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Photo: An area that used to be on the edge of Lake Chad. The d/drying_lake_chad.jpg

Drying Lake Chad Basin Triggers Humanitarian Crisis

LAGOS (IDN) — Twenty-year-old Phoebe Musa remembers the day Boko Haram militants stormed her village of Gwoza in Borno State, northeast Nigeria, five years ago. They came in on horseback, motorbikes and screeching military vehicles and attacked everyone in sight. Amid bursts of gunshots, they set fire to dozens of homesteads.

The fighters then abducted Ms. Musa from her home, blindfolded her and dragged her deep into the nearby Sambisa forest, where she remained until she was rescued by Nigerian troops earlier this year.

: Africa Renewal; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 February 2020

Photo: Baxter with her kids before they fell victim to the brutality of her husband. Source: Internet.

Epidemic of Domestic Violence Shocks Australia

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) —The gruesome murder of a 31-year-old mother Hannah Clarke and her three small children aged 6, 4 and 3 years, by her estranged 42-year-old husband Rowan Baxter, a former footballer, has shocked the nation and brought into the spotlight an epidemic of domestic violence in Australia that has gone largely unchecked for years. It has also got Australians questioning the attitude of men towards women with their greater tendency towards violence against women.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 22 February 2020

Photo: Wang YI, State Councillor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China (left) with French President Macron (right) at the MSC 2020. Source: MSC/Hennemuth

East-West Divide Marks the Munich Security Conference

Viewpoint by Pepe Escobar, Global Research

MUNICH (IDN) – Few postmodern political pantomimes have been more revealing than the hundreds of so-called "international decision-makers," mostly Western, waxing lyrical, disgusted or nostalgic over “Westlessness” at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) from February 14-16, 2020.

"Westlessness" sounds like one of those constipated concepts issued from a post-party bad hangover at the Rive Gauche during the 1970s. In theory (but not French Theory) Westlessness in the age of WhatsApp should mean a deficit of multiparty action to address the most pressing threats to the "international order" – or (dis)order – as nationalism, derided as a narrow-minded populist wave, prevails.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 21 February 2020

Photo: Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, a political-action organisation to mobilise religious conservatives, with President Ronald Reagan. Credit: Salon.com

America’s Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 3

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the third of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part two of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – Graham was, according to one of his biographers, by this time, “something like an extra officer in Nixon’s cabinet, the administration’s own Pastor-without- Portfolio”. Or as the left-wing journalist I. F. Stone put it, he was Nixon’s “smoother Rasputin, dishing out saccharine religiosity”.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 21 February 2020

Photo: Collage of Biram Dah Abeid from Mauritania and Shaparak Shajarizadeh of Iran.

Mauritanian Anti-Slavery and Iranian Women Rights Activist Presented Awards

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – Biram Dah Abeid, a descendant of former slaves who has been called "the Nelson Mandela of Mauritania", and Shaparak Shajarizadeh, a prominent Iranian women's rights activist have been honoured for their courage to fight gross violations of human rights

Abeid, founder of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), has mobilized tens of thousands of Mauritanians to protest slavery and the government's failure to apply anti-slavery laws.

: Jamshed Baruah; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 20 February 2020

Photo: Evangelical preacher Billy Graham, one of the key figures in the religious revival of the 1950s and beyond. Credit: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 2

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the second of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part one of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – And this was just one campaign. The American Legion, the veterans’ organisation which in 1952 claimed more than 2.7 million members, launched its own "Back to God" campaign, helping equip the country to combat the threat of atheistic communism.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 20 February 2020

Photo: Presidential and legislative elections in DR Congo. Credit: Africa Renewal.

2020 Is Election Season Across Africa

By Franck Kuwonu, Africa Renewal

NEW YORK (IDN) – Voters across the continent will be heading to the ballot box this year to choose their leaders in presidential, parliamentary and local elections ending with Ghana in December.

Comorians will be electing a new 33-member national assembly following presidential elections in 2019 while Ghanaians will select their parliamentarians and president on 7 December.

: Africa Renewal; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 February 2020

Photo credit: Illustration by Marco Ventura for Rolling Stone

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 1

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the first of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – Donald Trump was elected to the United States presidency in 2016 by the votes of the Christian right. Some 81 percent of evangelical Christians, who made up a third of the total electorate, voted for him.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 19 February 2020

Photo: People march against pipelines in Smithers, British Columbia, in May 2014. Credit: Office of the Wet'suwet'en/Francois Depey. Source: indianz.com

Canada's Colonial Settler Policies Alive and Well

Viewpoint by Jim Miles*

MONTREAL (IDN) – There is a lot of obfuscation and sloganeering about the Canada wide protests in support of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation of British Columbia and their resistance to corporate and governmental greed in pushing a natural gas pipeline through their traditional territory. On February 17, 2020 a CBC reporter cited – and probably paraphrased closely – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as saying his "most important relationship is with indigenous people".

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 19 February 2020

Photo: Nikita Pearl Waligwa. Source: MyClallamCounty.com

Uganda's Queen of Katwe Star Dies of Brain Cancer

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Nikita Pearl Waligwa, who starred as the friend of chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi in the 2016 Disney film "The Queen of Katwe", passed away on February 15 after a valiant struggle with cancer. She was 15 years of age.

The film, which starred David Oyelowo as the chess teacher, Lupita Nyong'o as Phiona’s mother, and Madina Nmwanta as Phiona, was based on a true story about the young Mutesi. She learns to play chess and becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her victories at World Chess Olympiads.