News headlines in July 2018, page 4

NEW DELHI, Jul 20 (IPS) - Sunita Narain is Director-General of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) & Editor of Down to Earth magazine.

A global trade war has broken out. The United States fired the first salvo and there has been retaliation by the European Union, Canada, China and even India. Tariffs on certain imported goods have been increased in a tit-for-tat reaction.

JUAZEIRINHO/BOM JARDIM, Brazil, Jul 20 (IPS) - Rocks, once a hindrance since they reduced arable land, have become an asset. Pedrina Pereira and João Leite used them to build four ponds to collect rainwater in a farming community in Brazil's semi-arid Northeast.

QUITO, Jul 20 (IPS) - Ela Zambrano interviews TARSICIO GRANIZO, Ecuador's minister of environment.

Ecuador has decided to move towards a bioeconomy-based development model, "which must be sustainable," because otherwise "the remedy could be worse than the disease," said the country's Environment Minister Tarsicio Granizo, who is spearheading this innovative approach.

DHAKA, Jul 19 (IPS) - Despite having the strong support of influential global leaders, Bangladesh has ‘missed' the opportunity to mobilise the world's superpowers and place pressure on Myanmar to allow for the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.

WASHINGTON DC, Jul 19 (IPS) - David Bryden is the TB advocacy officer at RESULTS. He coordinates US advocacy, and co-chairs the TB Roundtable.

Dozens of grown men peered from behind the barred doorway of a crammed window-less prison cell, eyes pleading desperately from sweaty faces.

Their physical discomfort was so palpable, I could almost feel it. Because of my work, I also knew of at least one serious unseen risk facing them – that of contracting tuberculosis in the cramped, poorly ventilated space.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 19 (IPS) - Hardeep S. Puri, India's Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, in his address to the UN's High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

It is with great pleasure and pride that I interact with you this afternoon as India's Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, to share some thoughts on India's extremely ambitious, and arguably the world's largest planned urbanization programme under the leadership of our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

WASHINGTON DC, Jul 18 (IPS) - Tamas Gaidosch, a senior financial sector expert in the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, is a cybersecurity professional with more than 20 years' experience, including probing banking systems to find cyber weaknesses. He formerly led the Information Technology Supervision Department at the Central Bank of Hungary.

Cybercrime is now a mature industry operating on principles much like those of legitimate businesses in pursuit of profit. Combating the proliferation of cybercrime means disrupting a business model that employs easy-to-use tools to generate high profits with low risk.

COLOMBO, Jul 18 (IPS) - Journalists and media activists have cautioned against Sri Lanka's newfound press freedom as the country heads to the polls in 2020. Separate incidents of hate-speech against a Muslim minority—and the subsequent shutdown of social media platforms—and the harassment of reporters critical of the country's opposition have led some to believe that the changes in media independence could reverse.

OVALLE, Chile, Jul 17 (IPS) - The retention of rainwater which otherwise is lost at sea could be an excellent medicine against the advance of the desert from northern to central Chile, but there is no political will to take the necessary actions, according to experts and representatives of affected communities.

ROME, Jul 17 (IPS) - According to the latest statistics, the total flow of immigrants so far in 2018 is 50.000 people, compared with 186,768 last year, 1,259,955 in 2016 and 1,327,825 in 2015. The difference between reality and perceptions is so astonishing, we are clearly witnessing one of the most brilliant manipulations in history.