By Francesco Guarascio 6 May 2022 BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe is increasingly becoming a hub for production and trans-shipment of cocaine to other regions of the world, in addition to being a major consumption market, EU agencies said on Friday, warning also about the expanding methamphetamine industry. After cannabis, cocaine is the most consumed drug […]
By David Callaway 26 April 2022 MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Callaway Climate Insights) – As Latin America prepares for another disastrous hurricane season, two major intergovernmental reports are pointing to the need for urgency in reversing years of climate-related disasters that have driven more people into poverty. A report by the World Bank this month said over the past […]
By Gloria Dickie and Kate Abnett 22 April 2022 (Reuters) – Europeans endured the hottest summer on record last year, with wildfires, floods and intense heatwaves hitting the continent, according to a report by EU scientists released Friday. Summer temperatures were about 1 degree Celsius above the average over the past three decades, with Italy even recording […]
By Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas 19 April 2022 (IMF) – Global economic prospects have been severely set back, largely because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This crisis unfolds even as the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic. Even before the war, inflation in many countries had been rising due to supply-demand imbalances and […]
3 May 2022 (AFP) – The WHO said Tuesday that “epidemic” overweight and obesity rates are linked to over 1.2 million deaths annually across Europe, calling for swift policy changes to reverse the dangerous trend. Obesity rates in the region have ballooned by 138 percent in the past five decades, the World Health Organization said […]
By Carmen Reinhart and Leora Klapper 2 May 2022 WASHINGTON (Project Syndicate) – When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, private-debt crises were probably already brewing—albeit hidden from view—in many parts of the world, as a result of the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the war is pushing even more countries toward similar […]
By Phil Mayer 29 April 2022 (KRON) – While there were some April showers in California this year, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said Friday that what’s left of the Northern Sierra snowpack is “grim.” “The Department of Water Resources’ Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit conducted the final snow survey of the […]
2 May 2022 (RSF) – The 20th World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reveals a two-fold increase in polarisation amplified by information chaos – that is, media polarisation fuelling divisions within countries, as well as polarisation between countries at the international level. Читать на русском / Read in Russian The 2022 […]
By Chauncey Devega 2 May 2022 (Salon) – Global democracy is sick. In the United States, Donald Trump’s supporters in the Republican Party continue to steamroll the Democrats and other pro-democracy forces. To say that the latter have for the most part been hapless, uncoordinated and paralyzed by denial is not overstating the case. Political scientists and […]
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Shah Meer Baloch 2 May 2022 DELHI and ISLAMABAD (The Guardian) – For the past few weeks, Nazeer Ahmed has been living in one of the hottest places on Earth. As a brutal heatwave has swept across India and Pakistan, his home in Turbat, in Pakistan’s Balochistan region, has been suffering […]
