News headlines in August 2017

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (IPS) - Freedom of the press is under attack in the United States and could incite further violence against reporters, said a UN official.

WASHINGTON DC, Aug 31 (IPS) - Climate change is taking a severe toll on farmers, as they watch their livelihoods disappear with the onslaught of floods, droughts and rising sea levels and temperatures. With agriculture currently employing over 1.3 billion people throughout the world, or close to 40 percent of the global workforce, it is imperative that we incorporate climate resilience into all aspects of crop breeding and food innovation.

SANTIAGO, Aug 31 (IPS) - Experts in Latin America warned about the serious risk that would be posed if the fight against hunger, still suffered by 33 million people in the region, is abandoned, while proposing new alternatives and insights which include linking social protection with economic growth.

ROME, Aug 31 (IPS) - Bako* (24), a Nigerian migrant, stairs at new comers at an old, local Roman bar. Extremely polite, he asks for money. If you offer to him to buy some food instead, he immediately accepts.

ABU DHABI, Aug 31 (IPS) - Since weather affects everyone, the idea that women are more susceptible to the effects of climate change may strike some as puzzling.

TSHOLOTSHO, Zimbabwe, Aug 31 (IPS) - Sixty-seven-year-old Hloniphani Sidingo gives a broad smile while popping out through the gate of a clinic in her village, as she heads home clutching containers of anti-retroviral pills.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Aug 31 (IPS) - The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines says that it hopes that the devastating loss and damage that Hurricane Harvey has wrought in Texas might inspire the government of President Donald Trump to rethink its position on climate change.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30 (IPS) - After sending a team to investigate the human rights conditions in Venezuela amid growing political and economic crisis, the UN Human Rights Office has reported that the crushing of anti-government protests point to the "the existence of a policy to repress political dissent and instil fear in the population to curb demonstrations."

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Aug 30 (IPS) - Conversations about renewable and sustainable energy don't typically include artistic ideas on the subject. However, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) has chosen to engage the region's youth in the conversation by inviting them to create artistic works on sustainable energy for a regional competition.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 (IPS) - Growing global interdependence poses greater challenges to policy makers on a wide range of issues and for countries at all levels of development. Yet, the new mechanisms and arrangements put in place over the past four decades have not been adequate to the growing challenges of coherence and coordination of global economic policy making. Recent financial crises have exposed some such gaps and weaknesses.