The New Jersey Attorney General and Commissioner of Environmental Protection announced on Wednesday that they reached a settlement with Solvay Specialty Polymers USA, LLC, the US subsidiary of a Belgian company, over the release of so-called “forever chemicals.” In total, officials say Solvay agreed to financial commitments of $393 million. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday that it was criminally charging 78 people for their alleged involvement in healthcare fraud schemes. The alleged fraud schemes totaled over $2.5 billion and targeted the elderly, people with HIV, pregnant women and others. “These enforcement actions, including against one of the largest health care fraud [...]

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine on Tuesday released a report which details the arbitrary detention, torture, and occasional killing of civilians by Russian armed forces in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The report describes the Russian Federation’s widespread practice of arbitrarily detaining civilians in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. The [...]

A three-member International Criminal Court (ICC) panel authorized the ICC prosecutor’s office to continue its crimes against humanity investigation in Venezuela on Tuesday over Venezuela’s objections. Judges Péter Kovács, Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou, and María del Socorro Flores Lier held that the domestic Venezuelan investigation into the crimes does not have a sufficiently wide scope, [...]

The UN refugee agency (UNCHR) said Tuesday that the estimated number of people fleeing from the ongoing conflict in Sudan is expected to surpass one million sooner than previously projected. UNHCR Assistant Commissioner for Operations Rouf Mazou expressed concerns over the fact that approximately 560,000 refugees fled the country within the first two months of [...]

The newest version of the European Parliament’s proposed Nature Restoration Law faced an impasse within a European Parliament committee on Tuesday, failing to secure a majority vote. The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety rejected the proposal in a tie 44–44 vote. The vote transpired amidst a contentious political campaign waged by the [...]

The US Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report Tuesday detailing “intelligence failures” amongst law enforcement officials surrounding the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The report describes how the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to act on intelligence provided to them weeks ahead of [...]

The Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) released national election results Tuesday, which showed incumbent President Julius Maada Bio won over 56 percent of the national vote. Chairman of the ECSL Mohamed Konneh announced the results to a room of people, including Bio and his supporters. The results mean that Bio obtained the minimum number [...]

Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH) introduced a bill on Monday that would ban the use of sexual orientation and gender identity-based panic defenses in criminal trials. Known as the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2023, the bill would prohibit criminal defendants from using a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity [...]

Three Virginia citizens disqualified from voting due to felony convictions joined a nonprofit organization to file a lawsuit Monday in federal court against Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and several state elections officials. The action challenges the felony disenfranchisement provision of the Virginia Constitution. The plaintiffs filed the case, King v. Youngkin, in the US District [...]