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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 25 May 2023 (IDN) — At a UN sponsored high-level meeting, donors collectively pledged about $2.4 billion in “life-saving and life-sustaining assistance” to nearly 32 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia plagued by five consecutive poor rainy seasons.
But the pledges—from 28 donors out of the 193 UN member states—fell far short of the $7.0 billion needed to rescue the countries devastated mostly by droughts.
By Tomohiko Aishima* & Shahin Ashraf**
TOKYO (IDN) — When the leaders of powerful nations meet, finding ways to maintain peace is one of their most important responsibilities. But as the G7 meeting in Hiroshima has come to an end, some of the world’s most powerful leaders have let two opportunities to further the cause of peace slip through their grasp.Their first missed opportunity is in failing to take substantive steps to enhance momentum of supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), despite the historic significance of the Summit being held in Hiroshima. The second is in the area of climate change.
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).
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 22 May 2023 (IDN) — When leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) countries met in Hiroshima May 19-21, one of the issues on the agenda was nuclear disarmament.
The venue of the summit was symbolically stark because the US atomic bombings in 1945 killed over 226,000 people in the twin Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the heaviest toll in Hiroshima.
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).
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 21 May 2023 (IDN) — The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP) has made a new submission to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in advance of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Russian Federation.
Currently, the tentative schedule of the UPR Working Group, with Russia on its agenda, is 13 November, with the adoption of the final report on 17 November.
By Rita Joshi
BONN, Germany, 19 May 2023 (IDN) — The largest living structure on earth, spanning 8,000km across Africa, is ushering in a new era of sustainability and economic growth. A game-changing African initiative launched by the African Union in 2007 aims to restore the Sahel's degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK, 17 May 2023 (IDN) — A new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report says countries and companies could reduce plastic pollution by 80 percent by 2040 using existing technologies.
According to UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, "the way we produce, use, and dispose of plastics pollutes ecosystems, poses health risks, and destabilizes the climate."
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, US President Joe Biden conveyed mixed feelings: “What your’re doing has enormous potential—and enormous danger”.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, 13 May 2023 (IDN) — US Senator Edward Markey (Democrat from Massachusetts) announced plans on May 4 to re-introduce legislation that would establish a 21st century freeze on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons.
A former US army reservist and co-president of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), Markey will re-introduce into the US Senate the Hastening Arms Limitation Talks (HALT) Act.
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