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Published by The Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group
with IDN-InDepthNews as the Flagship Agency
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to send you Edition 41 | 2020 of BEYOND BREAKING THE NEWS, a flagship news product, now in the fifth year, meanwhile published every Monday by the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group, with registered offices in Canada, Germany, Japan and Singapore, and correspondents around the world. Previous editions are available on https://newsletter-archive.indepthnews.net. Read. Share. Publish; free of charge but mention us as the source. We would appreciate your Feedback.
Kind regards from the Non-Profit
International Press Syndicate
A New Social Contract in the Age of Artificial Intelligence'
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – People around the world are realizing that capitalism driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) requires crafting a new sort of Social Contract, based on "stakeholder capitalism", that is, capitalism that benefits everyone.
"Such capitalism cannot measure itself by money alone, but instead must encompass all aspects of human life, using metrics such as those developed to quantify the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," says Alex Pentland, director of MIT Connection Science, an MIT-wide initiative, and previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India.
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Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*
QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) – For the majority of people, the emotion engendered by a UFO landing on Earth is fear. For others, it is a confirmation of a hope – that there are alternative realities to the beliefs the majority currently hold. Confirming the reality of a UFO landing on Earth opens up vast possibilities that people had heretofore thought impossible.
Currently, Mexico has a UFO. It is not an Unidentified Flying Object. It is an Unequivocal Failing Organization. The name of the UFO is Pemex or Petróleos Mexicanos. Pemex is the largest taxpayer in Mexico, its largest company, and one of the largest companies in Latin America.
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By Kalinga Seneviratne
This article is the 44th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.
SINGAPORE (IDN) – The Sri Lankan government will be amending the Animal Act after the Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to ban the slaughter of cows in this predominantly Buddhist country. However, animal rights activists point out that there are no animal welfare laws in the country, and a bill to enact an Animal Welfare Act has been blocked in parliament since 2006.
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Viewpoint by David Collinson*
LANCASTER (IDN) – Positivity is widely seen as an important quality for effective leadership. Upbeat and optimistic leaders can inspire commitment and creativity. But when taken to excess, being positive can become manipulative and counterproductive. In fact, my research has found that excessive positivity can be extremely dangerous.
I have examined the frequent tendency of leaders to engage in excessively positive thinking – what I’ve called “Prozac leadership”. Prozac leaders believe their own rhetoric that “everything is going well”.
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Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar
This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.
LOS ANGELES (IDN) – From the very beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump was pushing every boundary, violating the Constitution, and breaking rules and norms. But during this past year, he has escalated his attacks on the nation enough that we are at a point where the American president is waging war on the nation—even if many of us don’t yet realize it.
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By Saltanat Suraganova
ALMATY (IDN | Kazinform) – The name of Abai is known worldwide just as Shakespeare, Goethe, and Pushkin are well-known in many countries. His books were translated into many foreign languages. So, we can say definitely that Abai made a contribution to not only Kazakh culture and folklore but world literature as well. This year Kazakhstan celebrates the 175th anniversary of Abai. His popularity in our country is undeniable.
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By Jamshed Baruah
GENEVA (IDN) – "The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards a more digital world. The changes we make now will have lasting effects as the world economy begins to recover," says Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The acceleration of online shopping globally underscores the urgency of ensuring all countries can seize the opportunities offered by digitalization as the world moves from pandemic response to recovery, he adds.
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By Richard Jacobsen
VIENNA (IDN) – A new UN report has documented the interlinkages between trafficking in persons and marriage, and specified steps for governments and other authorities to strike back. Published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the report points out that across the world, girls as young as 12 are being forced or tricked into marrying men who exploit them for sex and domestic work, in what the UNODC has called an "under-reported, global form of human trafficking".
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Viewpoint by Juan Romo*
This article is one of two published by the UN Chronicle providing commentary by a distinguished scholar on the Secretary-General's Policy Brief: "COVID-19 in an Urban World". Click here to read the other article.
NEW YORK (IDN) – The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to large cities. The high levels of global and local interconnectivity of cities leave them particularly exposed to deadly epidemics, as they have been throughout history. The recent Policy Brief: COVID-19 in an Urban World, issued by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, emphasizes that vulnerable sectors of urban societies are especially harmed both by the incidence of the virus and the economic impact of related shutdown measures.
