Junior Digest

New Delhi, October 9,2026: The Supreme Court will host a two-day national consultation this weekend to assess the implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, over the past decade and identify priorities for strengthening child protection and juvenile justice mechanisms in the coming years.Chief Justice of India Surya Kant will inaugurate the consultation on October 10, organised by the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee in association with UNICEF India.The consultation, titled “Ten Years of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015: Progress, Challenges and Priorities for the Next Decade”, will bring together Supreme Court and High Court judges, senior government officials and child protection experts to review the law’s implementation and deliberate on gaps in the existing system.
Justice BV Nagarathna, Supreme Court judge and chairperson of the Juvenile Justice Committee, will deliver the opening remarks, followed by introductory remarks from UNICEF India Country Representative Cynthia McCaffrey.A key highlight of the inaugural session will be the release of a compendium of landmark Supreme Court and High Court judgments concerning the Juvenile Justice Act. The compilation will cover decisions delivered between 2015 and September 2026.The discussions will address a range of issues, including the rights of children in conflict with the law, preliminary assessments conducted by Juvenile Justice Boards in cases involving heinous offences, adoption procedures, institutional care and the rehabilitation of vulnerable children.Dedicated technical sessions will examine the implementation of the Act across States and Union Territories, with representatives from Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Delhi, Gujarat, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal scheduled to share their experiences and best practices.The deliberations will also focus on improving coordination among institutions, strengthening child-friendly justice mechanisms and ensuring the effective rehabilitation and reintegration of children.The consultation will conclude on October 11 with special remarks by UNICEF India Chief of Child Protection Milen Kidane and a special address by Anil Malik, Secretary, Union Ministry of Women and Child Development.Justice JB Pardiwala, Supreme Court judge and member of the Juvenile Justice Committee, will deliver the closing remarks.The consultation is expected to inform priorities for the next decade, with a focus on strengthening institutional accountability and ensuring that children receive appropriate care, protection and access to justice.

New Delhi, September 16,2025: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday emphasized the need for a robust crackdown on drug cartels and highlighted the importance of protecting India’s youth to achieve the vision of a developed nation by 2047. In his address at the second National Conference of Heads of Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of States and UTs ,Shah outlined strategies to dismantle drug networks, enhance extradition processes, and streamline deportation mechanisms to combat the drug menace effectively.
The minister identified three types of drug cartels operating in India–those at entry points, distribution networks, and local retail chains. He urged ANTF heads to deliver a decisive blow to these networks. “There are three types of cartels, one is the cartel that operates at all the entry points of the country, the second is the cartel of distribution from the entry point to the state, and the third is the cartel that operates in the states till the paan shop or the street corner selling drugs. The time has come to give a harsh blow to these three types of cartels. I believe that it can happen only when the people sitting here decide that this fight is our fight,” he said.
Shah further stressed that protecting the younger generation from drugs is critical to realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a fully developed India by 2047, noting the proximity of global drug supply hubs as a significant challenge. “Modi ji presented a concept of building a great India in 2047. An India that will be fully developed. If we want to build such an India, then it is very important to save our young generation from drugs. Because the concept of any great state, its foundation is the young generation of that country. If our future generations become hollow, then the country will go astray… Unfortunately, both the areas from where drugs are supplied all over the world are close to us… So this is the time that we fight against it strongly,” he said.
Shah called for stronger collaboration with the CBI to facilitate the extradition of drug traffickers operating from abroad and emphasised the need for practical deportation mechanisms.He announced that the Home Ministry will soon issue a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to streamline deportation processes. “Deportation and extradition of fugitives are both very important. Now the time has come to bring people who are doing drug business here while sitting abroad, within the net of our law. CBI has done a very good job in this. I request all the A&TF presidents to contact the CBI director and set up a system for extradition, which will not only be useful for drugs, terrorism, gangs, but also for everything else,” he said.”A liberal approach should be taken towards the process, a way should be ensured for the arrangement of deporting them. The Home Department is going to issue an SOP for this, too,” he added.

