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UN Chief Reiterates Call for Global Ceasefire on Africa Day

Commends Leadership in Battling COVID-19

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A star-studded benefit concert hosted by English actor Idris Alba, an online how-to video for jollof rice, and a UN call for a global ceasefire issued by the Secretary-General António Guterres marked the virtual Africa Day celebrated on May 24.

African countries have "demonstrated commendable leadership" battling the COVID-19 pandemic, but more nations across the continent where conflict prevails should heed the UN call for a global ceasefire to push back the deadly virus, said the Secretary-General.

: Global Information Network; UN INSIDER; 27 May 2020

Photo: Beef cattle imported from Australia are being transported on to a truck in a port in east China's Zhejiang province. January 28, 2018. Source: East Asia Forum.

Australia Loses Big If China Ties Unravel

Viewpoint by James Laurenceson

The author is Professor and Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at The University of Technology Sydney (UTS). This article first published on May 24 in EastAsiaForum, is part of an EAF special feature series on the novel coronavirus crisis and its impact.

SYDNEY (IDN) – In 2016, the Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Peter Jennings warned that "if Beijing wants to adopt politically coercive policies, it's in a fairly strong position to do so with us because of that level of trade dependence".

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 27 May 2020

Photo: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressing news conference on BRICS Foreign Ministers online conference. Credit: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

Five-member BRICS Works Out Ways to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa to join Beijing and "stand firm by multilateralism, by the UN-centered international system" and "champion the approach of consultation and cooperation". China and the four countries comprise BRICS.

The group's member countries collectively represent about 26% of the world's geographical area. They are home to 3.6 billion people, about 42% of the world's population and a combined nominal GDP of $16.6 trillion.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 27 May 2020

Photo: Johannesburg, the largest and wealthiest city in South Africa. Source: Africa Facts.

Africa Can Still Be on the Top

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Africa is suffering a double whammy after many years of success. The Coronavirus, while not taking down great numbers of people like in Europe, Asia and the Americas, has had a severe impact by curbing its exports in the face of the formers’ severe economic depression.

For example, flowers grown in Kenya and Ethiopia have been particularly hit. Kenya’s flower industry employs up to 70,00 people. Ethiopia’s horticulture provides 180,00 jobs. Kenya’s overnight exports of cut flowers to Europe have been worth almost 770,000 US dollars a year, up from 134 million in 2000. Now sales are on their way to rock-bottom.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 May 2020

Photo: Rwandan millionaire financier Felicien Kabuga arrested in France. Source: The New Times Rwanda.

On the Run Rwanda Genocide Suspect Nabbed in French Hideout

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-six years after financing the Rwandan genocide, wealthy businessman and most wanted fugitive, Felicien Kabuga, was nabbed in an upscale French hideout.

It was a relief for prosecutors of the Rwandan Genocide tribunal who feared the 84-year-old Kabuga could die a free man. He stands accused of masterminding the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans, mainly minority Tutsis but also political opponents among the Hutus, over a period of 100 days, from April to July 1994, in a murderous campaign of ethnic violence.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 May 2020

Eminent Chomsky Says Trump a 'Sociopathic Megalomaniac'

By Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

PORTLAND, USA (IDN) – World-renowned intellectual and author Noam Chomsky called U.S. President Donald Trump a "sociopathic megalomaniac" whose leadership drove the U.S. to become "singularly unprepared" for the coronavirus pandemic.

Chomsky's fresh criticism of the president came in an interview with Agence France-Presse published May 25.

"The White House," said Chomsky, "is in the hands of a sociopathic megalomaniac who's interested in nothing but his own power, electoral prospects."

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 26 May 2020

Photo: Nuclear test carried out on 18 April 1953 at the Nevada test site. Source: UN News.

'Abolition 2000' Warns Against Resumption of Nuclear Testing

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Resumption of nuclear explosive testing is absolutely unacceptable. Even discussing nuclear testing again is dangerously destabilizing," the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons has warned. Such testing would, in any case, be in contravention of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBTO), signed by the United States, yet pending entry-into-force, the Abolition 2000 adds in a statement emerging from its annual general meeting (AGM).

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 25 May 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Namaste Trump rally in Ahmedabad, India on 24 February 2020. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks).

India Pivots to The United States to Balance China

Viewpoint by C Raja Mohan

The writer is Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at The National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on 19 May 2020. A longer version is available in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Middle Power Game’, Vol. 12 No. 1.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – At a time when much of Asia is reconciling itself to the regional dominance of China and increasing political distance from the United States, India is going the other way — moving into an ever-closer partnership with the United States and making a more intensive effort to balance China in the Indo-Pacific.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2020

COVID-19: How the U.S. Ignored the Chinese and WHO Warnings

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad*

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

KOLKATA‎, India (IDN) – On March 20, just after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) sent a cable to U.S. State Department instructing officials how they should speak about China and the novel coronavirus, according to the Daily Beast, which obtained the cable.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2020

Photo: In July of 1971, Premier Zhou Enlai met with Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor to U.S. President, who was on a secret mission to China. Both sides made a public announcement that the U.S. President Richard Nixon would be invited to visit China soon. Credit: china.org.cn

China Abandons the Strategy of Persuasion and Compromise

Viewpoint by Vijay Gokhale

This article by a former Foreign Secretary of India and a former Ambassador to China first appeared on The Hindu on 20 March 2020. It is republished because of an insider's view of the changing nature of China's diplomacy characterised by unilateralism and a one-size-fits-all approach. "China, post-COVID-19, will be operating in a very different external environment."

TORONTO (IDN) – If U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that if you “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far”, half a century later and many thousands of miles away, another man practised it. His name was Zhou Enlai.