The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked on Thursday prison inmates’ lawsuit against Oregon Governor Kate Brown and others for putting the inmates on the lowest tier of priority for access to the COVID-19 vaccine. The court found that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act immunized state officials and the vaccine [...]

Iowa lawmakers declined to advance a piece of legislation on Wednesday that would have removed gender identity as a protected class under the state’s civil rights law. In a 3-0 tally, a subcommittee of the Iowa legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted against moving the bill forward. Although the bill sought to add a new category to [...]

The Pakistan court that sentenced former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for leaking state secrets released its full opinion on Thursday. The court, which sentenced Khan to ten years imprisonment, found that as a result of the actions of Khan and Vice President of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mahmood Qureshi, “Pakistan has faced serious economic, [...]

US President Joe Biden issued an executive order Thursday enabling sanctions to be issued against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The first round of sanctions under the order targets four individuals implicated in settler violence towards Palestinians: David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjjl, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi. The sanctions imposed include blocking the [...]

A Sovetsky District Court in Kazan, Russia extended on Thursday the pre-trial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who stands accused of violating a law on “foreign agents.” The Kazan court previously determined the journalist’s pre-trial detention would last until February 5, though this has now been extended by two months to April 5.   [...]

A federal judge blocked a California law on Wednesday which would have required background checks for individuals seeking to buy ammunition. The judge found that the California law, known as Proposition 63, violated the US Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. In 2016, California voters passed Proposition 63, which established background check [...]

A new Amnesty International report showed on Wednesday the increasing limits of Western sanctions as Myanmar finds alternative to sanctioned American and European jet fuel.  In spring of 2023, the US, UK, Canada, and the EU imposed sanctions on the importation of jet fuel by the central government in Naypyidaw. This was allegedly to prevent [...]

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) agreed Tuesday to the UK government’s deal regarding the restoration of Stormont power-sharing in Northern Ireland and the operation of the Windsor Framework. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announced the decision on X (formerly Twitter), stating the government will “publish new measures that are designed to restore Northern Ireland’s place [...]

A federal judge in Florida dismissed Disney’s lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Secretary of Commerce on Wednesday for lack of standing and failure to state a claim. Disney sued DeSantis, the Secretary and and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) for alleged violations of the company’s First Amendment right to free [...]

Myanmar’s ruling military junta announced Wednesday that they have extended the country’s state of emergency period for another six months, according to military-run media Myawady TV’s web portal. The junta previously extended the state of emergency period by six months on July 31, 2023 and postponed an election it promised to hold in August 2023. [...]