By Kannan Salazar BANGKOK (IDN) – With Julian Assange’s “show trial” in progress in the UK for alleged national security breaches in the US, and a cold war era propaganda campaign between the Anglo-American media and China gathering momentum, a timely new book sheds some light on how the so-called “free media” has ditched its […]
UN Releases Special 2020 Broadcast Calling for Collective Action
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In a significant move to mobilise global support, the United Nations, Project Everyone and 72 Films are launching ‘Nations United – Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times’. A first of its kind film has been released September 19 on the UN YouTube channel and global broadcast networks. The importance […]
COVID-19 Crisis Underlines the Importance of Economic Diversification in Africa
Business as Usual Will Only Reinforce Economic Hardship Viewpoint by Njuguna Ndung’u* NAIROBI (IDN) – Africa’s low level of economic diversification is a leading factor in the continent’s economic fragility. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the risks of countries’ over-dependence on a single natural resource such as oil. Africa is endowed with abundant natural […]
Call for a Strengthened and Reformed United Nations System
By J C Suresh TORONTO (IDN) – Ahead of the September 21 High-Level Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, a group of prominent former government and UN leaders are calling on current world leaders to take action to strengthen the United Nations system. According to the UN2020, in an Open Letter published […]
Uncertainty Hangs Over the UN Surviving Beyond 2045
Viewpoints by Franz Baumann, Fmr. UN Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations and Christopher Ankersen, Global Affairs, New York University. This is the second of two rounds of Dr Franz Baumann’s stimulating exchange with Dr Chris Ankersen posted on PAIRAGRAPH – A Hub of discourse between pairs of notable individuals. The first appeared on 8 September 2020. […]
U.S. Shifts Arms Control Strategy with Russia
By Kingston Reif and Shannon Bugos While Kingston Reif is the director for disarmament and threat reduction policy, Shannon Bugos is research assistant at the Arms Control Association. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration has softened its demand that China immediately participate in trilateral nuclear arms control talks with the United States and Russia […]
New UN Report Warns of Future Pandemics If ‘Business as Usual’ Continues
By J. Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – A new UN report has underlined the importance of biodiversity in addressing climate change, and long-term food security, and concluded that action to protect biodiversity is essential to prevent future pandemics. The fifth edition of the UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook report, released on September 15, has warned: “The […]
The Great Green Wall Is Paving the Way Ahead to 2030
By Rita Joshi BONN (IDN) – The Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative has over the past 13 years restored close to 20 million hectares of land, according to a report released on September 7 at a virtual meeting of environmental ministers from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti together with regional […]
The Need to Address That British Eugenics Scandal
Viewpoint by Justin Podur* This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. TORONTO (IDN) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been known to have an interest in eugenics, but despite the persistence of support for this discredited idea over the years, eugenics is a scientific and moral failure. In […]
The Mystery of The Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Take the strange case of Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident, who many think nearly died from a poisoning ordered by the Kremlin. After sifting through the conflicting evidence, I was suddenly struck by a couple of sentences in a novel I’m reading right now, “The End of […]