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Sunday, August 16, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
A Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework Aims at Reinforcing Efforts to Save World’s Ecosystem
The UN’s highly-touted socio-economic agenda, which lays out an ambitious global plan for “people, planet and prosperity”, has been dominated by “goals, targets and deadlines.”
As Planet Burns, One Million Species in World’s Eco-System in Danger of Extinction
When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the 193-member General Assembly last December, he focused on the smoldering climate crisis-- pointing out that the last five years have been the hottest ever recorded.
A Multi-Billion Dollar US Mideast Arms Market May be in Jeopardy
When President Saddam Hussein ran one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes in the militarily-volatile Middle East during 1979-2003, US newspapers routinely described him as “the strongman of Iraq” — as most journalists rightly view dictators worldwide.
World’s Young Activists at War: First, Occupy Wall Street, Next Un-Occupy Palestine
The world’s young activists, numbering over 3.8 billion, are on the war path. The rising new socialist movements—which included “Black Lives Matter,” “Occupy Wall Street” “Un-Occupy Palestine” and "the #Me Too Movement" triggering women's marches— were aimed at battling racism, institutionalized inequalities, political repression and sexual harassment.
UN Staffers Rattled by Deadly Coronavirus Pandemic
With over 37,500 staffers in its global Secretariat payroll, the United Nations has gone high alert as the deadly coronavirus continues to take a heavy toll worldwide.
New York City, with 8.3 million People, on High Alert to Stall Spread of Deadly Coronavirus
Faced with a potential pandemic of the deadly coronavirus, New York city officials took a series of preventive measures to stall the spread of the disease as it was spinning out of control in China.
US Mideast Peace Plan: Israelis Offered the Cheese & Palestinians the Holes
The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has described the much-ballyhooed US Middle East peace plan as “more like Swiss cheese-- with the cheese being offered to the Israelis and the holes to the Palestinians”.
China Ranked World’s Second Largest Arms Producer Trailing Behind US
Donald Trump, the vociferously unpredictable US president, has long chastised China for seeking “unfair” advantage over trade and tariffs, violating intellectual property rights and “manipulating” the country’s currency to its advantage.
When UN’s Cash Crisis Undermines Human Rights, Are the World’s Torturers the Key Beneficiaries?
The UN’s ongoing cash crisis, which has virtually destabilized the Organization’s day-to-day operations, has also undermined the human rights mandate of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC).
UN Chief & Staff Union Predict Another Cash Crisis in 2020—if Member States Don’t Pay Up
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared last week that the United Nations just “managed to survive its deepest financial crisis in a decade.”
Geneva Staff Battles UN Chief over Unequal Pay & Illegal Salary Cuts
As the United Nations commemorates its 75th anniversary this year, the financially-crippled Organization is also saddled with a rash of administrative problems, plus an ongoing cash crisis, perhaps one of the worst in history.
Global Women’s March Hits the Streets of New York
The streets of New York city were the center of the fourth annual Global Women’s March when tens of thousands of women, along with men, joined hands to defend and advance the cause of women’s rights worldwide.
Women Activists Escalate Demand for “Bodily Autonomy” as 19 Nations Dissent
The United States and 18 other UN member states have come under fire for denying a woman’s legitimate right to “bodily autonomy”—the right to self-governance over one’s own body without coercion or external pressure.
Is Iraq Now a Virtual “US-Occupied Territory”?
Pat Buchanan, a senior advisor to three US Presidents and twice candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, once infamously described the United States Congress as “Israeli-occupied territory” -– apparently because of its unrelentingly blind support for the Jewish state.
New York Police Department’s New Unit to Crackdown on Anti-Semitism & Domestic Terrorism
A rash of anti-Semitic attacks in New York and New Jersey has prompted the formation of a new unit, within the Police Department’s (NYPD) intelligence bureau, to investigate terror threats from far-right and neo-Nazi organizations.
The Ignoble Fall of a Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Appearing before 17 judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto civilian leader of Myanmar, became a public apologist for the military government of Myanmar which has long been accused of genocide and forcing over 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh since a 2017 crackdown.
Climate Financing Being Undermined by Rich Nations, NGOs Charge
The successful battle against climate change – which has triggered a rash of natural disasters, including floods, droughts and rising sea levels— will be predicated largely on the availability of financing.
The Economic & Humanitarian Catastrophe Threatening Pacific Island Communities
When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) last month, he pointed out the dramatic impact of climate change triggering natural disasters around the world--- from glaciers that melt, ice caps that disappear and corals that bleach.
World’s Crisis-Stricken Oceans Doomed to Destruction Without a Global Treaty
The greatest single climate-induced threat facing the world’s 44 small island developing states (SIDS) is rising sea waters which could obliterate some of the low-lying states, including Maldives, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Palau and Micronesia.
Despite Halting Progress, UN Continues its Push for a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in the Middle East
A longstanding proposal for a regional nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East – one of the world’s most conflict-ridden regions – has been kicked around the corridors of UN committee rooms since 1974.
A 650 Million Dollar Pledge Aimed at Eradicating Extreme Hunger by 2030
When a coalition of international donors pledged more than $650 million to provide assistance to over 300 million smallholder farmers in developing countries, the primary aim was to help increase agricultural and livestock production besieged by droughts, floods and other natural disasters triggered by climate change-- mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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