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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 18 | 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 Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — During the months-long Covid lockdowns across Australia in 2021, the reason given was that the country's public hospitals would be overwhelmed by the virus-infected patients, and they would not be able to cope with the situation. Thus, while the surgery scheduled was postponed, there were long queues of patients waiting for hours seeking admission to hospital emergency units.
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Viewpoint by Boaventura de Sousa Santos
This article was produced by Globetrotter. Boaventura de Sousa Santos is the emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. His most recent book is Decolonizing the University: The Challenge of Deep Cognitive Justice.
COIMBRA, Portugal (IDN) — The North Atlantic media is entangled in an unprecedented information war. It is characterized by a relentless erosion of the distinction between facts and the manipulation of emotions and perceptions, between conjectures and unassailable truths.
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By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — A sign outside a gun store in the United States was dead on target: "We sell guns to every Dick, Tom and Dirty Harry."
Clint Eastwood, one of Hollywood's enduring tough guys, played the role of the maverick San Francisco cop "Dirty Harry" in the 1971 crime thriller in which he took the law into his own hands trying to track down a serial killer on the loose. Described by some critics as a fascist movie, "Dirty Harry" helped Eastwood climb the top of the box office charts.
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Viewpoint by India Walton*
BUFFALO, NEW YORK (IDN) — When I ran for mayor of Buffalo, New York, last year, my past-due parking tickets became a major reason for reduced favorability among voters. When Stacy Abrams ran for governor of Georgia in 2018, there was a lot of talk in the mainstream media about how much debt she was in.
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By Annalena Baerbock
Following is the text of a speech at the “Sustaining Peace amidst the Climate Crisis: The Role of Data Science, Technology & Innovation" Conference on May 2-3 in Berlin.
BERLIN (IDN) — The climate crisis is a threat to our world, to our lives.
Many of you have known this for years.
Many of us in Germany realised that vividly last year, when deadly floods killed almost two hundred people in our country.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
This article builds on a column of 1974 the author wrote for the New York Times. It was the most prominent article printed that day on the op-ed page. Over a long career, he has developed those ideas and the following is the result.
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Sweden has been a different land from almost every other. If we overlook Sweden’s military contribution on the side of the US in Afghanistan when it deployed a mere 500 troops, it’s been 206 years since it went to war—and lost to Norway, which then achieved its independence. Immediately before that, it lost two wars to Russia—in 1790 and earlier in 1721.
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By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon*
SAN FRANCISCO, USA (IDN) — Sometimes one decision speaks volumes. And so it was when the Congressional Progressive Caucus—with 98 members in the House—recently chose to have its PAC endorse a corporate “moderate” against the strong progressive candidate Nina Turner.
In the process, the Progressive Caucus underscored its loyalty to establishment Democrats while damaging its credibility among progressives nationwide.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Seydi Sow, a landowner in Djogo, Senegal, contemplated his eviction by a mining company with joint headquarters in Australia and France and which mines zircon in central Senegal.
The elderly landowner said he was wronged in the compensation process.
With two fields over two hectares in size, he complained he received a small payment, much less than others with smaller farms.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | FREETOWN (IDN) — Schoolteachers in Sierra Leone say they’ve had enough after the arrest of Mohamed Salieu Khan, interim chair of the Teachers Solidarity Movement (TSM). On April 26, he was grabbed by police outside the popular AYV TV station after speaking about the dismal plight of schoolteachers and their unequal conditions of service.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Reparations—a system of redress for egregious injustices—are not a foreign idea imposed from the outside on the United States. On the contrary, the U.S. has given lands to Native Americans, paid $1.5 billion to Japanese Americans interned in the U.S. during World War II, and helped Jews receive reparations for the Holocaust, including making various investments over time.
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Reviewed by Desmond Narain Doulatram*
The book by Walter Pincus (Diversion Books, November 2021) was reviewed in Arms Control Today.
MAJURO, Marshall Islands (IDN) — Many researchers have written extensively on the nuclear history of the Marshall Islands, but these publications have not benefited the indigenous Marshallese population justly. Ultimately, it is the Marshallese, not outsiders, who live with the consequences of these circulated narratives, which focus on the environmental and human impact of more than 60 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in their region from 1946 to 1958.1
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By Barbara Crossette, Passblue
NEW YORK (IDN) — In Europe and around the world, the landmark drama theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will long be associated with crimes against humanity, whether or not a formal trial of the Russians who bombed it is ever held.
At least 300 people, including many children—the final toll is not known—died there on March 16 during Russia’s savage war on Ukraine. The theater may have been harboring as many as 1,300 people when it was hit.
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By Jim Garamone & David Vergun, DOD News
This report was issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — U.S. service members in Germany have begun training Ukrainian soldiers on key systems being used to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion, according to Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby.
"These efforts build on the initial artillery training that Ukraine's forces already have received elsewhere and also includes training on radar systems and armored vehicles that have been recently announced as part of security assistance packages," Kirby said.
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By Radwan Jakeem with UN News
NEW YORK (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres was visibly "personally affected" on visiting sites of suspected war crimes in Ukraine on April 28, where he condemned the "evil" acts committed against civilians and urged criminal accountability.
His visit to the Kyiv suburbs of Borodianka, Bucha and Irpin took place nine weeks since the Russian invasion began on February 24. Mr Guterres urged Russia "to accept to cooperate" with the ongoing investigation launched by the International Criminal Court, the ICC.
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By Staff Reporter, The Telegraph Online
KOLKATA, Indien (IDN) — A delegation of Russian companies, led by Russoft, an association of software development companies, held business meetings with companies in the technology sector operating in Bengal, a day ahead of the state’s flagship industry meet—Bengal Global Business Summit on April 20-21.
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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which primarily include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030, are in deep financial trouble.
The goals have been severely undermined by the cumulative effects of several factors, including the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine and, most importantly, the widespread COVID-19 pandemic which has had a devastating impact on both the world’s rich and poor nations.
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By Jaya Ramachandaran
PARIS | ABIDJAN | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) — Urbanisation enhances gross domestic product (GDP), finds a new report by the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC/OECD) in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Africa’s Development Dynamics 2022 The Economic Power of Africa’s Cities analyses data from four million individuals and firms in 2 600 cities across 34 African countries. It claims to offer the most extensive assessment of the impact of Africa’s cities on social and economic outcomes.
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By Jim Garamone, DOD News
This report was issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Canada and the United States are in lockstep in their support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, defense leaders said following Pentagon meetings on April 28.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III hosted Canadian Minister of National Defense Anita Anand for the meeting that also covered the wide range of issues facing both neighbors.
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Viewpoint by Roberto Savio *
This article was issued by Meer and is being re-published with the author's permission.
ROME (IDN) — It seems to me that after six weeks of conflict we have to take stock of the conflict, looking at which of the actors have got any profit: the famous latin cui prodest... and we see clearly that nobody has gained anything, and that we are in a period of the suicide of reason.
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