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Photo: Biden at his presidential kickoff rally in Philadelphia, May 2019. CC BY 2.0

President Joe Biden Marks the Start of a New Era in the US

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – President Joe Biden is more peacenik than war-monger. Compared with all recent previous presidents, apart from Jimmy Carter, he has been a dove. But be warned. When Barack Obama became president he forswore “more dumb wars” yet he got involved in more than any of them did. We had mistakenly believed him because of his vote in the Senate against the Second Iraq War.

Nevertheless, Obama, with Biden’s support, did resist a big push by Congress, the military and most of the media to send troops into Syria and he did try hard to get troops pulled out of Iraq. Biden supported Obama in his decision to negotiate with Iran a deal to put into cold storage its plan to enrich uranium to the point where it could be used to make a nuclear bomb.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 January 2021

Photo: FAO DG Qu Dongyu. Credit: WTOCC BY-SA 2.0

People’s Movement Launched in South Africa To Defeat Covid-19

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A call to action endorsed by over 500 organizations and individuals in South Africa is aiming to unite millions of the nation’s citizens in order to acquire 40 to 80 million doses of vaccine to defeat the coronavirus pandemic.

“The pandemic is wreaking havoc,” organizers proclaimed in a recent letter published in the Mail&Guardian. “Vaccinating a significant part of the population is the only way to defeat the pandemic.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 19 January 2021

Transformation of Agri-Food Systems Crucial for FAO in 2021

By Ronald Joshua

ROME (IDN) – Director-General QU Dongyu of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared 2021 a key year to move forward the transformation of agri-food systems, marked by big events, particularly the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, the Pre-Summit in Rome, and FAO’s Youth World Food Forum.

: Ronald Joshua; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 19 January 2021

Photo: The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world’s nations. Credit: Smithsonian Magazine

Insurrection and the Racist Underpinnings of US Exceptionalism

Viewpoint by Ravi Arvind Palat

The writer is a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton

NEW YORK (IDN) – Several commentators have underlined the sharp contrast between law enforcement responses to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by mobs unleashed by President Trump on January 6, 2021, and to the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer. Despite two months of warnings that the president was mobilizing his supporters to reverse his election loss, the police and National Guard appeared to be caught off-guard, unlike the massive mobilization of law enforcement agencies against those calling for racial justice.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 January 2021

Photo: Virtual One Planet Summit: Credit: First Channel of German TV

One Planet Summit on Biodiversity Pledges Action Commitments

By Jaya Ramachandran

PARIS (IDN) – The global health crisis of the COVID 19 came as a dramatic reminder of the importance of Nature for our daily lives and economies: biodiversity is our life insurance. Yet, the damage to ecosystems is unprecedented and will have major consequences on our lifestyles in the decades to come.

According to knowledgeable sources, reversing this trend is a major challenge for the coming decade. This global challenge requires concerted action at all levels (international, national, local) and by all actors (governments, international organizations, businesses, associations, citizens, etc.).

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 18 January 2021

Photo credit: Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC), Cape Town

Time to Dispense with the Rhetoric of Decolonisation

Viewpoint by Themrise Khan*

KARACHI (IDN) – While preparing to speak at an online discussion on decolonising the aid sector, I searched Google Translate for a corresponding word for 'decolonisation’ in my native language of Urdu. I couldn’t find one. In many other languages, from Arabic to Spanish, only a loanword exists. It’s just one example of how the discussion on decolonisation rarely centres the colonised.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 18 January 2021

Photo: Health care workers at a hospital moving a patient who died of COVID-19 in New York in April 2020. Credit: UN Photo/EvanSchneider

UN Chief Warns Against 'vaccinationalism' As 2 Million Die of COVID-19 Pandemic

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Our world has reached a heart-wrenching milestone: #COVID19 has now claimed two million lives. Sadly, the impact of the pandemic has been made worse by the absence of global coordination. In the memory of those two million souls, the world must act with far greater solidarity," tweeted UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

: Radwan Jakeem; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 17 January 2021

Photo: Crowd of Trump supporters marching on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, ultimately leading the building being breached and several deaths. C BY-SA 4.0

Behind January 6 Insurrection: America Is an Oligarchy, Not A Functioning Democracy

Viewpoint by Albena Azmanova and Marshall Auerback *

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK | BRUSSELS (IDN) – While the majority of Americans deplored the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, it was troubling to see a YouGov poll indicating that 1 in 5 voters approved of the assault. Their attitudes were buttressed by a significant number of House and Senate Republicans who have egged on the matter by continuing to call into question the legitimacy of last November’s election result. This is a sign that the rot in the American political system goes deep.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 17 January 2021

Photo credit: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro, DOD.

The US Department of Defense Announces New Strategies for the Middle East and Space Force

By J C Suresh

WASHINGRTON, D.C. (IDN) – The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that changing Middle East situation means changes for Israel. In another press release it said, partnerships are key to Space Force delivering warfighting capabilities.

In the first release on January 15 it said: in a sign of the changing political environment in the Middle East, the United States military will move Israel from the U.S. European Command's area of responsibility to that of the U.S. Central Command. The move, it said, is part of unified command plan changes.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 16 January 2021

Photo: Aberrahim is the caretaker at the Akrich nursery, the first of the High Atlas Foundation's fruit tree nurseries built on land lent in-kind by the Moroccan Jewish Community

High Atlas Foundation Grows Trees in Nurseries Built on Moroccan Jewish Community Land

By Yossef Ben-Meir, President, High Atlas Foundation

MARRAKECH (IDN) – On World Religion Day, January 17, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) celebrates its interfaith fruit tree nurseries, which are built on land lent in-kind by the Moroccan Jewish community and are enhancing livelihoods for Muslim farming families around Morocco. These nurseries champion the notion that Morocco’s multicultural past and present, and the preservation of it, should necessarily advance the sustainable development of the country by providing a tangible and vital pathway for the social and economic benefit of generations of Moroccans to come, said HAF in a media release.