As the media looks to the sky for a cosmic event today, governments should look inward to remember their roles in the Rwandan genocide. It has been 30 years since the start of 100 days of torture, sexual assault, and murder in Rwanda. What have political leaders implemented in the three decades since the conclusion of that genocide to prevent mass violence and ethnic cleansing? The lessons from Rwanda have started to feel more like faint echoes instead of righteous calls to action to prevent crimes against humanity. Nowhere are those seemingly ignored lessons more apparent than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

On Tuesday, Uganda's parliament passed a law criminalizing individuals who identify as LGBTQ.  This is now one of the world's most punitive and discriminatory laws against the LGBTQ community. Punishments for offenses are steep, including jail time and even the death penalty in some cases. What can we do to stand up for the LGBTQ community in Uganda?

Child labor in the U.S. is not a new phenomenon. The recent exposés about migrant children working in dangerous places like slaughterhouses and on construction sites have renewed investigations into the exploitation of children in the U.S. workforce. Addressing this issue on the House floor, Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI-3) said, “Stories of kids dropping out of school, collapsing from exhaustion, and even losing limbs to machinery are what one expects to find in a Charles Dickens or Upton Sinclair novel, but not an account of everyday life in 2023, not in the United States of America.” What can we do to protect migrant children - and all children - from labor exploitation? 

Special Edition: We've compiled a list of resources and organizations that are accepting donations in case you're looking for ways to help Maui after the tragic wildfires.

As we approach 2023, you might think about final end-of-year gifts to organizations that positively impact our global community. If you are still looking for an organization to support, check out (and share!) these five suggestions.

This month, the Minnesota Reformer published "There Must Be Something in the Water," a two-part series on 3M (a company that operates in the fields of science, technology, and public health). The series covered chemical contamination in the waters of Minnesota that may have led to high cancer rates in communities like Oakdale, MN. While it is difficult to positively link each specific diagnosis to 3M's chemical waste, the connections are impossible to ignore. The Minnesota Reformer series focused on the pediatric impacts of the environmental catastrophe. They learned that at Oakdale's Tartan High School, students often said, “Don’t drink the 3M cancer water.” Current and former young Oakdale residents like Amara Strande, age 20, are battling rare cancers, suffering through multiple surgeries and facing life-altering diagnoses. There are numerous ways for "forever chemicals" (a common term for the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances referenced in this case) to seep into our environment, drinking water, and bodies. What can we do to protect our communities and our planet? 

This is Girl Friday’s series on Donald Trump’s tariffs and how they will impact U.S. consumers and the U.S.’s relationship with our allies and the rest of the world.

This week, our Girl Friday team had always intended to honor the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, but we were even more compelled to talk about gun violence in the U.S. after the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade. We are enormously grateful to Rachel Feldman of GIFFORDS for talking to us about the impact of mass shootings on families and communities, as well as what personally drives her work to end gun violence. 

As we approach 2023, you might think about final end-of-year gifts to organizations that positively impact our global community. If you are still looking for an organization to support, check out (and share!) these five suggestions.

Special Edition: We've compiled a list of resources and organizations that are accepting donations in case you're looking for ways to help Maui after the tragic wildfires.

As we approach 2023, you might think about final end-of-year gifts to organizations that positively impact our global community. If you are still looking for an organization to support, check out (and share!) these five suggestions.

In the wake of the unthinkable 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that killed 20 children (between the ages of six and seven) and 6 adults, Alex Jones spread destructive lies about the massacre, and his platform, Infowars, became a source of rabid misinformation. This week, in response to Jones’ relentless campaign, a jury in Connecticut awarded almost $1 billion USD to 15 plaintiffs in their defamation case against Jones. While this case sets a strong precedent, the damage from Infowars still remains. How can we stop conspiracy theories from becoming wide-spread misinformation?