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Photo: A snow petrel near an iceberg in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Source: China Dialogue.

UN Talks Fail to Finalise High Seas Biodiversity Treaty

This article was originally published on China Dialogue under the Creative Commons BY NC ND licence.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (IDN) — While many had hoped this would be the session to do it, after two weeks of talks at the UN headquarters in New York, from August 15 to August 26, member states have failed to conclude a legally binding agreement to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity on the high seas.

Now, governments will have to keep bridging their differences until a new meeting, for which a date has not yet been set.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 02 September 2022

Photo: An aerial view of the Pentagon. CBS has reportedly stifled an investigative report into diversions of arms from western sources finding their way, not to the front lines in Ukraine, but to black markets in Europe and the Middle East. Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Brittany A. Chase, DOD

'How the West Brought War to Ukraine'

Viewpoint by David C. Speedie

This article was produced by Globetrotter in partnership with the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord. David C. Speedie, a board member of ACURA, was the former chair of International Peace and Security at Carnegie Corporation.

MONTCLAIR, New Jersey, US (IDN) — The seven-month war in Ukraine, and the role of NATO, especially the Atlanticist powers, are fuelled by an official western narrative that depicts the conflict as one between the plucky little Ukrainian David and the brutish Goliath that is Russia. The invasion is as unwarranted as it is vicious and provides justification for a current tally of $57 billion in lethal and non-lethal aid from the United States alone, with the United Kingdom at its side.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 September 2022

Photo: Christiana, Angélica, and Delza at a UNICEF-assisted organization in Brazil, which empowers black youth to confront racism and advocates for equal education and work opportunities. Credit: UNICEF/Alejandro Balaguer.

UN Honours the Contributions of the African Diaspora

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — The murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, on May 25, 2020, in the US city of Minneapolis, galvanized people worldwide to protest racism and racial discrimination and prompted important global discussions on racial justice. 2020 marked a turning point in how these issues are being addressed at international and national levels.

: J Nastranis; HUMAN RIGHTS; Racism; 01 September 2022

The First Anniversary Issue of Sustainable Development Observer Is Out Now!

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — The 12th and the first anniversary issue of Sustainable Development Observer started by IDN-InDepthNews Southeast Asia with no funding and a lot of passion is out now. The situation has not changed, and it is your feedback and encouragement that keeps us going.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 31 August 2022

Photo: Tigray TV said death toll reached seven and broadcast footage of mangled playground equipment and a brightly painted compound in ruins at the apparent scene of the strike. Source: TRT World.

Tigray: After the Calm, A Possible Storm

Viewpoint by René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — On August 26, 2022, there was the bombing by Ethiopian federal troops of a primary school in Mekelle—the capital city of the Tigray province, which had a population of about 500,000 before the fighting began. It is not clear if the attack brings to an end some five months of relative calm in the war-torn Tigray or not.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 31 August 2022

Photo: Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. (right) with K.N. Govindacharya (left)

Eco-Centric Development, SDGs, and 'Ganga Samvad Yatra'

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S.

The writer is an ex-diplomat and Special Adviser for Asia & Africa of ALCAP, the Latin American Parliamentary Association of Audio-Visual Communication. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN InDepth News.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Those who have seen the 1969 movie Easy Rider must have reflected on the meaning of The Ballad of Easy Rider, a beautiful elegy that evokes the subconscious bond a man shares with rivers and his very existence.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 31 August 2022

Despite Many Setbacks, The World Is Becoming Happier

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — High moments aside, do we know what happiness is? Is the world becoming a happier place? Are we happier than our parents' or grandparents’ generations? What could give us a little more happiness?

"Homo Sapiens has been around for about 8,000 generations, and for most of that time, life has been rather unpleasant. Most humans who have ever lived have done so under despotic regimes," wrote Stephen Krasner in Foreign Affairs in March 2020. Life expectancy, he points out, didn’t begin to increase until 1850, just seven generations ago, and accelerated only after 1900. It is still accelerating.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 30 August 2022

Image credit: UNESCAP Digital Future Report 2022.Image credit: UNESCAP Digital Future Report 2022.Image credit: UNESCAP Digital Future Report 2022.

New Report Identifies Five Key 'Digital Divides'

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

BANGKOK (IDN) — Asia and the Pacific is the most digitally divided region of the world, and South-East Asia is the most divided subregion. The Covid-19 pandemic detonated a “digital big bang” that spurred people, governments and businesses to become “digital by default;” a sea change that generated vast digital dividends.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 August 2022

Photo: Edmund Carpenter with George Merrill, a working-class man also from Sheffield, 22 years his junior, who became in 1893 Carpenter's companion. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Edward Carpenter and the Healing of Nations

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) born on August 29, was an English writer, educator and pacifist, socialist reformer. Carpenter came from a middle class intellectual family and studied at Cambridge University. As with some of his fellow students who were interested in philosophy and ideas, he was ordained in the Church of England hoping that its outlook and theology could be widened from the inside.

: Rene Wadlow; OPINION; 30 August 2022

Photo: Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen (left) presiding over the four-week long NPT Review Conference which concluded August 26. Source: ACA-Arms Control Association.

UN Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Declared a Failure

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The alarm bells have been ringing right across Europe as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has not only triggered nuclear threats by one of the world's major nuclear powers but also set off emergency drills outside a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia which has come under fire.

Against this distressing backdrop, a four-week Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) concluded on August 26 on a note of abject disappointment.