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The 41st UN Human Rights Council will decide on the renewal of the mandate of the UN Independent Expert on the Protection against Violence and Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). Caroline Ausserer spoke with the current mandate holder, Victor Madrigal-Borloz.

Donald Trump is caught in a deadlock of his own making. He does not want to find himself responsible for a new war in the Middle East right in the middle of an election campaign. At the same time, he wants to look like a tough guy who never backtracks. This is what is making the situation so unpredictable.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is supporting and encouraging Trump’s confrontational stance towards Iran. However, a military escalation would be extremely dangerous for Israel.

The escalating nuclear conflict between Iran and the United States is making life harder for Irans population. In particular, the emergence of a middle class is under threat.

The Holocaust narrative elevated the moral command of “Never Again” into a measure of universal integrity. But now a major paradigm change is happening in Holocaust memorialisation that will have a major impact on European identity.

The outcome of the 2019 midterm elections in the Philippines displayed the domineering political influence of President Rodrigo Duterte, a crowded-out opposition, and the limits of his promise for genuine and meaningful socio-political change.

On 17 April 2019, Indonesia held the world’s largest, and arguably most complicated, one-day election involved presidential, legislative (national and local), and senate elections – done simultaneously. Voters’ attention, however, was largely on the presidential election, which led to a turnout of 81%, the highest in Indonesia’s electoral history in the post-reform era.

The first plastics imitated ivory and silk and attracted just a limited market. Things took off after World War II with the rise of PVC. Cheap plastics soon conquered the world.

Recycling alone cannot solve the plastic crisis. New ideas are needed that tackle the roots of the problem. A growing movement is showing how that can work  - and a few pioneering cities and towns are blazing the trail.

Masters in lobbying, petrochemicals firms and plastic producers focus attention on waste management and recycling so they can evade their responsibility for the true problem: the growth in the volume of plastics being made.