THE WORLD

Photo: President Filipe Nyusi addressing the Russian-Mozambique Business Forum on 21 August 2019 on Moscow. Credit: World Trade Center.

Mozambique Embraces Russia’s Investment Efforts

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Keen to intensify and widen bilateral relations, Russia and Mozambique have signed several intergovernmental documents as well as business agreements during President Jacinto Filipe Nyusi’s visit here. Its highlights were talks with President Vladimir Putin and the Russian-Mozambican business forum, the first gathering of businesspersons from Russia and representatives of companies from Mozambique, in Moscow.

The importance of the August 20-23 visit is underlined by the fact that it has taken place in the run-up to the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi on October 23-24. However, because of general elections in Mozambique on October 15, President Filipe Nyusi might not be able to attend the summit, reports said.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 24 August 2019

Photo: Cover of ‘The Disaster Riskscape Across Asia-Pacific: Pathways for resilience, inclusion and empowerment’. Credit: ESCAP

Asia-Pacific Faces a Daunting Spectrum of Natural Hazards

New UN Report Warns of Huge Economic Losses

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | BANGKOK (IDN) – Vulnerable and marginalized communities are among the hardest hit by natural disasters that occurred in a relentless sequence in Asia and the Pacific in the past two years, beyond what the region had previously experienced or was able to predict. This, according to the latest report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), is “a sign of things to come in the new climate reality” where economic losses are set to quadruple.

: Devinder Kumar; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 23 August 2019

Photo: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressing a mass audience. Source: IISG/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

How the Kashmir Debate in India Is Being Fuelled by Falsehoods

Viewpoint by A.G. Noorani

India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah claims that if it wasn't for the country’s first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir would have been in India’s possession. The truth is, if Kashmir is a part of India, it is almost entirely because of Nehru, writes A. G. Noorani, an Indian lawyer, constitutional expert and political commentator. This article first appeared in The Wire on 9 August 2019.

MUMBAI (IDN-INPS) – The Sangh parivar’s hatred of Jawaharlal Nehru is perfectly understandable. At the time of the Partition of India, he stood by Gandhi and bravely fought back the rising surge of hate fostered by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS supremo, M.S. Golwalkar’s plans to exterminate Muslims were detected, as the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh, Rajeshwar Dayal revealed in his memoir A Life in Our Time.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 23 August 2019

Image credit: Cambridge Science Festival.

Artificial Intelligence Offers Benefits for Africa

By Hugo Bourhis *

NEW YORK (IDN | Africa Renewal) – When some people think of artificial intelligence (AI), they think of humanoid robots turning against their creators in an apocalyptic science fiction movie. In reality, AI is already playing an increasing role in many existing and evolving technologies, from driverless cars to translation software, virtual assistance devices and monitoring agriculture and biodiversity.

Satellite images provided by AI can assist policymakers in finding solutions to problems of hunger, drought and climate change, to name only a few.

: Africa Renewal; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 August 2019

Photo: The U.S. Defense Department conducted a flight test of a conventionally configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, California on August 18, 2019. Credit: Scott Howe | DVIDS – The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

Nuclear Arms Race Is Here

By Jessica Corbett *

MAINE, USA (IDN) – Nuclear experts and disarmament advocates are warning that the world is witnessing a new arms race after the Pentagon tested a new missile August 18 that would have violated a Cold War-era treaty the Trump administration ditched earlier this month.

After years of the U.S. government—under both the Obama and Trump administrations—and NATO accusing Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed in 1987 by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Washington formally withdrew from the deal, which banned ground-launched nuclear and conventional ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,000 kilometers, or about 310 to 3,400 miles.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 August 2019

Collage of photos of Sierra Leone's octahedral diamond crystal and chromite – from Wikimedia Commons.

Diamonds Leave Sierra Leone Villagers Poor and Sick

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first diamonds were found in the 1930s, the villagers of Kono, in the eastern region of Sierra Leone, have seen the wealth under their feet make others rich. Instead of joy, the shiny stones have left a trail of contaminated water, pockmarked mud brick houses, and countless other indignities.

Adi Kalie Bangura, a traditional healer, showed a reporter the black welts that dot his arms and legs as a result of drinking and bathing in poisoned water.

Sierra Leone is one of Africa’s leading diamond producers by value.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 August 2019

Photo: 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition law protest on 16 June, captured by Studio Incendo from Flickr. CC BY 2.0

In Hong Kong the Two Sides Must Meet Each Other Half Way

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In 1995 in a little remembered event Li Ruthuan, a member of the Chinese Politiburo (containing the top seven in the government), made a speech likening the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong to the case of a lady who had agreed to sell a 100-year-old Yi-Xiang teapot that was famous for the taste of the tea it poured.

Unbeknown to her, its quality derived from the residue that had accumulated on the inside of the pot. In her eagerness to prepare the pot for sale she cleaned and polished it. When the purchaser came to try using the pot the tea was dreadful and he demanded his money back.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 August 2019

Photo: UN AIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. Credit. UNAIDS

New UNAIDS Chief Winnie Byanyima Has an Ambitious Target

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – “The end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is a goal that is within the world’s reach, but I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead,” says Winnie Byanyima, the new Executive Director of UNAIDS. Working with all UNAIDS partners, she will continue to speak up for the people left behind and champion human rights as the only way to end the epidemic.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, appointed Byanyima as the UNAIDS head and UN Under-Secretary-General “following a comprehensive selection process” that involved a search committee constituted by members of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board. The UNAIDS Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations made the final recommendation on the appointment to the Secretary-General.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 20 August 2019

Photo: Interethnic violence has ravaged Ituri Province in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since December 2108, generating significant population movements within the province, and towards neighbouring Uganda. Credit: UNICEF/Madjiangar

DR Congo Violence Survivors Highlight Armed Militia Brutality

By Kwame Buist

GENEVA (IDN) – Two months since hundreds of thousands of people fled violence in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN humanitarians have warned that armed militia continue to make their safe return impossible.

Briefing journalists in Geneva on August 16, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Babar Baloch said that staff had heard numerous testimonies from people whose family members had been killed in Ituri province.

Severe underfunding for aid work and insecurity involving the Hema and Lendu groups have meant that increasing numbers are vulnerable and unable even to go home to pick up essentials, he added.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 August 2019

Photo: A boy reads from his textbook in a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: UNICEF Patrick Brown

Rohingya Refugee Children Want to Learn, Says UNICEF

By Sean Buchanan

NEW YORK (IDN) – The daily struggle to survive for Myanmar’s Rohingya people in some of the world’s largest refugee settlements has caused overwhelming despair and jeopardised the hopes of an entire generation, according to the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore.

In a report marking two years since the arrival of around 745,000 Rohingya civilians in Bangladesh – after fleeing State-led persecution and violence in Myanmar – UNICEF Executive Director Fore appealed for urgent investment in education and skills training.