News headlines in 2020, page 47

Aug 03 (IPS) - Going against its own orders, the government in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has ordered the fast-tracking of environmental clearances despite manifest evidence of illegal sand mining.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 03 (IPS) - Africa's demographic boom has been hailed as its biggest promise for transforming the continent's economic and social outcomes, but only if the right investments are made to prepare its youthful population for tomorrow's world.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 03 (IPS) - The theme of this year's High-Level Political Forumwhere governments reviewed progress on the Sustainable Development Goals was "Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development."

KATHMANDU, Aug 03 (IPS) - The coronavirus pandemic was a respite for nature everywhere. The air was cleanertrekking trails were pristine, the summit of Mt Everest was desertedand worldwide carbon emission dipped by -26%.

Aug 02 (IPS) - Most economists see structural transformation as one of the main routes to Africa's sustainable development. What it means is changing the share of agriculture, manufacturing and services in an economy. It is a central aim of the African Union's Agenda 2063.

MIAMI, Jul 31 (IPS) - In the cinematic context of the death of the Italian and universal composer, Ennio Morricone, author of the background music of more than four hundred films, as an indirect tribute, Europe took a solid step.

NEW YORK, Jul 31 (IPS) - "Reconciling the requirements of the ideal with the possibilities of the real": this is how Georges Bidault, Minister for Foreign Affairs and head of the French delegation to the San Francisco Conference, summed up the objective pursued by the drafters of the Charter of the United Nations.

On the still living ashes of the Second World War, the fathers of an Organization charged with developing friendly relations between nations, promoting human rights and economic and social progress were less utopian than visionary. They understood that the community of States should have a common constitution. It has been tested by conflict, crisis and upheaval, but its resilience and strength have shaped the very structure of contemporary international relations.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jul 31 (IPS) - The unique India-Sri Lanka relationship, de jure, is between equals as sovereign nations. But it's asymmetric in terms of geographic size, population, military and economic power, on the one hand, and social indicators and geographical location, on the other. It is steeped in myth and legend, and influenced by religious, cultural and social affinities.

Jul 31 (IPS) - Southeast Asia's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been efficient, but some areas such as data privacy, measures to go back to normalcy after lockdown is lifted, and resources for migrant or transient populations will need addressing. 

BEIRUT, Jul 31 (IPS) - The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have spared children from the direct health effects of the virus but the crisis has affected their social and economic rights directly and indirectly beyond what we could have foreseen. And there's no doubt that children who come from more vulnerable backgrounds will feel the long-term impact of the pandemic and the measures taken to prevent its spread the hardest.