Newlyweds at the Pride to Be event on June 25, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. This report by Hillary Leung was originally published at Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) on July 6, 2024. An edited version is published below as part of a content partnership agreement. The banquet hall in Hong Kong’s Eaton Hotel has seen countless wedding celebrations, but never quite like this: there was not one newlywed couple, there were 10; and the officiant appeared not standing before them, but on a screen via Zoom, her time zone in the US state of Utah putting her 14 hours behind the city. Standing beneath a flower...
Global Voices
Image by Tanpa Dhakal via Nepali Times, used with permission. This story was originally published by Tanka Dhakal at the Nepali Times. An edited version is republished below as part of a content-sharing agreement. Yaks, which used to be the mainstay of the culture of Himalayan communities in Nepal, have been in steady decline because of lifestyle changes, human outmigration, inbreeding, and the impact of the climate crisis. The National Agricultural Census shows that the total number of yaks in Nepal went down from 53,000 to 48,000 over the past three years. There are now fewer than 10,000 hou...
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Maloraneng village. Photo provided by The Colonist Report, used with permission. For eight months, Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi, Sechaba Mokhethi, and Cindy Sipula investigated years of outcry from residents living near a UK diamond mining company. Their investigation report was originally published by The Colonist Report, and a shorter version is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.** Gem Diamonds Limited, a diamond mining company based in the United Kingdom that has won awards for improving local communities’ access to clean water, has been accused of polluting dri...
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Collage by Arzu Geybullayeva. Images free to use courtesy of Global Voices’ content partners. June 21, marked a year since the Azerbaijani village of Söyüdlü was rocked by environmental protests organized by local residents objecting to the construction plans for a second artificial lake, also known as the tailing dam. Footage of riot police using disproportionate physical force, rubber bullets, and tear gas against village residents was widely reported by the local media at the time. At least five village residents received administrative detentions and one resident received an administrative...
Global Voices
Feature image of avocados via Canva Pro. In Samuel Beckett's “Waiting for Godot,” often described as the play in which nothing happens, the two main characters basically talk to each other under a leafless tree while awaiting the arrival of the mysterious Godot, who never shows up. The Caribbean in hurricane season should be so lucky. Instead, characters — because it often feels like an apocalyptic movie scene — huddle under shelter, too apprehensive to talk much as they await the arrival of the storm du jour, which almost always shows up. For these islands on the frontline of the climate cris...
Global Voices
Parliamentary candidates’ posters hung in Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar. Screenshot from the video “Mongolia heads to polls amid weak opposition, corruption scandals and public frustration” from the Al Jazeera English YouTube channel. Fair use. On June 28, Mongolia held parliamentary elections, which the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) won by securing 68 out of 126 seats in the Great State Khural, Mongolia’s unicameral parliament. This victory will extend its eight-year long rule by another four. The turnout was 69.4 percent, and the rest of the seats were divided among four parties. The Democ...
Global Voices
Workers pick cotton in Uzbekistan. Image via Wikipedia. Creative Commons license CC0 1.0 In recent years, the international community has boycotted cotton sourced from Xinjiang, a vast region in northwestern China, due to concerns over human rights violations. Under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing has subjected Xinjiang’s Muslim minorities to arbitrary detention and forced labor. Some global cotton buyers, in response, have turned to other regions to fulfill cotton demands. The boycotting of Xinjiang cotton has created something of a ripple effect in other parts of the ...
Global Voices
The Gouda Wind Farm in Gouda in the Western Cape of South Africa. Image via Wikipedia license CC BY-SA 4.0 When touring some East African countries (EAC), like Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan, Somalia, and others, it is common to find village schools, town roads, hospitals, homes, and many more places without electricity. Students must revise their lessons by torchlight, some hospitals and clinics struggle to preserve temperature-sensitive medicines, including vaccines, and citizens navigate daily life without reliable electricity. This is a common issue across East Africa, where insufficient ele...
Global Voices
Feature image via Canva Pro. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season had barely begun when Hurricane Beryl proved itself, in many ways, to be unprecedented. It reared its head earlier than most major storms tend to do, it gained power quickly, being upgraded to a Category 3 and then Cat 4 system within a mere 48 hours and, having left a trail of destruction through the Grenadines — including at least six deaths — it became the strongest storm on record this early in the season, briefly turning into a Category 5 hurricane. As at 9:00 p.m. (UTC4) on July 2, it has reverted to a Cat 4 as it headed tow...
Global Voices
Photo of writer and educator Funso Aiyejina courtesy Bocas Lit Fest, used with permission. On July 1, news broke on local social media channels that the Nigeria-born writer and poet Funso Aiyejina, who made Trinidad and Tobago his home, had died in his sleep. He was 75 years old. Former Dean of Humanities and Education and Professor Emeritus at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) St. Augustine campus, Aiyejina was well loved by students and colleagues alike, so his sudden passing was a shock to both academics and the regional literary community of which he was an integral part. Born in 19...
Global Voices
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