NEW YORK: More than a third of countries do not have laws against sexual harassment in the workplace, leaving more than 200 million women without legal protection on the job, according to a new study.
Globally, nearly 82 million women work in countries without laws against gender discrimination in pay and promotions, said the study by the WORLD Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Working conditions for women have been in the spotlight with highly publicized claims of sexual harassment and assault made by top actresses against movie producer Harvey Weinstein. He has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone.
Other women have emerged to accuse more figures in the entertainment and media industries, and millions of women have flooded social media recounting being sexually harassed or assaulted by bosses, colleagues and others in a #MeToo campaign.
Globally, 68 countries do not prohibit sexual harassment at the workplace, according to the study that looked at laws in all 193 member states of the UN.
Nearly 235 million women work in these 68 countries.
Having no legal protection at work affects non-working women as well who might have left or avoid jobs due to harassment, said Jody Heymann, founding director of the WORLD Center and the study’s lead investigator.
“In those 68 countries there are 424 million working-age women, so this is just an enormous number of women and a third of the world’s countries where there are no protections for sexual harassment,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The study found three-quarters of countries prohibit gender-based discrimination in promotions, but “large gaps” remain.
Most countries have laws to protect women’s right to equal pay, but fewer than half guarantee equal pay for work of equal value on the basis of gender, it said.
“We’ve obviously seen that even once those protections are in place, having them well implemented is essential, but you can’t even begin to address it unless you have the laws in place,” Heymann said.
Some 200 million women work without laws against sexual harassment — study
Some 200 million women work without laws against sexual harassment — study
Oil Updates — crude extends gains on optimism over policy support for growth
SINGAPORE: Oil prices extended gains on Friday after closing at their highest in more than two months in the prior session, amid hopes that governments around the world may increase policy support to revive economic growth that would lift fuel demand.
Brent crude futures rose 22 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $76.15 a barrel by 7:20 a.m. Saudi time, after settling at its highest since Oct. 25 on Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 25 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $73.38 a barrel, with Thursday’s close its highest since Oct. 14.
Both contracts are on track for their second weekly increase after investors returned from holidays, improving trade liquidity.
Factory activity in Asia, Europe and the US ended 2024 on a soft note as expectations for the New Year soured due to growing trade risks from Donald Trump’s impending return to the US presidency and China’s fragile economic recovery.
“The December PMIs for Asia were a mixed bag, but we continue to expect manufacturing activity and GDP growth in the region to remain subdued in the near term,” Capital Economics analysts said in a note, referring to purchasing managers’ indexes data published on Thursday.
“With growth set to struggle and inflation below target in most countries, we think central banks in Asia will continue to loosen policy.”
Lower interest rates should spur more economic growth that would lead to higher fuel consumption.
Investors are eyeing further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year to support the US economy, while China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged more proactive policies to promote growth.
“As China’s economic trajectory is poised to play a pivotal role in 2025, hopes are pinned on government stimulus measures to drive increased consumption and bolster oil demand growth in the months ahead,” StoneX analyst Alex Hodes said.
The market also eyes upcoming crude prices from top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia may raise crude prices for Asian buyers in February for the first time in three months, tracking gains in Middle East benchmark prices last month, traders said.
In the US, the world’s biggest oil consumer, gasoline and distillate inventories jumped last week as refineries ramped up output, though fuel demand hit a two-year low.
Crude stockpiles fell less than expected, down 1.2 million barrels to 415.6 million barrels last week compared with analysts’ expectations for a 2.8-million-barrel draw.
Traders are paying close attention to recent weather forecasts as expectations of a cold snap in the US and Europe over the coming weeks could boost demand for diesel as a substitute for natural gas for heating.
Investors are also bracing for Trump’s presidency ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.
“Trump’s tariffs on China and their impact on global demand patterns will be central to oil prices in 2025,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova.
CNN names Pakistan’s scenic Gilgit-Baltistan among best places to visit in 2025
- GB, a sparsely populated region, is home to five of the 14 tallest peaks in the world, including K2
- The region is frequented by hundreds of foreign climbers each year, tour operators also arrange trips
ISLAMABAD: US-based broadcaster CNN has curated a list of 25 destinations that are particularly worth visiting in 2025, naming Pakistan’s scenic Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region among them.
GB, a sparsely populated northern region administered by Pakistan as an autonomous territory, is home to some of the tallest peaks in the world and a major tourist destination.
Thousands of tourists and foreign climbers visit the region each year for expeditions on various peaks, paragliding and other sports activities.
