Trade : North countries "shown the mirror" at WTO on e-com moratorium (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
India, Indonesia, and South Africa on 18 September "showed the mirror" to the United States, the European Union, and other proponents of the e-commerce moratorium on customs duties on electron ic transmissions, stressing that it has caused incalculable damage to the deve loping countries by denying them the necessary policy space to pursue their digita l industrialization, said people familiar with the development.

Trade : US, for 68th time, blocks appointments to WTO's Appellate Body (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
For the 68th time or close to the sixth y ear in a row, the United States on 19 September blocked a request from 130 members o f the World Trade Organization for commencing the selection process to fill t he vacancies on the Appellate Body, sticking to its much-repeated position tha t its long-standing concerns regarding the Appellate Body remain unaddressed, sai d people familiar with the meeting.

UN : Still living in the 1940s, urgently in need of reforms (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
Politically, the United Nations has l argely been described as a monumental failure - with little or no progress in reso lving some of the world's past and ongoing military conflicts and civil wars, inc luding Palestine, Western Sahara, Kashmir, and more recently, Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Myanmar, among others.

Latin America : Lagging in its homework to meet the SDGs (PRIV)
(IPS, Caracas)
The Latin American and Caribbean region is arriving at the Sustainable Development Goals Summit on the right track but far behind in terms of progress, at the halfway point to achieve the SD Gs, which aim to overcome poverty and create a cleaner and healthier environmen t.