Oct 6,2026: More than 1,000 people were injured in France during large-scale high school students protests, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Monday, citing authorities.Student protests in France have shut down hundreds of schools after demonstrations against teacher shortages and rundown buildings turned violent.
Since late last month, protests have spread across the country, and clashes with police and school officials have resulted in hundreds injured. According to the report, 715 police officers and paramilitary police officers, as well as 215 students and 85 education system employees were injured. High school students in France have been protesting since mid-September against overloaded schedules, lack of teachers and other problems in education. In some cases, protests escalated into unrest. Thousands expected to join marches of support on Tuesday across the country amid growing concerns over police response.
Despite meetings with top country officials, students are not looking to slow the demonstrations and are calling for a National Day of Protests on Tuesday to keep up pressure.
Here’s what we know about the protests:
What started the demonstration?

The protests began Sept. 21 at a high school in a suburb of Paris over teacher shortages and deteriorating building conditions.

The complaints resonated with students across the country as the protests spread from city to city in France in the following weeks.

“Classrooms are not ventilated, and we can barely open the windows,” Issam Makhloufi, a French student at Rosa Parks High School in St.-Denis, told The New York Times.

Nearly 500 schools have been forced to close this month.

The protests have been supported by some teachers’ unions and leaders of the far-left France Unbowed political party, according to the Times, although its leadership denies sparking tensions among the students.

“The duty of a republic’s elected official is to protect young people and call for calm,” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on social media. “Exploiting their anger for partisan purposes is a fault.”

Bally Bagayoko, a member of France Unbowed, told the Times the protests were a result of a “considerable shortfall in the resources allocated for our children’s education.”

“The education ⁠authority is not investing enough in the suburbs. It’s classist and racist,” one student protester told Reuters.

France is gearing up for a presidential election next year, with incumbent President Emmanuel Macron term limited.
The protests turn violent

Thousands of minors have been arrested during these demonstrations.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray told France 2 at least 24 schools have been ransacked or set on fire.

Officials said the protests have caused millions of dollars in damage so far.

“Social unrest is legitimate, but it cannot be expressed through violence. I have therefore asked the attorney generals for a firm criminal response and the imposition of civil liability on the parents of minors whenever possible,” Gérald Darmanin, France’s justice minister, said on social platform X.

Students, police officers and school officials are among the more than 100 people injured from the demonstrations.

A 15-year-old reportedly lost his lower arm and hand after he picked up and detonated a police stun grenade, newspaper La Voix du Nord reported.

And the BBC reported at least one student lost teeth and others suffered eye injuries during the protests.

Police have used tear gas and other means to disperse the protests, but students are determined to push forward.

“Students and high school students, while the authorities seek to drive us out of our places of study through budget cuts, the closure of places, dilapidated buildings, selection, or repression, let’s not let them: let’s block and retake the universities and high schools!” two student unions wrote in a statement.

Human rights groups have spoken out against police tactics to quell the protests.

While Darmanin said parents could be held responsible, the country’s education minister has also met with student activists to attempt to calm tensions.

Geffray said he made promises to address the teacher shortages and create plans to include students in fixing the system, but organizers said the vague proposals weren’t enough.

“One of the difficulties of this movement is that there are no national demands. It all started with local demands,” Geffray said.

Students are now calling for more protests Tuesday and for others to join in their fight.

But the consequences don’t seem like they will be contained to France.
Some conservatives are blaming immigration policies in Europe for the violent protests.

Gorakhpur, Dec 1,2024: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Sunday, said that the Uttar Pradesh government has successfully facilitated 3.84 lakh marriages under its Mass Marriage programme in the last seven years with the number expected to exceed 4 lakh by the end of this session.

Addressing a gathering at a mass marriage ceremony, Yogi said that the state government’s mass marriage program, organized by the Social Welfare Department, symbolizes both social equality and a strong stand against the dowry system, a deeply ingrained social ill.

