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Photo: Knox Msebenzi (credit: Msebenzi), Managing Director of Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (NIASA) in South Africa (Credit: NIASA)

South African Nuclear Energy Chief Pleads for Energy-Mix

Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) – The power industry in South Africa is faced with huge challenges. Knox Msebenzi, Managing Director of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (NIASA), discusses the impact of challenges on the country's economy and a way out of the power generation difficulties in South Africa.

The Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa is a body committed to promoting the highest standards in the development and application of nuclear technology in South Africa. NIASA is composed of organisations, groups, and individuals, from not only the established nuclear sector but also any entities involved in any technology endeavour related to the development and operation of nuclear technology.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; OPINION; 26 January 2021

Photo: Late Mrs. Djene Kaba Conde, First Lady of Guinea, with the map of Guinea on the left. Sources: Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon and the World Fact Book.

Court Finds Israeli Tycoon Guilty of Bribing Guinean Officials

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The gavel came down on January 22 on billionaire Israeli-French tycoon Beny Steinmetz who, a criminal court in Geneva ruled, bribed government officials in Guinea, West Africa, to enrich himself and his mining company with valuable assets of the African country.

The ruling caps a seven-year investigation into the shady and complex world of corrupt practices employed with near impunity by foreign corporations which harm poor people in resource-rich countries.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 26 January 2021

Photo: France to form a commission for reconciling with Algeria. Credit: Anadolu Agency

Macron Willing to Reconcile with Algeria But No Official Apology

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Time marches on but murderous crimes committed during war may demand an apology regardless of the number of years that elapsed since the crimes took place.

Such is the current case presented by Algerians who have renewed their demand for an apology for colonialization and the crimes against humanity that took place during Algeria’s war of independence from 1954-1962. This follows the much-anticipated release of a government-sponsored report by the historian Benjamin Stora.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 January 2021

Photo: Africa needs timely access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Credit: WHO

COVAD-19 Decimating Ranks of Zimbabwe’s Government

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The coronavirus is reaping a “grim harvest” in Zimbabwe. Those were the words of President Emmerson Mnangagwa acknowledging the deadly reach of the virus in the nation’s highest ranks of government.

Zimbabwe’s transport and foreign ministers both succumbed to the coronavirus less than two days of each other. Four ministers have died so far, with several more reportedly fighting for their lives in hospital.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 25 January 2021

The Three-Country Alliance Against Tigray Might Jeopardise Ethiopia's Future

By Martin Plaut

LONDON (IDN | Eritrea Hub) – The Tigray war has turned into an all-out conflict, pitting Tigrayan forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation front (TPLF) against Ethiopian federal troops, the Eritrean army, Amhara militia and – as revealed last week – Somali soldiers.

Despite what would seem to be overwhelming odds against them, the Tigrayans appear to be holding their own in large areas of the region.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 25 January 2021

Photo: Election Campaign in Myanmar. Source: Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

New Opportunities for Aung San Suu Kyi After Elections

Viewpoint by Enze Han

The writer is an Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, the University of Hong Kong.

HONG KONG (IDN) – Amid the worsening domestic COVID-19 situation, Myanmar’s election in November 2020 brought a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD) under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi. Despite voting restrictions in parts of Rakhine and Shan states, the election was overall a step in the right direction, and the NLD increased its majority in the Pyithu Hluttaw (lower house) and Amyotha Hluttaw (upper house).

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 24 January 2021

Photo: The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building, after the dropping of the atomic bomb, in Hiroshima, Japan. This site was later preserved as a monument. UN Photo/DB

The Nuclear Ban Is Here. Now What?

Viewpoint by Alyn Ware

The author is Director of the World Future Council Peace and Disarmament Program. He is also the International Representative of the Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace.

PRAGUE (IDN) – January 22 was a historic day for the global campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons, with the entry-into-force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). According to promoters of the TPNW, nuclear weapons "are now illegal under international law".

: Alyn Ware; OPINION; 23 January 2021

Overcoming Vaccine Inequities and Enabling Small States' Post-Covid19 Recovery

Viewpoint by P. I. Gomes*

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) – The “catastrophic moral failure” into which the world is seen as heading, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, can readily be understood as having its ideological basis in the callous principle of “profits before people for optimum shareholder-value”.

Our 21st century world of increasing gross inequality need not sound so “catastrophic”. Its origin lies in the historically dominant practice of large multinational pharmaceutical corporations delivering well-researched products, supposedly, to improve/save the plant, animal or human life.

: Dr. Patrick Gomes - former ACP Seretary-General; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 23 January 2021

Reflections on the Groundbreaking UN Nuclear Ban Treaty

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in this week’s #WhyWeCare, @ImpactUN on January 22.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – Memory, more than modesty, made me miss mention last week of the single exclusive conversation I was privileged to have with Brian Urquhart and which lasted all of ninety seconds.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 January 2021

Image: (left) Kumi Nakazato (Nara, Japan); (right) Nadia Anthouli (Athens, Greece). Credit: UN Office of Disarmament Affairs: Posters for Peace.

Nuclear Weapons Are Now Banned, Prohibited, Outlawed!

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf

The writer is the former Head of Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency and was a member of the Group of Eminent Persons for Substantive Advancement of Nuclear Disarmament established by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

VIENNA (IDN) – As the day broke today, 22 January 2021, a new era dawned in which nuclear weapons now are prohibited – finally banned – 75 years after the invention and use of nuclear weapons.