News headlines in 2020, page 38

NEW YORK, Sep 01 (IPS) - Although the right to seek asylum is recognized nearly universally, governments across the globe are increasingly declaring, "Not Here!". Those governments view the large and growing numbers of men, women and children seeking asylum in their countries as serious threats to their native populations, ways of life and cultures. 

NEW YORK, Sep 01 (IPS) - Eight years ago, and at the age of 11, Fuzia co-founder Riya Sinha decided to start the online platform for girls and women. Her story and Fuzia's DNA are intrinsically wrapped around each other – and highlight how even in the age of feminism where women's voices tend to be drowned out, a platform for them can become a global success.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 01 (IPS) - Large-scale intercommunal violence on civilians in the Jonglei and greater Pibor regions in South Sudan has led to the mass displacement of thousands of people who are living in the open without health care, adequate food, shelter, water or sanitation in the middle of the rainy season.

KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Sep 01 (IPS) - After accusing the World Health Organization (WHO) of pro-China bias, President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the UN agency. Although the US created the UN system for the post-Second World War new international order, Washington has often had to struggle in recent decades to ensure that it continues to serve changing US interests.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 31 (IPS) - A Mexican solar energy cooperative, Onergia, seeks to promote decent employment, apply technological knowledge and promote alternatives that are less polluting than fossil fuels, in one of the alternative initiatives with which Mexico is seeking to move towards an energy transition.

KATHMANDU, Aug 31 (IPS) - Even as Nepali workers stranded overseas face confusion and uncertainty during the Covid-19 crisis, labour reforms in Qatar – including an increase in the minimum wage announced in Doha on Sunday — may have lasting implications for migrants there.

Aug 31 (IPS) - The Maldives is a picturesque country of merely 515,000 people located just beyond the southern tip of the South Asian land mass, in an idyllic Indian ocean setting. The nation is spread across 26 pretty atolls, comprising about 1192 islets, not all still inhabited. These are lapped by crystal blue waters containing flora and fauna of remarkable magnificence.

Its scenic bounties attract droves of tourists who frolic in the sands, sun and the sea in salubrious languor. It has a thriving fishing, garment and tourism industry which have recently helped it graduate out of the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

It is so tiny that used to be said that the catch of a single large fish any day could cause a remarkable jump in its Gross National Product (GDP) numbers. It is not without reason that the archipelago has often been compared to a paradise.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Aug 31 (IPS) - On August 5, 2020, a new government was elected in Sri Lanka, bringing down the previous regime associated with the Central Bank bond scam, the Easter Sunday bomb attacks and controversial international agreements.

Aug 31 (IPS) - At the end of her first week on strike in August 2018, Greta Thunberg handed out flyers that said: "You grownups don't give a shit about my future." Her appearance at the 2019 UN Climate Summit capped a year in the spotlight for the teenage climate activist. Delegates at the summit gave her a standing ovation, but the sound of their applause couldn't mask Greta Thunberg's deep frustration.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (IPS) - When two recent staff surveys, one in Geneva and the other in New York, revealed widespread racism at the United Nations, it triggered the obvious question: why shouldn't the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) probe these charges?