The governors of Wisconsin and North Carolina Thursday signed executive orders banning the use of the Chinese video-sharing application TikTok owned by Bytedance Inc. on government devices due to cybersecurity issues. The states join the federal government, other states and the US Army in their decision. The order from the Wisconsin governor’s office cited “cybersecurity [...]
The European Court of Justice Thursday held travelers whose travel package had been adversely affected by quarantine measures associated with COVID-19 may be entitled to a reduction in the package price. The case concerned two German travelers who had booked a two-week package holiday in the Canary Islands in May 2020, just before COVID-19 restrictions [...]
Five Connecticut police officers charged with being responsible for an arrestee’s paralysis Wednesday pleaded not guilty in a Connecticut state court. The incident left a 36-year-old African American man, Richard “Randy” Cox, paralyzed from the neck down. Officer Luis Rivera, Officer Jocelyn Lavandier, Officer Ronald Pressley, Sergeant Betsy Segui, and Officer Oscar Diaz were indicted [...]
The Iranian Intelligence Ministry Wednesday said in a statement through the state-run IRNA news agency that former Deputy Minister of Defence Alireza Akbari was arrested and charged with spying for Britain’s foreign intelligence service SIS, better known as MI6. The statement added that an “appropriate judicial authority” sentenced him to death. Officials vaguely laid out [...]
US Deputy Representative to the United Nations Richard Mills Tuesday accused the Russian-backed paramilitary organization Wagner group of exacerbating instability in West Africa in a statement given to the UN Security Council. Accusing the Wagner group of violating human rights, Mills stated: The Kremlin-backed Wagner Group is interfering in African countries’ internal affairs, robbing them [...]
The US House of Representatives Tuesday adopted a GOP-backed resolution in a party-line vote of 221-211 establishing a select committee to probe perceived misconduct by federal law enforcement agencies under the Biden administration. The GOP claims this committee was formed in response to federal agencies illegally investigating and censoring American citizens. The “Select Subcommittee on [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Wednesday criticized repressive measures on civil society groups by European governments considered to be liberal democracies. In a report, HRW expressed alarm at democratic backsliding in “healthy” democracies such as the UK, Italy, Greece and France. According to the V-Dem Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated democratic backsliding around the world. The [...]
A Burkina Faso human rights group Tuesday reported that 28 people were found shot dead in the town of Nouna in an alleged ethnic killing at the hands of a volunteer militia group. The Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities (CISC) reported the killings were perpetrated by Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland [...]
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian Monday said in an interview with Iranian state TV that 60 US officials allegedly involved in the 2020 assassination of General Qasem Soleimani have been placed on Tehran’s terrorist blacklist. Abdollahian said the country was exhausting all possible legal and diplomatic channels to prosecute those involved in the general’s assassination. [...]
The India Supreme Court Monday upheld the government’s 2016 banknote demonetisation scheme in a 4-1 verdict. The court held that the Indian Central Government’s demonetisation of all ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes does not violate the doctrine of proportionality. The principle has evolved in Indian common law as a measure to hold public authority accountable for [...]
