Thailand moves closer to legalizing same-sex marriage as parliament passes landmark bill
BANGKOK — Thailand’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill on Wednesday, a landmark step…
BANGKOK — Thailand’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill on Wednesday, a landmark step that moves one of Asia’s most liberal countries closer to becoming its third territory to legalize same-sex unions. The bill had the support of all of Thailand’s major parties and was more than a decade in the making. It still…
The school year in Afghanistan started Wednesday but without girls whom the Taliban barred from attending classes beyond the sixth grade, making it the only country with restrictions on female education. The U.N. children’s agency says more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban. It also estimates 5 million were out of school…
A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to remain in jail on espionage charges until at least late June, court officials said. The 32-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent nearly a year behind bars. His arrest was extended until…
TEL AVIV — As tensions rise between the two countries, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Tuesday, a day after the United States abstained in a United Nations Security Council vote calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. After the historic abstention by one of its closest allies,…
Two powerful allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that they believed Ukraine was involved in the attack on a concert hall just outside Moscow that killed at least 139 people and wounded 180 others. Ukraine has repeatedly denied any involvement and Islamic State, the militant group that once sought control over swathes…
Israel warns 4 European countries against Palestinian statehood recognition JERUSALEM — Israel told four European countries on Monday that their plan to work toward recognition of a Palestinian state constituted a “prize for terrorism.” Spain said on Friday that, in the name of Middle East peace, it had agreed with Ireland, Malta and Slovenia to…
The wife of jailed Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday the lives of many political prisoners in Russia, including her husband’s, were at risk in the wake of Alexei Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony last month. Kara-Murza, who had condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine and lobbied for Western sanctions against Moscow, was…
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Claudia Poblete can’t help it. On certain days, as she passes in front of a church, she automatically crosses herself while her children gaze at her with confusion. She didn’t raise them as Catholics — as she was — because her spirituality has shifted. In 2000, Poblete didn’t go by her…
Before becoming vice president and senate leader, Villarruel was best known as a fringe activist who paid prison visits to military junta leader Jorge Rafael Videla, challenged human rights groups’ estimate of 30,000 disappeared people and founded an organization championing victims of leftist militants. Her uncle, Ernesto Guillermo Villarruel, was accused of committing crimes against humanity in a…
LONDON —King Charles III is frustrated by the length of time his recovery from cancer treatment is taking, his nephew has said, as Kate, the Princess of Wales, and Prince William thanked the public for their support after the revelation of her own diagnosis. Peter Phillips, 46, the only son of Princess Anne and eldest…