He said that the programme is inclusive, with no restrictions based on caste, religion, region, or language. “Hindus, Muslims, and followers of other faiths are all uniting in marriage according to their respective traditions. The program also serves as a government-led campaign against dowry, child marriage, and untouchability”, he said.

At the ceremony, 1,200 couples, including Hindus and Muslims, were married. CM Yogi praised the couples for setting an example by not accepting or giving dowry, emphasizing the government’s commitment to ensuring that no daughter remains unmarried due to dowry.

The CM said that good governance leads to positive changes. He mentioned key initiatives launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, such as the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign, free LPG connections, and individual toilets in every village to protect women’s dignity

Additionally, free ration and housing were provided to those in need, and Ayushman cards were issued to ensure medical treatment coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh. CM Yogi emphasized that, before these initiatives, the lack of toilets and the harmful smoke from wood and coal stoves compromised women’s dignity and health.

“With LPG cylinders now available in every home, this issue has been resolved, and the government also provides free cylinders during Diwali and Holi”, he said.

Yogi said that the government’s welfare measures, such as the establishment of Atal Residential Schools offering free education to workers’ children and the provision of an annual pension of Rs 12,000 to one crore people, including the destitute and disabled, benefit all sections of society. Under the Kanya Sumangala Yojana, a package of Rs 25,000 is being provided to empower 20 lakh daughters.

United Nations, Oct 10 (UNI) More than 370 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to sexual violence before age 18, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

“More than 370 million girls and women alive today – or 1 in 8 – experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18,” the organisation said in a statement on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl.

If “non-contact” forms of sexual violence, such as online violence or verbal abuse, are included, the number of girls and women affected worldwide will be 650 million, or one in five, the statement read.

The largest number of victims is in sub-Saharan Africa, where 79 million girls and women have been affected, the statement said. It is followed by East and South-East Asia with 75 million victims, Central and South Asia with 73 million, Europe and North America with 68 million, Latin America and the Caribbean with 45 million, North Africa and West Asia with 29 million and Oceania with 6 million.

At the same time, an estimated 240 to 310 million boys and men – or about one in 11 – have been victims of rape or sexual abuse as children, the organisation added. This number rises to 410 to 530 million if “non-contact” forms of abuse are included.

Sept 14,2022:UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for solidarity and cooperation to address a “world in peril”.

Guterres made the appeal at the opening of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday.
“We face a world in peril across our work to advance peace, human rights and sustainable development,” Guterres said, citing conflicts and climate change, a “broken global financial system”, poverty, inequality, hunger and divisions.

“Addressing common challenges will require continued solidarity as we demonstrate the great promise and potential of this organisation,” he said ahead of the start of the UNGA’s high-level event.

Next week, dozens of heads of state and government from around the world will take turns speaking at the UNGA in New York.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been granted a visa to travel to the annual gathering with half the delegation Moscow requested, a Russian diplomatic source has told the Reuters news agency.
Moscow had asked Washington for 56 visas, according to a September 2 letter to Guterres from Russia’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya. The Russian diplomatic source said the United States had approved 24 visas.

Under the 1947 UN “headquarters agreement,” the US is generally required to allow access to the UN for foreign diplomats. But Washington says it can deny visas for security, terrorism and foreign policy reasons.

The UN said earlier this month that it was discussing the issue of Russian visas with the US.

The relationship between the US and Russia has ruptured since Moscow invaded neighbouring Ukraine in February.
The high-level meeting of the UNGA begins on September 20.

New Delhi, Nov 16,2021: Stating that providing food to people was the primary duty of the state, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reprimanded the Centre over its response on framing a policy to implement the Community Kitchen Scheme, and asked it to hold a meeting with states within three weeks.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli also ordered all the state governments to fulfill their duty of providing food to the poor who are suffering from the situation arising out of the corona pandemic.

“We direct all the states to cooperate with the Government of India in this scheme,” the bench said.

The bench also made it clear that if the state government(s) have any objection, it will consider the matter for further hearing.

