The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is urging Iran to decriminalize mandatory veiling laws, warning that the harassment of women, including what they do or do not wear, appears to have intensified as street protests have died down. “Women and girls face increasingly stringent legal, social, and economic measures in the authorities’ enforcement of discriminatory compulsory veiling laws,” Volker […]
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Fitch Warns On US Credit Rating Amid Debt Ceiling Negotiations
Fitch Ratings has put the U.S. credit rating at risk of downgrade because of the potential that the U.S. government will not be able to come to an agreement to raise its debt limit and be able to pay its bills. Fitch said Wednesday it “still expects a resolution” but that there is an increased risk the debt limit will […]
IDB Calls For Business Productivity Policies By Regional Government
The Inter-American Development Bank says Caribbean governments should focus on policies that facilitate efforts by businesses to innovate and improve productivity. This comes from a recent report, released as part of the IDB’s Caribbean Economics Quarterly, which collected data from nearly 2,000 private sector firms across 13 Caribbean countries. The IDB says the survey highlighted several severe challenges to the […]
Russians Celebrate Reports That ‘Fortress Bakhmut’ Has Fallen
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is denying claims that the eastern city is under Russian control after months of heavy battle. On Saturday, mercenaries from the Russian private military contractor the Wagner Group claimed victory in the east Ukrainian town of Bakhmut after a gruelling battle that lasted for eight months. For the most part, the pro-Moscow camp has been elated at finally […]
Latest In Ukraine: At Close Of G7, Zelenskyy Likens Bakhmut Obliteration To Hiroshima
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the close of the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that the obliteration of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut by Russian forces harkens back to the Hiroshima bombing at the end of WWII. “Hiroshima is a rebuilt city now. And we dream of rebuilding all of our cities that are now in ruins, and every […]
Biden To Republicans: Abandon ‘Extreme Position’ On Government Spending
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday that opposition Republicans in the House of Representatives must move away from their “extreme position” on government spending in order to reach a deal with Democrats to raise the country’s borrowing limit before it runs out of cash to pay its bills. The government could come up short to meet its financial […]
UN Chief: It’s Time To Reform Security Council, Bretton Woods
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday that it was time to reform both the Security Council and Bretton Woods to align with the “realities of today’s world.” Speaking at a press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, where the Group of Seven summit meeting had been held, Guterres said both institutions reflected the power relations of 1945 and […]
Summers — GOP’s Debt Ceiling Playbook
The hullabaloo about the debt ceiling crisis continues, and Republican lawmakers seem dead set on upping the ante as they walked out of the discussion Friday morning only to join back in the evening. President Joe Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, along with financial analysts have warned of severe consequences if a debt deal is not reached. Former Treasury Secretary […]
Iran Executes Two Men For Blasphemy
Iran’s judiciary announced the executions Monday of two men who were sentenced to death for blasphemy. The judiciary’s Mizan news site identified them as Yousef Mehrdad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare. The report said their crimes included insulting Islam and the prophet and that they used online platforms to spread hatred of Islam and promote atheism. Read more at voanews.com Support […]
Brazil’s Amazon Megaprojects Threaten Lula’s Green Ambitions
RIO DE JANEIRO — After his swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 1, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva walked up the ramp to the presidential palace arm in arm with Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, instantly recognizable by his yellow headdress and wooden lip plate. But a major railway that would accelerate deforestation in Metuktire’s ancestral land risks souring relations between the leftist […]