Two summers ago, the Ice Bucket Challenge led to thousands of people recording themselves being inundated with ice cubes. The viral campaign, an effort to boost awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), managed to raise over $115 million for the ALS Association. But social activism doesn’t have to come with freezer burn.
In the United States, murderers, rapists, and others who have been charged with a federal crime are entitled to court-appointed lawyers if they cannot afford one. But the government is under no such obligation to provide professional legal representation to immigrants facing deportation, because they are facing civil, not criminal, charges. And that often means that even children in immigration court are left to defend themselves against trained attorneys representing the government and arguing for deportation.
Though the world economy has grown sluggishly since the 2008 financial crisis, poverty has continued to fall. According to a new World Bank report, between 1990 and 2013, the number of people in extreme poverty (defined as less than $1.90 a day) fell by nearly 1.1 billion, even as the world’s total population expanded by nearly 1.9 billion.
The US presidential election is getting so heated that even the Star Trek universe felt it had to take a side. Several members of the franchise’s cast and crew are banding together in vocal opposition to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Over the past two months Republican candidate Donald Trump has made numerous references to the possibility that the upcoming US election will be rigged. The FBI is reportedly investigating the possibility of Russian hackers targeting voter registration systems in Illinois and Arizona. And a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 46% of American voters think that voter fraud occurs very or somewhat often.
The debate over marijuana regulation has been picking up steam, and 2016 may be a landmark year for marijuana legalization in the United States. In November, five states–Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada–will consider measures to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes on their ballots. Four other states–Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota–are set to vote on medical marijuana initiatives.
On a sunny September afternoon in Manhattan, a motley group of Indian Americans stood behind blue wooden police barriers across the street from the United Nations (UN) Plaza, chanting vigorously.
At the first US presidential debate Hillary Clinton did something she rarely does in public. She waxed nostalgic about Hugh Rodham, her middle-class father and his work printing curtains, in an attempt to reach out to working-class men, a constituency that has thrown its support behind Donald Trump.
After many months of campaign speeches and less than two months to go before Election Day, the US presidential candidates seem to have been talking forever. Yet, ahead of a first US presidential debate that’s expected to draw over 100 million American viewers, most voters don’t know where the candidates stand on important issues.
Over 700 million women currently living got married while they were just children, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) (pdf). That number is set to rise to nearly 1 billion by 2030, if current trends continue.
Imagine this: A teenage boy who just received his driver’s license is pulled over by a police officer because one of his car’s tail lights is out. While writing out the fix-it ticket, the officer asks the teen if he wants to provide a DNA sample. The young man, unaware that law does not require it, agrees. His DNA is now part of a private police database and will most likely be kept on file for years.
Where you live plays a major role in how well you live, and even how long—especially if you’re a poor American. As one recent study shows, residency in the right (or wrong) US state can mean a potential five-year difference in life expectancy.
A young boy, his haunting eyes wide open, lies on a hospital bed in Houdieda, a port city in western Yemen. His lips are wrapped around his stick-thin arm, while a fly rests on his skeletal body. He is bare-chested and the outlines of ribs are clearly visible though his skin. A syringe lies on the sheets patterned with clouds and cartoons.
Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson blanked embarrassingly this morning, on a question of how he would respond to the current crisis in Syrian city Aleppo, as president.
As a human rights activist back in the Central African Republic, Patrick used to get threatening phone calls, telling him he had a reservation at the cemetery. But the apprehension he felt then was meagre, he says, compared to the anxiety of being an asylum seeker in the United States.
At last year’s United Nations summit on sustainable development, world leaders vowed to provide “free, equitable, and quality” primary education for all children, by 2030. But for millions of kids, it will not come in time—and probably not even in the next 50 years.
While female politicians are making headlines in the US, Europe and South America, seeing a woman in a position of power is still an uncomfortable idea for many. Female political candidates are subject to scrutiny that men rarely face, and even when they are in elected to power, the misogyny continues.
With plans for hosting the Miss Universe competition in January 2017 underway in the Philippines, tourism secretary Wanda Teo, was asked a somewhat controversial question at a recent press conference.
In an unprecedented move, the US’s 227-year-old Georgetown University will begin applying a preferential admissions policy to the descendants of slaves, the university announced today, Sept. 1.
Waseem Akhtar, a former member of parliament in Pakistan, was elected mayor of Karachi on Wednesday (Aug. 24), while still behind bars.
Callipateira, a widow, is notorious in the myths of ancient Greece. According to the story, she disguised herself to look like a gymnastic trainer, and brought her son to compete at the ancient Olympic Games. When her son won, she jumped out of the trainer’s enclosure and in doing so, relinquished her disguise, and chanced being sentenced to death.
Damon Hininger, the CEO of Corrections Corporation of America, predicted at a June investor conference that his firm would be “just fine” no matter who the next US president is.
“Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people.” —Donald Trump, in his 2016 Republican party nomination acceptance speech
Whenever UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon finds himself in San Francisco, he makes it a point to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to visit Libba Patterson.
