Repression Intensifies in Argentina After President Empowers the Military

Weeks after Argentina signed a deal for a new $50 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and only days after hosting G20 leaders in Buenos Aires, Argentine President Mauricio Macri issued a decree July 23 that would allow the country’s armed forces to intervene in questions of domestic security.

The decree violates laws passed after the country’s last military dictatorship – an authoritarian military junta that took power in a coup in 1976 and used force and repression to silence all opposition – ended in 1983, which limited the role of the armed forces, and points to a disturbing trend of militarization and repression under the right-wing government. The decision sparked immediate outrage from human rights organizations and social movements who have since organized massive protests around the country.

‘They be pirates’ - An old scourge is reappearing in the Caribbean

CEDROS, Trinidad and Tobago — In the flickers of sunlight off the cobalt blue of the Caribbean sea, the vessel appeared as a cut on the horizon. It sailed closer. But the crew of the Asheena took no heed.

“We be lookin’ for our red fish as normal, thinkin’ they be fishin’, too,” said Jimmy Lalla, 36, part of the crew that had dropped lines in Trinidadian waters last April a few miles off the lawless Venezuelan coast.

The real reason you’re not getting a pay raise

The economy is growing strongly, the unemployment rate has been at or below 4.5 percent for 16 straight months, but wage growth remains disappointingly low.

Wages are growing much more slowly than the last time we had sustained low unemployment rates, the late 1990s. This is the notorious “wage puzzle,” a topic that has been the subject of much speculation by everyone from Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell to pretty much every economist I follow on Twitter.

Ties that Bind

In the summer of 2016, Adam Merberg was offered a job as a data scientist at AbleTo, a behavioral health care company based in New York City. After he verbally accepted the job offer, a corporate recruiter sent him an email letting him know the company would be running a routine background check. “Also attached is a confidentiality agreement,” the recruiter wrote. “Please review, complete, sign, and return to me as soon as possible.”

The agreement included a non-compete clause prohibiting Merberg from working at any of the company’s competitors for twelve months after leaving. Merberg, who had recently completed a Ph.D. in mathematics, didn’t consider how this might later affect him.

A Palestinian Bedouin Village Braces for Forcible Transfer as Israel Seeks to Split the West Bank in Half

Rayyah has lived in Khan al-Ahmar all of her 47 years. She raised nine children there, and 24 grandchildren; one more is on the way. Her family and neighbors, members of a Bedouin community known as the Jahalin, found refuge on this scorched patch of rocks and dust in the 1950s, after they were expelled from the land they had inhabited for generations, in the Negev desert, following the establishment of the Israeli state. The land Khan al-Ahmar stands on was under Jordanian control when the Jahalin arrived. Today, this smatter of tin roofs and tarps sits on the side of a highway in the occupied West Bank, surrounded by a fast-growing ring of Israeli settlements, which — while illegal — have become de facto suburbs of Jerusalem.

Koreas Agree To Hold Another Summit In September

SEOUL, Aug 13 (Reuters) - North and South Korea agreed to hold a summit in Pyongyang in September, the latest step forward in cross-border ties this year after more high-level talks on Monday, the South’s Unification Ministry said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in April and May at the border truce village of Panmunjom, within the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, and agreed that the next summit in autumn would be held in the North Korean capital.

Housing Crisis: The Grim Reality For Families On Short-Term Tenancies

A cancer patient served an eviction notice at Christmas, a landlord who lost his flat in a card game and a mum-of-three forced to move every time she fell pregnant - these are some of the horror stories behind the rental market in 2018.

Emma Percy and husband Rob tell their children moving is “an adventure” but the family has been turfed out of a staggering 11 properties in 16 years, once when she was nine months’ pregnant.

The couple, who are calling for the government to introduce mandatory long-term tenancies, have been heartbroken watching savings for their own home decimated as they fork out for letting fees, deposits and moving vans.

Canadian residents hit by Trump tax dealt a new blow

Thousands of Canadian residents hit hard by a retroactive tax signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump have been dealt another blow, CBC News has learned.

Newly proposed regulations issued by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service threaten to increase their tax hit.

Et tu quoque, Trudeau? How Saudi trolls slammed Canada in a diplomatic spat

Tensions between Canada and Saudi Arabia have been building over the past week, and it all started with a tweet.

Last week, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland took to Twitter to express concerns about the arrest of women's-rights activists in Saudi Arabia, including Samar Badawi.

Saudi's foreign ministry fired back in a series of tweets on Sunday, calling Canada's move "an overt and blatant interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of #SaudiArabia."

China's state media defends Xinjiang Muslim crackdown

An official Communist Party newspaper said China's campaign of pressure against its Uighur Muslim minority has prevented the Xinjiang region from becoming "China's Syria" or "China's Libya."

The Global Times editorial on Monday came after a United Nations anti-discrimination committee raised concerns on Friday over China's treatment of Uighurs, citing reports of mass detentions that it said "resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy".