Global Issues
News headlines
Italy and the Dubious Honor of Chairing the G20
- Inter Press Service
ROME, Jan 11 (IPS) - For 2021, Italy has been given chairmanship of the Group of 20, which brings together the world’s 20 most important countries. On paper, they represent 60% of the world’s population and 80% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While the shaky Italian government will somehow perform this task (in the general indifference of the political system), the fact remains that this apparently prestigious position is in fact very deceiving: the G20 is now a very weak institution that brings no kudos to the rotating chairman. Besides, it is actually the institution which bears the greatest part of responsibility for the decline of the UN as the body responsible for global governance, a task that the G20 has very seldom been able to face up to.
Recovery: What Are We Talking About?
- Inter Press Service
MEXICO CITY, Jan 11 (IPS) - The new year has arrived, but the situation is worse than in the last months of 2020. The pandemic is still unleashed: the end of the year holidays, the official permissiveness, and the slowness of the distribution of vaccines seem to announce that the disease will continue to wreak havoc for several months in most of the world, particularly in America, Europe, and parts of Asia like India. It has therefore been required to redouble preventive measures: a new lockdown and the disruption of almost all economic and school activities. Therefore, the recovery looks still uncertain and distant.
Unhinged with 5,800 Nuclear Warheads at his Fingertips
- Inter Press Service
NEW YORK, Jan 11 (IPS) - Between now and January 20,2021, the President of the United States has almost run out of arenas in which to impose his will. His reelection has soured in infamy. His concern for the COVID-19 pandemic faded long ago. There is only one last pursuit available to him to demonstrate that he is the most powerful man on earth, i.e. using the nuclear weapons at his disposal.
Tales of the 21st Century: Rohingyas Without home
- Inter Press Service
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Jan 08 (IPS) - Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a Bangladeshi documentary photographer, photojournalist, filmmaker and visual artist who has been visiting the camps in Cox’s Bazaar to document the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Storming of Capitol Hill Reminiscent of a Banana Republic
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 08 (IPS) - The storming of Capitol Hill in Washington DC by an unruly mob is reminiscent of an insurrection in a “banana republic” -- as hilariously portrayed in the 1971 Woody Allen comedy “Bananas” spoofing a revolt in a fictional Latin American country.
Was It a Coup? No, But Siege on US Capitol Was the Election Violence of a Fragile Democracy
- Inter Press Service
Jan 07 (IPS) - Supporters of President Donald Trump, following his encouragement, stormed the US Capitol building on Jan. 6, disrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Waving Trump banners, hundreds of people broke through barricades and smashed windows to enter the building where Congress convenes. One rioter died and several police officers were hospitalized in the clash. Congress went on lockdown.
Shifting Conversations in Multifaceted Policymaking
- Inter Press Service
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 07 (IPS) - As the people of Kiribati, Samoa and Tonga gear up as the first nations to welcome 2021, communities around the Asia-Pacific region and beyond look forward to bidding farewell to the most tumultuous year in recent decades.
If Covid-19 is Primarily a First World Virus, Why is the Global South in Lockdown?
- Inter Press Service
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan 07 (IPS) - The currently available Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized for
emergency use
in Europe and North America. This is due to an apparent spike in Covid-19 flu cases in the northern hemisphere as winter advances. Highly advertised vaccines are being produced and rolled out at ‘warped speed’ by powerful pharmaceutical and bio-technology companies headquartered in Euro-America although their efficacy including how long their immunity lasts is not clear.Is the COVID-19 Vaccine a Potential Biological Weapon in Reverse?
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 07 (IPS) - Meanwhile, ”the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the already dire humanitarian and socio-economic situation” Secretary-General António?Guterres said at a meeting online last November, marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.If the coronavirus is not deemed a biological weapon, is the heavily-publicized Covid-19 vaccine in danger of being weaponized when over 159,000 Palestinians who have tested positive in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are being denied treatment during a deadly pandemic?
Is High Tech a Danger to Humanity?
- Inter Press Service
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jan 06 (IPS) - COVID-19 has made several of us aware of the frailty of our bodies, the certainty of death and how valuable health, companionship and compassion are. Such insights are not uncommon in poor societies where a person’s main and perhaps only asset is her/his body and what s/he is able to do with her/his hands. However, wealthy and privileged people are surrounded by, dependent on, and even integrated with an ever more sophisticated technology, which increasingly, for better or worse, is separating us from what human existence has been for thousands of years.
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