ONE IN FIVE girls marries before reaching adulthood. One in twenty is wed before her fifteenth birthday. In Indonesia, which has the eighth-highest number of child brides in the world according to the UN, the phenomenon should soon be a thing of the past. This month the country’s parliament raised the minimum age at which girls can marry from 16 to 19. Legislators were spurred to act after the Constitutional Court ruled in December that it was discriminatory to mandate a lower minimum age of marriage for girls than for boys.

They were called vandals and provocateurs.

But Irinea Buendia didn’t mind. She was thinking of Mariana, chanting for an end to gender violence in Mexico, a photo of her murdered daughter hanging by a string around her neck.

This latest demonstration of women was organized under the hashtag #terremotofeminista (feminist earthquake) and controversially called on Sept. 19, the day the city marks two of its deadliest quakes. But it was just one that has gained force – and backlash – here in recent weeks.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the leading Democratic presidential contender, defended his record on LGBTQ issues at a forum on Friday, but in doing so, once again raised questions about his comportment towards women, and — after a misstatement in which he conflated sexual and gender identities — about his understanding of issues that affect queer and gender nonconforming voters.

Young people have the power to greatly impact the 2020 election. In many states, they showed this power in 2018, when youth voter turnout rose 16 percentage points from the previous midterm election, marking the highest level in midterm participation among youth in the past quarter century. In states like Tennessee — which has historically low youth voter turnout rates — young voters, and particularly young voters of color, were inspired to come out in record numbers.

There is an uncomfortable truth in the current system. No one wants to talk about it.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has signed an executive order partially changing the state's new "bathroom" bill in an effort to quell a firestorm of criticism and economic backlash against his state.

Who says this is only a liberal political issue? These days, just about everyone — from Barack Obama to Pope Francis — seems to be worried about inequality. Now, inequality is actually shrinking on a global level, but inside many countries, it has increased. And the result is a renewed focus on inequality.