OPINION

Graphic: Collage of COVID-19 affected countries from World Health Organisation (left) and NPT partner countries from Wikimedia Commons

Relentless Spread of Coronavirus Obliges Postponing the 2020 NPT Review to 2021

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf *

VIENNA (IDN) — As Spring is in the offing, the days are drawing near when representatives of up to 191 countries will convene at a review conference at the United Nations in New York, from 27 April to 22 May, to celebrate 50 years of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) being in force. Coincidentally, this also will be the tenth in a series of quinquennial NPT review conferences. Nonetheless, as at present the COVID-19 virus continues to spread globally, the wise and prudent course would be to postpone the NPT review conference to next year and not risk the health of the participants or contribute to the further propagation of the disease and further strain already stressed health care systems not only in the developed world but especially in developing areas.

: Opinion Editor; UN INSIDER; 02 March 2020

Photo: The Government of Kenya, the UN and development partners receive a warm reception in West Pokot on 26 February 2020. Credit: UN

UN Supports Sustainable Development of Kenya's 'Last Frontier'

Viewpoint by Mohammed Simba Guleid

The writer is the CEO of the Frontier Counties of Kenya and the former Deputy Governor of Isiolo County.

NAIROBI (IDN) – The United Nations estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa loses 40 billion hours per year collecting water. In most of Kenya's water-scarce regions, this invariably involves an already poorly-nourished mother lugging a 20-kg jerrycan for about three hours every day under 40^o C temperatures – often carrying a baby on her back.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 01 March 2020

Photo: Screenshot from UN WebTV with Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, briefing the UN Security Council on 28 February on the critical situation in Syria.

UN Urges Russia and Turkey to Secure 'Fresh Ceasefire' in Syria

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — The UN has in an emergency session of the Security Council on Syria strongly urged Russia and Turkey "to build on previous agreements to secure a fresh ceasefire" across the war-torn northwest. The meeting was convened on February 28 following the death on the battlefield of dozens of Turkish troops.

According to UN News, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres built on his impassioned call earlier in the day for Syrian Government forces backed by Russia, who are attempting to drive the last opposition forces out of Idlib, backed by Turkish forces, to all "step back from the edge of further escalation".

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 28 February 2020

Photo Credit: Illustration by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 6

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the sixth of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part five of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – As for President Clinton, who many evangelicals came to regard as the Antichrist, with him in office the secular humanists were in power and Christian America was in greater danger than ever before.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 26 February 2020

It's Time Overdue To Tame The Beast Called Capitalism

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Capitalism rules the world. Correct. But Bernie Sanders has his doubts about it. Good. It is a malicious system in many ways but as Winston Churchill might have said, it is better than all the alternatives. Nevertheless, it’s time overdue to tame the beast.

After the Second World War the Western world did make a big effort to mitigate some of its worst effects. In the U.S. there was the GI bill to help returning soldiers get started in life. Later, there was Medicaid for poorer people. In Europe there was a widespread attempt to replicate the free health services pioneered by the Scandinavian countries and New Zealand.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 25 February 2020

Photo: President George H.W. Bush with Jerry Falwell. Credit: Liberty University

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 5

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the fifth of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part four of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – Pat Robertson, whose Christian Broadcasting Network in many ways led the field and who was to establish the Christian Coalition, found faith healing an extremely useful way to generate donations (all tax free). He regularly cured disabilities, both health and financial, on the TV, as noted by James Randi in ‘The Faith Healers’:

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 24 February 2020

A High-Optics, Low-Outcome Trump Trip to India

Viewpoint by Bharat Karnad *

NEW DELHI (IDN) — It's unclear what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said to U.S. President Donald Trump when the former called the White House on February 11. Reportedly what sealed the presidential trip to India was Modi's promise that some 5-7 million people would be lining the route from Ahmedabad airport to the new stadium in Motera to greet him.

Ahmedabad is the largest city of Gujarat, the state where Modi ruled as chief minister for over a decade. For a showman like Trump, the prospect of dawn-to-dusk U.S. television coverage rich in colourful imagery featuring millions of Indians attesting his international popularity and exotic locales like the Taj Mahal must have been too intoxicating to turn down, especially in a year in which he is seeking re-election.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 23 February 2020

Photo: Evangelical prayer rally in Washington, D.C., in 2008. Credit: Creative Commons

America's Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 4

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the fourth of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part three of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – According to Craig Unger, the evangelical churches fill the "real or perceived needs of tens of millions of Americans". They lived in "an elaborate, fully developed evangelical counterculture that utilised all the marketing tools of the modern world".

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 23 February 2020

Photo: Wang YI, State Councillor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China (left) with French President Macron (right) at the MSC 2020. Source: MSC/Hennemuth

East-West Divide Marks the Munich Security Conference

Viewpoint by Pepe Escobar, Global Research

MUNICH (IDN) – Few postmodern political pantomimes have been more revealing than the hundreds of so-called "international decision-makers," mostly Western, waxing lyrical, disgusted or nostalgic over “Westlessness” at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) from February 14-16, 2020.

"Westlessness" sounds like one of those constipated concepts issued from a post-party bad hangover at the Rive Gauche during the 1970s. In theory (but not French Theory) Westlessness in the age of WhatsApp should mean a deficit of multiparty action to address the most pressing threats to the "international order" – or (dis)order – as nationalism, derided as a narrow-minded populist wave, prevails.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 21 February 2020

Photo: Fundamentalist Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, a political-action organisation to mobilise religious conservatives, with President Ronald Reagan. Credit: Salon.com

America’s Christian Right, Republicans and Donald Trump – 3

Viewpoint by John Newsinger*

This is the third of a six-part article originally published in International Socialism under the title The Christian right, the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Click here for part two of the series. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

LONDON (IDN) – Graham was, according to one of his biographers, by this time, “something like an extra officer in Nixon’s cabinet, the administration’s own Pastor-without- Portfolio”. Or as the left-wing journalist I. F. Stone put it, he was Nixon’s “smoother Rasputin, dishing out saccharine religiosity”.