advancing legislation [...]

China introduced on Friday the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases involving supporters of Taiwanese independence. The new judicial guidelines outline severe punishments for activities deemed as fragmenting the country or inciting secession. The new standards, titled “Opinions on Punishing the Crimes of Splitting the Country and Inciting Splitting the Country by ‘Taiwan Independence’ Diehards,” [...]

A report by Rainbow Refugees NI and Law Centre NI published on Friday revealed that LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Northern Ireland experience serious homophobic abuse in their asylum accommodation. The report, titled “We are getting hurt,” shows that 78 percent of the study’s participants experienced “homophobic abuse or violence in or around their asylum accommodation.” [...]

Pakistani authorities initiated a rigorous investigation to identify and arrest members of a mob that killed a tourist accused of blasphemy in the Swat district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local media on Friday. Regional Police Chief Mohammad Ali Gandapur confirmed that a case has been registered against the organizers of the mob [...]

The Supreme Court of Japan declared a transgender woman as the father of her daughter, who was conceived after the woman’s legal gender change, for the first time on Friday. In Friday’s ruling, which overturned a 2022 Tokyo High Court decision, the court held that Japan’s Civil Code and other laws do not prevent a [...]

The Philippines announced Friday that it does not intend to invoke its mutual defense treaty with the US following an incident captured on video where the Chinese coast guard allegedly boarded two Philippine navy boats, with a Philippine sailor sustaining serious injuries. The Chinese Coast Guard sailors were attempting to block a resupply mission at [...]