Expressing deep displeasure over the procedures adopted and the work done by the government so far, the bench headed by the Chief Justice said, “It seems that the government is not in a mood to implement the scheme.”

The Supreme Court, while reminding the governments of their responsibility, said, “The first responsibility of any welfare state is to save the people from starvation.”

The bench has also asked Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa to file their replies in the matter.

The top court was hearing a PIL filed by social activists Anu Dhawan, Isha Dhawan, and Gunjan Singh. The petition has sought setting up of subsidized community kitchens across the country to ensure food security to address the problem of starvation faced by the poor during the pandemic. The petitioners have requested to implement this scheme in all the states and union territories.

BUENOS AIRES,June 04,2022: Thousands of people marched against femicide and gender violence in Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires Friday afternoon, as part of a movement now in its seventh year called Ni Una Menos, or “Not One Woman Less.”
The march was held in the center of the capital, culminating at the National Congress, where protesters lit candles to remember victims of gender-based violence. Marchers held banners that read “We want to stay alive” while others featured photographs of femicide victims.

According to the Women’s Office of the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, an average of one femicide was recorded every 35 hours in the country last year, with 81% of those killed classified as victims of domestic violence.

“Many women who ended up murdered had (made claims) with the police and had lodged previous complaints in the Ministry (for Women). They still ended up murdered,” Marina Perez, a 50-year-old railway worker, said.
“There is still no immediate answer to the violence,” she added.

By evening, the lights illuminating the Argentine parliament lit up in pink in solidarity.

“What happens to us here is that justice is slow and it’s patriarchal,” said Alejandra Lume, a 58-year-old Argentine woman who carried a sign that read “Old women are also killed.”

“Despite the many complaints they make, women are often not listened to, they are not cared for and in general those who die, die after having made many complaints,” said Lume, surrounded by the sound of women singing and the beat of drums.

New Delhi, Oct 18,2024: The Supreme Court on Friday said that the Parliament should consider outlawing child betrothals by amending the Prevention of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action, which sought steps to combat child marriages.

While addressing the issue of child marriages, the bench observed that ‘marriages arranged during a child’s minority violate their free choice, autonomy, agency, and childhood.’

The court emphasized that such practices deprive children of the ability to choose a life partner once they have matured and developed their sense of agency.

The ruling comes with several guidelines aimed at strengthening the implementation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA).

The court also pointed to international agreements, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which oppose child betrothals.

The judgment suggested that Parliament could consider banning child betrothals, noting that such practices might be used to avoid penalties under the PCMA.

“A betrothed child may be considered a child in need of care and protection under the Juvenile Justice Act, but the practice requires targeted remedies for its eradication,” the bench observed.

In the judgment authored by Chief Justice Chandrachud, the court stressed the importance of spreading awareness within communities, rather than focusing solely on prosecutions.

“We must not be understood as discouraging prosecution; however, the goal should not be to simply increase prosecutions without taking measures to prevent child marriages,” the CJI said.

The bench emphasized the need for a “community-driven approach” to create awareness while being mindful of the potential impact of criminalization on families and communities.

July 13,2023: Elon Musk’s latest venture xAI says it will seek to ‘understand the true nature of the universe’.
Elon Musk has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) company to challenge ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which the billionaire tech mogul has accused of being “woke”.
On Wednesday, xAI said the goal of the new company would be to “understand the true nature of the universe”.
“What are the most fundamental unanswered questions?” xAI said on Twitter, which is owned by Musk.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said in a tweet that his company would seek to “understand reality”.
xAI’s staff includes former employees of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, DeepMind and the University of Toronto, according to the company’s website.
Dan Hendrycks, the director of the Center for AI Safety, is advising the company, according to its website. Hendrycks earlier this year organised an open letter warning that AI could pose existential risks to humanity, a concern echoed by Musk.

Musk helped to co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the San Francisco-based startup in 2018 over what he has described as a conflict of interest related to his work on AI at electric carmaker Tesla.

