By Dr Palitha Kohona* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 30 August 2024 (IDN) — The expedition ship, (Seabourn Venture) powers its way through icy waves and freezing winds further into the cold north, well past the Arctic Circle. Svalbard, with its stark landscape, discovered by accident by a Dutch expedition commanded by Willem Barentz searching for […]
A Brown Tide of Sargassum Is Causing Havoc in Barbados
By Julian Reingold* This article was first published in Dialogue Earth. This story was supported by a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center. BUENOS AIRES | 29 August 2024 (IDN) — Emerging from the sea a light orange colour, the seaweed turns brown once it dries out. But the most distinctive thing is the smell. […]
A Sign that Beckoned Coming Sustainable Development
By Yossef Ben-Meir* MARRAKECH | 28 August 2024 (IDN) — I do not know if it is a rule or commonplace as to whether a small act in the area of social development can launch thousands, even countless, small and large acts of sustainable change and growth. In Morocco, there may have been such a […]
UN Chief Warns of Sea Level Rise Threatening Small Island States with Extinction
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 27 August 2024 (IDN) — The world’s 39 small island developing states (SIDS), with an aggregate population of about 65 million, are battling a rash of social, economic and mostly environmental vulnerabilities. According to the UN, the three geographical regions in which SIDS are located are: the Caribbean, the […]
New Approaches to Tackling Child Labour in Nepal
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 26 August 2024 (IDN) — Child labour remains one of the most pressing issues of our times. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), child labour remains a pervasive and persistent issue, 160 million children – 63 million girls and 97 million boys—are in child labour, accounting for almost […]
Achieving Peace in The New Multipolar Age Is Possible
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in The Manila Times and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 25 August 2024 (IDN) — With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States assumed that it would dominate the world as the unrivaled hegemon. Yet the US “unipolar” […]
Iran: Neutralizing Nuclear Threat Without Force or Sanctions
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK 22 August 2024 (IDN)— All past efforts to block Iran’s march toward becoming a nuclear power have failed. It is time for the US and Israel to develop a new strategy that factors in the possibility that Iran will become a nuclear power but renders it futile without using […]
Strengthening the Chemical Weapons Convention
By Kudakwashe Mapako The writer is Research Officer at the African Center for Science and International Security (AFRICSIS). The Hague | 23 August 2024 (IDN) — In pursuit of comprehensive chemical security and to strengthen the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) across the African continent, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) needs to […]
Over 400 Humanitarian Organizations Seek an End to Civilian Killings in War Zones
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 20 August 2024 (IDN) — The rising death toll of humanitarian workers in war zones has prompted over 400 civil society and humanitarian organizations, plus several UN agencies, to denounce the horrifying killings of civilians. A joint letter addressed to the 193 Member States of the UN General Assembly […]
Compromise Is a Way Out of the Cold War Turning Hot
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 20 August 2024 (IDN) — Nearly everyone I talk politics to says the world is in a mess. But I live in a student town and most of them have nothing to measure their opinions against. They know not much about the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, Watergate […]