UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Phillip Alston on Monday accused the US of criminalizing being poor . The report accuses the US of criminalizing being homeless through laws that ban sleeping outside, panhandling and public urination. The report states that 1,800 homeless people in Skid Row in Los Angeles have access [...]
A Bahrain court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was sentenced to five years in February over Tweets critical of the Bahraini government. Rajab is the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights . He was convicted over Tweets about Bahraini prison torture and civilians casualties from [...]
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments on Monday concerning Texas’s attempted defunding of Planned Parenthood . Texas is appealing a lower court injunction that prevents them from denying Medicaid coverage to Planned Parenthood. The appellant’s argument focused on allegations that the Texas branch of Planned [...]
In a press briefing Tuesday, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, called on the US to halt its recently mandated practice of detaining and separating those immigrating illegally, including those with children, known as the “zero tolerance policy” recently put in place along the US southern border. Attorney General Jeff [...]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Tuesday that even if an EU country’s government has not authorized same-sex marriage, same-sex couples must still be offered the same residency rights as heterosexual couples. The issue arose because EU law permits the spouse of an EU citizen to obtain a residence permit for any member state [...]
There is evidence to suggest that coalition airstrikes in Syria are potential war crimes, according to an Amnesty International report released Tuesday detailing the effects on civilians of the US airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, which occurred from June to October of 2017. Amnesty referred to the airstrikes, by the US-led Coalition against Islamic State (IS) [...]
In a new motion in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Monday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller accused Paul Manafort of using an encrypted messaging application to tamper with a witness. According to the motion, Manafort, former chairman of President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and a longtime associate identified as “Person A” [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday in response to the sanctions the US imposed on Russia in April. The counter-sanctions give Putin the right to ban trade from countries found to be hostile to Russia and to cut ties with such countries. According to Reuters , the counter-sanctions are not as strong [...]
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed lawsuits on Monday against Google and Facebook for failing to disclose information about who purchased political ads that were displayed on their platforms. Both companies are accused of violating RCW 72.17A, which requires that “political campaign and lobbying contributions and expenditures be fully disclosed to the public and [...]
The US Supreme Court delivered two rulings on Monday, in Hughes v. United States and Koons v. United States , related to when a prison sentence can be reduced through 18 USC §3582(c)(2) . In Hughes, the court ruled that §3582(c)(2) applied to a Type-C plea agreement. In Koons, the court ruled §3582(c)(2) cannot be [...]
