THE WORLD

Photo: The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is providing services to displaced women and girls across northeast Syria. Credit: UNFPA Syria.

Put Women at The Centre of Syria Crisis Response

Viewpoint by Dr Natalia Kanem and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Dr Natalia Kanem is the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Executive Director of UN Women.

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the Syria crisis enters its 10th year, the situation is especially dire for women and girls, with the effects of COVID-19 compounding the risks and hardships for millions of people inside the country and for refugees around the region.

Today nearly 12 million people in Syria require urgent humanitarian assistance and around 4 million depend on cross-border aid. Some 5.7 million Syrians have fled and are now residing in countries throughout the region.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 01 July 2020

Photo: Mass graves – such as these in northern Rio de Janeiro – have been needed to bury the dead during the pandemic. Credit: EPA-EFE

COVID-19: How Brazil Became the World's 2nd Worst Hit Country

Viewpoint by Alfredo Saad Filho*

LONDON (IDN) – The COVID-19 pandemic has stress-tested countries, economies and political systems like never before. Nowhere has the outcome been more devastating than in Brazil, arguably the country with the worst pandemic response in the world.

Brazil’s vulnerabilities are visible in the mass graves in São Paulo and Manaus. The country is competing with the USA for the largest number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases (more than one million) and the highest number of fatalities (above 50,000 – but likely to be a vast undercount). Disturbingly, there is no sign that Brazil’s cases or deaths have peaked yet.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 01 July 2020

Photo: Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano pictured just before signing the controversial Munich Agreement in 29 September 1938. Credit: Federal German Archive, Koblenz CC-BY-SA 3.0

World War II: 75 Years on Doubts on the Origins

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It is a common trait in mankind to apply to ourselves a generosity of interpretation which we do not extend to others. We find proofs of wickedness, using evidence that we would not use against our own. We play down the sins of ourselves, our own country and our leaders, past and present.

In the days of the Nazi government in Germany, there was an inbuilt tendency in the Allies' reporting to distort what Hitler was doing. For example, they wanted to pin on him the fact that in the early days of the war that he had started the indiscriminating bombing of civilians. In fact, it was begun by the directors of British strategy, as some of the more honest of them later boasted.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 30 June 2020

Image: Small Island States at the forefront. Credit: Simon Sees at Flickr.

Sustainable Tourism and Fisheries Key to Growth in Post-COVID Pacific

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The writer, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

BANGKOK (IDN) – Developing countries of Asia and the Pacific are experiencing unbalanced tolls of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grim milestones in infections and deaths have left countless devastated. Yet, we must look at the economic and social impacts in small island developing States (SIDS), where setbacks are likely to undo years of development gains and push many people back into poverty.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 June 2020

Photo: Huge massive red sandstorm. Credit: Strange Sounds

Huge Sahara Red Dust Cloud Reaches America's South

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A brilliant red sky at dusk can be seen in states along the Atlantic but the eye-popping show should be watched with some caveats. Things to consider when it comes to the dust cloud include the size of the particles, the concentration and the composition of the particles.

When it comes to size, approximately 30 per cent of the dust coming from the Sahara is considered to be "fine". "Typically, the smaller particles can penetrate deeper into the lungs and the health impacts become more [serious]," says Dr. K. Max Zhang from Cornell University's School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 30 June 2020

Election Rerun in Malawi Scores Upset Victory for Opposition

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LILONGWE (IDN) – In a landmark presidential rerun, Malawi's sitting President has been ousted from power after a sweeping victory by a popular Pentecostal preacher and former theology lecturer who promised to unite and serve all Malawians.

" want to provide leadership that makes everybody prosper, that deals decisively with corruption and theft of public funds and a leadership what will follow the rule of law," declared Lazarus Chakwera, who chalked up more votes than the former incumbent, Peter Mutharika, in the election rerun.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 29 June 2020

Photo: Police personnel dispersing an activist in a protest demonstration of the marginalized group of the Dalit in Varanasi, India. Credit: PTI. Source: The Print

Lives of the Marginalized Don't Seem to Matter in India

Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani

This article is the 11th in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (now Mumbai).

NEW DELHI (IDN) – In Minneapolis, the African American George Floyd lost his life as the white policeman, Derek Chauvin, caught hold of him and put his knee on his neck. This is a technique developed by the Israeli police. For nine long minutes, the knee of the white policeman was on the neck of George, who kept shouting, "I can't breathe".

: Suresh Jaura; OPINION; 29 June 2020

Photo: Collage of the pictures of the writer (left) with British Prime Minister David Cameron (centre) and Indian PM Narendra Modi (right) and the UN flag (right). Credit: TwoTone

The Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi for Britain and the World

Viewpoint by Lord Rami Ranger

The writer, Lord Rami Ranger, CBE of Mayfair is a Member of the British House of Lords.

LONDON (IDN) – There is a mischievous campaign against the statues of Mahatma Gandhi in the UK and other countries including the US launched by misguided and ill-informed few.

These statues were erected by a great public demand to recognise the immense contribution of Gandhi Ji to the free world. As a result, this protest is unwarranted, uncalled for, unnecessary and above all, counterproductive. [Ji is a gender-neutral honorific used as a suffix in many languages of the Indian subcontinent]

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 June 2020

Photo: Professor Nathaniel Aniekwu. Credit: The Alaigho Development Foundation (ADF)

The Biafra-Nigeria Civil War "Never Really Ended"

Instead, Transition to an Economic Strangulation War

Kester Kenn Klomegah Talks to Professor Nathaniel Aniekwu, Secretary of the Alaigho Development Foundation (ADF)

MOSCOW (IDN) – Fifty years after Biafran forces surrendered to the Nigerian Federal Military under the Federal Republic of Nigeria's motto of "No-victor, No-vanquished', May 30 has become an official Remembrance Day. It commemorates the memory of the Biafra war between the Government of Nigeria and the State of Biafra from July 1967 to January 1970. Underlining the importance of the armed conflict, the Alaigho Development Foundation (ADF) says: "No patriotic Igbo son or daughter can pretend that Biafra is not part of the history and indeed the major watershed in the history of the Igbo nation."

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; OPINION; 28 June 2020

The Middle East Reeling Under COVID-19 Impact on Livelihoods and Food Security

By Bernhard Schell

AMMAN (IDN) – Highlighting the increasingly dire situation in countries across the Middle East, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that "deep humanitarian needs will worsen and new ones will emerge if the international community doesn't factor socio-economic aftershocks into our response and protect livelihoods and food security".