Buliding Network

  Paloma had just cobbled together enough money for a clandestine abortion when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered much of Brazil. The 27-year-old had been raped late last year by an ex-boyfriend who remained a close family friend. The mother of two found out she was pregnant a few weeks later, after moving from her native Bahia to Minas Gerais, a nearby state, for work. "I didn't know what to do," recalls Paloma. "The only thing I was certain of was that I didn't want this child." Brazil has strict laws on abortion. Terminations are only allowed in cases of rape, when the mother's life is at risk or when the foetus has the defect anencephaly - a rare condition that prevents part of the brain and skull from developing. While Paloma was entitled to an abortion by law, like many women in Brazil, she was not entirely clear on her rights. She worried she would have to report the rape to the police in order to access a legal abortion - a tactic commonly used ...

 2020 was a tumultuous year for most people, and that's no less true for Queen Elizabeth II. Britain's monarch has long occupied two roles -- one as the head of the state and nation, the other as the head of her own family -- and over the past 12 months she has been forced to confront crises on both fronts. Here's a look back at one of the Queen's most challenging years to date. A rocky start The new year was barely underway when Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced to the world -- and the rest of the family -- they were quitting their roles as senior royals. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a bombshell statement on their official Instagram account on January 8 they hoped to continue supporting the monarch but wanted to seek financial autonomy. The pair credited the Queen with providing the encouragement "particularly over the last few years" that led them to make such a dramatic announcement. But CNN understands conversations over the couple's...

For months, factories in the city of Yiwu, known as China's "Christmas town," have been cranking out most of the tinsel, decorations and other festive ornaments now hanging on trees worldwide. But production almost stopped in mid-December, as local authorities switched off the lights. Ma Hairu, who works for a manufacturer making paper decorations for Christmas and New Year, said his factory was struggling to meet demand because they're only allowed to work half days. "We have a lot of orders, but we don't have enough time to make them," he said. Officials in China's Zhejiang province are racing to meet five-year energy consumption targets set by the central government that are due to expire on December 31. Earlier this month, a local directive instructed businesses to stop elevators below the third floor, and to only use heating when temperatures outside fell below 3 degrees Celsius (37 degrees Fahrenheit). "There is no shortage of electricity ...

  What do you get when you put a former opera singer, two ex-boyfriends, her French mother, an adopted Scottish brother, a Dutch tango instructor, a Norwegian flower designer and a cheery Argentine house manager together into a sprawling 40-room French chateau? Well, you get  “The Chateau Diaries,”  the unlikely YouTube quarantine hit that has made a star of Stephanie Jarvis and her friends and family. Buying the chateau Fifteen years ago, Jarvis was livin g  in London, despairing over the cost of housing and complaining about it to her best friend (and ex-boyfriend), Nic, when she realized how relatively inexpensive it was to buy a rambling chateau in  France . https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-20521169 https://www.vlive.tv/post/0-20518223 https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-20525109 https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-20525129 https://www.vlive.tv/post/0-20518308 For the price of my two-bedroom flat and Nic’s two-bedroom flat, we were able to buy this chateau. It was the same amoun...

 Hours before President Donald Trump retweeted a message for his vice president to “act” in stopping the ratification of the Electoral College, he met for more than an hour in the Oval Office with Mike Pence, whom he has complained recently isn’t doing enough to support his bid to overturn the election. The discussion was “entirely unrelated” to the eventual tweet, one person familiar with the matter said, though would not specify whether the issue of the January 6 ratification in Congress arose. The two men went separate ways for the holiday. As Trump enters the holiday stretch as fixated as ever on overturning the results of the election, the Electoral College certification is becoming a focal point for his efforts. On Wednesday evening, as he was flying to Florida for his vacation, Trump retweeted a call from one of his supporters for Pence to refuse to ratify the Electoral College results on January 6 — a prospect that has captured his imagination even if it rem...

  It was an unusual year marked by unusual events: an unprecedented global pandemic, youth-led protest movements, impassioned Black Lives Matter demonstrations, a divisive US Election. The list goes on. Amid all the negative news, and just when we needed nourishment and escape the most, Covid-19  devastated  the creative industries: Broadway lights went out, the Met Gala and Glastonbury were canceled, galleries and theaters closed. Yet despite all this, culture still managed to thrive in unexpected and innovative ways. Take, for example, the group of resilient Spanish musicians who serenaded an opera house full of plants instead of a live audience, or the Emmy Award ambassadors who delivered trophies to winners  while wearing Hazmat tuxedos . Below are some of the cultural moments that offered hope and distraction in an otherwise tough 2020. Harry and Meghan retired as working royals The Duke and Duchess of Sussex  announced  on Instagram that they would be...