Lending further support to the United Nations' characterisation of the World Bank as a 鈥渉uman rights-free zone鈥, the notorious lender approved new policies on August 4 that have been widely condemned by rights advocates for endangering human rights and the environment.
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Mexico is leading a campaign to demand the World Health Organization declassify transgender identity as a mental disorder in its global list of medical conditions.
The petition is based on a study published on July 28 in The Lancet Psychiatry Journal. After more than two years of research, it concludes that transgender people are not 鈥渕entally ill鈥.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, elected in May on a platform that combined pledging to defend ordinary citizens against a corrupt elite with carrying out extreme repression against drug users and other 鈥渃riminals鈥, gave his inaugural state of the nation address on July 25. The statement below was released by the socialist Party of the Labouring Masses in response.
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In a tableau becoming horrifyingly common, a transgender woman of color was found dead in Ohio on July 30, the victim of an apparent homicide.
Skye Mockabee was found unresponsive in a parking lot around 8 a.m. on July 30 in Cleveland, Ohio, reports Cleveland.com. Mockabee had an apparent head-wound, and the individuals who found her called EMS. She was declared dead at the scene. She was 26 years old.
Police are providing few details about Mockabee's death; no suspects have been arrested, and no possible motive for her murder has been given.
Venezuelans taking part in a voluntary program to boost a slowly developing agricultural sector, described by the US media as "slavery".
The United States media鈥檚 latest offensive against Venezuela鈥檚 socialist President Nicolas Maduro targets a new sustainability program that transplants urban workers to farmland. Some quarters of the mainstream media have equated it with slave labour.
British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to 鈥渞ebuild Britain鈥 on August 4 by creating 1 million jobs and homes. The socialist politician put full employment and house building at the heart of his bid for re-election as Labour's leader in a 10-point plan for the country.
Members of Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement (MST), which fights for land reform and the rights of poor farmers.
Industrial agriculture and financial sectors are hand-in-hand worsening climate change and then profiting from it, with an unprecedented number of land grabs over the last eight years, according to a report released in June.
In a newly released interview conducted last year with Chelsea Manning, the jailed US whistleblower said she was 鈥渁lways afraid鈥 of her government, which sentenced her to decades behind bars in a military prison.
鈥淚 am always afraid, I am still afraid of the power of government,鈥 said Manning, who leaked thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks in 2010, in an interview with Amnesty International published by The Guardian on August 3.
Former National Assembly member Vestalia Sampedro has officially filed the right-wing Movement for Sowing Right's opposition to same sex civil marriage in Venezuela. Sampedro cited 鈥減ro-family鈥 as among the reasons for the conservative group's filing before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
Reacting to what is reportedly the biggest financial scandal in history, US authorities have subpoenaed documents from Goldman Sachs relating to the dealings of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Set up in 2009 by the Malaysian government, 1MDB is supposed to generate growth and establish the country as a financial hub.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, at least US$1 billion has gone into the pocket of a person referred to in Department of Justice documents as 鈥淢alaysian Official 1鈥 鈥 widely reported to be Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
If you watch footage of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn out and about 鈥 whether addressing rallies from fire engines, squeezing through scrums of reporters or posing with large vegetables 鈥 you'll probably spot some of the same faces nearby.
WikiLeaks release of nearly 20,000 e-mails and more than 8,000 attachments from seven officials on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) just before the party's convention meant a quick end for Debbie Wasserman Schultz's position as DNC chair, after the e-mails revealed favoritism toward the Clinton campaign and organized hostility to rival Bernie Sanders.
But if the emails--and the convention itself--show anything, it's the undemocratic nature of the whole Democratic Party, and firing one official won't come close to fixing that.
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