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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 21 | 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 Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — While most Americans seem troubled by the rising cost of everything, the American government is on a lavish spending spree in Nigeria.
More than half a billion dollars has been budgeted for a new U.S. consulate general in Eko Atlantic, a spit of land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean in Lagos that features high-end residential and commercial properties.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK | BANJUL (IDN) — Civil society organizations in The Gambia are turning up the heat on current Gambian president Adama Barrow to prosecute heinous crimes linked to ousted dictator Yahya Jammeh, outlined in a report.
The report on human rights crimes was compiled by the Gambia Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission and was delivered to President Barrow last November. It calls for the prosecution of those who committed a host of serious crimes during the previous administration and is widely believed to specifically name Jammeh and 69 others.
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By Rita Joshi
BERLIN (IDN) — Despite strong early pledges to sanction and track the illicit wealth of Russian elites following the invasion of Ukraine, the G7 and other leading economies’ rhetoric does not match reality, according to an analysis of Transparency International analysis released on May 24.
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The world is lather about the jump in world food prices in world food prices. Just this last weekend the Minister of Agriculture of Egypt was saying that, without assured grain supplies from Russia and Ukraine, he expected a rise of widespread malnutrition.
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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The world’s growing environmental crisis—including climate change, which has resulted in widespread droughts, floods and heatwaves threatening major food crops—is escalating security risks worldwide.
A new policy report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), titled Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk,‘ points out that between 2010 and 2020 the number of state-based armed conflicts roughly doubled (to 56), as did the number of conflict deaths. At the same time, the number of refugees and other forcibly displaced people also doubled, to 82.4 million.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — European countries have generously offered shelter to some of the 5.5 million people who fled the war in Ukraine launched on Feb. 24 with an unprovoked attack by Russia.
More than 50,000 have been welcomed by France and granted a temporary status that enables them to work and receive social and medical assistance.
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By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — While a professor at the University of Nairobi, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was the catalyst of the discussion to abolish the English department. He argued that after the end of colonialism, it was imperative that a university in Africa teach African literature, including oral literature, and that such should be done in the richness of African languages.
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Viewpoint by John P. Ruehl
This article was produced by Globetrotter. The writer is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — The United States’ approach to India since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis has reignited India’s historical grievances toward Washington. But outreach by other major powers—such as Russia and China—to New Delhi illustrates India’s growing clout in international affairs.
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By Sheryl Lal and Akansha Narayan*
NADI, Fiji (IDN) — Though Fiji Islands was unaffected by the first wave of COVID-19, its tourism sector, the lifeblood of the economy, has been devastated by border closure across the world due to the pandemic in the past two years. Thus, when the Fijian Tourism Expo (FTE) returned after a break of two years, Fiji Tourism’s CEO Brent Hill was in an upbeat mood, especially because they have been able to attract over 500 participants to the Expo in these competitive times for the travel industry. But, having experienced the vulnerabilities, sustainability was very much in focus during presentations at the event here.
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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The upcoming visit to China by Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has come under critical US scrutiny.
Asked about the proposed visit, US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on May 20: “We are deeply concerned about the upcoming visit. Our understanding of the planned restrictions that she will be subjected to during the visit—based on that, we have no expectation that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will grant the necessary access required to conduct a complete, unmanipulated assessment of the human rights environment in Xinjiang”.
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Viewpoint by Kazuo Matsushita
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
TOKYO (IDN) — War is the worst destruction of the environment and human rights.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is truly a humanitarian crisis. In addition, the war has caused extensive damage to the environment, the effects of which are feared to be long-lasting. Even if the war were to end, the environmental devastation and pollution will make reconstruction difficult.
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Viewpoint by Professor Gerrit Olivier and Michèle Olivier
Gerrit Olivier is an emeritus professor at Pretoria University and former South African Ambassador in Russia and Kazakhstan. Michèle Olivier is a consultant in international law.
PRETORIA, South Africa | HULL, England (IDN) — A seemingly non-negotiable principle of South Africa’s foreign policy, is to be on the side of autocrats and dictators and habitually anti-West, irrespective of the issues. Cosy relations with the likes of Ethiopia’s Mengistu Haile Mariam, Sudan‘s Omar al Bashir Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, characterised our foreign policy under all presidents since Nelson Mandela. With the present government being enamoured with a rabid war criminal like Vladimir Putin, we see a continuation of this policy.
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By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — When Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency during a political crisis in June 1975, she arrested hundreds of citizens, suspended civil liberties and imposed strict censorship of the press—temporarily downgrading “the world’s largest democracy” to a near-authoritarian state.
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By Devendra Kamarajan
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire (IDN) — The 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), concluded in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, has concluded with a united global pledge to boost drought resilience and invest in land restoration for future prosperity.
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By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA (IDN) — While arms control and disarmament efforts have come to a halt, civil society organisations are insisting that nuclear policies contravene the right to life. “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life,” declares Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
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By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Life is no longer the same for Zimbabwe’s shop owner, 34-year-old Richwell Mhasi in the capital Harare who has had to park his car at home, switching to his bicycle, cycling to and from work amid the rising prices of fuel since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war this year.
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By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon*
SAN FRANCISCO, USA (IDN) — Three years ago, we helped write a report for RootsAction.org targeting 15 corporate Democrats in Congress who deserved to be “primaried.” We called the report “Bad Blues.” A common reaction back then was that those establishment pols were too strong and entrenched to be defeated.
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