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Photo: Collage of Crafts (left) and Sohibdavlat Qalandarkhonova (right).

Tajikistan: Young Girl Out to Save The Community from Pollution

By Sharofat Shafieva

KHOROG, Tajikistan (IDN) — The city of Khorog is generally clean, but it has a problem with waste management. Residents leave their garbage on the streets and especially in public places. The central market is one of the places where there is a large garbage dump.

“Passing by garbage is very unpleasant. No matter how much the administration cleans the garbage, it still collects in one day. It is especially terrible in summer when a very bad smell appears,” notes Shafoat Jafoeva a regular visitor to the market. “The waste mostly belongs to the merchants, and it would be good if the sellers of the market find a better way to manage their waste”, she adds.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Central Asia; 26 November 2021

Photo: Chinatown in Honiara, with some buildings burning. Credit: Georgina Kekea, NZ Herald

Solomon Islands: Geo-Political Battles Engulf the Pacific as Australia Sends Troops to Honiara

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — The first batch of Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrived in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara on November 26 to help quell rioting, after the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare requested Australia's help under a security treaty the country signed with Canberra in 2017.

Australian troops are back in the independent South Pacific Island state, four years after an Australian-led military mission to Solomon Islands ended its 13 year “peace-keeping” operation in the country to put down an ethnic rebellion then.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 26 November 2021

Photo courtesy of General Dynamics Electric Boat Public Affairs: Creative Commons Licence 040730-N-1234E-002

Driving Nuclear Submarines Through IAEA Safeguards!

By Tariq Rauf*

VIENNA (IDN) — Let me start with giving the “bottom line” of this assessment. While many well-meaning experts have written legal, policy and technical tomes on how to verify naval nuclear fuel and to convert such fuel from weapon-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU); the unfortunate reality remains that none of the nuclear navies using HEU are interested in converting to LEU fuel or to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or any other inspectors within a Scandinavian mile of their nuclear fleets—that is a generous 10 kilometres.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 25 November 2021

Are We Heading for a Cold War with China?

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

In recent months, we have often heard that the return of the Cold War is imminent, this time with China. How great is this danger? Some developments point at a dangerous confrontation; others are completely different from the times of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and its allies.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 November 2021

Photo credit: World Access to Higher Education Days.

Universities Need to Be More Accessible Instead of a Privilege

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — If we are going to create a better world in the post-pandemic era higher education (HE) systems need to be more flexible and accessible, and governments need to be made to understand that funding the public university sector is essential to creating more equitable and socially stable societies. This is the message that came out clearly from the World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED)—a day-long virtual conference coordinated from London and held on November 17 titled “Who will go to University in 2030?”.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 24 November 2021

Photo: Screen shows Xi Jinping attending a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden via video link. Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

What Xi-Biden Summit Means for India and the World

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) — The text as well as the subtext of the three-hour-long virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden held on November 15-16 is certain to be debated and dissected long after the event fades from the headlines before there is any conclusive view on whether Biden had got the better of Xi or was it vice-versa.

: Shastri Ramachandaran; OPINION; 24 November 2021

The High Stakes of the U.S.-Russia Confrontation over Ukraine

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

NEW YORK (IDN) — A report in Covert Action Magazine from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine describes grave fears of a new offensive by Ukrainian government forces, after increased shelling, a drone strike by a Turkish-built drone and an attack on Staromaryevka, a village inside the buffer zone established by the 2014-15 Minsk Accords.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 November 2021

Photo: Kiev protests in February 2, 2014. CC BY-SA 3.0

Key to Ending the Fighting in Kiev Is Ukraine Giving up Donbass

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — As Russia/Nato passions are stirring once again, we should wind the clock back to seven years ago when the Ukraine crisis began. What’s it all about?

The demonstrators in the Maidan, the central square of the capital, Kiev, were motivated by the arguments over a trade agreement with the EU, then being negotiated.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 23 November 2021

Photo: Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, speaking in Abuja, Nigeria. Credit: Pool photo by Andrew Harnik. Source: NYT

US Secretary of State Blinken Finds ‘Vibrant Democracy’ In Violence-Stricken Nigeria

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A whiz-bang tour through Africa had some discordant notes for US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken who was treated to wide vistas of Chinese-built infrastructure as his motorcade zipped from airport to airport.

In Nigeria, he zoomed past the China Chamber of Commerce in Nigeria building, a domed, palace-like structure along the expressway.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 November 2021

Photo: The Island of Saint-Louis, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Credit: CC BY 3.0

Climate Change Engulfs Historic Venice of Africa

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Saint-Louis, the old colonial capital of Senegal, was built in the 17th century at the mouth of the Senegal River and was the capital of French West Africa until 1902. But these days rising sea levels have created a flooding threat that has already seen entire villages lost to the Atlantic.

Guet Ndar, a district of Saint-Louis, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Mosques, homes and a school there have already been lost to coastal erosion.