TOPIO (“TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot”) is a bipedal humanoid robot designed to play table tennis against a human being. Photo: . license. PORTLAND, USA, Jul 4 2022 (IPS) – It is time for countries, especially those with and human populations, to welcome , i.e., with human-like appearance and behavior, including speech, sight, hearing, mobility,…
Nowhere is the escalating threat of climate change-induced disasters greater than in Asia and the Pacific. The impact and magnitude of disasters, over the past decade, indicate that climate change is making natural hazards even more frequent and intense, with floods, tropical cyclones, heatwaves, droughts and earthquakes resulting in tragic losses of life, displaced communities,…
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov 8 2023 (IPS) – Public-private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure and service provision are both costly and risky. Worse, PPPs typically fail to ensure universal, let alone fair access to public amenities. Public-private partnerships? PPPs usually involve long-term contractual arrangements in which private businesses provide infrastructure and services traditionally provided by governments.…
Students attending class at the Souza Gare school in the Littoral region, Cameroon. The school hosts displaced children who have fled the violence in the North-West and South-West regions. Credits: ECW/Daniel Beloumou UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 2024 (IPS) – Inclusive social protections for children would be a positive signifier of social development in a time…
The Mandaue City government signs the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the city’s Anti-Discrimination Ordinance. This marks a significant milestone for the UNDP-supported Kadangpan Project. Credit: UNDP Philippines UNITED NATIONS, Jul 26 2024 (IPS) – Around the world countries are taking powerful steps to protect people’s rights, dignity, and health. Dominica and Namibia became the…
Photojournalists stage a demonstration demanding the safe return of Shafiqul Islam Kajol, in front of the National Museum in Dhaka, on March 18, 2020. PHOTO: COLLECTED Mar 23 2020 – A barrage of fireworks light up the smoggy skies of Dhaka and I feel as if I m in the opening scenes of a dystopian…
Linda Eckerbom Cole is the Founder and Executive Director of . She shuttles between Santa Barbara, California and Uganda. KAMPALA, Uganda, Apr 7 2020 (IPS) – We are living in uncertain times. All of us are experiencing the Corona pandemic in various ways. For most it means quarantine and physical isolation. We worry about family…
Ensuring sex workers’ rights was essential, not just for the workers themselves, but for any country’s wider society, including public health The Russian capital, Moscow. Sex workers in the country say although public opinion about their work is shifting, they still face marginalisation and criminalisation. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS BRATISLAVA, Apr 27 2020 (IPS) – Despite…
Singapore, May 18 2020 (IPS) – When the United States and China signed the First-Phase of their Trade Agreement in January this year, President Donald Trump called it a “momentous step”, and the world believed they had stepped back from a dangerous brink. But, alas, to cite an idiom that is so current today, it…
Credit: shutterstock / getty / the atlantic Jun 30 2020 – President Donald Trump has got himself a wall. But it is not the one of his choosing, as one on the Mexican border. It is on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, a high fence that now separates him from his people. But as polls for…