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Photo: T. S. Tirumurti, India’s ambassador to the United Nations, leads the monthly rotating Security Council presidency in August. JOHN PENNEY

India Aims to Use Its Security Council Seat to Show Why It Should Be Permanent

By Stéphanie Fillion, Passblue

NEW YORK (IDN) — The presidency of the Security Council is always a high time for a country’s diplomacy, but for India right now, it’s more than that. In August, the country is going to try to show the world why it deserves a permanent seat in the United Nations’ most important body. According to T. S. Tirumurti, India’s ambassador to the UN, the Covid-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the need for major reforms of the Council and India’s long quest for permanency in it.

: Opinion Editor; UN INSIDER; 08 August 2021

Photo: Injured civilians, having escaped the raging inferno, gathered on a pavement west of Miyuki-bashi in Hiroshima, Japan, about 11 a.m. on 6 August 1945. UN Photo/Yoshito Matsushige

UN Notes ‘Stalled’ Progress on Nuclear Disarmament

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) — The world needs the continued moral leadership of the people of Hiroshima, the top United Nations disarmament official said, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the atomic bombing that devastated the city while lamenting that after decades of momentum towards a nuclear-free world, “progress has stalled.”

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 08 August 2021

Image: YouTube screenshot of the Mayor of Hiroshima issuing Peace Declaration 2021.

Call for 'Immediate Signing' of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

By MATSUI Kazumi, Mayor of the City of Hiroshima

Every year on August 6, the City of Hiroshima holds a Peace Memorial Ceremony to pray for the peaceful repose of the victims, for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and for lasting world peace. During that ceremony, the Mayor issues a Peace Declaration directed toward the world at large. This is part of Hiroshima's effort to build a world of genuine and lasting world peace where no population will ever again experience the cruel devastation suffered by Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 August 2021

Photo: Ms. Shefali Ghosh from Savar, near Dhaka, teaches her daugher in the kitchen. Credit: The World Bank

Affordable Clean Cooking Technology Important To Achieving Sustainable Energy Access

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — In the Asia-Pacific region which is home to about 60 percent of the global population, some 1.6 billion people primarily rely on open fires or simple stoves fueled by kerosene, coal, or biomass such as wood, dung and agricultural residues for their daily cooking needs, that impacts on climatic change and health hazards.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Affordable Clean Energy; 07 August 2021

Rwanda Using Surveillance Spyware Against Activists, Journalists, Politicians

By Lisa Vives

NEW YORK (IDN) — A coalition of news outlets says it has unearthed evidence that Rwandan authorities are among the governments using a powerful surveillance tool to spy on thousands of activists, journalists and politicians through their cellphones.

The spyware, developed by Israeli hackers for a company called the NSO Group, has dubbed the piece of computer programming with the name Pegasus. It reportedly extracts information from cellphones with a single text message that can’t be traced back to the government using it.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 August 2021

Photo: Alfredo Ravelo's painting superimposed on a burning forest from The Conversation.

The Climate Crisis: Where our Capacity for Cognition, Collaboration, Creativity and Chronology Collide

Viewpoint by Bill Dahl*

This is the fourth in a series of four articles. Click here for the third in the series.

QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — In my last piece, we touched on the third critical challenge regarding the climate crisis; creativity. In the first piece in this series we addressed the first challenge; cognition. In the third article, we explored the third obstacle to mounting a successful strategy to address the climate crisis; creativity. In this, the final piece in this series, we explore the intersection where all three crises (cognition, collaboration and creativity) collide with chronology—C-5.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 07 August 2021

Russia Decides to Join UNESCO-Led Program for Free and Pluralistic Media in Developing Countries

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it would allocate US$1 million to an international program that promotes free media in developing countries over the next five years.

The funds will go toward UNESCO’s International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC) at US$250,000 per year in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, as well as in post-Soviet countries, from 2022-2025, according to the Foreign Ministry's official statement.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 06 August 2021

Image: Fiji's Fijiana women's sevens rugby team bags bronze medal after beating Great Britain. Credit: 24News

For Sesenieli Donu, The Fijiana Sevens Rugby Triumph in Tokyo Thrills Home Village

By Josefa Babitu*

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — It might have been just a bronze medal to some people but for the Fijiana team—especially Sesenieli Donu—it was the fruit of sacrifice and a token of appreciation for her village of Vatukarasa in Nadroga.

After an intense competition for the bronze medal with Great Britain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan, the country’s women sevens rugby team bagged their first ever medal after defeating their former coloniser on July 31.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 06 August 2021

Photo: Hirohima Peace Memorial Park. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Japan Should Take the Initiative in Proposing New Security Alternatives to Nuclear Deterrence

Interview with Mr. Tetsuo Saito, Vice Representative, Komei Party

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) — Hiroshima and Nagasaki mark the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on August 6 and 9 for the first time since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) came into force on January 22. The survivors of atomic-bomb (Hibakusha) and various civic groups made active contributions to this historic achievement.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; OPINION; 06 August 2021

Image: Human languages family tree, 2014.

Sustainable Development through Mother Tongue and Multilingualism

Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir and Ellen Hernandez

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation in Morocco. Professor Ellen Hernandez teaches in English at Camden County College in the United States.

MARRAKECH (IDN) — When community meetings are held to determine priority development projects in villages, in neighborhoods, in schools, in agricultural fields—wherever they may take place—we want to speak the language that is spoken there, spoken every day. The idea of a person or a community of people exploring what they most want in their lives should be as real and as connected to their notion of “self” as possible.