Musk, who has taken aim at the “woke mind virus” in society, has since accused the firm’s groundbreaking language bot ChatGPT of being biased in favour of left-wing and politically correct views.

Since buying Twitter for $44bn in October, Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, has loosened moderation rules and reinstated previously banned right-wing accounts, which critics say has led to a surge in hate speech and extremism on the platform.

In April, Musk expressed his intention to launch a rival chatbot called TruthGPT.
Musk told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview that the new chatbot would be a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe”.

Aug 30,2022:The last of his people, a Brazilian Indigenous man known only as “the man of the hole”, has been found dead, decades after the rest of his uncontacted tribe were killed off by ranchers and illegal miners, officials said.

The man — whose real name was never known to the outside world — was found in a hammock in a hut in the Tanaru Indigenous territory in Rondonia state on the border with Bolivia on August 23, Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) said in a statement. He had been living in complete isolation for 26 years.
Since losing everyone he knew, the man had refused all contact with the outside world and supported himself by hunting and raising crops. His nickname derived from his habit of digging deep holes inside the huts he built, possibly to trap animals but also to hide inside.

He lived in an Indigenous territory surrounded by vast cattle ranches and under constant threat from illegal miners and loggers in one of the most dangerous parts of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, according to Survival International.
Authorities in Brazil did not comment on the cause of the man’s death, nor his age, but said “there were no signs of violence or struggle”.

They also found no evidence of the presence of anyone else in his home or around it.

“Everything indicates that the death was from natural causes,” said FUNAI, a government agency under the justice ministry that handles Indigenous affairs.

Local media reported that the man’s body had been covered in macaw feathers, prompting one expert to speculate that he had known he was about to die.
The man was believed to have been alone since the remaining members of his small tribe were killed in the mid-1990s by illegal loggers and miners seeking to exploit the tribal area.

Rights groups said that the majority of the tribe had been killed in the 1970s when ranchers moved into the area, cutting down the forest and attacking the inhabitants.

Florida,April23,2022: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill that strips Walt Disney Co of self-governing authority at its Orlando-area parks in retaliation for its opposition to a new law that limits the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools.

The Republican-controlled legislature on Thursday approved the bill, which will eliminate the special governing jurisdiction that allows the company to operate Walt Disney World Resort as its own city. Within the 25,000-acre tract, it operates four theme parks, two water parks and 175 miles of roadway.
Disney’s special status “was really an aberration,” DeSantis said at a news conference where he signed the bill into law. “No individual or no company in Florida is treated this way.”
Disney did not immediately comment on the bill’s signing.

While the financial impact on the company and the state is uncertain, the change could alter how Disney operates its sprawling Central Florida empire and sour the close relationship it has enjoyed with the state for more than 50 years.

The governor on Friday said Disney would pay more taxes as a result of the law but did not elaborate.

DeSantis is a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate who has courted conservative voters on issues such as immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Disney initially did not publicly oppose the LGBTQ legislation last month, prompting criticism from that community and some employees. The company later condemned the law and said it would suspend political donations in Florida pending a review.

The law, dubbed the “don’t say gay” bill by critics, bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for children in kindergarten through third grade. DeSantis backed the measure, saying it would give parents more control over their children’s education.

Opponents call it a thinly veiled attempt to marginalize gay and transgender students, or the children of queer parents.

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New Delhi, June 26,2025: Union Home Minister Amit Shah today emphasised the importance of language in preserving a nation’s identity and cultural heritage, stating that it is not merely a means of communication, but the very soul of a nation.

“Our roots, traditions, history, and culture cannot progress without language. Just as it is important to keep languages alive, it is equally important to enrich them,” Shah said while speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Rajbhasha Department at Bharat Mandapam here.

Speaking on the government’s ongoing efforts to promote linguistic diversity, Shah highlighted the ‘Bhasha Sangam’ initiative under which students across all schools in the country are being taught 100 commonly used phrases in the 22 languages recognised by the Constitution.

