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Friday, November 13, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Population
NICARAGUA: Advance of Oil Companies Alarms Indians
Indigenous groups in Nicaragua oppose the concessions granted four U.S. companies for petroleum and natural gas exploration and extraction, citing history and the potential harm to the environment./UPDATE/SCIENCE: Secretive Pentagon Forecasts Climate Wars
Growing scientific evidence of faster than imagined climate change means the United States needs to begin planning how to repel waves of hungry environmental refugees from Mexico, South America and the Caribbean, according to a Pentagon report.PORTUGAL-INDIA: Crime Rings Sell Fake Portuguese Passports
A Portuguese official thought he was seeing things when he read a huge billboard offering Portuguese passports, along the highway running from the airport to the centre of the city of Goa in western India.ECONOMY: Zambian Expatriates Scoff At President Mwanawasa’s Remarks
Low wages and unemployment, coupled with high taxes, have forced thousands of qualified Zambians to flee the country in search of greener pastures - but President Levy Mwanawasa is calling them 'coward failures'.RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: Handful of Refugees Finally Granted Legal Status
Venezuela has finally granted official refugee status to a handful of the tens of thousands of Colombians living here since they fled the civil war in their home country.LABOUR: Wal-Mart Model Misuses Women – Report
Led by U.S.-based Wal-Mart, the world's giant retailers are demanding more and faster production from suppliers, which in turn are bypassing the rights of their workers, most of them women, says a new report by development agency Oxfam.MEXICO-US: Immigrants’ Votes Sought-After on Both Sides of Border
It is not only U.S. politicians who have the votes of Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants in mind, but political leaders on this side of the border as well.THAILAND: Violence Pushes Country Deeper into ‘Anti-terror’ Drive
By attending a just-finished meeting against terrorism, Thailand took another step in affirming that it has indeed gone from being a passive player to an active participant in the drive by governments across the region to combat this problem.HEALTH: Female Genital Mutilation Continues, Says Report
The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is still widespread in many African countries despite intensified efforts to fight the procedure, said U.S. officials and women's rights activists Friday.ARGENTINA: New Open-mindedness on Sexuality Has Its Limits
Although more and more people in Argentina say they are in favour of the legalisation of abortion, the free distribution of birth control, and access to tubal ligations free of charge, social prejudice against sexual minorities remains difficult to uproot.RIGHTS: Palestinian Women Hard Hit by Israeli Occupation
Israel's repressive policies in military-occupied West Bank and Gaza have had a devastating impact on the lives of Palestinian women and children, a new U.N. study says.BURMA: For Women, Going across Border to China Means No Return
Nandar lives in a small, messy room in an apartment building that doubles as a brothel in this Chinese town across the border from Burma. She is not a sex worker - not yet anyway.REFUGEES: Sudanese Army, Militias Block Aid to Displaced People
The Sudanese Army and allied militias have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee villages and towns in the country's western Darfur province in the past year, and are now blocking humanitarian aid to the refugees, says rights group Amnesty International (AI).RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: The Displaced Ask, Where Is the State?
What is most astonishing about Colombia is the poverty, particularly among Afro-Colombians and Indians, abandoned by the state and displaced by the armed conflict in the Choco region, near the Panama border, says a United Nations official.PARAGUAY: Curfew on Liquor Sales Has Mixed Results
''Since the controls began, our clientele has grown,'' says Patricia, a transvestite who offers sexual services on the streets of the Paraguayan capital, when asked about the effects of a new curfew for businesses selling liquor.RIGHTS-BRAZIL: For Indians, Land Is Life Itself
Land represents the work of a lifetime for some; for others, it is life itself. For that reason, death is always a possibility in the property disputes between landowners and indigenous people that frequently occur in many parts of Brazil.POLITICS-MEXICO/U.S.: The ‘Tomato King’ Runs Again
Andrés Bermúdez was a Mexican peasant when he crossed the border into the United States 30 years ago, stowed away in a car boot. Today he is a successful commercial farmer who has returned to hometown to run for mayor and, he says, "Do what the Mexican politicians can't."IRAQ: Council Plan Would Cut Women’s Legal Rights – US Lawmakers
Iraq's governing council has quietly approved a plan to replace some existing legal rights of women with Islamic law or ''Shariah'', according to 44 U.S. lawmakers, who warn Washington of a "brewing women's right's crisis" in the U.S.-occupied country.PAKISTAN: Programme Seeks to Ease Harsh Street Life, Drug Use
''When my father divorced my mother, I decided to come to Karachi and look for her. I still have not found her,'' says Hyder, a boy who has roamed this sprawling Pakistani port city's back alleys for three years.ECONOMY-SOUTH AFRICA: The Brain Drain Proves Colour-Blind
The so-called "brain drain" of professional expertise from South Africa has been a source of concern for several years now. Discussions of the trend have tended to focus on white professionals - but, it appears that black South Africans are also joining the exodus.SRI LANKA: New Alliance Stirs Political Waters
A new political alliance forged between President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party and a Marxist political group with a bloody past is sending tremors through Sri Lanka's already restive political landscape.« Previous Page — Next Page »
One Thousand Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Relocated from Tomping Camp in South Sudan. Credit: UN Photo/Isaac Billy
It took hundreds of thousands of years for the world’s human population to cross one billion in 1804. Approximately 200 years later, the population has multiplied sevenfold. In 2023, the global population crossed 8 billion, and is expected to reach 9 billion before 2050. With the planet more crowded than ever, it is essential to keep track of population trends, urbanization, migration, and reproduction across the world.
Life expectancy has seen significant strides in the past century, largely due to economic development and increased standards of living. On the contrary, trends in global fertility are shifting, with certain regions in Africa and Asia reporting higher rates, while parts of Europe and North America report stagnant or lower rates. This is in part due to differences in sexual and reproductive healthcare, as well as societal and economic conditions around the world. For example, child marriage is prevalent in certain societies, where childbearing is also considered a familial duty. Meanwhile, stagnating economies frequently experience lower marriage and childbearing rates.
The increase in migration and urban development around the world is also linked to global population trends. By 2050, it is expected that approximately 66 percent of all people will live in cities. Furthermore, global crises such as warfare and natural disasters also prompt transnational migration. Transnational migration is linked to a variety of socioeconomic issues in both host and receiving countries: migrants often leave developing countries with less access to educational and economic opportunities and arrive in developed countries where they are frequently the targets of ethnic, racial, and cultural discrimination, and economic exploitation. Recent crises in Europe and the United States demonstrate the importance of advocating for migrants worldwide. As migrants from the Global South are increasingly stripped of their legal and civic rights in unlawful deportations, or targeted in acts of identity-based violence, it is essential to keep track of population trends and protect the human rights of migrant populations. Climate-related disasters are now a major driver of displacement, with nearly half of all new internal displacements in 2025 being disaster-related.
IPS is devoted to covering issues surrounding population trends, migration, and reproduction through its compelling articles, which use both statistics and human stories to provide readers with robust and informative viewpoints.
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