By Arul Louis UNITED NATIONS | 27 December 2023 (IDN) — While attention has been focused on greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and power generation, agriculture is only now getting due attention as a factor in climate change even as hunger stalks hundreds of millions and the global population is set to rise. The UAE […]
Sheikh Hasina Has Elevated Bangladesh’s Geopolitical Significance
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury* DHAKA | 26 December 2023 (IDN) — Bangladesh, a land woven with resilience, heritage, and a drapery of culture, stands at a crucial juncture in the contemporary geopolitical landscape. At the wheel of this dynamic nation is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an indomitable leader, whose statesmanship has wielded an influential […]
Homicide Is a Bigger Killer Than Armed Conflict and Terrorism Combined
By Aurora Weiss VIENNA | 26 December 2023 (IDN) — More people were killed due to homicide than armed conflict and terrorism combined. It is estimated that there were roughly 458,000 victims of intentional homicide worldwide in 2021, meaning that an average of 52 individuals lost their lives to homicidal violence every single hour around […]
The Future Role of Youth in Climate Action
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU | 24 December 2023 (IDN) — The recently concluded COP 28 in Dubai has been heralded as the beginning of the end for fossil fuels. Though criticized by many activists, scientists and representatives of the most climate vulnerable nations, the decision taken at the end of negotiations of “transitioning away” from […]
Journalists an Endangered Species in War Zones
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 23 December 2023 (IDN) — The devastating war in Gaza has proved once again that journalists are an endangered species—particularly when covering civil wars and military conflicts—where scores have been targeted or killed. Perhaps it is the second most dangerous profession after the military, followed by UN peacekeepers and […]
UN’s Forced Retreat from Countries Mired in Deadly Conflicts Shows Limitations
By Arul Louis UNITED NATIONS | 23 December 2023 (IDN) — While in the outgoing year, attention was focused on the world organisation’s paralysis in Ukraine and Israel, the UN was forced to retreat from other countries riven by deadly conflicts in a stark display of its limitations. Unlike Ukraine and Israel, these were countries […]
New South-South Health Cooperation Initiative Launched Linking Africa and the Caribbean
By WHO Joint Press Release BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS, GENEVA | 19 December 2023 (IDN) — The Health Development Partnership for Africa and the Caribbean (HeDPAC), a new initiative to strengthen South-South health cooperation between Africa and the Caribbean, was launched today. The initiative stems from the recognition that the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic fell most […]
The Relevance of Biblical Egypt’s Climate Actions to Current Emergencies
By Yossef Ben-Meir * This article presents the interesting consistency among Biblical Egypt’s actions (described in the Midrash) to avoid climate disaster, Islamic principles of social justice, and viable approaches societies should take today to avert our own environmental crisis. MARRAKECH | 19 December 2023 (IDN) — The actions Egypt took in its survival to […]
Are Small Modular Reactors Harbingers of Nuclear Renaissance?
By Leonam dos Santos Guimarâes *The writer is a nuclear and naval engineer (Ph.D.) and a member of the Brazilian National Academy of Engineering. CEO of Eletronuclear S.A. Coordinator, Brazilian Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. RIO DE JANEIRO | 17 December 2023 (IDN) — The new generation of small modular reactors (SMR) is expected to provide […]
COP28: Little to Celebrate, More to Lament
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 13 December 2023 (IDN) — When the much-ballyhooed climate change “conference of parties” —COP28—concluded on December 12 in the bustling Emirati city of Dubai, it reflected an old Greek proverb: the mountain that laboured to produce a mouse. The London-based Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Policy Lead at Oxfam International, […]