The pension reform bill passed by the Chamber of Deputies of the National Congress of Brazil last week will reportedly be delayed possibly as late as August. Pension reform has been a key issue for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro since taking office last year. Currently, many Brazilians retire in their mid-50s having contributed to the [...]

UN Special Representative on disaster risk reduction Mami Mizutori spoke with The Guardian Sunday to warn that climate disasters are now occurring at a rate of one per week. Mizutori claims that while large scale cyclones and droughts may get the headlines, lower impact events may actually be leading to more death and displacement. Mizutori [...]

Wall Street billionaire Jeffrey Epstein entered a not guilty plea to new sex trafficking charges brought against him in the Southern District of New York Monday. Epstein was arrested Saturday on charges pursuant to a new grand jury indictment, which contained one count of sex trafficking conspiracy and one count of sex trafficking. The indictment [...]

The spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday that the Secretary-General is encouraged by the agreement between the Forces of Freedom and Change and the Transitional Military Council in Sudan. The agreement was brokered by the African Union and Ethiopia to bring peace and stability to the country. Sudan has been in upheaval since [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released an updated report Monday on the human rights situation in the Kashmir territory whose sovereignty is disputed by India and Pakistan, finding that insufficient progress has been made to correct abuses. The report examines the situation from May 2018 to April 2019 to determine [...]

In a court filing released on Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt indicated that the Department of Justice will explore new ways to ask whether responders to the 2020 census are citizens of the US. The Supreme Court ruled on the citizenship question last week. It left in place a lower court’s decision to block [...]

US Federal District Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California ordered the federal government and plaintiffs of a class action suit to mediation Friday to remedy conditions at migrant children detention centers. The order comes as part of a class action suit filed on behalf of 80 children currently held in detention [...]

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed a new budget bill Friday which included a prohibition on regulation of single-use plastics by municipalities. The bill, SB 712, had the provisions added late Wednesday in an attempt to force the Governor’s hand or risk losing a $34 billion budget. The three paragraph amendment delegates the Independent Fiscal Office [...]

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted Wednesday to reinstate the Russian delegation to the Assembly despite criticism over human rights abuses. Russia’s voting rights had been stripped in 2014 in response to the Russian Federation’s annexation of Crimea. Russia in turn paid only one-third of its membership dues that year and has [...]

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a Tennessee law that required applicants wishing to sell alcohol to maintain Tennessee residency. Tennessee currently imposes demanding residential requirements for anyone looking to participate in the distribution of alcohol in the state. Tennessee requires individuals seeking a liquor license to be in-state residence for at least two [...]