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Photo: Tigray protestors outside of the UN. Credit: EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook. Source: ALJAZEERA

Peace Foundation Leader Asks: “Is the US Leading the War on Tigray?”

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The disastrous war in the Horn of Africa is being guided secretly by the US, according to briefings reported by the World Peace Foundation (WPF), a philanthropic foundation for research into peace processes affiliated with Massachusetts-based Fletcher School of Law.

The year-long conflict in Ethiopia pitting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and its allies against the Ethiopian government has caused thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of battlefield casualties.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 12 October 2022

Photo: Protest against GMOs in Ghana. Credit: COFAM | Pambazuka News

GMOs that Promote Poverty and Dependency Gain Foothold in Kenya

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Kenya has officially entered into the cultivation and use of Genetically Modified Organisms—known as GMOs—that have been banned in 26 countries.

This month, Kenyan authorities announced plans to lift the country’s ban on genetically modified crops, in part to deal with a record drought that is causing hunger across the Horn of Africa. The move is opposed by those concerned about potentially harmful effects on health, the environment and small farms.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 11 October 2022

Photo: Lesotho’s RFP leader Sam Matekane shakes hands with a party member after the announcement that his party was on track to win a majority in parliament. Credit: Shiraaz Mohamed.

Landlocked Lesotho Votes A Revolution for Prosperity

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A recently organized party led by a millionaire diamond magnate looks set to win Lesotho's parliamentary election, having secured enough for a simple majority, according to preliminary results from the election commission.

By Sunday afternoon, results from the October 7 vote were in for 49 out of a total of 80 constituencies. The Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) party, formed by Sam Matekane in March, had secured 41 seats, the minimum required to reach a simple majority.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 11 October 2022

Image: This image from a series of images shows the collapse of the Mud Creek landslide in May 2017 along the Big Sur coast in Central California, and the subsequent repairs to Highway 1, which was damaged during the event. Credit: Andy Ritchie/USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

NASA Study Finds Climate Extremes Affect Landslides in Surprising Ways

A NASA News Feature

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Climate change is driving more volatile precipitation patterns around the world—very dry stretches punctuated by storms that drop large amounts of rain or snow in a short amount of time. While wetter and drier spells may have certain effects that are easy to predict, such as on water levels in lakes and rivers, a recent study focused on California reveals that they can affect slow-moving landslides in unanticipated ways.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 11 October 2022

Photo: Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left) with the governor of Paraíba, João Azevedo (right). Credit: Divulgação

Brazil’s Lula Remerges—in a Very Different Political World

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

LOS ANGELES (IDN) — Brazil’s first round of elections, held on October 2, yielded a major victory for the man who held the presidency from 2003 to 2010, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Winning 48 per cent of the vote in a multicandidate race, Lula now heads to a runoff against incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, who won 43 per cent.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 October 2022

Photo: The four damaged reactor buildings (from left: Units 4, 3, 2, and 1) on 16 March 2011. Hydrogen-air explosions in Units 1, 3, and 4 caused structural damage. Water vapor/"steam" venting prevented a similar explosion in Unit 2. CC BY-SA 3.0

UN Expert Calls for Unconditional Support to Victims of Fukushima Disaster

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) — The Japanese government should give unqualified, human rights and needs-based support to the more than 30,000 people still displaced 11 years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. That approach must also apply to reconstruction in affected areas, said Cecilia Jiménez-Damary, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 October 2022

Image credit: Geneva Environment Network.

The West Is Exposing Itself to Double Standards by Weaponizing Human Rights

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) — The recently concluded 51st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva exposed once again the double standards of the global human rights agenda.

West’s failure to get a resolution adopted at the UNHRC on October 6 on further investigation into the violation of human rights of the Muslim Uighurs in the north-western region of Xinjiang province in China reflects the international community’s scepticism of weaponizing human rights.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 10 October 2022

Warmongering Biggest Threat to Achieving SDGs

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Welcome to our 13th issue of Sustainable Development Observer, which focuses on warmongering and sustainable development goals, prompted by an event I covered for IDN-InDepthNews from Kazakhstan—the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions—a gathering of over 300 religious leaders representing the Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish faiths.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 09 October 2022

Photo: Ukrainian troops pose with a captured Russian tank. Credit: Ukraine Defense Ministry.

Putin’s War in Ukraine Even More Senseless Than World War I

Viewpoint by Paul Goble

Eurasia Review issued this article.

OREGON, USA (IDN) — There is nearly universal consensus that World War I was the most senseless conflict in modern times, Yury Yarym-Agayev says; but in fact, Putin’s war in Ukraine is even more senseless than that war of a century ago in that none of its proclaimed goals are real and its real goals are not achievable.

The former member of the Moscow Helsinki Group who emigrated to the United States in 1980 and has worked as a physicist at Stanford and MIT has avoided making comments about Russia until now. But the war in Ukraine has compelled him to end his silence, he says (wow-press.com/u-vojny-net-celi-tolko-putin/?amp=1).

: Europe Editor; OPINION; 09 October 2022

Ukrainian Organization Does Not Deserve a Nobel Peace Prize

Viewpoint by Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin*

COUNTERCURRENTS issued this article on October 7, 2022.

NEW YORK (IDN) — In what was described as a harsh rebuke of Russia, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Ukrainian human rights organization 'Center for Civil Liberties', along with Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski and the Russian human rights organization Memorial. While at first glance, the Ukrainian 'Center for Civil Liberties' might sound like a group that is well deserving of this honor, Ukrainian peace leader Yurii Sheliazhenko wrote a stinging critique.