US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry was issued a subpoena on Thursday by three House of Representatives committees investigating the Trump administration for attempting to induce the government of Ukraine to interfere with the upcoming 2020 US presidential election. The subpoena demands that Perry provide relevant documents and appear before the committees to testify before [...]

Attorneys representing US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland released a statement to Politico reporter Kyle Cheney on Friday indicating his intention to testify before Congress, defying an order by the Trump Administration not to appear before the committees investigating the president as part of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry. The statement says that [...]

Two associates of US President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani were arrested Thursday for violating campaign finance laws. The indictment charges that Ignor Fruman and Lev Parnas and two others “conspired to circumvent the federal laws against foreign influence by engaging in a scheme to funnel foreign money to candidates for federal and state office [...]

New York City sued 22 e-cigarette companies Tuesday for violating the Administrative Code of the City of New York by selling e-cigarettes to residents under the age of 21. The city accuses the companies of creating a public nuisance and is seeking injunctive relief to prevent further underage sales of e-cigarettes. The city also seeks [...]

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday rejected Italy’s request for referral in Marcello Viola v. Italy, making the judgement in the case final. The court, in June, held that Italy violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights by imposing an irreducible sentence of life imprisonment on Marcello Viola for Mafia-type [...]

A California jury on Wednesday cleared Johnson & Johnson of charges that the company’s talcum powder gave a woman mesothelioma. The verdict was granted in a retrial of claims over which a mistrial was declared in September of 2018. 60-year-old Carolyn Weirick and her wife Elvira Escudero claimed that Weirick’s mesothelioma was caused by the [...]

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Tuesday that prohibits law enforcement officers from using facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies in police-worn cameras. The bill outlines concerns related to the guaranteed right to privacy under the California Constitution. The bill equates facial recognition technologies as functionally equivalent to “requiring every person to [...]

Amnesty International called Wednesday for Turkish and Kurdish forces to respect international humanitarian law in Syria. The statement came after “ Turkish government spokesman said on Wednesday that the USA had given them the green light to carry out a military offensive against Kurdish forces.” Amnesty called for both Turkish and Kurdish forces to respect [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called Tuesday for changes to Australian migration and asylum laws. In a speech at the Australian Human Rights Commission conference, Bachelet called for a national conversation to develop a platform to be presented at Australia’s Universal Periodic Review in front of the UN Human Rights Council. The [...]

US airstrikes in Afghanistan last May resulted in civilian casualties and violated international humanitarian law, the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported Wednesday. On May 4 the US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) completed airstrikes on buildings located in the Bakwa district, Farah province and the Nimroz province in Afghanistan. The air strikes were aimed at potential [...]