Top Eight

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight stories for today including the United Kingdom approved the mass use of a new vaccine against the deadly coronavirus; The United Nations said the world must slow down fossil fuel production by 6% a year over the next decade if humanity hopes to stave off catastrophic damage from climate change; The ACLU complained in federal court that the Trump administration is staying mum about its efforts to track immigrants’ movements using cellphone location data, and more.

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National

1.) Demanding to see the paper trail, the ACLU complained in federal court Wednesday that the Trump administration is staying mum about its efforts to track immigrants’ movements using cellphone location data.

FILE - In this April 7, 2020, file photo, some people wear masks while using the New York City subway system during the coronavirus pandemic in New York. New York's mass transit agency wants Apple to come up with a better way for iPhone users to unlock their phones without taking off their masks, as it seeks to guard against the spread of COVID-19 in buses and subways. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

2.) The Los Angeles Times sued a trio of government agencies claiming they are withholding crucial documents detailing allegations of widespread sexual abuse and misconduct at ICE detention centers.

FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2019, file photo, a detainee talks on the phone in his pod at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga. While much of daily life has ground to a halt to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the Trump administration is resisting calls from immigration judges and attorneys to stop in-person hearings and shutter all immigration courts. They say the most pressing hearings can still be done by phone so immigrants aren't stuck in detention indefinitely. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

3.) Prison officials defended their handling of the pandemic before the House even as reports show that nearly 20% of the federal inmate population have tested positive for Covid-19.

Screenshot of a hearing Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2020, of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, an arm of the Judiciary Committee. (Image via Courthouse News)

4.) Emotional support pets and service animals that aren’t dogs will no longer be allowed on planes after the Transportation Department finalized a rule Wednesday limiting animals on flights.

A service dog strolls through the isle inside a United Airlines plane at Newark Liberty International Airport while taking part of a training exercise, Saturday, April 1, 2017, in Newark, N.J. Trainers took dogs through security check and onto a plane as part of the exercise put on by the Seeing Eye puppy program. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Regional

5.) The Ninth Circuit gave California a green light Wednesday to move forward with a contested highway project through a majestic grove of ancient redwood trees, reversing a lower court ruling that halted construction pending further environmental review.

Highway 101 winds through groves of majestic redwood trees in Northern California. (William Dotinga/Courthouse News)

6.) An Ohio man whose death sentence was overturned earlier this year by a panel of judges argued before the full Sixth Circuit on Wednesday that his intellectual disabilities make capital punishment unconstitutional.

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2008, file photo, the execution chamber at the Washington State Penitentiary is shown with the witness gallery behind glass at right, in Walla Walla, Wash. Washington state's Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty violates its Constitution. The ruling Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. They ordered that people currently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

International

7.) The United Kingdom approved the mass use of a new vaccine against the deadly coronavirus on Wednesday, becoming the first Western nation to do so and marking a hopeful turning point in the pandemic.

A truck leaves Pfizer Manufacturing in Puurs, Belgium, on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. British officials authorized a COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday, greenlighting the world's first shot against the virus that's backed by rigorous science and taking a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

8.) The United Nations is warning the world must slow down fossil fuel production by 6% a year over the next decade if humanity hopes to stave off catastrophic damage from climate change.

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 file photo, Herman Termeer, 54, stands on the roof of his home as the Blue Ridge Fire burns along the hillside in Chino Hills, Calif. An overheating world obliterated weather records in 2020 — an extreme year for hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, floods, droughts and ice melt — the United Nations’ weather agency reported Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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