Indispensable reading by Rama Salla Dieng on concurrent crises in Senegal, fabricated at home and abroad, that led to the recent anti-LGBTQ law. roape.net/2026/03/17/b...

This is preposterous, but this is exactly what US diplomats argued at the Commission on the Status of Women just now.

Would have been sharing an oped this morning with y’all except the publisher ran it with a nine year old bio from the last time I published something with them. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Important piece from Isabel Choat in the Guardian on the proposed merger of UN Women and UNFPA. The risks of a merger cannot be understated. When both gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights are under attack, it threatens to set back the UN's work on these issues.

US aid cuts: $45bn UK aid cuts: $8.2bn EU aid cuts: $2.5bn France aid cuts: $2bn German aid cuts: $2bn Canada aid cuts: $675m Aid has dropped by over 50% in the last two years. So it’s a good job the world is a lot safer now and there are definitely no major humanitarian crises brewing!

#BREAKING: 13 arrested in Cannon House Rotunda demanding immediate release of $977 million in PEPFAR funding illegally impounded by Vought, read: bit.ly/PEPFARSlowDown and press release: healthgap.org/press/activi... @housingworksnyc.bsky.social @treatmentactiongroup.org

Listen to Nina. And if you are in NY-12, vote for her.

Missiles fired by US, Israel hit two schools near Tehran: Iranian media https://aje.news/3kck8y

The right was recently up in arms because UN Women released an infographic for a campaign against child marriage that pictured a white girl. The truth is, child marriage happens far too often in the United States, often due to adolescent pregnancy and the policies that they espouse.

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Tell me again why we can’t have nice things?

This is devastating and a direct consequence of the US/Israel war against Iran. I didn't know Yanar, but many of my friends and colleagues did. Her courageous leadership made it possible for others in Iraq, and the region, to advocate for women's rights. Rest in Power Yanar.

@profsophieharman.bsky.social nails it.

As out turns out, the “civilization“ spread by the western powers was always repression, plunder, & mass death disguised under the language of universal rights.

I had a vague hope that the rest of the world would denounce the illegal attacks by the US Israel against Iran. To see North leaders falling over themselves to signal their approval is just something else. They are just completely lacking any moral leadership at this point.

“The victims were between seven and 12 years old, according to Iran's Tasnim and Fars news agencies.”

Evil, pure and simple

Finally. Justice.

After 2 years of work, our special issue in @contraceptionjl.bsky.social on "Emergency of FemTech in the SRH Landscape" is out! It includes 14 papers on fertility tracking, contraception, and abortion in the digital age, plus our summary Editorial. A 🧵on what we found; please help us share! 1/8

So the White House withdrew from the WHO, only to propose spending billions to try and replicate its functions in a much more inefficient and ineffective system. Ridiculous.

Rest in power, Virginia Giuffre. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

This. 100% this.

Sometimes I wish I was a lawyer just so I could work for an organization as awesome as @ifwhenhow.bsky.social. If you are a lawyer, check this out.

This is devastating precisely because when we need other donors to counter the weaponization of foreign assistance by the US as a tool against gender equality, human rights and equity, they are all jumping ship...

It doesn't matter how. It doesn't matter who. It doesn't matter where. It doesn't matter why. Torture is never acceptable and always illegal.

it's hard to process this level of cruelty to children

🚨 New from @hrw.org: #UN member states should select a champion of #HumanRights as the next UN Secretary-General as the UN faces a crisis amid a global retreat on rights & democracy. - by Widad Franco

There's so much that middle powers like Canada, could do to actually build strong alliances with other countries and hold the line against the further consolidation of power and resources by great powers. Or, they could do this....

Abuse of women and children is the ultimate offence that horrifies everyone in theory. It's sensational and abhorrent In reality, abuse of women and children is mundane and boring. When carried out by powerful men, it's an inconvenience that detracts from serious issues like money or security

Now more than ever, information is power. We’re here to keep you informed on how U.S. policies like the Global Gag Rule threaten reproductive rights. You can learn more about the expanded Gag Rule—and how the U.S. is using coercive “health agreements” with other governments—here: buff.ly/7HYsDYr

Devastating.

This is essentially blackmail and could endanger vaccine supply for many countries that need thiomersal in vaccines to keep them stable when they lack infrastructure to keep vaccines cool in transport and storage 🧵

Why would you believe people who tell you that the US can't shut down institutions at the drop of a hat when you are currently witnessing this administration do it in real time?

The latest iteration of the Global Gag Rule is "despicable and unacceptable" - it restricts U.S. foreign aid recipients from engaging in abortion-related work, or working to advance diversity, equity and inclusion; gender equality; and LGBTQI+ rights. Read Ipas's full statement: buff.ly/DzIZDvP

It’s rare that leaders say out loud what many, especially in the Global South, have said for decades. This feels like yet another inflection point.

“When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.” #MLK

Yet again, the problem here isn't the money. It's endorsing a new structure of international governance that ignores the concept of sovereignty and legitimizes Donald Trump's personalized leadership and enables his latest grift. bsky.app/profile/rose...

Tylenol during pregnancy is safe without increased risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability of offspring A new review of the evidence just out www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Well, this is no good.

If fewer people are insured, costs don’t vanish. They shift: to hospitals via uncompensated care, to insured patients via higher prices, to the uninsured who bear the burden of ill health, and to taxpayers via bailouts and subsidies.

This demonstrates the importance of institutions like the African CDC who can work with governments to ensure ethical and just research and clinical trials and who can push back against the Neo-imperialism of the US and others.

Kennedy, obsessed with vaxxed/unvaxxed studies that would not be approved by US ethical review boards, planned to fund one in West Africa — one that would have caused unnecessary disease and death for extremely vulnerable children. After negative media attention, it was canceled. Coverage matters.

Almost all livestock in the United States is factory-farmed— It’s difficult to quantify animal suffering in a single number, but one metric often used to measure living conditions is the number of animals raised on “factory farms”.

The UN can host these meetings at other locations in Geneva and regional economic and social commissions in Addis, Bangkok, Santiago, and Amman. It needs to stop holding meetings in New York until people can travel to the US again safely.

FBI searches home of this Washington Post reporter- -Hannah Natanson. She also recently reported on Maduro and Venezuela. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/u...

NEW: After doctors sent her home with a racing heart, Ciji Graham came to believe the best way to protect her health was to end her pregnancy. But new restrictions in NC and nearby states made finding an abortion provider difficult. www.propublica.org/article/nort...

If your Sunday Scaries feel just a little stronger than usual, fear not. Scientists have proven there's no way around it... from PHYSICS FOR CATS by Tom Gauld

Excellent piece on Lynn’s “national IQ” dataset: “If you can convince people that “scientific racism” is an oxymoron – that science deals only in truth, and truth cannot be racist – then you can launder a centuries-old ideology of racial hierarchy through the prestige of science itself”