We Need a New Social Movement Against Inequality

Oxfam's latest estimate that just eight super-rich people – down from 62 last year and 388 just six years ago - own more wealth than the poorest half of the world population is a clarion call to change the way we think about and try to tackle inequality.

Trump’s Muslim Ban a Test for Unity and Solidarity

Outgoing African Union Chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has described the United States ban on refugees and immigrants from seven countries as “one of the greatest challenges and tests to our unity and solidarity.”

Seeds Are Key to Improving Bean Production in Cuba

“You have to have good and varied seeds to test which one adapts best to each kind of soil,” says 71-year-old farmer Rubén Torres, who on his farm in central Cuba harvests 1.6 tons of organic beans every year, among other crops.

Riverbank Populations Displaced by Dams in Brazil Miss Old Way of Life

“Now we have internet and TV. Before, we didn't even have electricity, but it was better,” said Lourival de Barros, one of the people displaced by the hydropower plants which have mushroomed aorund Brazil, mainly since the 1970s.

Measures Are Proposed to Address Violence in Mapuche Land in Chile

The lands where the Mapuche indigenous people live in southern Chile are caught up in a spiral of violence, which a presidential commission is setting out to stop with 50 proposals, such as the constitutional recognition of indigenous people and their representation in parliament, in a first shift in the government´s treatment of native peoples.

Trump to Pull Out of the UN, Expel It from the US?

So far, Donald Trump’s first decisions as president of the United States have left no doubt that he intends to implement his electoral threats, while most likely not fulfilling the promises he made as a candidate.

360 Million of 625 Million People Are Overweight in Latin America and Caribbean

In Latin America and the Caribbean 360 million people are overweight, and 140 million are obese, warned the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Panamerican Health Organisation (PAHO).

A Women’s March on the World

Just one day after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, hundreds of thousands of women are expected to attend one of the largest demonstrations in history for gender equality.

Were UN Plans to Ban Nukes Pre-empted by Trump?

Inequality (III): Less Employment… and More ‘Junk’ Jobs

While just eight men are enjoying their huge wealth, equivalent to that of half the world, new forecasts project darker shadows by predicting rising unemployment rates, more precarious jobs and worsening social inequality. To start with, there will be more than 1.4 billion people employed in vulnerable working conditions.

Inequality (II): “It Will Take 170 Years for Women to Be Paid as Men Are”

While just eight individuals, all of them men, own the same wealth as 3.6 billion people -- half of world’s total population -- it will take 170 years for women to be paid the same as men, warns a new major report on inequality.

Inequality (I): Half of World’s Wealth, in the Pockets of Just Eight Men

Just eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a major new report by an international confederation of 19 organisations working in more than 90 countries.

Ordinary Citizens Help Drive Spread of Solar Power in Chile

Chile, Latin America’s leader in solar energy, is starting the new year with an innovative step: the development of the country´s first citizens solar power plant.

Looting and Unrest Spread in Mexico Over Gas Price Hike

“We are absolutely fed up with the government’s plundering and arbitrary decisions. We don´t deserve what they’re doing to us,“ said Marisela Campos during one of the many demonstrations against the government´s decision to raise fuel prices.

Trump, the Banks and the Bomb

When pro-nuclear disarmament organisations last October cheered the United Nations decision to start in 2017 negotiations on a global treaty banning these weapons, they probably did not expect that shortly after the US would elect Republican businessman Donald Trump as their 45th president. Much less that he would rush to advocate for increasing the US nuclear power.

Native Seeds Sustain Brazil’s Semi-Arid Northeast

In his 76 years of life, Raimundo Pinheiro de Melo has endured a number of droughts in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast region. And he remembers every one of them since 1958. “The worst one was in 1982 and 1983, the only time that the river dried up,” said Pinheiro do Melo, who has lived near the river since 1962. “The one in 1993 was also very bad,” he told IPS, because neither Bolsa Familia nor Networking in Brazil’s Semi-Arid Region (ASA) existed yet, which contribute to a less traumatic coexistence with droughts like the current one, which has dragged on for five years.

Poor Darwin – Robots, Not Nature, Now Make the Selection

When British naturalist Charles Darwin published in 1859 his theory of evolution in his work On the Origin of Species, he most likely did not expect that robots, not nature, would someday be in charge of the selection process.

Anti-Fracking Movement Alarmed at Trump’s Focus on Fossil Fuels

Earl Hatley, a descendant of the Cherokee/Delaware tribe, has witnessed the consequences of using hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” on his native land to produce shale gas.

No More Mass Deaths from Drought in Northeast Brazil

The drought that has plagued Brazil’s semiarid Northeast region since 2012 is already more severe than the 1979-1983 drought, the longest in the 20th century. But prolonged dry spells no longer cause the tragedies of the past.

Reporting from Inside a Refugee Detention Centre

Despite being locked up in an Australian detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani has continued reporting - gaining bylines and media attention around the world. Journalism is the reason Boochani was forced to flee his home country of Iran, and - like the other 900 men detained indefinitely on Manus Island - seek refuge in Australia.

How the US Government Subsidizes Obesity

Until the turn of the century, the United States of America (US) was the country with the highest share of overweight and obese people. Soon after the former president of Coca-Cola Mexico became the new president of his country, Mexico overtook the US.