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$Photo: Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz and director of energy campaigns Kelly Sheehan gather with Sierra Club staff and risk arrest on the White House fence. The protesters want the Biden administration to stop fracked gas exports, end fossil fuel subsidies, build back fossil free, and invest in local communities. | Credit: Dayna Reggero$

Biden Has Doubled Down on Trump’s Dangerous and Destabilizing Policies

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — U.S. President Biden and the Democrats were highly critical of President Trump’s foreign policy, so it was reasonable to expect that Biden would quickly remedy its worst impacts. As a senior member of the Obama administration, Biden surely needed no schooling on Obama’s diplomatic agreements with Cuba and Iran, both of which began to resolve long-standing foreign policy problems and provided models for the renewed emphasis on diplomacy that Biden was promising.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 January 2022

Photo: A boy sits amid scenes of destruction in Macomia town after it was hit by tropical cyclone Kenneth, which made landfall in Cabo Delgado province in Northern Mozambique, on 25th April 2019. Credit: Tommy Trenchard/Oxfam

Over 100 Millionaires Call for Wealth Taxes on The Richest

By Rodney Reynolds

NEW YORK (IDN) — A group of over 100 millionaires and billionaires from nine countries published an open letter January 19 to government and business leaders, calling for permanent annual wealth taxes on the very richest to help reduce extreme inequality and raise revenue for sustained, long-term increases in public services like healthcare.

: Rodney Reynolds; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 19 January 2022

Photo: A view of the Palacio de La Moneda (the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile) from the Constitution Square in downtown Santiago. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The New State of Chile Needs a New Army

Viewpoint by Alejandro Kirk*

This article was issued by Other News and is being republished with their permission.

SANTIAGO, Chile (IDN) — The myth that in Chile the military is basically disciplined, professional, non-deliberative and respectful of the democratic decisions of the people seems to be floating again in the country, in relation to the tasks of the Constitutional Convention convened last year to draft Chile’s first ever democratically-conceived Constitution.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 January 2022

Image credit: Australian Institute of International Affairs

No (Nuclear) War Over Ukraine, Please

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — War over Ukraine? It mustn’t be. Some of us believed that at the end of the Cold War in 1991 American and Soviet nuclear rockets would be left to rust and rot in their silos. Indeed, we actually saw Ukraine, where the Soviets made most of their rockets and based many, (who says that Ukraine doesn’t have an umbilical relationship with Russia?), deciding to give up its nuclear armoury—for which the world should give more praise than it does.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 18 January 2022

Photo: People in Bamako protest against newly imposed sanctions against Mali over the junta's delaying of promised elections. File Photo | AFP

Mali's Ex-President Keita Dies as International Sanctions Bite

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Former President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, removed from power by military officers, has died in his home in the capital, Bamako, at the age of 76.

His death was confirmed on Twitter by Abdoulaye Diop, a former minister of foreign affairs, and by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali.

: Ramesh Jaura; Africa; 18 January 2022

Photo: After the release of Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) leaders from prison in 1951. From left to Right: Kojo Botsio, Kwame Nkrumah, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah and Kofi Baako. NB: The PG symbol written on their cap stands for Prison Graduates. It was a popular title for these freedom fighters. Credit: Ghanaian Museum, Sep 8, 2021

Nkrumah’s Prison Cap Left an Indelible Memory With 'MLK'

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in anguish over the extreme violence displayed at the aftermath of the legendary Montgomery bus boycott, found solace in Ghana which he visited with his wife Coretta Scott King at the invitation of the newly installed Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.

Alongside African American leaders including A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell and Ralph Bunch, MLK was there to observe Ghana’s independence ceremony. It was March of 1957.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 January 2022

Photo: Some family members had to be carried out of the service after being overcome with grief. Credit: Dean Moses.

Growing Calls for Investigation into Bronx Fire That Took Over a Dozen African Lives

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A smoky building fire that raced through a 19-story building on an early Sunday this month took 17 lives—adults and children, many from the African nation of The Gambia—is raising questions about the building’s reported insufficient heat and automatic doors that should have been shut but weren’t working.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 18 January 2022

The Need to Create a New Social Order

Viewpoint by Simone Galimberti

Simone Galimberti is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, an NGO partnering with youths living with disabilities. Opinions expressed are personal.

KATHMANDU (IDN) — Amid a constellation of special commemorative days highlighting issues of global concerns, there are three, though officially unrelated to each other, share a common thread.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 17 January 2022

Photo: Saplings grow at a community-based fruit tree nursery supported by the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) in Morocco. Credit: HAF, 2021.

Tikkun Olam: Preserving the Planet through Cultural Celebrations

By Ikbale Bouziane*

MARRAKECH (IDN) — It is common that each religion has its own new year celebrations that mark events or simply cherish the divine orders of days and months. These festivities usually mark the end or beginnings of new cycles of prosperity and being thankful for God’s blessings. However, the Jewish culture celebrates an entire holiday that is specifically dedicated to trees. The choice of trees emphasizes their importance to human beings and the environmental ecosystem as a whole.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 17 January 2022

Photo: An employee arranges vegetables in a supermarket in Indonesia. © ILO/Feri Latief

Global Pandemic Halts Economic Recovery, Says UN Report

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — A new United Nations report shows that the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has halted a rapid recovery, countering signs of solid growth at the end of 2021. The report titled, 2022 World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) cites problems contributing to the slowing down of the economy: new waves of COVID-19 infections, persistent labour market and lingering supply-chain challenges, as well as rising inflationary pressures.