He stressed that until a person takes pride in their own language, expresses themselves in it, and develops the ability to think, analyse, and make decisions in their own language, they cannot free themselves from a colonial mindset.

Reflecting on the achievements of the Department of Official Language, Shah said its 50-year journey has been shaped by struggle, dedication and determination.

He underscored the importance of conducting administrative work in Indian languages, aligning with the spirit of the nation and upholding the self-respect of these languages.

“If a country wants to function according to its own consciousness, progress based on its culture and preserves its self-respect, it is essential that its administration operates in its own languages. It was with this noble objective that the Department of Official Language was established,” he said.

Shah said over the past 11 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched several initiatives under the ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ programme. Events such as Kashi-Tamil Sangamam, Kashi-Telugu Sangamam, Saurashtra-Tamil Sangamam, Shashwat Mithila Mahotsav, and Bhasha Sangam have provided platforms to strengthen national unity and celebrate India’s linguistic and cultural diversity.

Present on the occasion were Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Lok Sabha MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murthy and others.

Dec 20,2022:The United Nations will host a “no-nonsense” climate summit in 2023 to spur action from governments on the climate crisis, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says, as the goal of avoiding global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius begins to slip out of reach.

Speaking at a year-end news conference on Monday, Guterres said the world was moving in the “wrong direction” on climate change and that governments had fallen short on their commitments to bring down emissions.
Guterres said the UN would host the summit in September with the aim of holding governments accountable and demanding tangible plans for improvement.

“The invitation is open, but there is a price of entry, and the price of entry is non-negotiable: credible, serious and new climate action,” Guterres said. “It will be a no-nonsense summit, no exceptions, no compromises. And there will be no room for greenwashers, backsliders, blame-shifters.”
While governments and international bodies have acknowledged the urgency of climate change, critics have denounced the international community’s failure to rein in emissions as the climate crisis devastates communities around the world. Drought, heat waves and floods driven partly by climate change are upending the lives of millions of people, especially those in poor countries.

While an agreement was reached at the UN-sponsored COP27 climate talks in November to create a “loss and damage” fund to help poor countries adapt to climate change, issues such as emission reductions and the phaseout of fossil fuels were not comprehensively addressed.

Countries are under pressure to ensure emissions are cut in half by 2030 and down to net zero by 2050, which is the only path to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal agreed upon in the 2015 Paris Agreement, a binding international treaty.

Guterres said on Monday that he would continue his push for a climate solidarity pact, which would require greater effort from the world’s largest emitters and provide more support for nations who require assistance.
He also spoke about other issues that have contributed to hardship and instability across the globe, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and ongoing protests in Iran.
Guterres said he was “not optimistic” that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine would take place in the near future, but he expressed hope that the UN could play a role in making progress on issues such as grain shipments and the exchange of prisoners of war.
“I do believe that the military confrontation will go on, and I think we will have still to wait a moment in which serious negotiations for peace will be possible,” Guterres said. “I don’t see them [on] the immediate horizon.”

Mar 08,2023:The Canadian government on Tuesday (March 7) expunged the historic indecency and anti-abortion laws targeting women and members of the LGBTQ community. The repealed laws had targeted women and LGBTQ individuals’ access to abortion as well as to bathhouses, nightclubs, and swinger clubs, considered to be safe spaces for the queer communities. 

The country’s Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister Marci Ien said that citizens deserved non-discriminatory policies that put their safety first, which is why the government “recognises that past laws and regulations were unjust and compromised the freedoms of 2SLGBTQI+ communities and women.”

“This is another crucial step in achieving the goals set out in the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan – by continuing to promote human rights and encourage the development of inclusive federal policies, programs, and laws,” Ien added. 

By repealing these laws, people with previous convictions can apply for an expungement order for free under the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act, which allows for the permanent destruction of historically unjust records of conviction, the news agency Reuters reported on Tuesday. 