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Viewpoint by Andrea(s) Speck*
SEVILLE (IDN) – After more than 40 years since the first UN conference on climate change in 1979 – and after more than 25 years of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) – the world is still far from any serious climate action. Although carbon emissions keep rising, there has been a bend in the curve this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, serious concerns about a major rebound remain, and China’s emissions have already rebounded beyond pre-COVID levels in May.
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Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha*
NEW DELHI (IDN) – As the pandemic continues to spread throughout the world, many countries seem to have given up the fight against COVID-19 and are now waiting for a vaccine to protect against the virus. With cases exceeding 32 million, and more than a million dead, the world economy has taken a bigger hit than at any other time since the end of the Great Depression of 1929-39.
The U.S. and India are now showing the highest numbers of total and new cases of COVID-19. Both have stopped talking about how to stop the pandemic, and are only focusing on reopening—or as India calls it, “unlockdown.”
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Viewpoint by Randall Hansen*
TORONTO (IDN) – In November 2019, a federal government official visited the University of Toronto’s Munk School and asked its faculty to delineate coming global threats. We spoke of inequality, hunger, climate change, sanitation, and plastic pollution, among others. No one mentioned a microbe; a discussion of the threat of immunity to antibiotics was as close as we got.
Four months later, everyone in that room was under lockdown. COVID-19 hit the world as a freight train hits a car stalled at a railroad crossing. The virus has shredded the rhythm of our daily lives, and it will reconfigure our economies and politics.
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By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – Voters in the South Pacific Islands French colony of New Caledonia have narrowly voted to remain with French rule, but indigenous Kanaks have been celebrating the outcome of October 5 vote as taking a step closer to independence. A third referendum needs to be held in two years' time under the Noumea Accord, and they feel that majority of voters would then vote for independence.
Kanaks are an indigenous Melanesian race that has settled in the islands 3,000 years ago. Ethnographic research has shown that Polynesian seafarers have intermarried with the Kanaks over the centuries.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – China has decided once again – as it does periodically – to up the ante with Taiwan, the big off-shore island, it claims as its own. Last month China sharply increased its military manoeuvres close to Taiwan’s borders. In return, Taiwan sent its fighter planes aloft every day for two weeks. U.S. diplomats in Taiwan are saying this is the worst escalation of Chinese military activity in two decades.
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Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – The U.S. has now conditioned the lifting of painful sanctions on Sudan until it agrees to Washington’s Middle East agenda and to normalizing relations with Israel.
If Sudan agrees before U.S. elections in November, sanctions could be lifted, opening the floodgates to desperately needed investment for this economically stressed corner of Africa.
Our economy is in shambles, admitted Amjed Farid, assistant chief of staff for Sudan’s prime minister. Sudan can't even get COVID aid from international institutions. U.S. sanctions have blocked all transactions using US currency or products, impeding any business with operations in the U.S. from trading with Sudan.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Harvest festivals are a common sight in Africa although this year organizers were advised to keep the numbers down due to the COVID-10 pandemic.
The Homowo Festival – a celebration by the Ga people of Ghana – was held as scheduled in Ga Mashie. Many of the celebrants could be seen wearing masks while cooking pots held steaming soups and other dishes.
In Ethiopia, massive crowds were expected in the Oromia region for the harvest festival of Irreecha – one of the year’s most important cultural and religious events for millions of ethnic Oromos. Flowers and long grasses are traditionally tossed into a pool of water to thank God for the blessings of the past year and to wish prosperity for the coming year.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – African faith leaders are calling on Bill Gates to reconsider his foundation’s “highly problematic” support of genetically engineered foods, crops and agrichemicals against the interests of non-corporate farmers in countries throughout Africa.
“We write out of grave concern that the Gates Foundation’s support for the expansion of intensive industrial scale agriculture is deepening the humanitarian crisis,” says the sign-on open letter coordinated by the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI).
SAFCEI, based in Cape Town, South Africa, is comprised of African traditional healers, members of the Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, and Quaker faiths, and a wide range of Christian denominations.
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Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon
Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party candidate for the US Congress from California’s 17th District. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.
CALIFORNIA (IDN) – On September 19, a huge fleet of cars drove down the streets of California to spread the message to vote NO on Prop 16 among the local constituents.
The event endorsed by Californians For Equal Rights (CFER) and planned by a team of local volunteers reminded one of an old adage that the road to hell is usually paved with good intentions.
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