By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Afghan refugees board a truck with their belongings as they await deportation at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Chaman on October 19, 2025. © 2025 Abdul Basil/AFP via Getty Images France has confirmed that it has opened a “technical dialogue” with the Taliban authorities regarding forced returns to Afghanistan. The announcement marks a dangerous shift in policy that places Afghans in France at risk of persecution, torture and other grave abuses in contravention of France’s international human rights obligations.The “technical dialogue” follows in the wake…
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By Susmita Aryal
Nepal’s flood-hit communities face a long road to recovery as damaged infrastructure, lost livelihoods, and questions over aid transparency complicate efforts to rebuild homes, restore services, and livelihoods.
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By Abdullahi Abdulwahab Yakubu, Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, Ahmadu Bello University
For years, the world has understood climate change as an environmental problem – melting glaciers, rising seas, extreme weather. But what happens in people’s minds when their world becomes unstable? What do they do when the only life they’ve known – farming, herding, providing for their families – becomes impossible?
These questions drove our team of psychiatrists and public health researchers to conduct one of the largest studies of its kind in west Africa. We interviewed 20,000 adults…
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By Sophie Scott, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, UCL
Fausto Caruana, CNR Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor at the University of Parma, University of Parma
When trying to study the brain networks that underlie the production of laughter, things can get very difficult very quickly.
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By Christine Yanagawa, PhD candidate, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Kaylee Byers, Assistant Professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University
Why have cities had so little success in reducing rat numbers? It’s usually because they’re failing to address the larger social services issues that allow rats to thrive.
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By Chloé Maurel, SIRICE (Université Paris 1/Paris IV), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
85 year-old Navi Pillay served as a leading national (during apartheid in South Africa) and international jurist. By appointing her, the Nobel Committee is making a stand which has drawn praise and condemnation.
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By Matthew Taylor, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Université de Montréal
David Eby has gambled his government in a bid to capitalize on the right’s infighting. Instead, he may have united his opponents behind the Conservatives.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Photo montage of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and youth in Japan training and playing popular sports. © 2019 imagenavi/Aflo; 2005 Doable/a.collectionRF/amanaimages; 2020 Human Rights Watch; 2015 Satoru Kobayashi/a.collectionRF/amanaimages; 2016 RYO/amanaimages; Trevor Williams/Getty Images; 2020 Human Rights Watch; 2016 Matsuo/Aflo; AdobeStock Every October, Japan celebrates Sports Day, a public holiday established to commemorate the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games and Japan's longstanding commitment to sport as a national priority.There has been much to celebrate in recent…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Anojan Sivarasa. © Private (Beirut) – A Saudi court has sentenced a Sri Lankan migrant worker to death over a Facebook comment that was deemed blasphemous, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities should reverse the judgment and release him immediately.The Saudi Court of Appeal in the Eastern Region handed down the death sentence to Anojan Sivarasa, 24, on September 17, 2026, after two court sessions. An initial ruling had sentenced him to five years in prison.“Sentencing a migrant worker to death over a Facebook comment that he has publicly apologized for…
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By Andrew Yockey, Assistant Professor of Health and Kinesiology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Brightly colored packaging, promises of better sexual performance and names like “Rhino,” “Anaconda” and “Magnum” make sexual enhancement products difficult to miss. They can be found online, in convenience stores and at gas stations, and some can even…
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