There is no fee to apply for an expungement order. Applicants would be needed o provide evidence that the conviction meets certain criteria. “Given the historical nature of the offences, sworn statements/solemn declarations may be accepted as evidence if applicants have demonstrated that court and police records are not available,” the above statement read. 

In case the person is deceased, an appropriate representative, such as a family member or a trustee, can apply on their behalf.

April 26,2022: Billionaire Elon Musk has reached an agreement to acquire Twitter for approximately $44 billion, the company said. The outspoken Tesla CEO, the world’s wealthiest person, has said he wants to buy Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for “free speech.”
It is a seminal moment for the 16-year-old company that emerged as one of the world`s most influential public squares and now faces a string of challenges.
Musk has criticized Twitter`s moderation, calling himself a free speech absolutist, said that Twitter`s algorithm for prioritizing tweets should be public and criticized giving too much power on the service to corporations that advertise.
Political conservatives hope that a Musk regime would mean less moderation and reinstatement of banned individuals including former President Donald Trump. Musk himself also has described user-friendly tweaks to the service, such as an edit button and defeating “spam bots” that send overwhelming amounts of unwanted tweets.

Discussions over the deal, which last week appeared uncertain, accelerated over the weekend after Musk wooed Twitter shareholders with financing details of his offer.
Under pressure, Twitter started negotiating with Musk to buy the company at the proposed $54.20 per share price.
Twitter shares rose 5.7% on Monday to close at $51.70. The deal represents a near 40% premium to the closing price the day before Musk disclosed he had bought a more than 9% stake.

Sept 13,2022:The number of people trapped in forced labour or forced marriage and other crises has swelled by a fifth in recent years to about 50 million on any given day, the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Monday.

The study by the UN agencies for labour and migration along with the Walk Free Foundation found that at the end of last year, more than half of those had been forced to work against their will and the rest forced into marriage, the ILO said.
That means nearly one out of every 150 people in the world are caught up in modern forms of slavery, the report said.

Both came under its definition of modern slavery as they involved people who “cannot refuse or cannot leave because of threats, violence, deception, abuse of power or other forms of coercion”, it added.

The UN had set a goal to eradicate all forms of modern slavery by 2030, but the number of people caught up in forced labour or forced marriage ballooned by 10 million between 2016 and 2021, according to a new report.

The situation had been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which worsened conditions and swelled debt levels for many workers, as well as armed conflicts and climate change, leaving people in extreme poverty and forcing more to migrate, the agency said.
“I think, by and large, that we simply relaxed our efforts. We’ve taken our eye off the ball when it comes to forced labour,” ILO Director General Guy Ryder told the Reuters news agency, calling for improvements in recruitment practices and labour inspections.

He said trade measures, such as a ban on products and imports made with forced labour currently under review by the European Union, could also help.

Modern slavery is present in basically every country, with more than half of cases of forced labour and a quarter of forced marriages in upper-middle-income or high-income countries.

“It would be a mistake to believe that forced labour is solely the problem of poor countries,” Ryder told the AFP news agency.
Migrant workers are more than three times as likely as locals to be affected, the ILO said.

The ILO also said women and children are by far the most vulnerable. Children account for one out of five people in forced labour, with more than half of them stuck in commercial sexual exploitation, the report explained.

But the report also said 14 percent of those in forced labour were doing jobs imposed by state authorities, voicing concern about the abuse of compulsory prison labour in many countries, including the United States.

It also pointed to grave concerns raised by the UN rights office about “credible accounts of forced labour under exceptionally harsh conditions” in North Korea.

And it highlighted the situation in China, pointing to concern about accusations of forced labour in parts of the country.

It referred to a report released by the UN’s rights office on August 31 that said “serious human rights violations” had been committed in China and that the detention of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.

China has vigorously denied the accusations and last month ratified two conventions against forced labour.

This means “they will start to report on the situation of the Uighurs, and that will give us new opportunities to have access and to go deeper into the situation in that regard”, Ryder told AFP.

He acknowledged that the discussion about labour rights in Xinjiang was “not an easy conversation … but obviously, it’s a very important one”.