News headlines in May 2023

LIMA, May 31 (IPS) - Peru’s agro-export industry is growing steadily and reached record levels in 2022. But this has not had a favorable impact on human development in this South American country, where high levels of inequality, poverty, childhood anemia and malnutrition persist, as well as complaints about the poor quality of employment in the sector.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, May 31 (IPS) - Climate-crisis-fuelled storms have hit New Zealand hard this year. In January, we suffered unprecedented extreme weather and flooding, followed by Cyclone Gabrielle in February - the worst storm in 55 years—which triggered a national state of emergency. In total, we had 5.5 times more rain than Auckland summers typically receive.

BANGKOK, May 31 (IPS) - Thailand is heading to the edge of the precipice as conservative and military forces could possibly refuse to recognise the will of the people, as expressed in one of the country's biggest election upsets.

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 (IPS) - A few weeks ago we celebrated the Girls in ICT Day and I am wondering how can we keep moving the digital equality needle so that more women out of the 259 million that are disconnected today can log in and become creators and not only beneficiaries in the digital economy?

Effective governance of outer space is necessary to propel innovation and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a new policy brief published on Wednesday.

The UN chief on Wednesday commended the work of the judges and staff of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as its final judgement was deliveredincreasing the prison sentences on appeal of two former top Serbian security officials.

UN chief António Guterres is “deeply concerned” after Uganda’s president signed into law a punitive so-called “Anti-Homosexuality Act”, the UN Spokesperson said in a statement released late on Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the latest satellite launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), his spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

Soaring debt levels compounded by high inflation and rising interest rates have dashed job-seekers’ hopes in developing countries, the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned on Wednesday.

ABUJA, May 30 (IPS) - Seven weeks after the bloody conflict in Khartoum, Sudan started, and 41 days after the Nigerian government began the evacuation of residents studying there, students are still on the Egyptian border waiting to be airlifted back to their home country.