In early September 2018, about 2,800 delegates from 79 countries and high-level dignitaries, including current and former heads of states, international agencies, CEOs of global corporations and youth entrepreneurs, and techies involved in agriculture gathered in Kigali for this year’s…
The topic of my lecture is ambitious and daunting and may sound like a provocation in a country that attempted and developed a socialist model that eventually failed. However today there is still a market-led demand for socialist institutions and…
The debate on UK withdrawal from the EU has included talk about sovereignty, as if sovereignty were a given to which divergent political opinions can be attached. But the word ‘sovereignty’ is a false friend. It seems to mean something…
There’s no better trade deal for the UK than being in the EU but the Chequers ‘sticky tape’ may just help the UK Brexit if it still wants to.
By Chris Hedges The problem with Donald Trump is not that he is imbecilic and inept—it is that he has surrendered total power to the oligarchic and military elites. They get what they want. They do what they want.
The largest question in democratic politics in Europe is: who’s in charge? The issue was illuminated in the latest standoff in the European Parliament, where the body voted on Wednesday to sanction Hungary for its illiberal policies. And in Sweden,…
George Soros, Bill Gates and other pundits have been predicting another financial crisis. In their recent book, Revolution Required: The Ticking Bombs of the G7 Model, Peter Dittus and Herve Hamoun, former senior officials of the Bank of International Settlements,…
by Benjamin Franta Standard – One day in 1961, an American economist named Daniel Ellsberg stumbled across a piece of paper with apocalyptic implications. Ellsberg, who was advising the US government on its secret nuclear-war plans, had discovered a document…
After the 2008 global financial crisis, a consensus emerged that the public sector had a responsibility to intervene to bail out systemically important banks and stimulate economic growth. But that consensus proved short-lived, and soon the public sector’s economic interventions…
By Mercedes Sayagues Maputo, Sep 14 2018 (IPS) – ‘Think Bigger’, urge the colourful posters on the walls of Ideario, an innovation hub in Chamanculo, a modest neighbourhood in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. The message is right on target for the…
Will Michel Barnier save Theresa May’s bacon and will historians look back on a wasted three months soon after the UK’s June 2016 Referendum?
From Danielle Nierenberg Greetings from New York City! I’m at the Food, Farming, and Sustainability Conference, where I’ll be speaking on the panel “Women in Agriculture” with Karen Karp, President of Karen Karp & Partners, and Karen Washington, co-owner of…
Economists have been pretty silent over the summer. It has probably been too hot to come up with new ideas. Generally speaking, most of them are more passionate about 2% inflation or ½% growth and other economic key figures than…
by May Boeve, Christiana Figueres London – This year, extreme weather conditions have ravaged our planet, subjecting vulnerable communities around the world to the ever-increasing impacts of climate change. With each passing day, we learn more about – and experience…
When the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh burns down in April 2013, causing the death of 1,200 workers and injuring over 2,000 men and women, the bell starts to ring in the headquarters of international textile companies. The companies…
From Danielle NierenbergGreetings from Iowa! This weekend, I’m at Niman Ranch’s 20th Annual Hog Farmer Appreciation Dinner. I’ll have the honour of celebrating the work of amazing farmers like Paul Willis, Rancher and Farmer at Niman Ranch Pork Company. I’ll…
By Chandra Muzaffar An organised expose by the Syrian and Russian governments over a 3 day period starting 27th August may have thwarted a British backed plan to stage a “false flag” chemical weapons attack in Idlib province that would…
It was a horrible evening for Karl Marx. Resting on his pedestal in the eastern German city of Chemnitz, he had to witness one of the biggest crowds shouting fascist chants in post-war Germany. The square where the sculpted giant…
The American Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation led by Robert Mueller into possible collusion with the Kremlin by Donald Trump in 2016 has an uncertain outlook. Like President Clinton before him, however, the President confronts dangers unrelated to the Special…
“The biggest policy mistake of the last decade” is the title of an article by Ryan Cooper, and the mistake is of course austerity (it is a very US focussed piece, so Brexit is not on the map). Cooper goes…
By Kathy Kelly “If they would just confirm to us that my brother is alive, if they would just let us see him, that’s all we want. But we can’t get anyone to give us any confirmation. My mother dies…
By IPS Correspondents Johannesburg/UN, Aug 21 2018 (IPS) – The human rights movement must be bigger, bolder, and more inclusive if we are to tackle today’s challenges, said Amnesty International’s first South Afric a Secretary-General.
Guangzhe CHEN The world’s water problems have regularly made the news in 2018. And the scale of the crisis behind the headlines is stark. It is a crisis of too much, too polluted and too little.
by Mahmoud Mohieldin, Anna Wellenstein Washington, DC – For most of the world’s poor and vulnerable people, secure property rights, including land tenure, are a rarely accessible luxury. Unless this changes, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be impossible to…
By Thalif Deen UN, Aug 20 2018 (IPS) – The Secretary-General of the United Nations, who is a creature of member states, rarely challenges or defies his creators. But Kofi Annan, who died last week at the age of 80,…
By Sunita Narain New Delhi, Aug 17 2018 (IPS) – The minimum we expect from the government is to differentiate between right and wrong. But when it comes to regulating our food, it’s like asking for too much. Our latest…
Danielle Nierenberg For every degree Celsius that the temperature rises, farmers can see crop yields drop as much as 7 percent. But organizations like Crop Trust are joining global institutions, farmers, and eaters to guarantee a better future for food.
As the energy sector is transforming, there is a growing consensus that sustainable energy is a catalyst for achieving most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): it is crucial for better health, education, jobs, food production and conservation, as well as water…
by Axel Berger, Karl P. Sauvant New York – While much of the world’s attention is focused on the economic damage being wrought by US President Donald Trump’s trade wars, global trade’s twin – foreign direct investment – has largely…
By IPS World Desk Rome, Aug 7 2018 (IPS) – 370 million self-identified indigenous peoples are spread across the world, but continue to face discrimination and marginalization.