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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
Download Sustainable Development Observer
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to send you Edition 16 | 2022. 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
By Mila Bera
BELGRADE (IDN) — Ask a family member or friend how much they value their online privacy and you'll usually get a noncommittal answer that belies their disinterest. In fact, most people don’t have a clue how much their privacy is really worth. Governments and their agencies have no such doubts; they set the price on your privacy long ago.
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By Pattama Vilailert
BANGKOK (IDN) — Street vendors have been an iconic attraction for millions of tourists that visited Bangkok each year before the COVID-19 pandemic. In perfect tune with the Thais' approach to enjoying life to its fullest, including eating and shopping, street vendors have set their carts in the heart of Thai people and Bangkok for a century, serving both Thais and foreigners.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It goes back to the French revolution of 1789. At the Revolutionary Convention the most radical of the insurgents decided to seat themselves on the left side. “Why not on the other side, the right side, the place of rectitude, where law and the higher right resided, when man’s best hand could be raised in righteous honour?” wrote Melvin Lasky in Britain's intellectual monthly, Encounter. “Anyway, they went left, and man’s political passions have never been the same.”
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Viewpoint by Alan Keenan
The writer is Senior Consultant, International Crisis Group.
BRUSSELS (IDN) — Protests, which had been building from late February in response to Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis in nearly 75 years of independence, have now morphed into a nationwide uprising. Protesters are demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and removal of the Rajapaksa family from politics.
The protest wave gained momentum as the results of the government’s financial and economic mismanagement became increasingly visible amid rapidly disappearing hard currency reserves and widespread shortages.
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Viewpoint by E. Ahmet Tonak and Vijay Prashad *
This article was produced by Globetrotter.
NEW YORK | NORTHAMPTON (IDN) — An article written by authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge for Bloomberg on March 24 sounded the alarm to announce the end of “the second great age of globalization.” The Western trade war and sanctions against China that predated the pandemic have now been joined by the stiff Western sanctions imposed against Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
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This is the second in a series of two articles. Please click here for Part One.
Viewpoint by ALA Azeez
ROME (IDN) — In a further measure aimed to reduce the pressure on the declining foreign reserves, the foreign ministry announced over the past months, plans to close down some of Sri Lanka's missions abroad. It is not clear what criteria was applied and if any other missions have been identified for possible closure.
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This is the first in a series of two articles.
Viewpoint by ALA Azeez
ROME (IDN) — In a series of political appointments made by the Sri Lankan government in the past few months even as the economic crisis was looming large, the latest one pertains to the diplomatic position of Consul General at Milan, Italy.
As of writing, the foreign ministry, under mounting public pressure, has clarified via its latest press release, that the person concerned "will not be appointed the consul general in Milan".
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Viewpoint by Nandi Jasentuliyana
The writer is a former Deputy Director-General, United Nations.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (IDN) — Sri Lanka is experiencing a severe foreign exchange and debt crisis resulting in a shortage of food, fuel, power, and every other commodity to be purchased at exorbitant prices that the suffering masses cannot afford, forcing them to the streets protesting against the governing authorities.
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By C. Todd Lopez , U.S: Department of Defence (DOD) News
WASHINGTON (IDN) — Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, February 24, the U.S. government has provided $2.6 billion in security assistance to the Ukrainians to help them regain and defend their sovereignty. Much of what has been sent has come straight out of U.S. military stockpiles. Nevertheless, the U.S. military's own readiness has not been affected by having sent that gear overseas, said Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby during a briefing on April 14.
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By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW | HELSINKI (IDN) — Further expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) toward Russia's territorial backyard is nothing new. As a prestigious security alliance, it consistently seeks consolidated development in terms of tasks and membership strength. The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of Mikhail Gorbachev and ushering in of Boris Yeltsin as the first President of the Russian Federation. There were negotiations aimed at preparing Russia to ascend unto NATO and even join the European Union (EU).
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Nigerian Gospel Singer Dead at 42
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwen
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — A good number of those I have spoken with since the news of her tragic death broke on April 8 night, said Nigerian gospel artiste, Osinachi Nwachukwu, 42, should not have died. She was such a tremendous gift to millions of people and inspired even millions more through her songs, yet she had not even reached the peak of her potential.
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Viewpoint by Katrina vanden Heuvel
NEW YORK (IDN) — The Russian invasion of Ukraine “is in many ways bigger than Russia, it’s bigger than Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price recently declared. “There are principles that are at stake here … Each and every country has a sovereign right to determine its own foreign policy, has a sovereign right to determine for itself with whom it will choose to associate in terms of its alliances, its partnerships and what orientation it wishes to direct its gaze.”
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A message from Members of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Members of the SDSN Community*
NEW YORK — The war in Ukraine threatens not only sustainable development, but the survival of humanity. We call on all nations, operating in accordance with the UN Charter, to put diplomacy to the service of humanity by ending the war through negotiations before the war ends all of us.
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By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — As the devastating war in Ukraine continues—with thousands of civilian killings and entire cities reduced to rubble—the United States has accelerated an unprecedented flow of weapons to the besieged nation.
If Ukraine loses the ongoing war, battling one of the world’s major military and nuclear powers, it is certainly not for want of weapons.
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By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK (IDN) — The crippling cost of debt financing for many developing countries has hamstrung their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, forced cutbacks in development spending, and constrained their ability to respond to further shocks, according to a new United Nations report.
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By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW (IDN) — Russia's tourism, both in-bound and out-bound, is severely hit by the war-ravaged crisis that unfolded in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine late February. For more than two years, the tourism industry was affected due to the widespread Covid-19 that shattered the world.
Industry operators say that the impact on tourism due to Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine has pushed the United States and Canada, European Union, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries to impose a series of sanctions, which are currently affecting the smooth operation of tourism business.
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