By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 3 December 2023 (IDN) — Is it justifiable for a country to go nuclear—justifying it on the grounds that it is doing so to protect itself from nuclear attacks? The argument is based on the concept of “nuclear deterrence”: a widely-challenged theory that nuclear weapons are intended to deter nuclear […]
Climate Crisis Fuels Child Marriages, FGM in East and Southern Africa
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania | 3 December 2023 (IDN) — At 15, Sarah* was entangled in an early marriage that would change her life forever. The drought spells in Kotulogh village in Kenya’s West Pokot country had pushed many pastoralist families to the brink of survival. Sarah’s mother, desperate for money to […]
Forty Years After ‘The Day After’
By Daryl G. Kimball The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following article appears as the Focus of the December 2023 issue of Arms Control Today. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 2 December 2023 (IDN) — On Sunday, Nov. 20, 1983, I left my college dorm to visit my parents’ home […]
Outgoing President Weah Leaves an Unflawed Legacy
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 2 December 2023 (IDN) — Liberia and Sierra Leone have a common historical legacy and often tend to imitate each other in war and peace. But events in the last two weeks suggest that while Liberia may […]
The Future of Nuclear Disarmament Lies with the Younger Generation
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 1 December 2023 (IDN) — With little or no progress on nuclear disarmament worldwide or the abolition of nuclear weapons, there is a widespread belief that the responsibility for the continued global campaign should now be passed onto the young generation of anti-nuclear activists. A joint statement by a […]
Faith-based Organizations Warn Nuclear Arms as Worst of all Evils
UNITED NATIONS | 1 December 2023 (IDN) — As the weeklong Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons concluded on December 1, a joint statement by a coalition of 115 faith-based and civil society organizations warned of the double violence of climate catastrophe and rampant militarism. “Nuclear weapons […]
The Voices of Victims of Nuclear Weapons Testing
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 30 November 2023 (IDN) — Speaking at a side event during a weeklong meeting of States Parties on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), Hirotsugu Terasaki, Director General of Peace and Global Issues, Soka Gakkai International (SGI), warned that the past two months have seen the outbreak of wide-scale violence […]
For Media Elites, War Criminal Henry Kissinger Was a Great Man
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 30 November 2023 (IDN) — For U.S. mass media, Henry Kissinger’s quip that “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac” rang true. Influential reporters and pundits often expressed their love for him. The media establishment kept swooning over one of the worst war criminals in modern history. After news of his […]
World News in Brief: New Relief Window in Gaza, Sexual Violence in Sudan, New Action Against Chemical Weapons
UN News NEW YORK | 30 November 2023 (IDN) — A last-minute extension of the pause in fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas on Thursday offered hope that UN humanitarians and aid partners will be able to pursue their efforts to reach the enclave’s most vulnerable people. The latest update from UN aid coordination […]
Advancing Nuclear Research: Countering Cancer and Climate Change
United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) UNITED NATIONS | 30 November 2023 (IDN) — Nuclear research is driving innovation in science, technology, medicine, and clean energy for the benefit of communities around the globe. The Nuclear Technology Review 2022 issued by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, already underlined that “the use of nuclear […]