UN : Asia-Pacific LDCs highlight challenges amid pandemic & graduation (PRIV)
(Prerna Bomzan, Kathmandu)
At the final session of the high-level Asia-Pacific Regional Review meeting of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), national challenges compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and structural issues including fiscal space were highlig hted.

Mexico : Indigenous peoples defend their right to water (PRIV)
(IPS, Lerma)
In the San Lorenzo Huitzizilapan Otomi indigenous community, in the state of Mexico - adjacent to the country's ca pital -, access to water has been based on collective work.

El Salvador : Bukele speeds up moves towards authoritarianism (PRIV)
(IPS, San Salvador)
The president of El Salvador, N ayib Bukele, has been widely criticised for his authoritarian tendencies, but ha s said that the changes he plans will be long-term - which to his critics means a furth er undercutting of the weak democratic institutions that he has already begun to dismantle.