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Compelling Need To 'End Our War on Nature"

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd was first published in #WhyWeCare on April 22.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) — “End our war on nature” was Antonio Guterres’s call at the Leaders Summit on Climate convened by President Biden this, April 22 Earth Day morning. Last week we had quoted from the remarks by Viet Nam’s Deputy Prime Minister, Nguyen Duy Trinh, at the time of his country’s admission to the United Nations in 1977; rereading that speech, I was struck by his observation that how “in our time mankind is making enormous progress in its endeavour to transform nature and society.”

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 25 April 2021

Photo: Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed. Source: International Centre for Investigative Reporting.

Foreign Investors Shun Nigeria, Information Minister Faults Journalists

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — Something Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said reminded me of British political journalist, Andrew Marr.

Journalism, Marr wrote in his book, My Trade, is a chaotic form of earning, ragged at the edges and full of snakes and con artists.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 24 April 2021

Photo: Terrorist attack in Sri Lanka. Credit: Sri Lanka government.

A Counterpoint to 'Geopolitics of the 2019 Easter Sunday Crime in Sri Lanka and Cover-Up by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake'

Viewpoint by Muttukrishna Sarvananthan PhD*

POINT PEDRO, Sri Lanka (IDN) — I have read with great interest Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake’s well-crafted conspiracy theory on the Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka in a two-part viewpoint dated November 2020 and April 18, 2021. There are a few factual inaccuracies or deliberate hyperbole to insinuate that the United States of America (USA) was directly or indirectly responsible for the carnage.

: South Asia Bureau; OPINION; 24 April 2021

Image: A NASA image of the Earth. Public Domain.

Rich Countries, Are You Listening? Pay Up the Climate Debt Owed to Global South!

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A number of African activists were listening in at President Joe Biden’s major climate summit on April 22 at which 40 world leaders were invited. Among the listeners was Kumi Naidoo, special adviser for the Green Economy Coalition’s Social Contract Initiative and Dipti Bhatnagar of Friends of the Earth International.

Naidoo, former head of Amnesty International and Greenpeace, claimed that foot dragging, particularly on the part of the United States, not only with Trump but with previous administrations, has left the world basically at one minute to midnight in terms of the climate crisis.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 April 2021

Photo: Capt. Matthew Dixon, who deployed with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, receives a combat patch during his deployment to Afghanistan during the spring of 2020. U.S. ARMY

The US to End its War In Afghanistan, “The Graveyard of Empires”

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — President Joe Biden of the United States announced that its war in Afghanistan, the US’s longest war ever, will end on September 11, 2021.

A glimpse of Afghanistan’s history—dubbed as “the country where Empires go to die” will help us understand why many empires failed in that country.

Afghanistan, rightfully called a “graveyard of empires”, is a mountainous landlocked country located along the ancient Silk Road between Asia and Europe, and surrounded by powerful nations such as India, Pakistan, and Russia.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 23 April 2021

Photo: The General Assembly Hall during an event in 2016 to mark the one year anniversary of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. UN Photo/Cia Pa

A Locked Down UN Plans to Gradually Return to Normal

By Razeena Raheem

NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations, which has remained locked down since March last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is planning to make a “phased return to the premises in New York.”

Until now, nearly 3,000 UN staffers have been forced to work from home while virtually all meetings, including Security Council sessions, have been on video teleconferencing (VTC), turning the Secretariat building into a ghost town.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 23 April 2021

Photo: The talks in the Joint Commission of the JCOPA in the Austrian capital on bridging what the US calls “tremendous and profound differences” over how to salvage the nuclear agreement. Source: Eureporter.

Optimism Over Progress in Vienna Talks on Iran Nuclear Deal

By Kelsey Davenport, Julia Masterson and Sang-Min Kim

While Kelsey Davenport is Director for Nonproliferation Policy and Julia Masterson, Research Associate at the Arms Control Association, Sang-Min Kim is Scoville Fellow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — The United States, Iran, and the other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal expressed varying degrees of optimism over the progress made during recent talks in Vienna on the necessary steps to restore full implementation of the accord.

: Arms Control Association; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 April 2021

Volunteers Are Helping Venezuela To Rebuild US-Devastated Industry

By Leonardo Flores

This article was produced by Globetrotter. Leonardo Flores is a Venezuelan political analyst and peace activist with CODEPINK. He is a Globetrotter/Peoples Dispatch fellow.

VENICE, CA (IDN) — “We don’t just repair machines; we repair consciences,” says Sergio Requena of the Productive Workers Army (EPO by its Spanish-language initials) in Venezuela. The EPO is a group of 2,270 volunteers with a broad range of technical expertise. They go from factory to factory repairing broken machinery. Their mission is to recover Venezuela’s industrial production by empowering workers to take matters into their own hands.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 22 April 2021

World Bank-IMF Pledge Support for Pandemic Affected Countries

By Caroline Mwanga

WASHINGTON (IDN) — While planning to rebuild economies after the COVID-19 pandemic, countries would do well to lay the foundation for a green, resilient, and inclusive future. This was the message of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) virtual Spring Meetings from April 5 to 11, 2021. World Bank Group President David Malpass outlined the major challenges facing the world, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality, and growing fragility and violence as a part of the focus on Economic Recovery: Toward a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Future.

: Caroline Mwanga; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 21 April 2021

Can We Feed the Billions?

An Expert Voice

NEW YORK (IDN | UNDESA) — With hundreds of millions suffering hunger, a growing population and devastating impacts of agriculture on the environment, many experts are asking themselves: will we have enough food for everyone? Ahead of the 54th session of the UN Commission on Population Development, we ask that question to Cheryl Sawyer, Senior Population Affairs Officer at UN DESA.