News headlines for “Free Trade and Globalization”
United Nations Least Developed Country Category – Curse or Boon?
- Inter Press Service
SYDNEY, September 21 (IPS) - The UN General Assembly will soon vote – most likely favourably – on Bangladesh’s request to postpone the country’s graduation from the UN’s Least Developed Country (LDC) category, currently scheduled for November this year. The request for a 3-year extension was endorsed by the ECOSOC following the recommendation of the UN’s Committee for Development Policy (CDP). It is highly likely that the extension will also be justifiably granted to Nepal and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao, PDR) – the two other countries scheduled to graduate with Bangladesh, given the fast deteriorating global economic situation and recent natural disaster in Nepal. In fact, the same argument for an extension may be admissible to all prospective graduating countries, such as Solomon Islands (2027), Cambodia (2029) and Senegal (2029).
The Connection Between Urbanization and Poverty: How Cities Can Reduce Poverty – Or Deepen It
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, September 18 (IPS) - Urbanization can help concentrate jobs, services, and investments; however, it can also concentrate unaffordable housing, insecure employment, and unequal exposure to contamination and environmental threats. A recent report from the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, argues that the difference is not urbanization itself, but how cities are planned, governed, and financed.
Outpacing Foreign Aid, Migrant Remittances Are a Lifeline Ensuring Families Are Fed and Healthy, Says IFAD
- Inter Press Service
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, September 18 (IPS) - Migrants now send home more money than foreign aid, and this is pulling rural families out of poverty, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
WHO Launches New Global Health Strategy for Childhood Cancer Medications
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, September 18 (IPS) - When a child is diagnosed with cancer, their chances of survival should not depend on where they live, yet according to the WHO, more than 80 percent of children with cancer in high-income countries are cured, compared with fewer than 30 percent in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The Cost of Excluding Refugees
- Inter Press Service
NAIROBI, Kenya, September 18 (IPS) - For the young women I met through Global Give Back Circle’s HER Lab in Kenya, displacement was not the end of ambition. It had interrupted school, separated families from stability, and narrowed the choices available to them. But it had not erased their hopes. What they wanted was not pity. They wanted skills, work, confidence and the chance to rebuild their lives with dignity.
What it Means to be ‘Too Old’ and a Woman: Systemic Gendered Ageism and Loss of Belonging
- Inter Press Service
TORONTO / LONDON, September 17 (IPS) - Chung Sun-cha started collecting cardboard, plastic, and other recycling materials off the streets of Incheon, South Korea, to sell when she was in her mid-70s. She is now 87. Without an adequate pension, Chung worked six days a week, sometimes seven, in the wind, rain, and snow until she fell and broke her arm while working in 2025. “I couldn’t find any other work because of my age,” she said.
Bangladesh Must Face Its Quiet Crisis of Internal Displacement
- Inter Press Service
DHAKA, Bangladesh, September 17 (IPS) - Bangladesh is rightly praised for saving lives during cyclones and floods. Early warning systems, cyclone shelters and community mobilisation have turned once-catastrophic disasters into emergencies in which evacuation is often possible. But behind that success lies a quieter national failure: millions of people are being uprooted inside the country, often more than once, without a clear path back to secure homes, land or livelihoods.
Renewed Hostilities In Yemen Inflame Displacement and Regional Risks
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, September 16 (IPS) - In recent days, the humanitarian situation in Yemen has deteriorated sharply following a new escalation of hostilities between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC). This follows four years of relative stability, marking the most severe resurgence of violence since the collapse of the United Nations (UN)-mediated ceasefire in October 2022.
World News in Brief: Shipping alert from IMO, democracy vanishing in Nicaragua, alert over political ‘denialism’
- UN News
Amid a rising number of attacks on shipping in key waterways in the Middle East linked to the US-Iran war, the head of UN maritime agency, Mr. Arsenio Dominguez, has insisted that the conflict is not a “pretext” to target “innocent seafarers”.
September 11 and the End of the American Dream - The Day That Changed Everything
- Inter Press Service
On 11 September 2001 I was in New York, on one of my frequent visits to the United Nations, to which I was tied by a consultancy contract. That morning I woke up late, around eleven, sleeping off the jet lag of the flight from Italy. I was staying at the Hyatt Park, today the Millennium. A hotel a few metres from the Glass Palace, built to serve the world of the United Nations.
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