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Image: One of the temple murals by Solis Mendis; Sri Lankan gift to Kushinagar International Airport. (The Hindu)

Inaugural Flight To Kushinagar Cements Eternally Binding Buddhist Indo-Lanka Bond

By Sugeeswara Senadhira

This article is the 47th 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.

COLOMBO (IDN) — An inaugural flight between Colombo and India's newest international airport Kushinagar landed on October 20 to mark the official opening of the airport by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The flight carried 150 dignitaries including the highest-ranking Buddhist monks of the four nikayas (sects) and the son of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Cabinet minister Namal Rajapaksa, cementing the eternal Indo-Lanka Buddhist bonds.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 21 October 2021

UN Agency Calls for More Funds for Developing Nations from World's Largest Institutional Investors

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) — Sustainable finance and the global capital market play an important role in meeting a growing need to mobilize the vast sums of capital needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. The agenda provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 20 October 2021

Photo credit: The Society for Socialist Studies

Our Future vs. Neoliberalism

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — In country after country around the world, people are rising up to challenge entrenched, failing neoliberal political and economic systems, with mixed but sometimes promising results.

Progressive leaders in the U.S. Congress are refusing to back down on the Democrats’ promises to American voters to reduce poverty, expand rights to healthcare, education and clean energy, and repair a shredded social safety net. After decades of tax cuts for the rich, they are also committed to raising taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations to pay for this popular agenda.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 20 October 2021

WTO Extends Measures for LDCs to Access Knowledge, But Why not Go the Whole Way?

Viewpoint by Teresa Hackett

The writer is Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager at Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). She oversees the development and delivery of a unique, copyright service for libraries in developing and transition countries, providing specialist resources in multiple languages, and individual assistance on legislative issues.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (IDN) — When members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently agreed to extend the transition period by which Least Developed Countries (LDCs) must apply WTO rules on intellectual property, it was a welcome decision.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 October 2021

The EU Sidelined?

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf

This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission

What do the Biden administration's recent lonely foreign and security policy decisions imply for the EU? Perplexity and annoyance in Paris. Consternation in Brussels. Lots of open questions and no answers in Berlin.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 October 2021

Photo: Okavango elephants. Source: Africa Geographic

Okavango's Ecosystem Falls Prey to Oil Drilling

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Drilling companies are on the run—or at least they should be.

A worldwide movement to reduce global warming and protect endangered supplies of water has turned its firepower on the growth of oil well drilling, particularly in areas of precious wildlife preserves in southern Africa.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 October 2021

Photo: SWAPO Secretary General Sophia Shaningwa. Windhoek Observer

Rape Just A ‘Bedroom Issue’, says SWAPO Leader as Convicted Rapist Gets Party Job

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Secretary General of SWAPO, Namibia’s governing party, appears to have been napping as women around the world stepped up to demand tough measures from their political leaders against gender-based violence.

Sophia Shaningwa, who serves in SWAPO’s upper echelon of party officials, left her party’s feminist wing in a state of shock when she dismissed concerns about appointing a convicted rapist to serve on the party’s policy advisory and research body.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 October 2021

Photo: FESPACO selection committee. Credit: FESPACO

Postponed Pan-African Film Festival Opens in Ouagadougou

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The much-awaited pan-African film festival opened on October 16 in Burkina Faso's capital city of Ouagadougou at the Palais des Sports with dancers, acrobats and celebrities, including Senegalese Grammy nominee Baaba Maal.

This year’s theme was Cinemas of Africa and the Diaspora: New perspectives, new challenges.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 October 2021

Image: North Korea Test-Fires New 'Long-Range Cruise Missile': KCNA

North Korea Flexes its Nuclear Muscles – and Defies the Western World

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) – North Korea, long dubbed as a "hermit kingdom" has continued to remain cut off from the rest of the world—politically, economically and geographically.

But neither rigid sanctions, nor international isolation and growing food insecurities, have prevented the country—officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)—from making significant advances as the world’s ninth nuclear power, along with the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 17 October 2021

Volunteerism Must be at the Centre of Our Common Agenda

Viewpoint by Simone Galimberti

The Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit NGO based in Nepal, Simone Galimberti, is one of the participants at the IVCO 2021 conference.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (IDN) — The ambitious plans put forward by UN Secretary-General António Guterres with the recent launch of Our Common Agenda, are based on key universal values and principles fostering better humane relationships.