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Photo: Screenshot of UN Chief addressing the UN Open Summit on January 11. Source: France TV04 /YouTube

Humanity Needs to Take a Course That Does Not Conflict with Nature

By Kwame Buist

NEW YORK (IDN) – The process of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic offers the chance to change course and put humanity on a path which is not in conflict with nature, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said January 11, urging greater efforts by everyone to protect biodiversity and step up action to counter climate change.

Guterres was addressing world leaders at the virtual One Planet Summit hosted by France, which came in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland.

: Phil Harris; UN INSIDER; 12 January 2021

Photo: Protesters in Algiers on 1 March 2019. CC BY-SA 4.0

Corruption Trials in Algeria – No More Facebook for Museveni – Nobel Laureate Denounces Rise of Armed Groups

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – While corruption trials continue for Algerian officials ousted in nation’s ‘Arab Spring’ 2010-2012, on the eve of elections, social media leader Facebook has barred Ugandan President Museveni, and the Nigerian Nobel Laureate has decried the rise of armed groups as a threat to sovereignty.

Responding to the recent rise in student kidnappings and massacres, Wole Soyinka said in an interview, Nigeria’s sovereignty has been taken over by armed groups. He asked President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to stop terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 11 January 2021

Photo: Donald Trump holds a political rally in front of The White House on The Ellipse on January 6, 2021. Uploaded to YouTube for archival purposes by Factba.se

The Assault on the Citadel of US Democracy

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – On January 6, Americans and the world watched in disbelief, horror and disgust as President Donald Trump’s fiercest supporters, stoked by the commander in chief himself, stormed, smashed windows, and desecrated the Capitol building that hasn't been breached since the War of 1812, when British soldiers burned Washington.

It was indeed a shocking day in American history. Invoking the famous words spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt following the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that this day “will live forever in infamy and will be a stain on our democracy”.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 11 January 2021

Photo: Tens of thousands of refugees have crossed the border from Ethiopia to Sudan, fleeing conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. © WFP/Leni Kinzli

Fierce Fighting Blocks the UN Access to Refugee Camps

Compiled by EEPA

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Fierce fighting has been reported for the last two or three days on the Tekeze belt of Abi Adi of Tigray Central Zone, between Tigray forces and Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) and Eritrean forces.

Intense fighting in the North Western zone of Tigray, Endebaguna area, specifically DebreAbay and Meili area between Tigray forces and ENDF together with Eritrean troops.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 10 January 2021

A New UN Report Calls for Living in Balance with The Planet

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly pointed out, humanity is faced with a "defining moment", a warning that is highlighted in the 30th-anniversary edition of the Human Development Report (HDR), The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene. Though humankind has achieved incredible progress, we have taken the Earth for granted, destabilizing the very systems upon which we rely for survival.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 10 January 2021

Photo: The UN Secretary-General will convene this Summit to launch bold new actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food, delivering progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Credit: Food Systems Summit.

Why We Care

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in the UNAI Weekly Newsletter – January 8.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – Graffiti is terse but truthful and even if I failed in identifying the specific trigger for a carefully executed scrawl on a boulder by the water in New York, that read “Beware of Locals,” it resonated with lessons the last 75 years of the United Nations, and the very last one in particular, have offered, that there is no purely “local” any longer and that those who see themselves as insulated from or immune to the world beyond are eminently bewareable.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 January 2021

Capitol Hill Insurrection Demonstrates What the US Does Abroad

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – While protestors were occupying Washington DC’s Capitol Hill and ransacking the Congress Chambers – the centre of American power – President-elect Joe Biden addressing the nation said that the attempted insurrection was “not what we are”, perhaps unintentionally conveying the first 'lie' of his presidential reign beginning January 20. In fact, this is what America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is masters of doing overseas.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 09 January 2021

Image: A collage of SDG3 and SDG16 logos from the UN Website.

UN Chief Points to Fragility and Conflict as Major Obstacles to Sustainable Development Goals

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – “Challenges of Maintaining Peace and Security in Fragile Contexts” were the focus of Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks at the Security Council virtual open debate on January 6. The debate was organized by Mr Kais Saied, the Security Council's Presidency for the month of January.

He called for a Global Ceasefire, which he said, goes hand-in-hand with a flagship initiative of the African Union. The United Nations also remains committed to supporting the African Union’s ambitious Agenda 2063.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 08 January 2021

Photo: The African Union Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat. Source: African Union

The AU Peace Process to Solve the Conflict in Tigray Alleged to Have Been Undermined

Compiled by EEPA

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Ethnic Tigray soldiers suspended and/or returned from Ethiopian peace-keeping missions are being reportedly imprisoned by the Ethiopian Federal Government. Ethnic Tigrayan military attachés in Ethiopian diplomatic services abroad are being sacked.

Eritrean soldiers were ambushed by Tigrayan forces East of Wukro. Pictures have emerged of the ambush between Mekoni and Mekelle. Also, the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) forces were ambushed by Tigray forces.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 08 January 2021

Photo: American cartoon, published in 1898: "Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans!" Source: Wikimedia Commons

Is China Seeking to Remake the World in Its Own Image?

Viewpoint by Richard Hanania*

This is the second of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1

NEW YORK (IDN) – No other state was considered a fundamental threat to the U.S. over the issue, with a mix of external pressure and internal incentives leading them to ultimately develop more rigorous patent laws and enforcement. Many corporations, the parties most directly affected, treat the problem as the price of doing business.

Perhaps, then, the threat is that China seeks to remake the world in its own image? This is a popular trope among the national security establishment.