News headlines in July 2018, page 5

BANGKOK, Jul 17 (IPS) - IPS correspondent Sinsiri Tiwutanond spoke to Global Green Growth Institute's director-general Dr. Frank Rijsbermanon about Asia's fight against air pollution.

At the start of the year the pollution in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, reached six times the World Health Organization's guideline levels for air quality.

Yet the levels, which appear higher than those of South Korea's capital Seoul—where most people monitor the air pollution levels daily—is not treated with equal concern because of a lack of general awareness. This is despite the fact that air pollution has become the largest cause of premature deaths in Asia.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 (IPS) - Maimunah Mohd Sharif is Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and Achim Steiner is Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.

New York has long been considered a pioneer – in fashion, art, music, and food, just to name a few. Now this city of 8.5 million is leading a shift in how we tackle today's toughest global challenges like climate change, education, inequality, and poverty.

BANGKOK, Jul 16 (IPS) - Thailand's industrial sector must focus on sustainable and green development to remain competitive in the region.

NEW DELHI, Jul 16 (IPS) - Vanita Suneja is Regional Advocacy Manager, South Asia, for WaterAid.

In 2030, when I would be turning sixty, I'd like to tell my grandchildren the story of how — once upon a time — the lives of poor people in South Asia were transformed: that leaders came together to bring economic prosperity and social development to people that until then had lived in an unequal and polluted world.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 16 (IPS) - Pavithra Rao, Africa Renewal.* Cryptocurrency is not bound by geography because it is internet based; its transactions are stored in a database called blockchain, which is a group of connected computers that record transactions in a ledger in real time.

SYDNEY & KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 16 (IPS) - The United States has had the world's largest trade deficit for almost half a century. In 2017, the US trade deficit in goods and services was $566 billion; without services, the merchandise account deficit was $810 billion.

NAIROBI, Jul 16 (IPS) - An increasing number of African countries are now embracing the blue economy for its potential to deliver solutions to their most pressing development needs–particularly extreme poverty and hunger.

WASHNGTON DC, Jul 13 (IPS) - Todd Schneider is deputy division chief, Gee Hee Hong is an economist, and Anh Van Le is a research assistant, in the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department.

While automation will eliminate very few occupations entirely in the coming decades, it is likely to have an impact on portions of almost all jobs to some degree—depending on the type of work and the tasks involved.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 13 (IPS) - Land degradation caused by human activities is occurring at an alarming rate across the world, and the cost will be steep if no action is taken.

ROME, Jul 12 (IPS) - Deforestation and unsustainable farming are depriving the planet of forests, while destructive practices in fishing are limiting the chance to sustainably manage our oceans.