News headlines in 2018, page 70

UNITED NATIONS, May 02 (IPS) - This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on May 3.Buoyed on by the likes of United States' President Donald Trump, a growing number of political leaders are encouraging hostility towards news media and journalists across the globe are finding it harder than ever to do their jobs.This is among the main findings in Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) annual World Press Freedom Index which examines 180 countries and their relationship with the media.

UNITED NATIONS, May 02 (IPS) - Elliot Harris is Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist of the United Nations Division of Economic and Social Affairs & Chris Lane is Special Representative of the International Monetary Fund to the United NationsIn 2015, 193 countries adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an overarching policy roadmap through 2030. These goals are predicated on the idea that for a sustainable future, economic growth must go hand-in-hand with social inclusion and protection of the environment.

UNITED NATIONS, May 02 (IPS) - Rangita de Silva de Alwis* is Associate Dean of International Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania Law School & Advisor, UN Sustainable Development Goals FundAt the beginning of the Nuremberg Trials, Justice Robert Jackson, the Chief Prosecutor, charged the world that submitting the enemy to the judgment of the law is "one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason."

ROME, May 02 (IPS) - Inequalities are on the rise. Since 1980, 1% of the richest people have received double income than the 50% of the poorest. After several years of decline, hunger is also on the rise. The report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World estimates that the number of chronically undernourished people in the world increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016. If we go deeper into the analysis we observe that three-quarters of the world's extremely poor and food-insecure people live in rural areas.

MEXICALI, Mexico, Apr 30 (IPS) - In the airport of this Mexican city, on the border with the United States, customs agents warn that they will carry out a "random" inspection. But it's not so random. The only people who are stopped and checked have dark skin and kinky hair, and virtually do not speak a word of Spanish.

ROME, Apr 30 (IPS) - Organ transplantation is one of the most incredible medical achievements of the past century. Since the first successful transplants, which took place in the 1950s, organ transplantation has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

NEW YORK, Apr 30 (IPS) - Kanya D'Almeida* is a Sri Lankan writer, journalist and editor. &nbsp This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on May 3.When Sri Lankan journalist Richard de Zoysa was abducted from his home in Colombo on the night of February 18th, 1990, his family knew there would be dark days ahead. The population was still reeling from one of the bloodiest episodes in the island nation's history – a government counterinsurgency campaign to crush a Marxist rebellion in southern Sri Lanka, which left between 30,000 and 60,000 people dead at the hands of government death squads.

SYDNEY & KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 30 (IPS) - After largely failing to provide 0.7 per cent of their Gross National Income (GNI) in aid to developing countries for almost half a century since making the commitment, donor countries have recently promoted blended finance (BF) as a solution to the financing for development challenge. Blending refers to combining public development funds (in the form of grants, technical assistance or interest indemnification) with loans from private lenders.

NAPIER, New Zealand, Apr 30 (IPS) - Alison Small is a communications expert and a former United Nations official.If an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers at a conservative estimate, produce 70 percent of the food we eat, why are they still so invisible in many countries?Governments, development agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector have been working for decades on rural development in developing countries but still rural areas lag far behind cities and outlying areas in terms of infrastructure, services, social and economic development, notwithstanding the contribution that rural producers make to supplying us with food.

WASHINGTON DC, Apr 30 (IPS) - Daryll G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association*For most of the past year, North Korea's provocative long-range missile launches and a high-yield nuclear test, combined with the reckless threats of "fire and fury" and "preventive war" from the White House, have raised tensions and increased the threat of a catastrophic conflict in the region. Some of us warned that nuclear war was closer than at any point since the Cold War.