News headlines in 2019, page 63

KASESE, Uganda, Jun 12 (IPS) - As climate change leads to increased temperatures in East Africa, a thicket of invasive thorny trees with the ability to withstand harsh climatic conditions have begun threatening Uganda's second-largest park, home to a rare breed of tree climbing lions and one of the highest concentrations of primates in the world.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 12 (IPS) - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been forced to justify its existence at the United Nations ahead of a pledging conference later this month.

TRONDHEIM, Norway, Jun 11 (IPS) - Nils Røkke is Chair of European Energy Research Association and head of Sustainability at SINTEF Energy.

Never before has half a degree (0.5C) meant so much for humanity. We are behaving as if we have time to deal with climate change. We don't. The main problem is that we believe we must sacrifice growth and prosperity for the sake of decarbonisation. We don't.

KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, Jun 11 (IPS) - The emergence and growth of financialization from the 1980s has been driven by several factors operating at various levels – national and international, ideological and political, and of course, technological. The 1971 collapse of the Bretton Woods (BW) international monetary system arguably paved the way for financial globalization.

STOCKHOLM/ROME, Jun 11 (IPS) - When I recently visited the Czech Republic I noticed an increasing Czech opposition against their wealthy Prime Minister. Andrej Babiš has been endowed with the nickname Babisconi since he, like the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is accused of purchasing and using various means of communication for his own propaganda purposes. Apparently, this endeavour has so far been quite successful, since according to my Czech friends Babiš is still popular among a majority of their compatriots.

MADRID, Spain, Jun 11 (IPS) - Karessa Ramos is Social Media Data Analyst for BBVA Microfinance Foundation based in Madrid.

This is the story of two women who are positively transforming social norms in their respective societies, as part of the global movement towards gender equality.

LAGOS, Nigeria, Jun 10 (IPS) - Chinasa Asonye is CEO of Chileofarms, a women's farming collective.

As a wife and mother in Nigeria who wanted to support my family and my community, I began my own farm in 2006. When I began, I never could have dreamed that just cultivating the earth would someday lead to my meeting government leaders, and traveling to meet other women from around the world doing their part to make a difference in their own communities.

NEW YORK, Jun 10 (IPS) - Gulnoza Said* is Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Europe and Central Asia

On a recent morning in Bazar-Korgon, southern Kyrgyzstan, Khadicha Askarova was giving hasty instructions to her daughter about what needed to be packed.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 (IPS) - Venezuelans in the city of Washington D.C., in the United States, are currently without consular protection as access to their country's embassy has remained unstable since April.

NAIROBI, Jun 07 (IPS) - When two high profile governance initiatives strategically collaborate, the expected intent is to effect significant outcomes. Thus, the universe of democratic governance – lately buffeted by adverse winds of nationalism, intolerance and other threats – should take a keen note of the memorandum of understanding between Open Governance Partnerships (OGP) and Africa's flagship governance programme, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), sealed on the sidelines of the just concluded 6th Convening of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), in Ottawa, Canada.