News headlines in 2019, page 61

BOGOTA, Jun 18 (IPS) - Miguel Morantes was almost murdered. Ever since, three bodyguards are part of his everyday life in one of the most dangerous countries for trade union members.

KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, Jun 18 (IPS) - Financialization has involved considerable ‘innovation', often of opaque, complex and poorly understood financial instruments. These instruments typically have large debt components involving leveraging, deepening connections across markets and borders.

WASHINGTON DC, Jun 18 (IPS) - Carine Kaneza Nantulya is the Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch

On June 6, the African Union (AU) suspended Sudan from the 55-member group with "immediate effect." The move came in response to a deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters in Khartoum, in which government forces, led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), tore through a sit-in in the capital killing at least 108 people, and wounding hundreds. The AU's decisive action has been widely applauded, but suspending Sudan is not enough.

ANKARA, Jun 18 (IPS) - Businesses are being encouraged to follow the lead of the youth to halt desertification, reduce degradation, improve agricultural sustainability and restore damaged lands.

ROME, Jun 18 (IPS) - With each passing day, the world gets just a little smaller as the internet and cell phones bring our communities together, reveal our shared challenges, and lay bare our failures. As global citizens, we are all concerned about the growing number of hungry people around the world and the threats to food security. The simple fact is that more than 800 million people go hungry every day, and if that number shocks you, know that experts predict the number to grow significantly over the next ten years.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 18 (IPS) - The United Nations, in a new report to be released next month, has warned "there is no escaping the fact that the global landscape for the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has generally deteriorated since 2015, hindering the efforts of governments and other partners"

ST AUGUSTINE, Florida, Jun 17 (IPS) - We humans are at the absurd stage in our technological evolution when we seem to have abandoned our common sense. Billions are spent by governments, corporations and investors in training computer-based algorithms (i.e. computer programs) in today's mindless rush to create so-called "artificial" intelligence, widely advertised as AI.

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 17 (IPS) - Like any dealer he was watching for the card
that is so high and wild
he'll never need to deal another.

-- Leonard Cohen Stranger Song

A friend of mine who became wealthy as an art dealer but eventually lost his fortune told me: "Money isn´t everything, but it helps." This made me think of Donald Trump, who likes to describe himself as an entrepreneur, i.e. "owner of a business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make profits."¹ The keyword is profits. According to Trump, success is measured through wealth. Like chess and poker, entrepreneurship is about winning and losing. Trump characterizes people he dislikes as losers, while he considers himself to be a winner.

ANKARA, Jun 17 (IPS) - Events marking the 25th anniversary of the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the World Day to Combat Desertification opened here Monday, Jun. 17 with a call for urgent action to protect and restore degrading land.

ANKARA, Jun 17 (IPS) - The coming decades will be crucial in shaping and implementing a transformative land agenda, according to a scientist at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).