By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 13 June 2023 (IDN) — The widespread proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI)—and its CHATBOT search engine—has prompted the United Nations to propose a “set of guardrails” to prevent abuses and disinformation. The motive is to help governments with guidelines that “promote facts, while exposing conspiracies and lies, and safeguarding freedom […]
High-Level Political Forum to Focus on Sustainable Development
By UNDESA UNITED NATIONS, 4 June 2023 (IDN) — “The SDGs are not just 17 lofty goals. They represent real lives with real needs. They represent women and children, young and old, you and me, and a chance to fullfil our potential,” said UN DESA’s Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua. His comment came as the department is […]
UN Human Rights Experts Denounce Supreme Court Ruling on Abortions
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 4 June 2023 (IDN) — The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), currently consisting of nine Justices, is the highest court in the land—and one of the most powerful bodies in the country exercising unlimited authority to declare whether a Legislative or Executive act is in violation of the […]
US Refuses Visa to Swedish NGO for UN Meetings
STOCKHOLM, 24 May 2023 (IDN) — The United States has refused a visa to Jan Lönn, Secretary General of International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations (ISMUN; President of the NGO Committee on Development (Geneva).
Insufficient Progress Made Towards Disaster Risk Reduction
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK, 21 May 2023 (IDN) — A review of progress on implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction has determined that global progress towards disaster risk management has been weak and insufficient, putting at risk the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT: It’s Potential & Its Dangers
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 16 May 2023 (IDN) — The world is currently experiencing one of the fastest advances in modern technology: the AI Chat GPT search engine, which has generated both curiosity and skepticism. At a White House May 4 meeting of executives from Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, […]
Barbados and UN Urge Reform of the Global Finance System
By J Nastranis NEW YORK, 30 April 2023 (IDN) — With clock ticking for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley have called for urgent action to transform the broken global financial system, for a large-scale SDG Stimulus package to invest in SDGs, […]
A Civil War in Sudan Threatens Another Humanitarian Disaster
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 17 April 2023 (IDN) — The four-day-old military conflict in Sudan—between two factions of the country’s armed forces—is threatening to unleash a civil war reminiscent of two other nations in the Middle East: Yemen and Syria The conflict in both countries has resulted in two of the worst humanitarian disasters […]
US Foreign Policy Conflicts with the UN Charter
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* NEW YORK, 15 April 2023 (IDN) — US foreign policy is based on an inherent contradiction and fatal flaw. The aim of US foreign policy is a US-dominated world in which the US writes the global trade and financial rules, controls advanced technologies, maintains militarily supremacy, and dominates all potential competitors. […]
UN General Assembly Commemorates the Rwandan Tragedy
‘Genocide Can Happen Anywhere By J Nastranis NEW YORK, 15 April 2023 (IDN) — The UN General Assembly commemorated the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It mourned the more than one million children, women, and men who perished in one hundred days of horror—in the presence of […]