“The Gilgit-Baltistan region in the Karokoram Mountains isn’t the easiest place to get to — flight schedules can be unreliable, roads can be blocked off seasonally — but it has more tantalizing peaks than a lemon meringue pie,” CNN Travel said this week.
“It’s home to five of the 14 ‘eight-thousander’ peaks recognized as the world’s highest. That includes K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain but No. 1 in terms of difficulty and danger.”
In terms of tourism and infrastructure, hiking in this region makes the Himalayas look like a traipse in Central Park, but GB is a place where going alone is not an option, according to CNN Travel.
While 2024 saw a surge in mountaineering expeditions in GB, nine mountaineers died last year in their attempts to summit various peaks in the South Asian country, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which arranges various expeditions. Of these climbers, five were from Japan, one from Russia, one from Brazil and two from Pakistan.
GB, however, is accessible through trips organized by reputable global tour operators, including G Adventures and Wild Frontiers, according to CNN Travel.
“Intrepid offers a 10-day, fully supported hike through the region known as ‘Little Tibet’ starting at around $3,000,” it said.
Other top destinations on the CNN Travel list include Almaty in Kazakhstan, India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bolivia, Chemnitz in Germany, Morocco’s Rabat, Vancouver Island in Canada, and Turkiye’s Kaçkar Mountains.
Ex-India coach Shastri expects Rohit to ‘pull plug’ on Test career
- The 37-year-old opener has had a poor Australia series and failed to show up for India’s eve-of-match presser
- India’s coach Gautam Gambhir instead fronted the media and declined to throw his support behind Rohit Sharma
SYDNEY: Former India coach Ravi Shastri said Friday he expected skipper Rohit Sharma to “pull the plug” on his red-ball career after being left out of the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney.
The 37-year-old opener has had a poor series and the writing was on the wall when he failed to show up for India’s eve-of-match press conference.
Coach Gautam Gambhir instead fronted the media and declined to throw his support behind him.
Stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah insisted at the coin toss Friday that Rohit had “opted to rest” for the good of the team rather than being forced out.
But Shastri suspects it is the end of Rohit’s 67-Test career, predicting a retirement announcement after the game.
“It still is a brave call for a captain to own up and say, ‘I’m prepared to take the bench in this game,’” Shastri said while commentating on Fox Sports.
“If there was a home season coming up he might’ve thought of carrying on, but I think he might just pull the plug at the end of this Test.
“It’s not that India don’t have youngsters. There are very, very good players in the wings and it’s time to build.
“Tough decisions, but there is a time for everything.”
Rohit quit T20 international cricket last year after lifting the World Cup, but is yet to call time on his ODI career.
He missed the first Test in Perth for the birth of his second child and has not looked fully engaged since, failing to get past 10 runs in any of his five innings.
His recent form comes on the back of a similarly poor return during India’s 3-0 home series loss to New Zealand during October-November.
“Our captain has shown his leadership, he’s opted to rest in this game,” Bumrah said at the toss.
“So that shows there’s a lot of unity in our team, there’s no selfishness, whatever is in the team’s best interest, we are looking to do that.”
Should Rohit call it quits, it would be the second retirement of the tour with off-spinning great Ravichandran Ashwin heading home after the third Test at the Gabba.
Ashwin was not selected for Brisbane, which appeared to be the final straw for the 38-year-old.
REVIEW: ‘Squid Game’ enters a holding pattern
- Second season of the hit Netflix show feels tentative, ahead of its upcoming finale
LONDON: The success of “Squid Game” in 2021 made a second season an inevitability, rather than a mere possibility proffered by a hopeful epilogue scene. But because this smash-hit show came out of South Korea, there was also an optimistic air to its steadily approaching release — could this addictively bleak dystopian thriller sidestep a lot of the Hollywood pitfalls and deliver a second season that was at least the equal of the first?
Although it’s a sidestep of its own, the answer is… we’re not sure yet. And that’s because, although it’s billed as season two, these seven new episodes were shot back-to-back with season three (coming in 2025 and confirmed to be the last). So what you’re essentially getting here is the setup for the big finale still to come. That perhaps explains why, though the first season dropped viewers into the murderous titular competition pretty quickly, the actual ‘game’ of the second season of “Squid Game” doesn’t start until midway through the third episode. Before that, we’re reintroduced to main protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae, still far and away the best thing about the show). Having won the first season’s brutal series of children’s games (for which the losers’ penalty is death), Gi-hun is spending his reward money trying to bring down the organizers of the competition, teaming up with season one detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) in an attempt to topple the shady cartel that is pressganging cash-strapped Koreans into murdering each other for money. When his plan to catch the game’s Front Man fails, he instead joins the latest intake, intent on helping the contestants escape with their lives.
