PRI - APM

A few months ago, on the floor of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, State Deputy Douglas Garcias said if he found a transgender person in the same bathroom as his mother or sister, he would “shove him in the toilet” and call the police.

Roman Sabal served in the United States Marine Corps for six years, and in the US Army Reserves for several more. But on Monday, border officials at San Ysidro denied Sabal entry to the US for a scheduled citizenship interview.

Sabal lived in the US for more than a decade and joined the Marines in 1987, eager to serve the US. In 2008, he returned to Belize for a visit and while he was gone, a judge ordered him to be deported at a court hearing he was not aware of because he was not in the US. 

Somali Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh loved to share positive stories about her homeland and celebrate its beauty.

Someone once said, “Don’t be afraid to start over again. This time, you’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience.”

One diplomat has been entrusted with the task of bringing warring sides in Yemen together. United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths has made progress where others have not.

In December, people in Yemen — and the world's diplomatic community — were surprised that a diplomatic meeting in Stockholm arranged by Griffiths led to action steps, including a drawback from a likely battle over the Red Sea port Hodeidah.

President Donald Trump had good reason to welcome Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, to the White House.

The crowd at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon chanted "Equal pay!" as the US women's soccer team defeated the Netherlands 2-0 to win their fourth World Cup title. Before the final, US co-captain Megan Rapinoe criticized FIFA for disparities in prize money between the men and women. 

American financier Jeffrey Epstein pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of sex trafficking as prosecutors accused him of luring dozens of girls as young as 14 to his luxury homes in New York and Florida and paying them for sex acts.

An indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan accused Epstein, 66, of arranging for girls to perform nude "massages" and other sex acts and paying some girls to recruit others, from at least 2002 to 2005.

There were many reasons to leave.

Wajed al-Khalifa talks about what happened to her brother in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city. He was pulled over at a military checkpoint, accused of being an anti-government activist, she says. He was tortured and nearly killed.

Her husband, Gasem al-Hamad also has his reasons — what happened to his brothers. One was killed by a barrel bomb, a crude unguided weapon filled with explosives that fell in his neighborhood. Another brother went missing.

The United Nations is condemning itself over its handling of the crisis involving Myanmar's Rohingya minority. Over the past decade, nearly 1 million Rohingya have escaped violence and persecution in Myanmar. The mass exodus attracted worldwide attention and criticism over the UN's role.

When Egyptians poured into the streets of Cairo back in 2011, Hend Nafie was excited.

"I was hoping for personal freedom," she said. "I wanted to be free. I wanted my family to accept me [as] who I am."

Nafie grew up in a conservative family in a village in the Nile Delta. She says her family was strict. Her parents didn’t want her to go to school or make any decisions for herself.

"So, when I participated in the revolution, it was the first time that I feel like I did something I really wanted," she said.

Thousands of women across Switzerland held a strike Friday to highlight their nation's poor record on women’s rights. The wealthy country, surrounded by other progressive countries, has long been lacking in women's rights.

Amsterdam, famed for its picturesque canals, Anne Frank museum and Vincent Van Gogh art collection, is facing a challenge many cities can only dream of.

The Dutch capital, with its tolerant attitude to drugs and prostitution, is such a tourist draw that the city is now openly encouraging visitors to go elsewhere.

Sridhar Anandakrishnan and three colleagues watched from an expanse of ice as two prop planes flew off into the blue Antarctic sky on a peaceful day in January. After the planes faded from view, Anandakrishnan, a second scientist and two mountaineers became some of the most isolated humans on Earth.

The planes wouldn’t be back for 10 days.

Is Russia "United” or looking to the “Future?”

For President Vladimir Putin, who leads the “United Russia” party and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, founder of “Russia of the Future,” it's an important question. It's also one the world is increasingly looking toward young people to answer.  

Toronto fans are going nuts. Their basketball team, the Toronto Raptors, is going to the NBA finals for the first time in the franchise's history.

Superfan Nav Bhatia is even more excited than most. If you've ever watched a Raptors game on TV, you've seen Bhatia courtside, in his characteristic Sikh turban and jersey.

Twitter found out about Bhatia over the past weekend in a viral thread: