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News for a Sustainable World
Published by The Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group
with IDN-InDepthNews as the Flagship Agency
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We wish our readers happy holidays and a smooth transition into New Year.
The first 2022 issue of BBN will appear on Friday, January 7.
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to send you Edition 51-52 | 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 Chulanee Attanayake and Chirayu Thakkar
This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
COLOMBO | SINGAPORE (IDN) — On December 3, 2021, the South Asian headlines were dominated by the unfortunate lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager, Priyantha Kumara. An Export Manager working in Pakistan since 2010, Priyantha Kumara, was beaten, killed and set on fire for removing posters with religious verses printed on them. The mob construed this as an act of blasphemy. The gruesome incident shook the conscience of many, with protests sparked within Pakistan and demands for justice in Sri Lanka.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The negotiations over Iran’s supposed nuclear bomb-building abilities seem to be stuck in a rut. On December 27, they re-started once again. Given the detailed undertakings by Iran made in the agreement negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama before President Donald Trump sabotaged it, it should have only been a hop, skip and a jump to forge a final agreement once President Joe Biden decided to resurrect it.
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By Lim Mah-Hui and Michael Heng Siam-Heng
SINGAPORE (IDN) — This is clearly an ambitious book spanning over 200 pages and covering the history of economic and philosophical thought, pandemics, climate change, different economic and political systems and recent financial developments. The authors’ objective is to argue that these subject matters are not separate but are all intertwined. In doing so, the three authors’ years of experience in academia, public and private sectors are clearly discernible in each of the six chapters. By entitling the book ‘COVID-19 and the Structural Crises of Our time’ the authors are aiming to ride on a topical issue and hence appeal to the broader general public.
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By Caroline Mwanga
YANGON (IDN) — By early 2022, nearly half of Myanmar’s 55 million population—some 25 million people—will be living below the national poverty line, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A survey leaves no doubt that the country’s poverty headcount is likely to return to levels not seen since 2005, effectively erasing 15 years of pre-pandemic economic growth.
“The rising levels of poverty is not just about the lack of incomes to survive but we are also seeing a significant risk to nutrition, health and education, which will negatively impact on the human capital of the next generation,” said the survey report.
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THEKCHEN CHÖLING, Dharamsala, India (IDN) — Immediately on being informed that his “respected elder spiritual brother and good friend” Archbishop Desmond Tutu had passed away, His Holiness the Dalai Lama composed a letter to the Archbishop’s daughter, Rev. Mpho Tutu.
“Please accept my heartfelt condolences,” he wrote, “and convey the same to your mother and other members of your family. I pray for him.
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By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK (IDN) — Yemen, currently among the poorest countries in the world, continues to be mired in a conflict underway since 2015, which in addition to the loss of life is tearing apart livelihoods, social fabric, causing Yemen to teeter on the brink of famine, and resulting in widespread reversals of development progress.
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By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) — Expressing solidarity with migrants on the move, “has never been more urgent”, said the United Nations Secretary-General in a message just ahead of International Migrants Day, celebrated on December 25. This year, International Migrants Day falls almost exactly 70 years since the historic Brussels conference that led to the establishment of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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Viewpoint by Yanis Iqbal
ALIGARH, India (IDN) — The 2021 presidential election in Chile has resulted in the victory of the Left candidate Gabriel Boric. With nearly 56% of the vote, he has won by a margin of more than 10 percentage points—most presidents had hitherto secured only four or five point leads.
In absolute terms, this is a record majority, with some 4.6 million votes cast for Boric, putting him almost 1 million votes ahead of the pro-Pinochet candidate, Juan Antonio Kast, who obtained 44%. These electoral outcomes were marked by political polarization.
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By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | STOCKHOLM (IDN) — The 16-nation Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament has urged the upcoming Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) from January 4-28, 2022, "to demonstrate political leadership, honour commitments and achievements made under the Treaty, and set ourselves on a decisive path towards a world free of nuclear weapons, in the interest of preserving humanity".
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By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW I BAMAKO (IDN) — The Republic of Mali, a landlocked West African state with an impoverished population, faces increasing isolation from the international community over the political power grab. Even as the African Union (AU), the continental organization, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the regional bloc, both suspended the membership of the Republic of Mali following military coups in August 2020 and May 2021, the ruling military officials are still holding onto political power by delaying the proposed elections earlier next year.
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By UNDP
NEW YORK (IDN) — In A Special Online event featuring voices from the Sahel, from top-level officials to artists and activists in the region, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented on December 9 its new programmatic Offer for the Sahel region: A Regeneration. Covering ten countries—Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and The Gambia—the programme is a call for new partners to join local actors and the United Nations in a unique contribution to the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS) to regenerate this great land of opportunity.
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By Niranjan Marjani
The writer is an independent researcher and columnist based in Vadodara (formerly Baroda), India.
VADODARA, India (IDN) — The November 13 attack on an Assam Rifles convoy by two Manipur insurgent groups—the People’s Liberation Army and Manipur Naga People’s Front—in Churachandpur district of Manipur has the potential to further destabilise Northeast India. Insurgent groups’ links in the region to Myanmar mandate a rethink of India’s approach to the issue.
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