Anti-government protests in the Romanian capital Bucharest, and several other cities across the country, continued for the second consecutive day even after 400 people were injured in Friday’s first round of protests, after violent clashes between peaceful protesters and riot police, who fired tear gas, pepper spray, and a water
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
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”
The International Monetary Fund recently announced that inflation in Venezuela is predicted to hit one million percent by the end of this year, a startling figure despite the ongoing socioeconomic crisis that has already crippled the economy and caused widespread hunger, malnutrition, and frustration with a government that refuses to
A New York Times report recently revealed that at a United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly, convened in May to pass a resolution encouraging mothers to breastfeed and limiting baby formula misinformation and inaccuracies, was blocked by the U.S. and almost did not pass. This followed after they threatened Ecuador (who
Justice Kennedy’s announcement of his retirement from the Supreme Court last week sparked fears across the U.S. of further restrictions of abortion access and reproductive rights for women, including the potential of the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade to be overturned. This is following President Trump’s appointment of a
At midnight on June 24th 2018, Saudi Arabia lifted its longtime ban that forbade women from driving, nine months after the announcement was first made by King Salman, and decades after the “Women to Drive” movement first began campaigning for change. Women took to the streets in the driver’s seat
The United States recently announced their decision to henceforth reject asylum applications asking for refuge from domestic violence and gang violence, reversing a 2014 Obama-era policy that could potentially endanger tens of thousands and which only further cements the U.S.’s hardline stance on immigration, reinforced in recent weeks by the
In almost 12 years, Mexico’s drug war has claimed the lives of thousands and changed the lives of millions more people, in a conflict that currently has no end in sight. While primarily a fight between the country’s drug cartels and the federal government, violent conflicts between rival groups, as
Amidst the beginning of the fifth year of the country’s civil war, millions of people in South Sudan continue to suffer the effects of a “Never-Ending Hunger Season” that has caused widespread malnutrition and brought the nation to the brink of famine once again, spurring a humanitarian crisis, needing to
Nicolás Maduro won his second term as President of Venezuela earlier this week, despite low voter turnout due to a boycott of what many believed to be a rigged election and disillusionment with Maduro’s government from citizens living through the worst socio-economic crisis in the country’s history. Maduro won 68%
A new report published by the Health Effects Institute (HEI) has claimed that global air quality has declined exponentially in the past three decades, to the point where today, an estimated 95% of the global population is currently breathing unhealthy air (according to the World Health Organization’s acceptable air quality
Nineteen-year-old teenager Noura Hussein was earlier this week sentenced to the death penalty for killing her husband after she stabbed him to death while he raped her. The decision has been condemned by rights groups, activists, and Hussein’s supporters, prompting a national and international outcry, as well as highlighting the
Water is the most necessary resource on this planet for people however, the more the Earth’s population grows – and everyday consumption along with it – the more water scarcity rises which causes the rising sea levels to threaten our homes and lives. Climate change is the driving force behind rising sea
The abduction of ten aid workers in South Sudan – one of many over the past five years – has highlighted the risks and dangers humanitarian workers routinely face in the country. South Sudan has been mired in civil war since 2013, just two years after it first gained independence from
Hungarians in Budapest, and other cities across the country, have taken to the streets in thousands to protest the election of a right-wing government and the re-election of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán has won his third consecutive term (fourth overall) and protests come despite his tightening grip on state
After performing an autopsy on a young sperm whale that washed onto Spanish shores in February, scientists have confirmed that the whale likely died after consuming too much plastic waste and other rubbish that prohibited digestion and caused inflammation, urgently highlighting the devastating effect human trash is having on the
In the seven years since the Syrian Civil War began, countless lives have been lost, people have been injured, and families have been torn apart. Nowhere is this toll more evident or devastating than in the permanently changed lives of millions of Syrian children, who have suffered immensely in the
For the second time in as many years, thousands of Polish women took to the streets in Warsaw to protest proposed changes in abortion laws. These changes would ban abortions in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities, defects, or congenital disorders – a change which human rights groups are arguing counter
Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are bracing for the upcoming monsoon season that is due to bring heavy rains, flash floods, landslides, and cyclones to the vulnerable refugee community who have already struggled with ethnic violence in Myanmar that forced them to flee to the neighbouring country of Bangladesh. The
