Author: Ashika Manu

Why Menstruation Stigma And Exile Are Still Issues In Nepal

A young woman in Nepal has died in a fire after being banished from her home under Chhaupadi, a practice that considers menstruating women ‘impure’. Amongst other things, this belief forces women to leave home and stay in inadequate huts for the duration of their menstruation cycle, despite the fact

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Political Crisis In Venezuela Deepens

In recent weeks, the political crisis in Venezuela has deepened following a series of events stemming from Maduro’s inauguration in January, and National Assembly President Juan Guaido’s self-declaration as interim president of the country several days later, after many, both in the country and in the international community, refused to

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Ebola Crisis In DRC Continues To Worsen

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has continued to worsen with new fears the disease could spread to Goma, a major town of around one million people and “major transportation hub” that connects the DRC to Rwanda, according to Peter Salama, head of the Health Emergencies Program

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World’s Oceans Are Warming Faster Than Expected

Alarming new research has found that the Earth’s oceans are warming at a far higher rate than thought, an average of 40 percent faster than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago. Ocean temperatures have been consistently rising since the 1950s, absorbing more than 90% of the greenhouse gases

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Ireland To Repeal Abortion Ban In The New Year

After a long and arduous process, the Irish Parliament’s upper house has voted to repeal the country’s ban on abortion. The landmark decision will allow all women unrestricted access to abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. In cases of fatal fetal abnormalities and serious risks to a woman’s life,

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Climate Change Is Already Worsening Health Across The Globe

A recent report published in the public health journal The Lancet has revealed the extent to which climate change impacts on global health: it predicted devastating health effects on those in both high and low GDP countries in the future, as well as pointing to a plethora of health emergencies that

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Federal Court Judge Upholds Nationwide DACA Injunction

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling on Thursday, upholding a nationwide injunction against the Trump Administration’s attempts to immediately end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This provided a temporary win for the approximate 800,000 “Dreamers” illegally residing in the U.S,

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Kuwait’s Banned Book Count Continues To Rise

The Kuwaiti government has banned 4,390 books in a four year period, in a bid to appease the country’s conservative bloc in parliament. Despite Kuwait’s push to be seen as a modern “enclave of intellectual freedom,” censorship literature is still pushed through the Ministry of Information’s twelve-member censor committee. The government’s censorship

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Will Banning Pornogrpahy Change Rape Culture In Nepal?

The Nepalese government has recently banned internet pornography in a bid to reduce rape and sexual assault against women in the country. The actions were taken after nationwide protests erupted in August following the rape and murder of a 13-year old girl, putting strong pressure on the government to tighten

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Detained Migrant Child Numbers Hit All-Time High In The U.S.

The number of migrant children held in U.S. government shelters has recently skyrocketed to an all-time high of 12,800, according to data obtained by the New York Times. This is despite a court order to return all detained migrant children separated under the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance policy” to their parents

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Indian Supreme Court Decriminalizes Homosexuality Bringing A Long-Awaited Win For LGBT Indians

India’s Supreme Court recently ruled that a colonial-era law that criminalized homosexuality was “irrational, indefensible, and manifestly arbitrary,” striking down the past of the law pertaining to homosexuality – thereby decriminalizing homosexuality in the second most populous country in the world – and declaring that all LGBT Indians deserved all of

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Is India Prepared For The Post-Flood Cleanup In Kerala?

As floodwaters begin to recede and rains have lessened, Kerala faces a significant cleanup from devastating floods that wreaked havoc across the region. Considered the southern state’s worst floods in almost a century, they resulted in the deaths of 400 people and the displacement of a further 1.8 million. The

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‘Earth Overshoot Date’ Continues To Move Up Year After Year

Only seven months into the year, August 1 has already marked ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ for the planet – the earliest date since 1969, when human consumption of the Earth’s natural resources first outstripped the planet’s ability to create those resources in a single year – drawing attention to how we

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Moving One Step Closer To Decriminalizing Homosexuality In India

India has moved one step closer to decriminalizing homosexuality after the Supreme Court began a hearing challenging the colonial-era law that, among others things, prohibits consensual sexual relations between men, and following on the heels of an August 2017 ruling that declared all people have a “constitutional right to privacy”

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