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Photo: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa being received by External Affairs Minister V.K. Singh in New Delhi on November 28, 2019. | Credit: V.V. Krishnan. Source: The Hindu

Rajapaksa’s Election Win in Sri Lanka Exposes Bankruptcy of ‘Velvet Revolutions’

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – International news reports about former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s rise to power in Sri Lanka project him as a human rights violator who detests democracy. But, there is an untold story behind his path to the country’s presidency that would have lessons for Asian countries in particular, who are in the crossfire of the geo-political battle for supremacy between the world’s two super powers U.S. and China in what is now called the ‘Indo-Pacific’.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 28 November 2019

Photo credit: A. Baffoe and deforestation

Tropical African Plants Facing Extinction

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new study warns that a third of tropical African plants are on the path to extinction, with much of western Africa standing to lose more than 40 percent of plant diversity.

Ethiopia, and parts of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the hardest hit regions, the researchers found.

Species at risk include trees, shrubs, herbs and woody vines.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 November 2019

Image courtesy of Stephff | The Korea Times

The China-India Double Helix in the Reemergence of Asia as World’s Dominant Power

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn *

NEW DELHI (IDN) – It has been posited that in the 19th century, the world was Europeanized. In the 20th century, it was Americanized. Now, it is being Asianized. But is the story of the Asian success as blossoming as it looks.

There are immense challenges across the contemporary world. Merkelisation has caused a social crisis in the European Union which has been exacerbated by BREXIT, and Francis Fukuyama, the noted author of The End of History expresses his fears for a U.S.-China war.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 27 November 2019

Photo: Collage of portraits of ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (left) and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (right). Photos by ESCAP.

A Lot More Needs Be Done to Achieve Gender Parity

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Government Ministers and senior officials from the Ministries of Women, National Planning, and Finance, representatives of civil society and other key stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific region have gathered at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand for a three-day Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review concluding on 29 November. The following is a joint viewpoint of Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 27 November 2019

Photo: Beitar Illit, one of the four biggest settlements in the West Bank. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The two-state Solution is Dead as Netanyahu Pushes for ‘Greater Israel’

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It’s unbelievable that 102 years have passed since the Balfour Declaration when the British colonial government decided to give the Jews their own homeland – but also promised that “it be done without infringing on the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish population”.

Now, this month, the Trump Administration has announced that the Jewish settlements on West Bank Palestinian land are no longer illegal. No matter the rest of the world is against this, the Palestinians face the possibility that 60% of the West Bank will be covered with Israeli settlements. 40% will be left as disconnected and isolated Palestinian cantons. There are now about 400,000 settlers.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 26 November 2019

Photo: Sidama people. Source: Addis Standard.

Ethiopia‘s Fragile Union Threatened as Sidama People Vote for Self-Government

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Some of the 80 ethnic groups that form the nation of Ethiopia are demanding great autonomy and are voting with their feet for self-government. The Sidama people voted overwhelmingly in November to become self-governing, casting 98.5 percent of the votes backing the change.

The Sidama – who number about 3 million – represent close to four percent of Ethiopia’s 105 million population. By creating their own federal region, the Sidama hope to regain control of land resources, political representation as well as to reaffirm their cultural identity.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 November 2019

Photo: Former Titan II Missile in its silo, Sahuarita, Arizona. Source: The Titan Missile Museum.

How Nuclear False Warning Could Have Unleashed a Catastrophe

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The writer is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. The following is the text of his article published in Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON (IDN) – Forty years ago, on November 9, the U.S. Defense Department detected an imminent nuclear attack against the United States through the early-warning system of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). U.S. bomber and missile forces went on full alert, and the emergency command post, known as the “doomsday plane,” took to the air.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 25 November 2019

Communities at The Forefront in the HIV/AIDS Response

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first identification of HIV/AIDS in the United States of America (USA), in 1981, approximately 80 million people have been infected with HIV, and over 40 million have died of AIDS – the highest global death toll of all time – and also one of the world’s most serious public health challenges.

Each year, on December 1, the world commemorates World AIDS Day to show support for people living with HIV and to remember those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 24 November 2019

Image: Cyber security. Source: Eurocontrol

Action Needed to Face Looming Danger of Cyberwar

By Arul Louis *

NEW YORK (IDN) – The terrifying potential for cyberwar between nations and also asymmetrical cyberwar by non-state actors now looms over the world with the same intensity of the threat of a nuclear holocaust.

The danger was writ large in a recent cyber intrusion into a nuclear power plant in India and the planting of a virus in an Iranian nuclear facility.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 23 November 2019

Photo (L-R): Quit Nukes Director Margaret Peril, Australian Ethical Acting CEO Steve Gibbs, ICAN Australia Director Gem Romuld. Source: Quit Nukes.

Australia’s ‘Quit Nukes’ Campaign Targets Superannuation Funds

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) – A new campaign is encouraging Australians to urge their superannuation funds to exclude nuclear weapons producers from their investments, consistent with the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which has been ratified by 33 states and needs another 17 ratifications to become enforceable under international law – 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification.