Speaking Out for People, Planet and Peace

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Russia is convinced that proliferation risks and threats that are rampant today can be eliminated by the strict observance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), while respecting and ensuring the balance between its three components: nonproliferation, disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The NPT will be reviewed in May 2020 at an international conference at the UN Headquarters  in New York. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov considers it crucial that the upcoming conference is held “as non-confrontationally as possible and not repeat the sad experience of the 2015 conference, when in fact, the participants refused to talk to each other and even to listen to each other, and each stated their position independently of what the others were saying”.

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | BANGKOK (IDN) – United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana has welcomed the agreement reached between China and the United States on December 13, defusing tensions in a 19-month trade war. She expects it to “reduce policy uncertainty”.

She further underscored the importance of the multilateral trading system to underpin future trade growth. “For the Asia-Pacific region, the challenge is to increase trade and deepen economic integration to support sustainable development.”

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Israeli politics gets messier and messier. Now there is to be yet another election, hard on the heels of the last one which, in turn, was hard on the heels of the one before.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have two major aims in life. The first is to remain prime minister for as long as he feels like it. (He is already Israel’s longest serving premier.) The second is to escape prison. He has been charged with bribery and graft. Only if he is holding his high office can he escape prosecution.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Do kids work in coal mines?

In 1910, an estimated 2 million American children under the age of 15 were working in factories and mines for low wages and long shifts. Photographs by Lewis Hine of New York revealed the depraved exploitation of children, some as young as 8 years of age, in fields and in mines. Child labor was finally outlawed in 1938.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network 

NEW YORK (IDN) – Marry Mubaiwa, estranged wife of Zimbabwe’s Vice President, faces a battery of charges – from fraud, money laundering to attempted murder – in a case that has startled even the most battle-hardened citizens.

Ms. Mubaiwa, 38, is accused of unlawfully transferring $919,000 to South Africa under the guise of importing goods, according to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) which, they believe, may have involved buying a home in the neighboring country.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – President Cyril Ramaphosa struck a note of optimism in his message on December 16 – the Day of Reconciliation and the anniversary of two major historical events, now celebrated as a public holiday.

Since the nation attained democracy, he said, citizens have showed the capacity to look beyond their differences “in the quest to achieve true nationhood”.

Viewpoint by Sergey Lavrov

The following are extensive excerpts from Russiaan Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference on “Foreign Policy Priorities of the Russian Federation in Arms Control and Nonproliferation in the Context of Changes in the Global Security Architecture” Moscow, 8 November 2019.

By Ronald Joshua

JOHANNESEBURG | MADRID (IDN) – Fewer lives were being lost as a result of natural disasters, because of advanced early warning systems. However, many cash-strapped African countries – including the small island states, bearing the brunt of climate change – are not benefiting from new technologies to develop early warning systems, said the climate expert John Harding at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – A young environmentalist in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has invented robots to help protect nature, reports the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Asked about the role of children in creating a positive impact on the environment in the UAE, 11-year-old Sainath Manikandan said: “The backbone of a nation is its youth.”

By Robert Kibet

NAIROBI (IDN) – Threats of terrorism to global peace as an evolving transnational menace, coupled with the growing threat of climate change and the disruption it continues to cause among member states of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) requires them to lead from the front in providing recommendations on how the global community can counter terrorism and extremism as well as impact of climate change.

By Fabíola Ortiz

MADRID (IDN) – As the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 moved toward an end, the African Group of Negotiators criticized the “very limited progress” of the climate talks and said “no deal is better than bad deal”.

“We are very very very worried about the balance of the outcome. We are concerned that what we are seeing now is regressing on implementing all the commitments we have under the Paris Agreement,” announced Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, Head of Environmental Affairs at Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs who led the African Group of Negotiators (AGN).

By Fabíola Ortiz

MADRID (IDN) – The youth and human rights activists have been emphasizing since the start of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) on December 2 the pressing need of placing people in the centre of climate action. Spearheaded by the social movement ‘Fridays for Future’ initiated by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, the youth been calling for social participation in the decision-making process and the re-shaping of national climate commitments to align with youth’s aspirations.