Tag: Global development

At its launch almost a decade ago, the BRICS nations’ New Development Bank (NDB) was celebrated as a chance for countries across the Global South to break free of the US-dominated IMF and World Bank and rewrite the rules of financing global development. But while the number of nations ...

Half a century since its eradication in the west, it is hard today to appreciate the terrible effect that polio had on people’s lives then and how feared it was as a disease. The virus killed hundreds every year in the UK alone, and left thousands afflicted with long-lasting ...

In a global pandemic, people across the world have avoided public transport systems where they can. But this week the Pakistani city of Lahore unveiled its “gift from China” – a $1.6bn (£1.23bn) light-rail transit system. The Orange Line metro is designed to carry nearly a quarter of a ...

Draconian surveillance measures introduced during the Covid-19 epidemic are handing “unchecked powers” to authoritarian regimes across Asia, human rights experts are warning. In a report out today, privacy analysts warn that “extreme measures and unchecked powers” brought in to tackle Covid-19 could become permanent features of government across the ...

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary in charge of the newly merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has moved to quash reports that the government will ditch its statutory commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on aid. There have been persistent reports that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak ...

Glacial lakes have grown rapidly around the world in recent decades, according to satellite images that reveal the impact of increased meltwater draining off retreating glaciers. Scientists analysed more than quarter of a million satellite images to assess how lakes formed by melting glaciers have been affected by global ...

Facing a continuing upward trajectory in Covid-19 cases, the Indian government is clamping down on media coverage critical of its handling of the pandemic. More than 50 Indian journalists have been arrested or had police complaints registered against them, or been physically assaulted. The majority of those facing action ...