By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW (IDN) — Over the past few years, Russia’s sphere of influence in Africa has been strengthening and broadening with much focus on helping to maintain peace and security and making an investment in exploiting natural resources in Africa. The first historic Russia-Africa summit held in October 2019 has further and […]
China’s Growing Network of Ultra-High Voltage Power Lines Has Hit Its Fair Share of Snags — Part Two
Please click here for Part One of this article. By Ye Ruolin and Yuan Ye * SHANGHAI (IDN | China Dialogue) — The Hunanese experience and other cases demonstrate how this vision may prove difficult to realise. The Baihetan dam, currently under construction on the Jinsha River straddling the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, […]
China’s Growing Network of Ultra-High Voltage Power Lines Has Hit Its Fair Share of Snags — Part One
By Ye Ruolin and Yuan Ye * SHANGHAI (IDN | China Dialogue) — With few coal reserves to call its own and winter rains too erratic to rely on hydropower, central China’s Hunan province had long faced frequent electricity blackouts, an annoyance to residents and a hindrance to economic growth. So, when an ultra-high voltage […]
Global Pandemic Hits the World’s Poorest the Hardest
By J Natranis NEW YORK (IDN) — The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a deeply troubling situation in the world’s poorest countries. It threatens to push the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) another ten years further into the future, warns the Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2021 by more than 60 United Nations Agencies […]
Nigeria Decides to Invest $1.5bn in Irreparable Refinery
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA (IDN) — Brazil has proved a disaster in the management of COVID-19, but there are other areas where we can use their examples. Like what to do about failing refineries. This hot-button topic returned to the […]
UN Security Council Faces Critical Issues Under Vietnamese Presidency
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — As Viet Nam takes the presidency of the UN Security Council in for the month of April, the 15-member Council’s report for March in Hindsight examines mercenarism and the mercenaries’ heavy involvement in illicit, destabilising activities in a number of countries on the Security Council’s agenda. Viet Nam […]
Russian Science Creates Vaccines for Global Humanity
By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW (IDN) — President Vladimir Putin has praised the entire healthcare system, and particularly the hard-working team of scientists and specialists from different institutions for their efforts at research and creating a series of vaccines for use against the coronavirus both at home and abroad. Three vaccines already registered in Russia, […]
Rolling Back on NATO’s Expansion Should Be President Joe Biden’s Immediate Task
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — History and events have not been kind to Russia. Napoleon’s invasion, revolution, two world wars, Hitler’s invasion, Stalin’s communism and, most recently, the expansion of NATO, have shattered the Russian people’s equilibrium and self-regard time and time again. At the end of the Cold War and with […]
COVID-19 Bares Chronic Development Fault Lines in Asia-Pacific
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana The writer is United Nations-Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP). BANGKOK (IDN) — The world is emerging from the biggest social and economic shock in living memory, but it will be a long time before the deep scars of […]
Internal Conflict Over Carbon Neutral China by 2060
Viewpoint by Alexander Kallweit Last year, President Xi Jinping announced ambitious climate targets. But China’s reluctant state apparatus struggles to reconcile high growth and climate policy, writes Dr Alexander Kallweit, who heads the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Beijing. Previously, he led the foundation’s International Dialogue Department in Berlin. This article first appeared in the […]