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Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – According to a recent United Nations report, more than a million species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction because of human activities. Rates of extinction today are as much as 1,000 times greater than the normal background rate.

As the greenhouse gas emissions of human society push the earth towards catastrophic climate change, rates of extinction in the biosphere will certainly become higher.

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – A Soviet cosmonaut and an American astronaut shook hands high above the planet Earth, on July 17, 1975, where the Soviet spaceship Soyuz-19 and the U.S. spacecraft Apollo had met and docked.

In a message of greeting, the Soviet leadership described the "joint flight of the Soviet and US spaceships" as "a major step in the development of Soviet-American scientific and technological cooperation" opening up "new prospects for various countries to work together in the peaceful exploration of outer space".

Europe External Programme with Africa is a Belgium-based Centre of Expertise with in-depth knowledge, publications, and networks, specialised in issues of peacebuilding, refugee protection and resilience in the Horn of Africa. EEPA has published extensively on issues related to movement and/or human trafficking of refugees in the Horn of Africa and on the Central Mediterranean Route.

Europe External Programme with Africa is a Belgium-based Centre of Expertise with in-depth knowledge, publications, and networks, specialised in issues of peacebuilding, refugee protection and resilience in the Horn of Africa. EEPA has published extensively on issues related to movement and/or human trafficking of refugees in the Horn of Africa and on the Central Mediterranean Route.

By J C Suresh

TORONTO | WASHINGTON (IDN) – President Trump's legacy is far from inspiring. Joe Biden and his team face numerous crucial decisions. Arms policy experts believe that one of the momentous decisions confronting the new administration is "whether and how to move forward with Trump-era plans to expand the U.S. national missile defence footprint with new sea-based missiles that can shoot down long-range ballistic missiles". But this will undoubtedly hamper progress on arms control.

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad *

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – On August 20, 2018, El Salvador’s leftist president Salvador Sánchez Cerén announced on national television that El Salvador would break its ties with Taiwan and recognize the People’s Republic of China. This was in accord with international law, said Sánchez Cerén, and it would bring “great benefits for our country.”

Not long after, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio took to Twitter to announce that this move “will cause real harm to relationship with the U.S. including their role in #AllianceforProsperity.”

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first identification of HIV/AIDS in the United States of America (USA), in 1981, approximately 76 million people have been infected with HIV, and nearly 35 million people have died of AIDS — the highest global death toll of all time — and also one of the world’s most politicized, feared and controversial diseases in the history of modern medicine.

However, this year, the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) has thus far infected over 65 million and killed over 1.5 million people around the world.

Europe External Programme with Africa is a Belgium-based Centre of Expertise with in-depth knowledge, publications, and networks, specialised in issues of peacebuilding, refugee protection and resilience in the Horn of Africa. EEPA has published extensively on issues related to movement and/or human trafficking of refugees in the Horn of Africa and on the Central Mediterranean Route.

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

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

ABUJA (IDN) – That the slain Borno farmers did not get military clearance is an inconvenient truth, but the real error of judgement was taking the government at its word.

In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the military chiefs – the same military chiefs there today – to relocate to the Northeast, the main theatre in the war on Boko Haram.

Europe External Programme with Africa is a Belgium-based Centre of Expertise with in-depth knowledge, publications, and networks, specialised in issues of peacebuilding, refugee protection and resilience in the Horn of Africa. EEPA has published extensively on issues related to movement and/or human trafficking of refugees in the Horn of Africa and on the Central Mediterranean Route.

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Hunger is an outrage in a world of plenty," the UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the governing body of the Organization’s food agency, highlighting the important role of food security in cementing peace.

"An empty stomach is a gaping hole in the heart of a society. A stunted child's growth in the mind is progress for her and for everyone," the UN Chief  attested to the Executive Board of the 2020 Nobel Peace laureate World Food Programme (WFP).

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, USA (IDN) – The recent State of Global Air 2020 report has revealed that pollution leads to half a million deaths among babies on a global scale every year, with poor indoor air quality contributing to two-thirds of these deaths. Particulate matter is a huge problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 236,00 deaths take place annually.

This zone is followed by South Asia (186,000 deaths); South-East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania (23,000); North Africa and the Middle East (20,000); Latin America and the Caribbean (7,700); and Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (2,700).

Viewpoint by Tonny Raymond Kirabira and Leila Choukroune*

PORTSMOUTH, United Kingdom (IDN) – Thirty-four years ago, northern Uganda was plunged into a two-decade-long civil war between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

Numerous children were victims of abduction, sexual violence, forced labour and soldiering. More specifically, children born of war continue to be the invisible victim of sexual violence. Non-governmental organisations estimate that over 66,000 children and youths were abducted by the LRA to serve as soldiers or sex slaves.

Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) – As part of efforts to connect Russia with Nigeria and to lure potential Russian investors and businesspeople to Nigeria and vice versa, a business lecture platform "Doing Business with Nigeria" has been created in November. Its primary aim is to get the Russian business community to understand the economic and investment potentials as well as the current market conditions in Nigeria.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Russia, China, Ukraine, the European Union, the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, the defence budget, climate change, Iran, Afghanistan, Poland, Hungary, India Iraq, Taiwan, Japan, Cuba are all items that have surfaced in the press as reporters ponder on the issues that President-elect Joe Biden will confront in his foreign policy. It seems everyone has forgotten the important Law of the Sea treaty (United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS)  that remains unratified by the US.

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 45th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.

CHANNON (IDN) – In the late 1970s, they were breastfeeding youthful mothers seen on national television blocking the path of bulldozers sent in to fell timber forests in Terania Creek close by. Today they are grandmothers still living in this pristine rain forest area gearing up for possibly another epic battle, with the same passion, to stop the local council and developers building a dam here and flooding precious rainforests and sacred Aboriginal sites.

Viewpoint by Rhona Smith*

NEWCASTLE (IDN) – If you are simply going on the number of political trials in Cambodia at the moment, the country would seem to be politically unstable – a hotbed of unrest.

Hundreds of people are on trial for incitement, conspiracy, and violence endangering the nation. But the prime minister, Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985,  regularly insists that his tenure has been characterised by peace, stability and development – despite internal and external threats. He is the world’s longest-serving head of government.