5 October 2026: World Space Week Human interest in space has been multifaceted, ranging from the deep-seated desire to seek out the origins of our existence to the search for extraterrestrial life and habitable worlds. Prior to the modern technology used to explore space today, ancient civilizations tracked the movement of stars, planets and eclipses [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday reported that US immigration authorities detained eight Nicaraguan exiles who were previously granted protected status in 2023 after fleeing political prosecution. On February 9 2023, the Nicaraguan government declared 222 political prisoners as “traitors” and expelled them to the United States, stripping 94 government dissenters and critics of their [...]
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Spain on Saturday, after lawmakers rejected proposed measures to protect citizens amid a housing crisis. The protests were sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman. Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her Madrid apartment on September 23, having lived there for 71 years. Her apartment was purchased [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated Friday before the UN Human Rights Council that the ongoing war in Ukraine has become an escalating “human rights catastrophe” amid a sharp surge in civilian casualties. Addressing the council in Geneva, Türk reported that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [...]
Bolivia on Thursday confirmed the arrest of the country’s Attorney General Roger Mariaca on suspicion of drug trafficking and money laundering. This comes just days after the US Department of State imposed visa restrictions on Mariaca under similar grounds. Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo announced that Mariaca was among 14 individuals arrested in a [...]
Amnesty International on Thursday reported that a whistleblower inside Morocco’s intelligence service helped reveal a vast surveillance apparatus targeting journalists, activists and dissidents. Commenting on the increasingly hostile environment for freedom of expression in the country, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, stated: Morocco has wholly embraced techno-authoritarian practices, acquiring a wide range of surveillance [...]
2 October 2026: International Day of Non-Violence A retired social worker stands outside a courthouse holding a handwritten sign. Elsewhere, 13 people block the entrance to a federal building and wait to be cited. Neither raises a hand against anyone. Both acts fit within a long tradition of civil disobedience built around breaking a rule [...]
The UN Working Group of Experts on People from African Descent warned on Wednesday that migrants from the African continent and diaspora face racism and discrimination throughout their journeys, attributing this mistreatment to discriminatory migration policies implemented worldwide. The UN experts stated: For Africans and people of African descent, freedom of movement continues to be [...]
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released a new report Wednesday finding that more than one in five households surveyed in Lebanon said their children went to bed hungry in the two weeks before interviews conducted in July. The report, entitled “An Enduring Nightmare,” documents the toll on children’s access to food, healthcare and education in an active conflict [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday condemned the detention of South Sudanese political commentator Samuel Peter Oyay, who has been held in a prison in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for one year without charge. Joey Shea, senior UAW researcher for HRW, spoke on the UAE’s policies of repressing dissent, stating: The UAE government’s zero-tolerance [...]
