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UN Group Urges Support to Most Vulnerable Countries

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) — The UN Secretary-General’s Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) on Food, Energy and Finance points out that skyrocketing energy prices are compounding an existential cost-of-living crisis for hundreds of millions of people. In fact, as the war in Ukraine continues to rage, the rising energy costs may cost many developing countries, especially the most vulnerable communities, from energy markets.

Despite this alarming situation, major oil and gas companies recently reported record profits, which Secretary-General António Guterres, who launched the brief on August 3, called “immoral.”

: Jamshed Baruah; UN INSIDER; 04 August 2022

Millions of Lives in Peril in the Greater Horn of Africa

UN Health Agency Calls for USD 123.7 million Until December 2022

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | NAIROBI (IDN) — The UN health agency, World Health Organization (WHO), has launched a funding appeal for USD 123.7 million to carry out urgent life-saving work in the greater Horn of Africa. The region also faces an unprecedented food crisis.

More than 80 million people in the seven countries spanning the region—Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda—are estimated to be food insecure. Over 37.5 million people are classified as being in IPC phase 3, a stage of crisis where people have to sell their possessions in order to feed themselves and their families, and where malnutrition is rife.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 04 August 2022

Sri Lanka’s Dance, Music, Crafts on Global Stage

By Nandasiri (Nandi) Jasentuliyana *

LOS ANGELES (IDN) — A Sri Lanka-themed virtual Global Celebration will be launched in the United States on the Sri Lanka Foundation International platform providing an opportunity for a worldwide audience to go shopping in Sri Lanka’s premier outlets while being entertained by cultural performances in the comfort of one’s living room.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; South Asia; 03 August 2022

Pelosi’s Pivot as Cold War and Colonialism Rebound

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake*

COLOMBO (IDN) — All bets were off as Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and second in line to the United States Presidency, pivoted to Asia on August 1. As Ms Pelosi tottered off a US Air Force plane at Singapore’s Changi Airport in her signature stilettos, Southeast Asia tripped into high tension as a collective shudder seemed to reverberate through the region.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 03 August 2022

Photo: Soldiers with the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Oklahoma Army National Guard, fire weapons over a trench during a live-fire exercise at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, July 24, 2021. (Pfc. Emily White/Oklahoma Army National Guard)

As Wars Threaten to Continue, No More Major Wars?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Will historians a hundred years hence look at the end of the twenty-first century much as we now look at the end of the nineteenth and twentieth and say, “unfortunately, the peace and prosperity of that moment was but an interlude before the bloodiest century in mankind's history?”

Will they conclude as Aldous Huxley did, that "Every road towards a better state of society is blocked, sooner or later, by war, by threats of war, preparations for war. That is the truth, the odious and unacceptable truth".

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 02 August 2022

Image: Oil exploration continues. Source: Euractiv

Congo Oil Auction Plans in ‘Last Refuge of Biodiversity’ Shocks Environmentalists

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — As massive floods and endless droughts, unleashed by global climate change, take lives and leave homes a twisted pile of sticks, the Democratic Republic of Congo will take a dangerous step backwards—opening up the Congo Basin to fossil fuel development.

Sections of a renowned tropical forest could soon carry the pounding of oil rigs, including in Virunga National Park, the world’s largest wetland. Created in 1925 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park is also a sanctuary for endangered mountain gorillas and other endangered species.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 02 August 2022

Image: Desertification and drought. Credit: UNCCD

Study Supports Reparations in Climate-Damaged African Nations

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The African continent of 1.2 billion people, which represents 17% of the world's population, contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions but suffers from extreme weather events, which scientists have warned will become more frequent due to climate change.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 August 2022

Photo: Veterans at the annual meeting in Abomey in 1908. Wikimedia Commons.

New Film Highlights World’s Only Female Army in the Kingdom of Dahomey

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The only documented female army in modern history was that of the Kingdom of Dahomey—now southern Benin—which, by the 1800s, had thousands of female troops.

In September, a film version that portrays the lives of these warrior women will be seen in cinemas around the country. In the meantime, a trailer of the film can be seen on YouTube. It features Viola Davis and Hero Fiennes.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 August 2022

Photo: UN General Assembly Hall. Credit: UN

A Nuclear Review Conference Amidst Loud War Drums

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which runs from August 1-26, takes place amidst a raging battle: a nuclear Russia vs a non-nuclear Ukraine and potential military conflicts on the horizon, including a nuclear China vs a non-nuclear Taiwan, a nuclear North Korea vs a non-nuclear South Korea and a nuclear Israel vs a non-nuclear Iran.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 01 August 2022

Nancy Pelosi Could Get Us All Killed

By Norman Solomon

SAN FRANCISO (IDN) — The arrogance of power is especially ominous and despicable when a government leader risks huge numbers of lives in order to make a provocative move on the world’s geopolitical chessboard. Nancy Pelosi’s plan to visit Taiwan is in that category. Thanks to her, the chances of a military confrontation between China and the United States have spiked upward.