SANA’A, Yemen/OSLO, Norway, 28 May 2019 (UNFPA)* — When Maram* showed up at her parents’ house, battered and bruised by her husband, her mother urged her to be less stubborn, more obedient – anything to avoid a divorce.
The Brazilians are defending their rights as the Education Minister strives to disqualify social discontent.
Students protest against President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies at the legislative Assembly in Curitiba, Brazil, May 28, 2019. The sign reads, “They will not shut us up and We will not accept that they censure education.” | Photo: Reuters | Photo fromteleSUR.
30 May 2019 (teleSUR)* — Brazil is holding a new, nationwide strike Thursday as thousands of workers, teachers and students take to the streets to protests against President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies related to social security privatization and budget cuts to universities and scientific research institutes.
A marked escalation in fighting has put tens of thousands of children in northwest Syria at “imminent risk of injury, death and displacement”, the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) chief warned on Thursday [30 May 2019].
UNICEF/Ahmad Al Ahmad | After spending many days in the open, families fleeing hostilities are sheltering in group tents provided by the Turkish Red Crescent near Kafr Lusein, Syria (May 2019).
Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement that over the past few days, intensifying violence, had left children “hemmed in” especially in villages in northern Hama and southern Idleb, driving many families from their homes while “others are unable to move to safer areas”.
30 May 2019 (RT)* — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on vilification of Сhinese telecoms giant Huawei as “an instrument of government” suggesting that the company was a national security threat by acting as an agent for Beijing.
31 May 2019 (UN Environment)* — According to the World Health Organization, every year, around 7 million people die prematurely from disease caused by air pollution. That is 800 people every hour, or 13 every minute, dying because of the dirty air they breathe. Approximately, 4 million of these deaths occur in the Asia-Pacific region.
29 May 2019 — The top United Nations body in the Asia-Pacific region opened its annual session this week, calling for greater empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalized groups if the region is to achieve the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and fulfill its promise to leave no one behind.
ESCAP | The traditional parade of flags takes place at the opening of the seventy-fifth session of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. (29 May 2019)
Further inaction on climate change is “simply not an option”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday [29 May 2019] in an opinion piece where he called for “rapid and deep change in how we do business, generate power, build cities and feed the world.”
UNICEF/Sokhin | A 16-year-old child swims in the flooded area of Aberao village in Kiribati. The Pacific island is one of the countries worst affected by sea-level rise.
29 May 2019 (UN Environment)* — Public transit passengers in Indonesia’s capital may soon notice a new green addition to their commute.
Photo by Unsplash/Azka Rayhansyah
In line with Governor Anies Baswedan’s vision to make Jakarta one of the greenest cities in the world, the Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transit System is rolling out a trial programme of electric buses on certain routes in the city.
KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, May 28 2019 (IPS)– Over recent decades, the scope, size, concentration, power and even the purpose and role of finance have changed so significantly that a new term, financialization, was coined to name this phenomenon.
Financialization refers to a process that has not only transformed finance itself, but also, the real economy and society.
The transformation goes beyond the quantitative to involve qualitative change as finance becomes dominant, instead of serving the needs of the real economy.
Financialization involves the growth and transformation of finance such that with its hugely expanded size, scope and concentration, finance now overshadows, dominates and destabilizes the productive economy.
The role and purpose of finance has been qualitatively transformed. Finance used to profit from serving production and trade. Traditionally, financing production involved providing funds for manufacturers to finance production, and for traders to buy and sell.
Through a social security reform, the Brazilian far-right seeks to reduce protections for pregnant women and shorten maternity leave period.
President Jair Bolsonaro (C) and his staff at Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, May 28, 2019. | Photo: Reuters | Photo fromteleSUR..
29 May 2019 (teleSUR)* — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro proposed an amendment that alters Article 201 of the Constitution, which guarantees protection to pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, the Worker’s Party (PT) Congressman Alexandre Padilha said during public hearing on the impact of the social security reform bill which was held in Sao Paulo.
