NEW DELHI, India, Dec 08 (IPS) - In 2019, when the President-elect of the European Union (EU) Ursula von der Leyen had presented a list for her soon-to-be European Commission, and on that list was a portfolio called “Protecting the European way of life”, a lot of noise was made questioning what that meant. “Protection” was later changed to the “Promotion” of the European Way of Life. It’s been over three years since this very controversial, much debated and widely criticised portfolio as many continue to question what uniquely is the ‘European way of life’?
BIRMINGHAM, UK, Dec 08 (IPS) - The one thing that has become clear is that there is no point in negotiating with Putin. Ukraine is considered as the gates of Europe, or a borderland with a brutal past.
The number of hungry people in West and Central Africa could reach a record high of 48 million next year, which should serve as a final “wake-up call” for regional governments to act now, three UN agencies said on Thursday.
A UN-led push for greater cross-border cooperation over increasingly finite water resources, made significant progress on Thursday, after it was announced that more than 30 governments and organizations have decided to work together on the issue.
More than a dozen UN-appointed independent human rights experts on Thursday condemned the execution of a 23-year-old Iranian artist convicted for taking part in protests, and raised general alarm over any charges that are made which carry the death penalty.
As cholera continues to spread in Haiti, a $145 million appeal to support the response is only 16 per cent funded, the top UN aid official there reported on Thursday.
Read the full story, “Cholera’s continued spread in Haiti a ‘worrying trend’”, on globalissues.org →
Dec 08 (IPS) - After four failed rainy seasons, the land of the Maasai has withered. The worst drought in 40 years is a slow-motion storm of devastation in the Greater Horn of Africa, ruining the livestock, the communities, the Maasai way of life. Their cattle have been their greatest source of wealth and nutrition, but with grazing lands shriveled from the dry heat and their livestock emaciated, the entire region is in peril.