Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including Europe’s top rights court was asked to find that states have a human rights obligation to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions; A federal judge granted preliminary approval of Meta's $725 million settlement with millions of people whose personal information was harvested; Pamela Smart lost her bid to have the New Hampshire Supreme Court release her from prison, and more.

National

Judge approves $725 million deal in Meta data privacy class action

A federal judge on Wednesday granted preliminary approval of Facebook parent company Meta's agreement to pay $725 million to a class of millions of people whose personal information was harvested in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

A Meta sign at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)

DC officials spar with lawmakers over capital policing, crime rates

Focused on the District of Columbia's efforts to roll back its new law aimed at improving police transparency, House Republicans dialed in on the district's government Wednesday for the second time this year.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, a nonvoting member of Congress from the District of Columbia, speaks on March 29, 2023, at a House Oversight Committee hearing on a proposed resolution rolling back D.C. police reforms. (Screenshot via Courthouse News)

Senate inks repeal of Iraq War approval

In a major step toward what would be a symbolic rejection of Congress’ decades-old approval of the Iraq War, the Senate Wednesday voted to repeal two bills authorizing military action against Baghdad.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gestures during a Pentagon news conference in Washington on Sept. 30, 2002, to discuss the situation with Iraq. He criticized Iraq for continuing to fire on U.S. and British warplanes patrolling over two no-fly zones, saying the skirmishes are more evidence of Saddam Hussein's defiance of the international community. (AP Photos/Susan Walsh, File)

Regional

Pamela Smart, convicted in first sensational TV trial, loses appeal 32 years later

Pamela Smart, who was convicted of plotting her husband’s murder in the country’s first sensational fully televised trial and inspired films starring Nicole Kidman and Helen Hunt, lost her bid Wednesday to have the New Hampshire Supreme Court release her from prison.

Pamela Smart is shown during an interview at the corrections facility, in Bedford Hills, N.Y., in this 2010 image taken from video. (WMUR Television via AP, File)

San Diego County supervisor hit with sexual harassment suit

An-ex employee of San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System sued San Diego County supervisor Nathan Fletcher on a raft of sexual harassment-related claims including sexual assault.

The San Diego County Superior Courthouse, opened in 2017. (Chris Marshall/Courthouse News)

International

Top European rights court hears pair of high-profile climate cases

Europe’s top rights court heard from lawyers and activists on Wednesday who want judges to find that states have a human rights obligation to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Swiss seniors protesting outside the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, as the court hears two cases demand more government action on climate change. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

In historic move, UN asks World Court to weigh in on climate change

The United Nations has passed a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to issue a legal opinion on what obligations countries have to protect their citizens from climate change.

A man uses a chainsaw on a fallen tree in Port Vila, Vanuatu, on March 1, 2023. (Matt Hardwick/Australian Broadcasting Corp. via AP, File)

López Obrador urges educational changes to reform ‘rotten’ judiciary

Mexico’s president Wednesday pushed on with his feud with what he called the country’s “rotten” judicial branch, proposing changes to education and regulation of the legal profession and judge selection processes.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gives his daily, morning news conference at the presidential palace, Palacio Nacional, in Mexico City, in this Dec. 18, 2020 photo. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

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