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Business as Usual Will Only Reinforce Economic Hardship
Viewpoint by Njuguna Ndung’u*
NAIROBI (IDN) – Africa’s low level of economic diversification is a leading factor in the continent’s economic fragility. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the risks of countries’ over-dependence on a single natural resource such as oil.
Africa is endowed with abundant natural resources, including minerals, and revenues from their export constitute a major source of income for many countries.
By J C Suresh
TORONTO (IDN) – Ahead of the September 21 High-Level Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, a group of prominent former government and UN leaders are calling on current world leaders to take action to strengthen the United Nations system.
According to the UN2020, in an Open Letter published on September 18, former UN and government officials from around the world are calling for the 75th anniversary to lead to “a stronger, more accountable, inclusive multilateral system.”
Viewpoints by Franz Baumann, Fmr. UN Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations and Christopher Ankersen, Global Affairs, New York University.
This is the second of two rounds of Dr Franz Baumann's stimulating exchange with Dr Chris Ankersen posted on PAIRAGRAPH – A Hub of discourse between pairs of notable individuals. The first appeared on 8 September 2020. It can be freely accessed here.
By Kingston Reif and Shannon Bugos
While Kingston Reif is the director for disarmament and threat reduction policy, Shannon Bugos is research assistant at the Arms Control Association.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration has softened its demand that China immediately participate in trilateral nuclear arms control talks with the United States and Russia and says it is now seeking an interim step of a politically binding framework with Moscow.
But the administration continues to reject Russia’s offer of a clean five-year extension of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and has said that President Trump will not consider an extension until several conditions are met.
By J. Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – A new UN report has underlined the importance of biodiversity in addressing climate change, and long-term food security, and concluded that action to protect biodiversity is essential to prevent future pandemics.
The fifth edition of the UN's Global Biodiversity Outlook report, released on September 15, has warned: "The continued degradation of the environment is increasing the likelihood of diseases spreading from animals to humans."
By Rita Joshi
BONN (IDN) – The Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative has over the past 13 years restored close to 20 million hectares of land, according to a report released on September 7 at a virtual meeting of environmental ministers from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti together with regional partners, international organizations and development agencies.
The GGW Initiative was launched in 2007 under the leadership of the African Union Commission and Pan-African Agency, and with the financial support from the government of Ireland.
Viewpoint by Justin Podur*
This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
TORONTO (IDN) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been known to have an interest in eugenics, but despite the persistence of support for this discredited idea over the years, eugenics is a scientific and moral failure.
In February, an adviser to Johnson resigned when some old racist posts he wrote in 2014 emerged. The contractor, Andrew Sabisky, called himself a “superforecaster” by trade and trafficked in theories of race and intelligence. Footage resurfaced of Boris Johnson talking about genetic inequality and IQ in 2013.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Take the strange case of Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident, who many think nearly died from a poisoning ordered by the Kremlin.
After sifting through the conflicting evidence, I was suddenly struck by a couple of sentences in a novel I’m reading right now, “The End of the Affair”, written by Graham Greene, widely considered to be one of the great writers of twentieth-century English literature.
“Does truth lie at some point in the pendulum’s swing, at a point where it never rests, not in the dull perpendicular mean where it dangles in the end like a windless flag, but at an angle, nearer one extreme than another? If only a miracle could stop the pendulum at an angle of sixty degrees, one could believe the truth is there.”
By Sudip Ranjan Basu, Monica Das, Alexandra Boakes Tracy and Achim Wennmann*
BANGKOK (IDN) – The United Nations has tasked the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Population and Public Health (CIHR-IPPH) to lead the research roadmap to identify priorities that will support an equitable global socio-economic recovery from COVID-19 within the broader framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the world grapples with the impacts of COVID-19, identifying the research agenda and partnering with academic institutions and think tanks have become more essential than ever before.
Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon
Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party candidate for the US Congress from California’s 17th District. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.
CALIFORNIA (IDN) – President Donald Trump is nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for the recent Peace Deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, his pursuit for peace as an official US policy found manifestation earlier in his efforts not to lead US into any war, and to bring reconciliation to North and South Korea.
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