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No country in the world affords women the same opportunities as men in the workforce, according to a new report from the World Bank, which found the global gender gap was far wider than previously thought.

For the first time, the bank investigated the impact of childcare and safety policies on women’s participation in the labor market in 190 countries. It found that when these two factors were taken into account, women on average enjoyed just 64% of the legal protections men do, down from the previous estimate of 77%.

Report author Tea Trumbic said childcare and safety issues particularly affected women’s ability to work. Violence could physically prevent them from going to work, and childcare costs could make it prohibitive.

The 10th edition of the women, business and the law report, published on Monday, also for the first time assessed the gap between laws and the policies put in place to implement them. It found countries had, on average, established less than 40% of the systems needed for full implementation.

“All over the world, discriminatory laws and practices prevent women from working or starting businesses on an equal footing with men,” said Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group.

“Closing this gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20% – essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade – but reforms have slowed to a crawl.”

Follow the link below for the full story:
 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/05/no-equality-for-working-women-in-any-country-in-the-world-study-reveals-world-bank-gender-gap?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-guardian_us&utm_content=later-41660131&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio 

Hundreds of people celebrated in the streets of Paris this week as France enshrined abortion as a constitutional right at a historic joint session at the Palace of Versailles.

“To the women of France, we say that we will never step backward. To the women of the world, we say that we will support them,” said Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the national assembly from Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party as the results were announced on Monday to thunderous applause in the chamber.

The Eiffel Tower was lit up to mark the moment, which will give women the “guaranteed freedom” to choose an abortion.

Writing the right to abortion into the constitution was seen as a way of protecting the law that decriminalised abortion in France in 1975.

Read more about this historic moment by heading to the link here:
 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/04/france-to-hold-final-vote-on-enshrining-abortion-as-a-constitutional-right 

1. Photo by Tom Nicholson/REX/Shutterstock
2. Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
3. Photo by Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock. Sign reads ‘Abortion finally in the constitution’.
4. Photo by Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
5. Photo by Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock. Sign reads ‘Hands off my friend’. 

The sooty air pollution spewed out by cars, trucks and factories is causing widespread harm to people’s hearts and lungs even with the smallest amounts of exposure, with government regulations still routinely allowing for dangerous risks to public health, two major new studies have found.

There is no safe amount of a microscopic form of airborne pollution known as PM2.5, consisting of tiny particles of soot measuring less than the width of a human hair, for heart and lung health, US researchers found, with even small amounts raising the risk of potentially serious problems.

And at the same time, according to figures from the European Environment Agency in a separate study, approximately 238,000 air pollution deaths could be avoided each year if the EU27 countries actually met World Health Organization guidelines for air pollution.

The new research, from academics looking at 41 European countries, also showed that more than half of the benefits would come from fewer deaths from heart attacks, strokes and type 2 diabetes, as well as lung-cancer.

And they say greater ambition would yield even bigger health outcomes.

To read more in depth click the link here:  https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/feb/23/eu-countries-could-save-238000-lives-a-year-by-meeting-who-air-pollution-guidelines?utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=airpollutionguidelines 

‎Follow the The Guardian channel on WhatsApp:  https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaF4uvICnA80zyI0hV07 

The Colorado supreme court has declared Donald Trump ineligible to hold office again under the US constitution’s insurrection clause.

In a historic decision, the justices ordered that he be removed from the state’s presidential primary ballot, after determining that he engaged in insurrection on 6 January 2021.

The ruling sets up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to settle whether the January 6 attack on the Capitol amounted to an insurrection, and whether Trump’s involvement disqualifies him from running for office.

Trump has vowed to appeal to the US supreme court, his campaign said. “We have full confidence that the US supreme court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson.

The 4-3 decision by the Colorado supreme court marks the first time a presidential candidate has been deemed unqualified for office under a rarely used provision that bars insurrectionists from holding office. 

The destruction of more than a third of Gaza’s homes as Israel bombards the territory in pursuit of Hamas is leading international legal experts to raise the concept of “domicide”, writes our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, in his latest Guardian analysis piece.

In the current Gaza war, launched after Hamas launched its 7 October terror attack on southern Israel, independent experts estimate that as much as 40% of the housing in Gaza has been damaged or destroyed. The United Nations says 1.8 million people are internally displaced inside the strip, many living in overcrowded UN shelters in the south.

Although Gaza has been damaged in previous conflicts and rebuilt, largely with money from the Gulf states, the current scale of the devastation is of a different order, says Patrick.

Israel says all damage to buildings and loss of civilian life is regrettable but made necessary by Hamas deliberately hiding in schools and hospitals and by its refusal to surrender.

