- Details
- PAULINA DURAN and CORDELIA HSU
Sydney, Australia
Reuters
Koalas in the Australian state of New South Wales could become extinct by 2050 unless the government immediately intervenes to protect them and their habitat, a parliamentary inquiry determined after a year-long inquiry.
Land clearing for agriculture, urban development, mining and forestry had been
- Details
- SCOTT MURDOCH and YANNI CHOW
Updated: 9.15pm AEST
Hong Kong, China
Reuters
Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas and arrested nearly 200 people on Wednesday as protesters took to the streets in defiance of sweeping security legislation introduced by China that critics say is aimed at snuffing out dissent.
Beijing
- Details
- EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Jackson, Mississippi, US
AP
With a stroke of the Governor’s pen, Mississippi is retiring the last state flag in the US with the Confederate battle emblem - a symbol that’s widely condemned as racist.
Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed the historic bill on Tuesday at the Governor's Mansion, immediately removing
- Details
- CLAIRE GIANGRAVÉ
- Details
- MARKL SHERMAN
Washington DC, US
AP
States can't cut religious schools out of programs that send public money to private education, a divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
By a five-to-four vote with the conservatives in the majority, the justices upheld a Montana scholarship program that allows state tax credits for private
- Details
- EMMA BATHA
London, UK
Thomson Reuters Foundation
The coronavirus pandemic is reversing progress on ending child marriage and female genital mutilation, jeopardising the futures of millions of girls, a senior UN official said on Tuesday.
"The pandemic both makes our job harder and more urgent as so many more girls
- Details
- NICOLE WINFIELD
- Details
- BYRON KAYE and COLIN PACKHAM
Sydney, Australia
Reuters
Authorities on Tuesday ordered the lockdown of 36 suburbs in Australia's second biggest city Melbourne in an attempt to stop a spike in coronavius cases, a dramatic departure from the relaxation of restrictions elsewhere in the country.
From midnight on Wednesday the first suburb-specific stay-home
- Details
- CLARE JIM and YEW LUN TIAN
Hong Kong/Beijing, China
Reuters
China's parliament passed national security legislation for Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting the stage for the most radical changes to the former British colony's way of life since it returned to Chinese rule almost exactly 23 years ago.
State media is expected to publish
- Details
- David Adams
Four global church bodies have expressed concern over the proposed annexation of occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank by the Israeli Government, saying such a move would be "in direct violation of international law".
In a joint ecumenical statement released on Monday, the World Council of Churches, World Communion
- Details
- DARNELL CHRISTIE
London, UK
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu and actor George Clooney are among more than 100 people who have signed an appeal for COVID-19 vaccines to be declared a global common good and made widely available.
The appeal is led by the founder of
- Details
- NICOLE WINFIELD
Rome, Italy
AP
The Vatican says Pope Francis has been informed about an appeal launched by a group of Catholics in Poland urging intervention into cases where bishops have continued to cover up for priests who sexually molest children.
The group 'EnoughHarm' took out a full-page advertisement on
- Details
- FABIO TEIXEIRA
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Safety guidelines for working during the pandemic in Brazil, a global epicentre of the coronavirus, came under heavy criticism on Monday by labour groups who said the rules amounted to criminal disregard for workers' and public health.
The guidelines, one set
- Details
- ELANA SCHOR
New York City, US
AP
Abortion opponents vented their disappointment and fury on Monday after the Supreme Court issued a five-to-four decision to strike down a Louisiana law that would have curbed abortion access.
The ruling delivered a defeat to anti-abortion activists, but President Donald Trump's reelection campaign quickly
- Details
- CHRISTINE MURRAY
The United States has undermined its credibility in the global drive to end human trafficking by giving itself top marks in its annual report on the crime despite dwindling prosecutions and protection for foreign victims, advocates said on Monday.
Since 2000, the US State Department's
