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Photo: A forensics tent covers the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal fell unconscious. CC BY 2.5

Trade War, Skripal, Arsenic and Old Lace

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

ROME (IDN) – Like the rest of humanity, I have no way of identifying the instigator of the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. But I venture some reasoning, just to clear the field of fantasies and focus on real problems.

It is true that personalities unwelcome to the Kremlin sometimes meet with serious and mysterious pathologies. One of the famous cases is that of Viktor Yushchenko, a candidate for the presidential elections of Ukraine in 2004, in an election campaign during which, among others, Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled seven times to that country to support Yushchenko's competitor Viktor Yanukovych.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 April 2018

UN Shipping Agency Slammed for Stalling Climate Action

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Transparency International has criticised the United Nations shipping agency for delaying action on climate change. The global anti-corruption organization warns in a new study that the private shipping companies' concerns are impacting the policymaking process at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), undermining its ability to effectively regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from maritime trade.

IMO creates "a regulatory framework for the shipping industry that is fair, effective, universally adopted and implemented." According to a report by the European Parliament, the shipping industry could contribute up to 17 percent of global CO2 emissions by 2050 if left unregulated.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 09 April 2018

Image: The consequences of climate change. Credit: NASA

Reverse the 'Individualising Imaginary' on Climate Change

By Maurizio Fratta

ROME (IDN) – The data collected by climatologists speak clearly: since 1880 – when surveys began – the summer of 2017 in Italy was the second hottest ever; the month of August recorded an average thermal excess of 2.5°C, with the fourth day of the month the hottest in the last 60 years in many cities of the country's centre.

That 2017 turned out to be Italy’s second hottest year ever (after 2016) is full confirmation of global warming scenarios.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 09 April 2018

Photo (left to right): ACP Secretary-General P. I. Gomes; President of Guyana, Brigadier David A. Granger addressing the ACP Committee of Ambassadors; and Ethiopian Ambassador Teshome Toga Chanaka, Chair of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors for the period 1 February 2017 - 31 July 2017. Credit: ACP

ACP Group Looks Forward To Becoming 'Effective Global Player'

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While preparing for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is engaged in concerted efforts to reshape itself into "an effective global player" serving as a catalyst and an advocate for defending, protecting and advancing multilateralism, within the overarching framework of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An important factor for this objective to be achieved, as the ACP Secretary-General, Dr. Patrick I Gomes, told IDN's 'UN Insider', is the Revision of the Georgetown Agreement named after the capital of Guyana, where it was signed in 1975. The Revision would allow the ACP Group to deepen and widen its foundations.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 08 April 2018

Photo: Roberto Savio. Credit: ENPERSPECTIVA

Ten Reflections on the Crisis

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio

The writer is publisher of Other News, an eminent proponent of "information that markets eliminate" and founder of IPS-Inter Press Service News Agency. This article is being reproduced courtesy of Other News with the writer's permission. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and his articles and comments can be read on Facebook @robertosavioutopia

ROME (IDN) – It is now clear that we are in a period of transition, even if we do not know where we are headed. It is clear that the political, economic and social system which has accompanied us since the end of the Second World War is no longer sustainable.

Exponentially growing inequalities have practically taken us back to the levels of Queen Victoria's days, according to Amnesty International, and now on a global level. Ten years ago, 652 people possessed the same wealth as 2.3 billion people. Now they number just eight.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 08 April 2018

Photo: UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajčák addressing Mid-Term Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 5 April 2018. Source: UN

UNGA President Commends the Non-Aligned Movement

By Miroslav Lajčák

Miroslav Lajčák is President of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly. Following is a slightly abridged version of his Statement at Mid-Term Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement comprising 120 members, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 5 April 2018. – The Editor.

BAKU (IDN-INPS) – I would like to . . . commend the role of the Non-Aligned Movement in promoting peace, security and development around the world.

I also want to start by acknowledging the commitment of Venezuela, as Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement. I also thank Azerbaijan for welcoming us all to Baku, as the host of this conference.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 07 April 2018

Photo: President Donald Trump with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, on March 14, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. Credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.

U.S. Congress Should Prevent Saudis from Going Nuclear

By Kingston Reif, Daryl G. Kimball and Kelsey Davenport

Kingston Reif is Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy and Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. Kelsey Davenport is the Association's Director for Nonproliferation Policy. This article appeared as Issue Brief on April 5, 2018 with the caption 'The Risks of Nuclear Cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the Role of Congress'. It is being reproduced with permission from the Association. – The Editor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and the technologies to make them has long been and remains strongly in the U.S. national security interest, especially in the troubled Middle East.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 07 April 2018

Agroecology Key Element to Zero Hunger and Food Security

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) – More than enough food is produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people go hungry, according to FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. How to ensure that a growing global population – projected to rise to around 10 billion by 2050 – will have enough food to meet their nutritional needs, is therefore one of the greatest challenges the world faces. Experts see in agroecology a solution.

Agroecology, they say, can help transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems that ensure food security and nutrition for all, provide social and economic equity and conserve biodiversity and the ecosystem services on which agriculture depends.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 06 April 2018

Image: Can search engine rankings swing elections? Source: New Internationalist. © Illustration by Livio Fania.

Democracy à la Google, Facebook & YouTube: Some Reflections

Viewpoint by Lucas Malaspina*

ROME (IDN) – When Mark Zuckerberg decided to offer emerging nations Internet.org, anger was not long in exploding. As Daniel Leisegang writes in ‘Facebook is saving the world’, this project which emerged in 2013 was a humanitarian masquerade: to allow Internet access to a huge number of Third World citizens who still remained outside the global village.

The idea was to break the barriers that prevent, for example, two-thirds of the Indian population from joining Facebook. However, besides India, the project was aimed at a total of 100 more nations.

: Phil Harris; HUMAN RIGHTS; Democracy; 05 April 2018

Kazakhstan Supports Proposals Discussed by UN Disarmament Commission

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Amid global anxieties about nuclear peril, Kazakhstan has joined representatives of several countries around the world in calling on the international community to work together through inclusive dialogue that takes into account the views of other States.

The general debate in the UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC) on April 2, 2018 also heard delegates expressing frustration over the lack of progress in implementing disarmament obligations by nuclear-weapon States and calling on them to reduce or eliminate their arsenals, while highlighting the three pillars of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT): disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.