To hear why legal experts are calling for ‘domicide’ to be classed as a distinct crime against humanity, and whether the UN vote on a ceasefire earlier this week can change the situation on the ground, listen to our Today in Focus podcast via the link here:
 https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2023/dec/14/is-israel-deliberately-trying-to-make-gaza-uninhabitable-podcast 

Photo from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 12 December by Mohammed Abed for AFP via Getty Images 

“A true pioneer and innovator”

Benjamin Zephaniah, the British poet and writer who was known for his work on race, racism and political injustice, has died aged 65 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago, a post on his Instagram page stated.

“Benjamin’s wife was by his side throughout and was with him when he passed,” the post read. “We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news.

“Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator, he gave the world so much. Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy”.

Zephaniah’s work was heavily influenced by Jamaican music and poetry, and he was often classified as a dub poet. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.

Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian 

The most hazardous nuclear site in Europe, Sellafield, has a worsening leak from a huge silo of radioactive waste that could pose a risk to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

Concerns over safety at the crumbling building, as well as cracks in a reservoir of toxic sludge known as B30, have caused diplomatic tensions with countries including the US, Norway and Ireland, which fear Sellafield has failed to get a grip of the problems.

The leak of radioactive liquid from one of the “highest nuclear hazards in the UK” – a decaying building at the vast Cumbrian site known as the Magnox swarf storage Silo (MSSS) – is likely to continue to 2050. That could have “potentially significant consequences” if it gathers pace, risking contaminating groundwater, according to an official document.

Cracks have also developed in the concrete and asphalt skin covering the huge pond containing decades of nuclear sludge, part of a catalogue of safety problems at the site.

These concerns have emerged in Nuclear Leaks, a year-long Guardian investigation into problems spanning cyber hacking, radioactive contamination and toxic workplace culture at the vast nuclear dump.

Sellafield is understood to argue that the leak poses “no additional risk” to staff and the public.

A spokesperson for the site said: “We are proud of our safety record at Sellafield and we are always striving to improve.

“The nature of our site means that until we complete our mission, our highest hazard facilities will always pose a risk.

“We continuously measure and report on nuclear, radiological, and conventional safety.

“Any incidents, including those highlighted by the Guardian, are reported to our regulator, published on our website, and shared for scrutiny in public meetings.”

Watch our video report here: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCC5... 

The king is profiting from the deaths of thousands of people in the north-west of England, whose assets are secretly being used to upgrade the Duchy of Lancaster, a controversial land and property estate that generates huge profits for King Charles III.

Tens of millions of pounds in recent years have been collected by the hereditary estate under an antiquated custom that dates back to feudal times, known as bona vacantia or “vacant goods”.

In England and Wales, the assets of people who die without making a will and have no identifiable relatives are transferred to the Treasury, which then spends them on public services.

The only exception to this is for people who die in parts of England with historical links to two royal estates: the Duchy of Lancaster, which is the estate of King Charles, and the Duchy of Cornwall, which was inherited by Prince William.

These two vast property empires are run by professional executives and exist to generate supposedly “private” income for the monarch and heir to the throne.

Over the last 10 years, the Duchy of Lancaster has collected more than £60m of such funds. It has long claimed that, after deducting costs, bona vacantia revenues are donated to charities.

However, only a small percentage of these revenues is being given to charity. Internal duchy documents seen by the Guardian reveal how funds are secretly being used to finance the renovation of properties that are owned by the king and rented out for profit.

Read the full investigation by Maeve McClenaghan, Rob Evans and Henry Dyer, including what this money is being spent on, by heading to the link here:  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/23/revealed-king-charles-secretly-profiting-from-the-assets-of-dead-citizens 

Do you think these climate solutions are achievable?

Countries are falling behind on almost every policy required to cut greenhouse gas emissions, a new report has found — a failure that makes the chances of keeping global heating below the critical climate thresholds even more remote.

Scientists warned earlier this year that by 2027 the world is likely to reach temperatures 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the target enshrined in the 2015 Paris climate agreement in order to avoid the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

With action not being taken fast enough to pull the world back from the brink of climate devastation, the State of Climate Action 2023 report has outlined the ‘enormous acceleration’ in efforts required by the world to avoid increasingly dangerous and irreversible climate impacts, including:

⚫ Phasing out coal seven times faster than is happening now
⚫Reducing deforestation four times faster
⚫Building public transport around the world six times faster

Examining all aspects of climate policy from governments across the world, the report found that while some progress had been made with the uptake of green technology and electric vehicles, all other progress – including the continuing public funding of fossil fuels – was ‘woefully inadequate’.

‘Despite decades of dire warnings and wake-up calls, our leaders have largely failed to mobilise climate action anywhere near the pace and scale needed,’ said Sophie Boehm, a research associate at the World Resources Institute and lead author of the report compiled by six climate thinktanks.

‘There’s no time left to tinker at the edges. Instead, we need immediate, transformational changes.’