|
|
News for a Sustainable World
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 25 | 2021. This weekly is the flagship news product of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with registered offices in Canada, Germany, Japan and Singapore, and correspondents around the world. Feel free to share and re-publish articles pro bono mentioning the source. Previous editions are available on https://newsletter-archive.indepthnews.net. Your feedback is most welcome.
Kind regards from the Non-Profit
International Press Syndicate
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte
Ambassador, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
NEW YORK (IDN) — “We escaped the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust by some combination of skill, luck and divine intervention—probably the latter in greatest proportion.”[1]
— Gen. Lee Butler, former commander of U.S. nuclear forces.
Read More
By Thalif Deen*
NEW YORK (IDN) — When Raul Castro decided to retire, both as leader of Cuba and head of the Communist Party last April, it was the end of a politically adventurous era for a country most American leaders loved to hate.
In the late 1950s, it was Raul and his more famous older brother, Fidel Castro, who led an insurgency that toppled the American-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.
Read More
By Arjun Kumar, Ritika Gupta, Chhavi Kapoor, Kashish Babbar, Rohit Mehta*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — With the rolling out of vaccinations early in the year 2021, there was a need for an efficient vaccination drive to dose about 1.39 billion Indians.
To pave the way for a universal and citizen-centric structure of vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a digital vaccination management system called CoWIN, a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination in India.
Read More
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — “How sour sweet music is, When time is broke, and no proportion kept! So it is in the music of men’s lives”
Shakespeare wrote this in his play Richard II in 1595. In the events of his day in high politics, there was little sense of proportion. In Europe war was everywhere. Neither is there much today, particularly when it comes to conflict and war.
Read More
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — One of the giants of 20th century African nationalism, Kenneth Kaunda, former president of Zambia was to many, the gentle giant who pioneered African socialism. The “patriarch of African independence” passed away June 17 at a military hospital in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. He was 97.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta eulogized him for bravely hosting various liberation groups and he received international kudos for bowing out peacefully after losing an election.
Read More
By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MAPUTO | MOSCOW (IDN) — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has recorded numerous achievements since its establishment, some of which during the term of office, from September 2013 to date, of Executive Secretary, Stergomena Lawrence Tax. She concludes her second term in August 2021. Her key responsibilities have been engaging all the members as an economic bloc, overseeing, and implementing various programmes and projects in the Southern African region.
Read More
By Bernhard Schell
DUBAI (IDN) — The African continent is emerging as one of the preferred destinations for investments, because it has immense untapped economic potential that presents innumerable opportunities for investors, according to data released in 2020 by the United Nations Population Division. Business experts across the globe have regarded this region as the future economic growth engine of the world.
Read More
By Caroline Mwaga
NEW YORK (IDN) — “We are truly at a crossroads, with consequential choices before us. Paradigms are shifting. Old orthodoxies are being flipped,” António Guterres told ambassadors after being re-appointed on June 18 to a second term as UN Secretary-General. He was the sole candidate from the UN’s 193 Member States to vie for its top job. His first five-year term began in January 2017. He was nominated by his homeland, Portugal, and appointed by acclamation by the General Assembly, following prior endorsement by the UN Security Council, for a second term that runs from January 2022 to December 2026.
Read More
By UNCTAD
GENEVA (IDN) — Coronavirus pandemic recovery efforts should provide comprehensive social protection, fight climate change, and ensure vaccines reach the poorest people quickly.
Nobel laureate Esther Duflo spelled out what an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 crisis should entail and outlined lessons learned from the pandemic, while delivering the 17th edition of UNCTAD’s prestigious Raúl Prebisch Lecture on June 15.
Read More
By Nisar Keshvani
SINGAPORE (IDN) — Imagine. The most remote of mountains. Two thousand metres above sea level. On the Silk Road, and 240 km away from China. In secondary cities with populations going up to 150,000. Therein, majestically stands a fully-residential university, delivering a world-class education for the next generation of Central Asian learners—regardless of their financial position.
Read More
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*
This is the second in a series of four articles. Click here for the first in the series.
QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — If Covid-19 has taught us one lesson, it is that the creativity within the scientific community led to effective vaccine development in a timeframe nobody anticipated. Frankly, humanity got lucky. Imagine if science had not made the requisite advances to create effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time. Regarding the climate challenge, there are no effective vaccines available. There is no immunity from the deleterious effects of climate change. Like the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the climate challenge threatens the survival of humanity.
Read More
Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — China’s announcement of May 31 to allow couples to have three children, instead of two as is the rule now, has not captured the attention it deserves for its ramifications because the country is so much in the news for the wrong reasons such as its military stand-off with India or glossing over the origin of Covid-19 virus. The ruling Communist Party Politburo’s decision shows that although China’s economy is doing better than any other major economy in the Covid-ravaged world, the country is caught in a demographic crisis that could begin eroding its economic strength.
Read More
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*
This is the first in a series of four articles.
QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — The climate crisis is the most daunting challenge ever confronted by humankind. At the present time, mankind is losing the battle. This article explores the first of three dimensions of our inept response; cognition. As a point of full disclosure, I am a climate crisis believer; one who remains deeply concerned about the current state of efforts of every type to deliver elements of a comprehensive solution…in time.
Read More
Viewpoint by K.M. Seethi*
KOTTAYAM | India (IDN) — The Arctic geopolitics has become one of the strategic policy planks of big powers. This has been reflected in the separate statements issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden after the US-Russia summit in Geneva on June 16.
Putin told reporters that Moscow and Washington “should interact on issues related to the Arctic region.” He said: “Russia and the United States are among the eight members of the Arctic Council; Russia chairs the Arctic Council this year. Moreover…there is a strait between Alaska and Chukotka, the United States is on one side and Russia is on the other. All this together should push us to join efforts” (The TASS News 16 June 2021).
Read More
Viewpoint by Emil Avdaliani*
TBILISI, Georgia (IDN) — State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted the China+Central Asia (C+C5) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in the Chinese city of Xi'an on May 12. This is the second such meeting, which increasingly focuses (with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) on geopolitical issues. More broadly, it signals China’s lack of concern for what Russia considers its vital economic and political interests in the region.
Read More
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*
NEW YORK (IDN) — The President of the United States Joseph Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met on June 16 in Geneva at a time when the two countries are engrossed in an antagonistic confrontation over many issues—historically, the worst ever relations between the two countries.
Read More
|
|
|