Malaysian women peacekeepers of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at a medal ceremony in Kawkaba, south Lebanon. UN Photo/Pasqual Gorriz

It’s International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day. The official hashtag is #BeBoldforChange. The organizers of the massive Women’s March following the US election are also billing this a “day without women” with stayaways expected across the country and world. 

Today’s Security Council Meeting on DPRK Should Be Interesting…”In recent weeks, it appeared that China was growing increasingly exasperated with Pyongyang’s flaunting of previous Security Council resolutions supported by China. This included a missile test last month, after which China took the extreme step of banning all coal imports from North Korea. This cut off one of North Korea’s most significant sources of legitimate income. It was also a sign that China was willing to get tough on North Korea in ways that it had not in the past. But it is entirely possible that Beijing finds the missile defense  deployment more threatening to its core national interests than it does North Korea’s erratic behavior. If so, then Chinese cooperation on North Korean diplomacy may be much tougher to secure.” (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2mgg29J)

India Shuts Down Major US Charity…India’s crackdown on foreign aid will claim its most prominent casualty this month, as a Colorado-based Christian charity that is one of India’s biggest donors closes its operations here after 48 years, informing tens of thousands of children that they will no longer receive meals, medical care or tuition payments.The shutdown of the charity, Compassion International, on suspicion of engaging in religious conversion, comes as India, a rising economic power with a swelling spirit of nationalism, curtails the flow of foreign money to activities it deems “detrimental to the national interest.” More than 11,000 nongovernmental organizations have lost their licenses to accept foreign funds since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. Major Western funders — among them George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the National Endowment for Democracy — have been barred from transferring funds without permission from Indian security officials. (NYT http://nyti.ms/2mgp4nj)

80 Years After Earhart…India’s national airline claimed Monday to have set a new record with the first round-the-world flight staffed entirely by women. Ai India said its Boeing 777 travelled from Delhi to San Francisco and back again with an all-female crew last week, the first time such a flight has circumnavigated the globe. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2mTVp6e)