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Photo credit: Ms. Jane Mufamadi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Freedom Park Memorial Museum Complex in Pretoria, South Africa.

The Five-Nation BRICS Finds Unity in Cultural Diversity

Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) – Under the Russian Chairmanship of BRICS 2020, Moscow has organised and hosted a series of corporate conferences, business forums and other important events. For example, the Roundtable discussion on the theme “International Cultural Cooperation for Strengthening BRICS Unity” brought high-profiled participants from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It was part of efforts at broadening the scope of cooperation in different directions, and steps toward attaining an admirably influential position and becoming active on the global stage.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 13 November 2020

Photo: "I've just spoken to President-elect @JoeBiden to congratulate him on his election. There are no greater friends and no greater allies than Australia and the US," PM Morrison on November 12. Source. @ScottMorrisonMP

Australia At Crossroads with A Biden Presidency

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – The government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been closely aligned with that of the US President Donald Trump on climate change and policy towards China. But, media commentators here in the past few days have been arguing that a Biden administration may put pressure on Australia to change its climate change policies in particular and tread a more cautious approach to diplomacy with China.

Australia is one of the world’s biggest per-capita greenhouse emitters as well as a major exporter of coal. The Morrison government has set a 2030 emission target of 26-28 per cent reduction from 2005 levels, after having rejected a scientific report by the Climate Change Authority recommending reducing the emission levels by 45-60 per cent over the same period.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 13 November 2020

Photo: A deadly shipwreck off the coast of Senegal have taken at least 414 lives in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Source: UNDP

Shipwreck Off Senegalese Coast Prods UN to Call for Dismantling Trafficking and Smuggling Networks

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Migrants around the world are continuing their desperate flights for survival even though rescue efforts have slowed, and rich countries are building higher walls against the asylum seekers.

The deadliest shipwreck of the year occurred most recently off the coast of Senegal where at least 140 people drowned after a boat carrying around 200 migrants sank, according to the UN migration agency (IOM).

: Global Information Network; UN INSIDER; 12 November 2020

Photo: Damien Grobes, 42, of West Philadelphia, lead manager for One Pennsylvania, helps a man driving by to text their number and hands them a sign to help others register to vote in North Philadelphia, on September 26. Credit: TYGER WILLIAMS / The Philadelphia Inquirer

Biden Needs to Reshape Himself into A Left-Wing Populist for America's and the Democrats' Sake

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) – President-elect Joe Biden has called the November 2020 U.S. election a “battle for the soul of the nation.” In offering himself up as a contrast to President Donald Trump, Biden made a clear distinction between his political agenda and statesman-like behaviour, and that of Trump.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 12 November 2020

Image credit: Convention on Biological Diversity.

Corporations Morally Obliged to Protect Biodiversity

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new report finds that consumers have an increasing awareness of the planet’s biodiversity and want corporations to protect it. They feel that "companies have a moral obligation to ensure that they have a positive impact on people and biodiversity". However, more than 70 per cent suggested their trust is higher when a brand’s commitment to the ethical sourcing of biodiversity is independently verified. The report, commissioned by the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT), released on November 11, is based on a survey. The data was published in the 2020 UEBT Biodiversity Barometer, an ongoing set of research updated each year, that has covered more than a decade.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 11 November 2020

Image: Collage of pictures with Venezuelan President Maduro (left) and Joe Biden (right) from Internet.

US President-Elect Should Talk to Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad *

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – In June, Joe Biden, who will be the U.S. president in January 2021, sent out a tweet that described Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro—and others—as “thugs and dictators.” Maduro won two elections to hold his post—in 2013 and 2018. In 2018, Maduro won 67.8 per cent of the vote, losing a third of the votes to Henri Falcón and Javier Bertucci, two figures of the opposition.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 11 November 2020

Photo: Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump (right). Credit: MIT Technology Review

The US Has Moved to Being the Saboteur of Democracy

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It will take a long time before America can again strut the world stage and lecture about the values of democracy, poking its finger in the eye of every authoritarian or dictatorial government it has the desire to show up. A former president, no less, is going to use every occasion into the distant future to tell the world that this election of 2020 was illegally hijacked.

The election has shown up the deficiencies in America’s “democracy”. We again learnt that winning a handsome majority of votes wasn’t enough and that for President-elect Joe Biden to win he had to garner 270 votes in the electoral college which is biased towards the under-populated, rural, states such as Wyoming with only 600,000 people.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 November 2020

Faith-based & Other NGOs Look Forward to Entry into Force of the Nuclear Ban Treaty

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – When she learned that the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) reached the 50 states parties required for its entry into force, Setsuko Thurlow said: "I was not able to stand. I remained in my chair and put my head in my hands, and I cried tears of joy. … I found myself speaking with the spirits of hundreds of thousands of people who lost their lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was immediately in conversation with these beloved souls. …I was reporting to the dead, sharing this good news first with them, because they paid the ultimate price with their precious lives."

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 10 November 2020

Photo: Trump has a hobby, a nasty hobby, of blocking Nigerian candidates for international positions. He incited the Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) against its president Akinwunmi Adesina’s second term bid. And, he has been blocking, Nigeria/Africa’s candidate for the position of director general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Collage of pictures of Akinwunmi Adesina (left) and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (right) by IDN-INPS.

Letter to US President-elect Joe Biden

By Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) – If Nigerians had a vote, you’ll probably not be the 46th President of the United States of America. A Pew Research Centre poll in January showed that two countries – Kenya and Nigeria – were still madly in love with lame-duck President Donald J. Trump.

You might wonder why in spite of your long list of transgressions against Trump – from his malicious negligence in the fight against Coronavirus to his congenital lying, and from race-baiting to his crooked politics – we still love him.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 November 2020

Photo: Screenshot of President Trump delivering President Trump delivering remarks in North Carolina on November 2, 2020. White House YouTube video.

The Evil That Men Do Lives After Them

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN) – Now it is clear that Joe Biden is the new president of the United States. It is unlikely that Donald Trump’s legal manoeuvring will change the election results, as when a conservative Supreme Court in 2000 decided in favour of George Bush over Al Gore, who lost by 535 votes. Not even this Supreme Court, where Trump has six sympathetic members (three appointed by him, quite a record), and only three unsympathetic, will dare to change a result coming from too many states.