News headlines in June 2019, page 2

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 (IPS) - Sivananthi Thanenthiran* is the executive director of the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), a regional feminist NGO based in Malaysia championing sexual and reproductive health and rights in Asia Pacific.

The increase in world population by 2 billion in the next 30 years will present a serious global challenge especially if we do not find new paradigms of development thought and renewed global political leadership.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 25 (IPS) - With growing economic conflicts triggered by US President Donald Trump's novel neo-mercantilist approach to overcoming his nation's economic malaises, many voices now argue that bad free trade agreements are better than nothing.

After US withdrawal following Trump's inauguration in early 2017, there is considerable pressure on signatory governments to quickly ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the successor to the TPP.

WASHINGTON DC, Jun 25 (IPS) - Pinelopi Goldberg is Chief Economist, World Bank Group.

After participating in two events on inequality at the Spring Meetings – Making Growth Work for the Poor and Income Inequality Matters: How to Ensure Economic Growth Benefits the Many and Not the FewI received a surprising number of emails asking whether my remarks on the importance of addressing rising inequality meant I had abandoned growth as the main priority for developing countries.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jun 25 (IPS) - A Jamaican start-up has an innovative solution to help smallholder farmers—many of whom do not have the collateral demanded by financial institutions to access loans—build a track record of their production that is proving better than collateral.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 (IPS) - Young people around the world are facing increasingly insurmountable, persistent barriers as they try to achieve their full potential and secure a prosperous future. However, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific have already begun working to ensure that no one is left behind.

KINGSTON/PARIS, Jun 24 (IPS) - Dogs barking in the distance. Birds chirping nearby. A man walking through the mist, surrounded by lush vegetation. A distinctive vibrato singing "Speak Softly, Love" over it all.

AMSTERDAM/ROME, Jun 24 (IPS) - As China rapidly replaces Europe and the USA as the key player in developing countries, the Western press is full of articles about the dangers of dealing with the Chinese.

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 24 (IPS) -

I stayed overnight at a motel by the E3.
In my room a smell I'd felt before
I stayed overnight in the echoing house.
Many want to come in through the walls
but most of them can´t make it:
they´re overcome by the white hiss of oblivion.
Anonymous singing drowns in the walls
Discreet tappings that don´t want to be heard
drown-out sighs
my old repartees creeping homelessly.
--Thomas Tranströmer The Gallery ¹

Being a frequent visitor to the Dominican Republic, where I occasionally have enjoyed the high standard, security and excellent service of its resorts, I became puzzled by recent, quiet excessive media reactions to statistically insignificant cases of deaths in these resorts. The number of demises in Dominican resorts have been more or less the same over the years and do not at all differ from those of most other tourist destinations. People die in hotels all over the world. There may even be specific reasons for this and they are far from being unique to the Dominican Republic.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24 (IPS) - With a new report projecting a rise in population, specifically in Asia and Africa, the United Nations has warned that continued rapid population growth presents enormous challenges for sustainable development in the world's 134 developing nations.

ROME, Jun 24 (IPS) - Qu Dongyu, China's vice minister for agriculture and rural affairs, was elected to be the next Director-General of FAO, winning a majority of the 191 votes cast in the first round of an election held Sunday.