Social Responsibility

Ecuador’s military was sent in to seize control of the country’s prisons last month after two major gang leaders escaped and criminal groups quickly set off a nationwide revolt that paralyzed the country.In Brazil last week, two inmates with connections to a major gang became the first to escape from one of the nation’s five maximum-security federal prisons, officials said.Officials in Colombia have declared an emergency in its prisons after two guards were killed and several more targeted in what the government said was retaliation for its crackdown on major criminal groups.Inside prisons across Latin America, criminal groups exercise unchallenged…

An Israeli raid last week has reduced one of Gaza’s biggest hospitals to little more than a shelter for a small, terrified crew of patients and medical staff, while health officials warned on Monday that food and fuel supplies were almost gone at another hospital that has endured a nearly monthlong siege in the same city, Khan Younis.Israel says it is rooting out Hamas activity at the medical centers, which it says Hamas has used to hide military operations — accusations it has made about multiple hospitals in Gaza, backing up some claims with evidence of Hamas tunnels. Hamas and…

British Columbia’s rampant drug deaths have more than once thrust public health officials into uncharted territory. It became the first province to decriminalize small quantities of hard drugs for personal use in 2022, about two decades after Vancouver opened the first supervised injection site in North America. But as overdoses increase in some British Columbia towns, there is disagreement in one city about how to address it.In Richmond, one of British Columbia’s largest cities, with 230,000 people, municipal council chambers turned raucous this week as a full public gallery of residents opposed a plan for staff to study whether a…

A wall is going up in the desert of Egypt near the border of the war-torn Gaza Strip, but no one is talking much about it.Satellite imagery, photographs and video analyzed by The New York Times show a large patch of land being bulldozed and the wall being built in the buffer zone between Egypt and Rafah, the southern Gaza city overflowing with over a million displaced Palestinians that Israeli forces are poised to invade.Construction of a wall along the Egyptian border with Rafah is seen in this satellite imagery.Credit...Maxar TechnologiesThe satellite imagery clearly shows newly graded land south of…

Two women will face off for Mexico’s highest office in what is set to be a historic election this spring.Mexicans will choose their first female president on June 2, and they will also vote to renew all 500 deputies for the lower chamber of Congress and the 128 members of the Senate. At the same time, 30 of the country’s 32 states will be holding elections — with 19,000 state and local offices up for grabs.This is the first national election in which Mexico will allow residents living abroad to vote in person. More than 12 million citizens live outside…

In the era of technology we currently reside in, managing and preserving a brand's reputation online has become an extremely important task. Given the vast reach and influence of the Internet, the discussions and comments regarding a brand online can greatly impact its reputation. In order to protect their reputations and ensure positive visibility online, companies often turn to Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM). One notable agency that has made a significant contribution to the success of numerous businesses through its exceptional search engine reputation management services in Miami, Florida, is the Centria Group.The Centria Group is a well-established agency…

Brazil is experiencing an enormous outbreak of dengue fever, the sometimes fatal mosquito-borne disease, and public health experts say it is a harbinger of a coming surge in cases in the Americas, including Puerto Rico.Brazil’s Health Ministry warns that it expects more than 4.2 million cases this year, outstripping the 4.1 million cases the Pan-American Health Organization recorded for all 42 countries in the region last year.Brazil was due for a bad dengue year — numbers of cases of the virus typically rise and fall on a roughly four-year cycle — but experts say a number of factors, including El…

Russian forces are razing the already battered city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine to the ground and sending waves of assault units to overwhelm outgunned Ukrainian troops. After months of brutal fighting, the Russian military is threatening to cut off a vital supply line to the city, which could render further defense impossible.As Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky assumes his role as Ukraine’s top military commander — after a broad shake-up of army leadership on Thursday — he could soon be confronted again with the grim calculus that has been a feature of the two-year war: When does the cost of defending…

For individuals residing in the United Kingdom, Panama presents itself as a compelling option for creating offshore companies, thanks to its advantageous legal structure, tax regulations, and geographically advantageous positioning. These attributes facilitate the formation of companies in Panama that can effectively conduct business across various nations.Characteristics and benefits of an offshore companyAn offshore company is a business entity established in a specific country but operating in another jurisdiction. This arrangement offers a range of attractive benefits such as safeguarding assets, confidentiality, and significant tax benefits for its proprietors.For international investors seeking to grow their businesses on a global scale,…

When deportation flights from the United States to Venezuela resumed last fall after four years, it was a move meant to show that President Biden was aggressively tackling the record numbers of crossings at the U.S. southern border.The expulsions were also meant to deter other Venezuelans who might be considering the journey.But on Wednesday, for the second week in a row, U.S.-run flights to Venezuela carrying migrants did not depart as planned — a move that seems to be initiated by Venezuela.The Venezuelan government did not respond to repeated requests for comment about whether it was permanently halting the deportation…