It’s an odd choice to spend so long building up to the competition — and even dallying on whether it can be proved it even exists — when that’s what viewers are here for. Once the games get going, “Squid Game” is as breathless and shocking as ever, and with a new cast of characters, there are fresh backstories to mine and some pretty pointed social commentary on greed, capitalism and social care (Korean commentators have suggested that the subtitles miss a few of the nuances of the script, which may be why some of the satire seems a little on the nose). Perhaps acknowledging what audiences will remember, there’s also a few decent twists that deserve to remain a surprise.
But while season two of “Squid Game” is still great television, there’s no small amount of bloat here — and a sense of treading water for the final round still to come.
Incoming: The hottest TV shows set to air in 2025
- From long-awaited returns to emotional send-offs, via some intriguing new material, here are the series we can’t wait to see this year
‘Severance’ season 2
Starring: Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower
The first season of this darkly humorous sci-fi tinged psychological thriller brought deserved critical acclaim for its creator Dan Erickson, and directors Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, as well as its brilliant cast. The show focuses on a group of employees at a mysterious corporation who have agreed to undergo a procedure known as “severance,” which divides their memories between their time in and out of work, thus creating two different lives, with distinct personalities, but who begin to question both the ethics of the procedure, and their own reasons for accepting it.
‘The Last of Us’ season 2
Starring: Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal, Gabriel Luna
Not just a great video game adaptation, but a great show in general. This post-apocalyptic drama is set a couple of decades into a pandemic in which a fungal infection turns its hosts into zombie-like monsters and centers on a teenage girl (Ellie) who is somehow immune to infection and the smuggler (Joel) who agreed to escort her on a journey across the US and gradually becomes a father figure to her. The chemistry between Ramsey as Ellie and Pascal as Joel is utterly convincing and the series, like the games it is based on, is a quietly devastating work of art.
‘Stranger Things’ season 5
Starring: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown
One last visit to the Upside Down, and one last visit to Hawkins, Indiana, to catch up with psychokinetic Eleven and her friends as they fight to save the Earth from the aforementioned alternate dimension. Over the last decade, “Stranger Things” has been one of the biggest shows in the world — an irresistible mix of horror, sci-fi, coming-of-age drama, and Eighties nostalgia. Here’s hoping showrunners The Duffer Brothers can stick the landing.
‘The Bear’ season 4
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri
After the dizzying heights reached in its first two seasons, the third outing of this hyper-tense kitchen-based drama (it barely seems worth repeating that — despite its Emmy categorization — “The Bear” really isn’t a comedy) was something of a stagnant disappointment. But a disappointing episode of “The Bear” still beats the best efforts of 90 percent of what’s on television, and it wouldn’t be a great surprise if season four is a triumphant return to form for ace chef Carmy Berzatto as he strives to make a success of his family’s titular restaurant. There’s a lot on the line, though, with season three ending just as Carmy starts to read the make-or-break restaurant review that could mean he loses his financial backer.
‘Zero Day’
Starring: Robert De Niro, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons
A political conspiracy thriller that looks like being one of the most intriguing new shows of 2025. With a stellar cast and some serious pedigree among the creators — showrunner Eric Newman (“Narcos”), former NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, and The New York Times’ Washington correspondent Michael S. Schmidt — this story focuses on a former US president, George Mullen (De Niro), who is called out of retirement to investigate a cyberattack responsible for killing thousands of Americans.
‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
Starring: Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, Finn Bennett
If “House of the Dragon” isn’t enough “Game of Thrones” universe for you, then here’s another prequel, this time based on George R.R. Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas — set almost a century before the events of “Game of Thrones. The show will focus on hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his young squire Aegon Targaryen (Egg), who will grow up to become King Aegon V and sit the Iron Throne, and their wanderings across Westeros. Martin has given the show his seal of approval, saying after visiting the set that the cast seemed to have “walked out of the pages of my book.” The approval of the fans may be harder to earn.
‘Black Mirror’ season 7
Starring: Awkwafina, Paul Giamatti, Emma Corrin
Season seven of the acclaimed sci-fi/horror anthology series created by Charlie Brooker is confirmed as returning this year with a run of six episodes, two of which, Brooker told the audience at Netflix’s Geeked Week event in September, are “basically feature-length.” There’s little information about the stories so far, but the little we have is pretty exciting — one will be a sequel to one of the show’s most-loved episodes, the season four opener “USS Callister” (pictured).
