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Eminent Chomsky Says Trump a 'Sociopathic Megalomaniac'

PORTLAND, USA (IDN) – World-renowned intellectual and author Noam Chomsky called U.S. President Donald Trump a "sociopathic megalomaniac" whose leadership drove the U.S. to become "singularly unprepared" for the coronavirus pandemic.

Chomsky's fresh criticism of the president came in an interview with Agence France-Presse published May 25.

"The White House," said Chomsky, "is in the hands of a sociopathic megalomaniac who's interested in nothing but his own power, electoral prospects."

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 26 May 2020

Photo: Nuclear test carried out on 18 April 1953 at the Nevada test site. Source: UN News.

'Abolition 2000' Warns Against Resumption of Nuclear Testing

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Resumption of nuclear explosive testing is absolutely unacceptable. Even discussing nuclear testing again is dangerously destabilizing," the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons has warned. Such testing would, in any case, be in contravention of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBTO), signed by the United States, yet pending entry-into-force, the Abolition 2000 adds in a statement emerging from its annual general meeting (AGM).

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 25 May 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Namaste Trump rally in Ahmedabad, India on 24 February 2020. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks).

India Pivots to The United States to Balance China

Viewpoint by C Raja Mohan

The writer is Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at The National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on 19 May 2020. A longer version is available in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Middle Power Game’, Vol. 12 No. 1.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – At a time when much of Asia is reconciling itself to the regional dominance of China and increasing political distance from the United States, India is going the other way — moving into an ever-closer partnership with the United States and making a more intensive effort to balance China in the Indo-Pacific.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2020

COVID-19: How the U.S. Ignored the Chinese and WHO Warnings

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad*

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

KOLKATA‎, India (IDN) – On March 20, just after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) sent a cable to U.S. State Department instructing officials how they should speak about China and the novel coronavirus, according to the Daily Beast, which obtained the cable.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2020

Photo: In July of 1971, Premier Zhou Enlai met with Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor to U.S. President, who was on a secret mission to China. Both sides made a public announcement that the U.S. President Richard Nixon would be invited to visit China soon. Credit: china.org.cn

China Abandons the Strategy of Persuasion and Compromise

Viewpoint by Vijay Gokhale

This article by a former Foreign Secretary of India and a former Ambassador to China first appeared on The Hindu on 20 March 2020. It is republished because of an insider's view of the changing nature of China's diplomacy characterised by unilateralism and a one-size-fits-all approach. "China, post-COVID-19, will be operating in a very different external environment."

TORONTO (IDN) – If U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that if you “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far”, half a century later and many thousands of miles away, another man practised it. His name was Zhou Enlai.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 24 May 2020

Photo: Every five years since it entered into force in 1970, the states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have held a conference to review its operation and to come to agreement on detailed language assessing the treaty’s various provisions. Credit: Dean Calma CC: BY-SA

NPT's 50th Anniversary Encourages 17 Signatories To Remind Five Nuclear-Weapons States of Their Commitments

By UN Bureau

NEW YORK (IDN) – The upcoming 2020 Review Conference of a landmark international treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, presents "a timely opportunity for the States Parties to undertake a comprehensive review and assessment" of its current status, says the Joint Communiqué issued on May 19 by 17 States Party to the NPT.

A total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States – USA; Russia, China, Britain and France – which entered into force in 1970. More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, which analysts perceive as a testament to the Treaty's significance.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 24 May 2020

Photo: India’s communist party workers engaged in packing of vegetable kits to be distributed.

India's Kerala Is Combating COVID-19 Through Participatory Governance

By Yadul Krishna*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – The left-ruled Indian State of Kerala remains in the global spot for its effective and efficient measures in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. The state subjugated the Indian news headlines, projecting its potential, strength and humane approach to the outer world, leaving an operative model that other states can follow.

The government’s apt and adaptive state-interventionist strategy even garnered widespread attention across the world, with international media and academic journals, including that of MIT and Oxford, praising the robustness of the ‘Kerala Model’ of development.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 23 May 2020

Image: Virus on a decreasing curve. Source: www.hec.edu/en

COVID Crisis Has Shone A Spotlight on Long-Festering Inequality

The Future Is Wide Open

Viewpoint by Nathan Gardels, The World Post

The author is WorldPost co-founder and editor in chief. This article appeared first on THEWORLDPOST* on 23 May 2020 and is being republished in view of its forward-looking approach.

BERLIN (IDN) – The first real-time global pandemic has so broken the inertia of old ways that the future has rarely seemed so open. The slate is nearly wiped clean. The decisions we take now are thus immensely consequential because they will shape the times to come for the rest of the century and beyond.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 May 2020

Photo: UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa Ms. Bience Gawanas. Source: OSAA Website.

COVID-19: Strong Global Partnerships Key To Bolstering Africa's Response

Viewpoint by Bience Gawanas

The author is UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, OSAA. The following is the text of the statement by Ms. Gawanas from the OSAA website*.

NEW YORK (IDN) – If there ever was a time for full-scale global solidarity and cooperation to fight for health rights that time is now because no one country would ever be able to prevent or fully control the COVID-19 pandemic on its own. We are faced with an unprecedented situation brought about by the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, the biggest public health emergency of our time.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 May 2020

Photo: A three-year-old girl receives a vaccine shot at a community health centre in Beijing. Credit: UNICEF/Zhang Yuwei

COVID-19 Endangers 80 Million Children by Disrupting Vaccination Efforts

UN Agencies Call for a Joint Effort to Safely Deliver Routine Immunization

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the virtual Global Vaccine Summit on June 4 in London, the World Health Organization WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have warned that COVID 19 is disrupting life-saving immunization services around the world. Consequently, millions of children – in rich and poor countries alike – are faced with the risk of diseases like diphtheria, measles and polio.