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 [...]
Maine Governor Janet Mills signed a bill into law on Monday that partially decriminalizes prostitution in the state. Legislative Document (LD) 1435, called An Act to Reduce Commercial Sexual Exploitation, amends existing law to remove all references to prostitution. Instead, the new law criminalizes commercial sexual exploitation, which is a Class E crime carrying a maximum penalty [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Moore v. Harper that the “independent legislature” election theory, which has been the legal foundation for many of the recent Republican-led efforts to change election administration law and overturn 2020 election results, is an invalid interpretation of the Election Clause of the Constitution. The theory stipulates that state [...]
The Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS), a monitor group tracking antisemitism in Germany, announced in its annual report on Tuesday that Germany saw 2,480 antisemitism incidents last year. The report findings indicate there are almost seven incidents per day, on average. RIAS stated that its reporting offices documented 9 incidents of extreme [...]
The UN released two reports Tuesday, citing increases in deaths by improvised explosive devices (IED) and rising rates of drug trafficking in Afghanistan. The first report, released by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), shows a steep increase in deaths by IEDs in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in 2021. The report found [...]
Mexican authorities arrested the former head of Mexico’s anti-kidnapping unit, Gualberto Ramírez Gutiérrez, on Sunday in connection to the 2014 Ayotzinapa case in which 43 students went missing. This is the first high-level arrest made by Mexico since the incident occurred. On Tuesday, a court in Toluca also charged eight soldiers with the crime of [...]