Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including a firearms trade organization challenged a New York law that would hold companies responsible for gun violence; Slovakia can pursue criminal charges against a former spy chief accused in the high-profile abduction of a president’s son; Congress voted to ban the import of goods from China’s Xinjiang region made with forced labor, and more.

National

Congress passes import ban to punish China for Uyghur abuse

The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to pass legislation banning imports from the Xinjiang region of China, the latest step by the United States to sanction China for its human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims that have been deemed a genocide against the religious and ethnic minority.

A guard tower and barbed wire fences surround an internment facility in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Ghislaine Maxwell wields ‘false memory’ expert to undercut sex ring witnesses

“Emotion is no guarantee that you’re dealing with an authentic memory,” Elizabeth Loftus, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, testified Thursday afternoon as defense witness in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal sex trafficking trial.

Sketch shows Ghislaine Maxwell, center, seated in court at defense table during her sex abuse trial on Dec. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

Four judicial nominees make their way out of committee amid backlog deadline

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced four of President Joe Biden's nominees to the federal bench Thursday as the Senate faces an impending deadline to address a record-setting number of nominees before the end of the year.

Charles Esque Fleming, nominated for a judgeship on the Northern District of Ohio, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during on Nov. 17, 2021. (Image via Courthouse News)

Americans done with city life after Covid, poll finds

Nearly two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, more Americans want to live in the suburbs, according to a 36-page study published Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

In this April 24, 2020, file photo, manicurist Rhonda Simpson, left, polishes nails for her customer Faith at the reopened Salon A la Mode in Dallas. The salon installed a barrier between the two to avoid the spread of COVID-19. As some governors across the United States begin to ease restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, hopes are soaring that life as we knew it might be returning. But the plans emerging in many states indicate that “normal” is still a long way off. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Regional

New York law that extends liability for gun violence spurs industry suit

Fearing “imminent prosecution” and seeking to avoid a situation where the industry is inundated with lawsuit after lawsuit, several major players in the firearms industry banded together Thursday to challenge a New York law that would hold them responsible for gun violence.

A protester holds a sign outside the National Rifle Association's headquarters building during a vigil for recent victims of gun violence on Aug. 5, 2019, in Fairfax, Va. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

ACLU sues Iowa governor for ignoring records requests from news media

The ACLU of Iowa sued Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on Thursday on behalf of three news organizations that have been stymied for as long as 18 months in their efforts to obtain public records that would reveal the governor’s conduct on issues ranging from Covid-19 to sending state troopers to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks during a news conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in August 2020. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

International

EU court opens door for Slovakia to prosecute former spy chief

Slovakia can pursue criminal charges against the country's former spy chief, a figure who went into hiding after he was accused in the high-profile abduction of the son of Slovakia's president in 1995, the European Union's top court ruled on Thursday.

Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. (peter89ba/Pixabay via Courthouse News)

Concerns over Polish courts aren’t enough to deny extradition requests, EU adviser says

An adviser to the European Union’s top court doesn’t think that increasing concerns over the fairness of Poland’s judicial system are enough to halt extraditions to the country.

Police stand outside the Supreme Court in Warsaw, Poland, on May 6, 2021, while the court’s disciplinary chamber examines the case of a judge. (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)