Blog
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We’re Only Getting Older: The Economic and Health Problems that Come with an Aging Society Growing Larger
Photo Courtesy of FlavourMag. All around the world, the population over 65 is growing faster than any other age group. By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or older. At this time, the share of the population aged 60 years and older will increase from 1 billion in 2020 to 1.4 billion. By 2050, the world’s population of people aged 60 years and older will double (2.1 billion). By comparison, it was only 9% or one in 11 people in 2019. The trends for the aging population or disproportionate in Europe and North America by the time 2050, comes one and four people…
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Economists Predict Slow Down in Global Growth
Photo Courtesy of Marcellus The latest report from UNDESA states that global growth is predicted to slow down from anywhere to 1.7-1.9%, a sharp drop from the 3% growth in 2022. Economists had previously predicted stronger economic growth in 2023. The impacts of the slowed growth will have widespread international impact. Causes Economic growth could be hampered by an unlimited number of factors. Economists have found that the drop likely stems from the war in Ukraine, lasting effects of the global pandemic caused by covid, inflation and even climate change. The expected drop is one of the sharpest in fifty years, and is expected to impact 75% of countries, including…
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The Future of Technology: Deepfake’s International Implications and Regulation
Photo Courtesy of TIME. The digital revolution, also referred to as the third industrial revolution, began in the 1980s involved the switch of mechanical technology to digital technology and one of the products of this era is deep learning technology and deepfakes. Deep learning technology mimics the human brain and in turn can recognize, classify, and describe objects in the dataset. Deepfakes are created through deep learning technology and appear in either audio, video, textual, image or live form. In 2019 there was approximately 15,000 deepfakes on the internet and experts estimate that the number of deepfakes online double every six months. Deepfakes are often used to impersonate another person…
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Is it Plunder or Burglary: Ongoing Legal Dispute between Korean and Japanese Temple Surrounding the Seated Avalokitesvara Statue
Photo Courtesy of The Joongang Cultural properties represent the country's identity and history that not only implant national characteristics to the citizens but also function as a cultural diplomat that announces the country's development, philosophy, and history to other states. Recognizing the importance of protecting and preserving them, there were meaningful international efforts to return artworks and prevent illegal trade. However, despite the efforts, restoring looted cultural properties is lethargic due to the limitation of international treaties in many restitution cases. In addition, it is hard to prove that cultural property is stolen, and it is even more complicated if the country of origin lacks a proper act that urges…
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United States WNBA Star Brittney Griner Begins Her Nine-Year Term as Her Appeal is Denied by Russian Court
Photo Courtesy of ArizonaSports.com After a Moscow regional court affirmed her drug conviction, the American basketball star will start serving a nine-year term in a Russian penal colony. In a courthouse outside of Moscow earlier this year, Judge Anna Sotnikova delivered Griner's sentence, which came near to the maximum 10-year term for the narcotics possession and smuggling counts she faced. Russian prosecutors had requested 9 1/2 years in prison. In addition to the punishment, there is a 1 million rubles fine. The nine-year sentence given to the WNBA star is generally seen as being out of proportion to her crime; Griner is accused of possessing and smuggling less than a gram…
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The Mexican Government’s Failure to Comply with the USMCA Could Create Legal, Diplomatic, and Economic Turmoil
Courtesy of Brookings. In mid-2020, U.S. lawmakers approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The deal replaced and modernized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), though several provisions were left nearly unchanged. The USMCA’s terms influence each party’s decisions about issues like trade, labor, and energy. Mexican energy laws are different than those in the U.S. The Mexican Constitution provides that any oil or gas found underground, regardless of the finder, is government property (more specifically, “the Nation’s property”). This concept differs from U.S. jurisprudence, where the common law rule of capture applies instead: oil and gas generally belong to the finder. In 2014, then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto…
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The Battle for Barristers in London
Courtesy of BBC. Since June, there has been a startling number of strikes among criminal barristers in the United Kingdom. This ongoing battle for the Barristers in London has been constant since September. Their aversion to work results from the contentious issues the government has failed to address. Barristers continuously face inadequate pay, case backlogs, staff cuts, court closures, and the lack of justice for victims. These strikes are not surprising to most. For a while, members of the Criminal Bar Association, representing barristers (English lawyers) in England and Wales, have consistently felt overworked and undervalued. Often complain that the pay is incomparable to living costs in London. Since 2006, Barristers have endured income. They have experienced over…
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The Consequences of the Recent Russian Airstrike in Ukraine
Photo Courtesy of Reuters Russia’s most recent attempt at taking control of the war it created in Ukraine has inevitably led to devastating and even deadly consequences for the Ukrainian people. Such consequences, however, are not only deadly but also likely illegal. Russia’s most recent efforts to seize control of Ukraine, by means of airstrikes, likely violate international law. Russia likely violated principles on the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law with its deadly airstrikes on Ukraine. Moreover, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said, “We are gravely concerned that some of the attacks appear to have targeted critical civilian infrastructure … indicating that these strikes may have violated the principles on…
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Overtime Pay for Foreign Agricultural Labor Yet to Gain Full National Support
H-2A program allows seasonal workers into the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs. Citizens of 82 countries are eligible under this program. For fiscal year 2022, 295,385 H-2A workers were approved through this program. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) sets federal standards for minimum wage and overtime pay for any employer covered under this act. However, may some employers, mainly those hiring agricultural workers, including under the H-2A program, must meet certain requirements without which those enterprises are usually exempt from either paying minimum wage and/or overtime pay. One of those requirements is employing an agricultural worker for 500 or more man-days in any quarter in the previous calendar…
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In an Effort to Comply: Biden Administration Response to EU-U.S Data Privacy Framework
Photo Courtesy of TechCrunch. Data privacy protections in the wake of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) have set a high bar for compliance concerning companies’ handling of consumer data. Since its inception in May 2018, large and small companies interacting with E.U. member state citizens’ personal data have had to adjust their internal practices to ensure compliance with the GDPR requirements. This has impacted companies differently, as some have had to bear the burden of higher costs and more complicated means to achieve compliance. For those who fail to comply, the financial burden can be catastrophic. The baseline financial penalty sits at up to 4% of a…