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The Trump administation’s temporary travel and refugee ban went into effect late Thursday evening. According to the State Department cable, some family members are allowed in, but grandparents and grandchildren, fiancés, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins do not count as “bona fide” relationships.(Vox)
Canada has decided to shift its foreign aid spending so that it emphasizes empowering women and girls. By setting a goal of 15 percent of aid spending on gender equality, Canada will become the single largest contributor in bilateral funding to women’s rights organizations.
A West Coast federal appeals court upheld the freeze on President Trump’s travel ban, declaring that Trump had exceeded his lawful authority in suspending the issuance of visas to residents of six Muslim majority countries and suspending the U.S. refugee program. (WaPo)
Germany wants to start a new global emergency relief fund just as the U.S. announces its intention to leave the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund. The announcements come roughly a week apart and show how diverging priorities for some of the world’s largest economies may reshape the humanitarian system.
Monsoon season has begun in India, and with it, health officials are bracing for an increase in mosquito-transmitted diseases like malaria, dengue and chikungunya. But concerns are circulating that Zika may join their ranks after three cases were recently confirmed – and allegedly concealed by officials – in the state of Gujarat.
Peru’s minister for women has denounced the impunity that surrounds crimes of gender violence, which she says has placed the country among the world’s most dangerous places for women. The Peruvian government says Peru now ranks third worst in the world in its rate of gender-based violence, only behind Ethiopia and Bangladesh, as revealed in 2013 by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Mexican authorities discovered 112 migrants, including four babies, huddled alive in the back of a truck as it traveled along a highway in the country’s south, the attorney general’s office said. The truck, which officials said had ventilation and water for the passengers, was intercepted on a highway. (Reuters)
Brazil’s efforts to expand access to primary health care has led to dramatic reductions in health inequalities between racial groups, a new study contends. Brazil’s free primary healthcare system was launched in the 1990s with an emphasis on improving access to poor parts of the country. Black and pardo (mixed-race) populations in particular saw enormous increases in health care coverage, according to government statistics.
Vaccinating too few children in Syria against polio because the six-year-old war there makes it difficult to reach them risks…
Diabetes in India’s undergoing a demographic transformation, shifting from being largely an affliction of the affluent to increasingly burdening the poor and middle income population. According to a new study, diabetes is increasingly affecting the urban poor in part due to the improving economy.
Heavily armed al-Shabab fighters have stormed a military base in Somalia’s semiautonomous state of Puntland, killing close to 70 people and wounding dozens more, officials say. (Al Jazeera)
In a rejection of the U.S. government’s military-based approach to illegal migration, Mexico is now working with Guatemala to make their shared border safer and more humane for refugees fleeing violence in Central America. Many refugees travel to Mexico or the U.S., where they fall victim to criminal organizations, violence or other abuses that can leave them injured and traumatized.
If you are an American, you might be excused for thinking the world is less peaceful lately. But in fact, overall, the planet is a bit more peaceful than it was last year. Not so much for the U.S., however, or for regions embroiled in war and civil conflict. That’s the assessment of the new Global Peace Index in its annual report based on 2016 statistics.