British Prime Minister Theresa May’s 11th-hour attempt to salvage her government’s Brexit deal was thrown into disarray on Tuesday evening, as lawmakers voted down her agreement with the European Union for a second time in two months, with just 17 days to go before Britain is scheduled to leave the E.U.

The vote, by a margin of 391 votes to 242, is another blow to May, who rules with a wafer-thin working majority and has lost the support of most of her cabinet according to some reports.

May’s defeat means the U.K. is on track to leave the bloc without an agreement that would have stopped raised tariffs on trade and uncertainty about citizens’ rights.

But lawmakers will finally be given the chance to vote on Wednesday night to avert such a “no deal” Brexit, and likely delay Britain’s exit date, too, in what could be yet another blow to May’s government.

Lawmakers forced the government to allow that vote, and most analysts now believe lawmakers will vote overwhelmingly to do so. That..

MELBOURNE, Australia — The most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex abuse was sentenced in an Australian court on Wednesday to 6 years in prison for molesting two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral more than 20 years ago.

Victoria state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd on Wednesday ordered Cardinal George Pell to serve a minimum of 3 years and 8 months before he is eligible for parole. Each of the five convictions against Pell carried a maximum possible sentence of 10 years each.

“In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance,” Kidd said in handing down the sentence.

Pope Francis’ former finance minister had been convicted by a unanimous jury verdict in December of orally raping a 13-year-old choirboy and indecently dealing with the boy and the boy’s 13-year-old friend in the late 1990s, months after Pell became archbishop of Melbourne. A court order had suppressed media reporting the news until last month.

The 77-year-old denies the allegations and wil..

(UNITED NATIONS) — When it comes to political power, women are totally outnumbered by men, accounting for less than 7% of the world’s leaders and only 24% of lawmakers, according to the latest statistics.

U.N. General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa told delegates to the Commission on the Status of Women on Tuesday that there has been a “serious regression” in the political power of women across the world in recent years.

According to statistics from the Inter-Parliamentary Union released last week, the percentage of female elected heads of state dropped from 7.2% to 6.6% — 10 out of 153 — from 2017 to 2018. The percentage of female heads of government dropped from 5.7% to 5.2% — 10 out of 193 — in the same period.

“Despite some positive movement, the overwhelming majority of government leaders remain male,” said Gabriela Cuevas Barron, head of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

In parliaments, the global share of women increased by nearly one percentage point from 2017 to 2..