Last Thursday, Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei became the first Central American leader to criticize the United States’s deportation policy amid the coronavirus pandemic. American deportees have contributed over a hundred new names to Guatemala’s list of infected. The new arrivals, Giammattei says, cause “serious problems” for an already struggling healthcare
Indian workers in the informal and service sectors are facing devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Harsh lockdown measures have removed access to transportation, employment, and assistance for many, leaving approximately 400 million people in danger of extreme poverty. According to statistics from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
In what some are calling a betrayal of the late President Hugo Chavez’s dream for Venezuela, National Assembly President Juan Guaido has announced a plan to open oil investment to the international community. This plan, part of a broader agenda to repair Venezuela’s failing economy, would allow foreign interests to
Thousands of schools in Malaysia and Indonesia were ordered shut Thursday amidst concerns about air quality. More than 1.7 million students have been sent home in response to toxic haze, a by-product of the forest fires that have been raging across the islands of Borneo and Sumatra since early last
In a refreshing turn from the deluge of dour news, Federal Judge Jon Tigar reinstated a nationwide block on Donald Trump’s “safe third country” asylum ban Monday. Judge Tigar had already issued an injunction against the ban, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the injunction did not
It has been two years since the campaign of violence which killed thousands of Rohingya and displaced more than 700,000 began, but fires still rage across Myanmar. Rohingya who remain in the country are confined to internment camps, imprisoned without citizenship, justice, or recourse. Those Rohingya who escaped to refugee
Kashmir continued to face strict ockdowns this Monday, marking eight days since India abruptly rescinded the region’s semiautonomous status. Monday also marked the arrival of Eid al-Adha, a major holiday in the Muslim calendar. But with major mosques like the Jamia Masjid closed, no means to contact family, and dwindling
An air raid in Libya Sunday killed nearly fifty people and wounded dozens more, Al Jazeera reports. According to the Government of National Accord (GNA), the current United Nations-recognized leading political body of the country, the attack was the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA)’s latest attempt to consolidate power in
Schools in Sudan were suspended Wednesday after six people, including four students, were shot and killed at a demonstration in the city of Obeid. The nationwide closing will remain in effect “until further notice,” according to the state-run SUNA news agency, and is accompanied by a nightly curfew in parts
37 states, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea, sent a letter to the United Nations last Friday in support of China’s policies in Xinjiang. The letter praised China for its “remarkable achievements in the field of human rights,” despite strong criticism from the West and the reported detainment, persecution,
British officers seized an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar last week, heightening tensions in the Middle East. Port authorities in the region claimed the Grace 1 was carrying crude oil to Syria, in violation of European Union sanctions. Iran, which is not a member of the EU, claims that it
European leaders failed to take significant action against climate change at a summit meeting last Thursday. A majority of the 28 countries in attendance at Brussels expressed approval of a plan to neutralize Europe’s carbon footprint, but four votes kept the proposal from unanimity. Those four votes, from Poland and
