By Kelsey Davenport The author is Director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following text was published in their P4+1 and Iran Nuclear Deal Alert news digest for June 2023. WASHINGTON, DC, 15 June 2023 (IDN) — Recent comments from U.S. and Iranian officials suggest that the space for negotiations over […]
A Climate Finance Goal That Works for Developing Countries
By Richard Kozul-Wright The writer is Director of the Globalization and Development Strategies Division, UNCTAD. GENEVA (IDN) — After years of failing to meet climate finance commitments, the new climate finance goal under discussion in Bonn (at the Climate Change Conference 5-15 June) is critical, but without supporting reforms of the global financial architecture we […]
The new Cold War between Russia and the West Is Unnecessary
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden, 13 June 2023 (IDN) — George Orwell, the author of “Animal Farm” and “1984”, was the first person to use the phrase “Cold War” in a 1945 newspaper article, written just after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He argued that “the surface of the earth is being parcelled […]
Fiji’s Health Services in Crisis As Nurses Migrate
By Pauliasi Mateboto SUVA, Fiji, 13 June 2023 (IDN) — Fiji’s ailing medical industry has seen another massive blow as over 800 nurses have reportedly left for greener pastures so far this year, either to the local private sector or migrated overseas, mainly to neighbouring Australia and New Zealand.
UN Plans a Code of Conduct to Monitor AI & Prevent Abuses
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 13 June 2023 (IDN) — The widespread proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI)—and its CHATBOT search engine—has prompted the United Nations to propose a “set of guardrails” to prevent abuses and disinformation. The motive is to help governments with guidelines that “promote facts, while exposing conspiracies and lies, and safeguarding freedom […]
Spending on Nuclear Arms Reaches a Hefty $83 Billion & Rising
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 12 June 2023 (IDN) — As geopolitics take a turn for the worse—with Russian nuclear threats in Ukraine, the saber-rattling by North Korea and the increasing political confrontation between the US and China—there are rising investments in the world’s expanding nuclear arsenals. Global spending on nuclear weapons increased in 2022 […]
Corruption Is a Growing Threat to Africa’s Precarious Economies
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 12 June 2023 (IDN) — Declining profits from oil and gas production may no longer be sufficient to cover up weaknesses in African economies, including surging food prices, high rates of food insecurity particularly among the rural population, and corruption. With its once abundant oil fields, Equatorial […]
U.S. Evangelical Group Promotes Anti-Gay Agenda Across Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 12 June 2023 (IDN) — An American evangelical lobby group has been coaching high-ranking African politicians and religious and civic leaders to oppose comprehensive sex education (CSE) across the continent. According to openDemocracy, an independent news website, African ambassadors to the UN have gone to the Arizona […]
Investigative Global South Journalists to Receive Awards for Excellence
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 12 June 2023 (IDN) — A select group of investigative reporters from the global South will be recognized this year for outstanding work at the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, from September 19-22. Their prize, the Shining Light Award, honors journalists whose work was […]
Universalization of Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty Is Essential
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | TOKYO, 11 June 2023 (IDN) — Peacebuilder and Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, who is president of the Tokyo-based Soka Gakkai International (SGI), issued a statement ahead of the meeting of the Group of 7 (G7) countries in Hiroshima May 19-21, calling on the G7 leaders to take bold steps toward […]