News headlines in October 2020

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 30 (IPS) - Women need to be given roles as negotiators, not just offered representation through advisory groups, Agnieszka Fal-Dutra Santos from the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) told IPS.

MONTEVIDEO, Oct 30 (IPS) - Half a dozen US Christian right groups have poured millions of dollars into Latin America and have promoted misinformation about COVID-19 and other health and rights issues, openDemocracy can reveal today.

NEW YORK, Oct 30 (IPS) - In 2010, at the opening session of the civil society forum observing the tenth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on "Women and Peace and Security", I had the honor to declare 1325 as "the common heritage of humanity" indicating the wide-ranging nature of the potential benefits which will flow from the landmark resolution's full and effective implementation by all at all levels.

MEXICO, Oct 29 (IPS) - Greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, international trade can play a key role in the economic recovery, but must overcome obstacles, such as protectionism and commercial disputes, especially between United States and China.

Oct 29 (IPS) - For Europe, the region closest by culture and political tradition to the United States, the mood of the day after the presidential election may be very different from that assumed a priori depending on the verdict.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 29 (IPS) - Responding to a question, Albert Einstein, the German-born physicist who won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics, predicted rather ominously: "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

GENEVA, Oct 29 (IPS) - The meltdown of the Turkish currency that began in 2018 has continued unabated with the decline reaching unprecedented proportions in recent days.  The causes of that turmoil including underlying financial fragilities and political shocks were discussed in a previous piece by this author.  Since then the economy has become even more vulnerable in these respects. 

KATHMANDU, Oct 29 (IPS) - Mohan and Sarita (name changed) studied together in the same school from Grade 6 onwards. They were friends initially, but fell in love and wished to be together, though underage.

ACCRA, Ghana, Oct 29 (IPS) - In 1965, Kwame Nkrumah described the paradox of neocolonialism in Africa, in which "the soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa's impoverishment." He captured what continues to be an essential feature of Africa's political economy.

RÍO DE JANEIRO, Oct 28 (IPS) - "Showing solidarity is consuming the energy generated in your own municipality" - this is the motto of a project of distributed electricity generation in one of Brazil's many poor neighbourhoods.