Nearly a million Texas women will now have to travel a minimum of 300 miles round-trip to access abortion. The provision, which went into effect following Thursday’s court ruling, requires all abortion clinics to meet hospital-style building requirements, reversing the order of a lower-court judge who found the restrictions posed an undue burden to women.
Can the Hong Kong protesters and China compromise? →
Many think that compromise between China and Hong Kong protesters is impossible. Protests continue to swell and China is holding firm on its position that the designation of the 2017 electoral ballot is ultimately under Beijing’s control. But in the past there have been multiple instances of compromise between China and Hong Kong protesters after public stand-offs over similarly sensitive issues. And compromise is again a feasible option, well worth considering now.
Thoughts on the Power of Civil Resistance →
Once nonviolent action begins, however, state repression becomes a blunt instrument, too. The varied and often discreet routines states use to prevent challenges from emerging become mostly irrelevant. Instead, states must switch to a repertoire of clumsier and less familiar actions with larger and more immediate consequences.
The awkwardness of this response turns out to be the mechanism thatconverts people power into change, or at least the possibility for it. States thrive on routines around which they can build bureaucracies and normalize public expectations. Activists who succeed at mobilizing and sustaining mass challenges force the state onto less familiar footing, where those bureaucracies’ routines don’t apply and public expectations are weakly formed. In so doing, activists instill uncertainty in the minds of officials who must respond and of the observers of these interactions.
Brazil's Election Culminates A Season Filled With Shocks →
Brazilians head to the polls Sunday in one of the most exciting elections in recent history there. The presidential race pits two women against each other — a first for the South American country.
Candidate Marina Silva, if elected, would make history by being the first Afro-Brazilian president. But first she must beat incumbent Dilma Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla who was tortured under the dictatorship in Brazil.
Starting the Writing Challenge →
It's easy to get frustrated with victims of abuse who don't walk away or can't, and eventually write them off as a lost cause. That attitude, however, serves to further isolate them and gives credence to their abuser's narrative that the victim is worthless or unlovable.
It's not up to me to save my friend. I couldn't do that even if I tried (I have tried), but I can be a consistent source of caring, concern, and guidance. Maybe it will help him find the confidence and strength he needs to leave one day, maybe at 70 he will wonder how he is still with her.
Either way, each of us needs people in our lives who love us without condition, who reflect back to us our true, beautiful selves.
Zimbabwe Simmers →
This week, the International Crisis Group issued a new briefing on Zimbabwe that portrays a country on simmer. “Zimbabwe is an insolvent and failing state,” writes ICG Africa Program director Comfort Ero, “its politics zero sum, its institutions hollowing out, and its once vibrant economy moribund.” Without significant changes of course in economic policy and elite behavior, the report warns, the risk of a sharper crisis and deeper collapse will continue to grow.
5,500 Iraqis Killed Since Islamic State Began Its Military Drive, U.N. Says →
More than 5,500 people have been killed in Iraq since an offensive by the Islamic State militant group began in June, the United Nations reported on Thursday, including hundreds of minority Yazidis slaughtered en masse. The report takes particular note of the extremists’ campaign of physical and sexual violence against women and children, with accounts of women being captured and sold as sex slaves to Islamic State recruits, and children being used as soldiers.Those deaths represent more than half of the 9,343 civilians killed in Iraq from January through September, the United Nations said in a report by its Iraq mission and its Geneva human rights office, emphasizing that its figures were “absolute minimums.” The total casualty count for the year so far, including wounded, is at least 26,000.
Continuing Education →
And I feel that while my country may need to lie to itself, it can no longer effectively lie to me. That is a kind of liberation. And still I feel other kinds calling out to me.