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Photo: UNAMA/Fraidoon Poya. Women learning to code at a technology centre in Herat, western Afghanistan.

UN Chief Asks Melinda Gates and Ali Baba's Jack Ma To Head Digital Experts Panel

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Noting that "the scale, spread and speed of change made possible by digital technologies is unprecedented, but the current means and levels of international cooperation are unequal to the challenge," UN Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the launch of a High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation.

As Guterres told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York on July 12, this is the first such Panel of its kind. It is comprised of women and men at the frontiers of technology, public policy, science, and academia.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 13 July 2018

Photo: Martin Krause, Director of the Division of Programme Support and Coordination, IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation, attends the UN event on sustainable development in New York. Credit: D. Shropshire/IAEA.

UN Nuclear Watchdog Promotes Global Development Agenda

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – At the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, concluding on July 18 in New York, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has highlighted its contributions to promoting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Capacity building to 'ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all' as envisaged by SDG 7 was the focus of a training course organized by the IAEA, the world's central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the nuclear field.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 13 July 2018

Photo: Angela Merkel. Credit: Federal Government/Steffen Kugler

Why Germany Is Important For Survival Of Multilateralism

By Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI | BERLIN (IDN) – A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of right-wing nationalism that is anti-immigrant and, in many pockets, feeding racism and xenophobia. Germany, which stood tall and firm against this gathering illiberal tide by throwing open its doors in 2015-16 to over a million refugees – mainly from the war in Syria – is today facing a crisis over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy on refugees.

With the U.S. turning its back on globalization and the global order facing an erosion of liberal and humanitarian values, Germany rose as a new pole of power in the West. It is Germany that has been calling the shots on behalf of the advanced industrial nations, and not only at the recent G7 summit, which saw Chancellor Merkel taking a tough line against President Donald Trump.

: Shastri Ramachandran; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 12 July 2018

Photo: OSCE parliamentarians voting in plenary session in Berlin on10 July 2018. Credit: OSCEPA.

300 Parliamentarians Call For Commitment To UN Charter

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) – More than 300 parliamentarians representing the collective voice of one billion people from Vancouver to Vladivostok adopted a 76-page declaration on July 11 expressing deep concern about unresolved conflicts and nuclear weapons threats, and proposing measures that should be taken to rebuild peace and security in Europe.

The members of 53 participating States and four partners for co-operation were in Berlin for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which was held in the Reichstag building, the seat of the German Bundestag, from July 7-11, in the run-up to the NATO Summit in Brussels and the Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 12 July 2018

Photo: The United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development, Bonn. Credit: UNSSC

UN Summer Academy Brings 2030 Development Agenda To Life

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – In 2015, countries from around the world adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. In November 2016, the Paris Agreement on climate change entered into force, addressing the need to limit the rise of global temperatures.

Since January 2016, governments, businesses and civil society together with the United Nations have been mobilizing efforts to achieve the SDGs. Meanwhile 12 years are left for the 2030 Agenda goals to become a reality. The UN Summer Academy in Bonn is offering an engaging five-day programme from August 27 to August 31, 2018 aimed at 'Bringing the 2030 Agenda to life'.

: Rita Joshi; UN INSIDER; 11 July 2018

Photo: Eritrean Prime Minister Afwerki (left) and his Ethiopian counterpart Ahmed in Asmara. Credit: africanews.

Eritrea and Ethiopia End Two Decade Long War

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ASMARA (IDN) – “And into ploughshares beat their swords. Nations shall learn war no more.”

With those words of Isaiah, Ethiopia and Eritrea announced the end of a futile war and agreed to normalize ties, drawing the curtain on a 20-year military standoff on the Horn of Africa that cost over 70,000 lives and hundreds of millions of dollars.

This was 10 years after the Security Council decided to end the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) terminating the mandate of the eight-year-old peacekeeping force monitoring the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea in response to lack of fuel supplies following Eritrean government restrictions.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 July 2018

Photo: 2017-18 protests in Tehran. Credit: Fars News Agency | Wikimedia Commons.

Iran Sandwiched Between 'Regime Change' Threat and Menacing Discontent Within

By Mortezagholi Raissi

BERLIN (IDN) – Plagued by domestic turmoil and the Trump Administration threatening regime change, not only the government in Iran but the entire theocratic regime too are faced with a far from envious situation, according to political observers.

What started off as protests spurred on by the deteriorating economic conditions in Iran and the inflation in prices of basic necessities beginning of 2017 partly turned into "riots". These prompted Iran government spokesmen Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht declare that the government recognizes the people's right to protest within the framework of citizens' rights and the Constitution. However "rioters and protestors are not the same".

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 09 July 2018

Worldwide Shipping Could Jeopardise Climate Goals

By Sean Buchanan

LONDON (IDN) – Worldwide, shipping contributes an estimated 2.5 percent of global emissions, but left unchecked this could grow to 17 percent by 2050, warns Transparency International – an international non-governmental organisation based in Berlin.

Failure to dramatically reduce the sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, says the NGO, will jeopardise the pledges signed by 195 states in the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit planetary warming to “well below” 2°C, and ideally to no more than 1.5°C.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 July 2018

Photo: Alice Slater | Credit: channel.tv

Trump-Putin Summit A New Opportunity To Ban The Bomb

By Alice Slater, World BEYOND War

The writer serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War. Following is the text of her article first published with the caption Watch Out World: Peace May be Breaking Out!! https://worldbeyondwar.org/watch-out-world-peace-may-be-breaking-out/

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Less than a week or so before Donald Trump's groundbreaking meeting planned with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, to take place after the July 11-12 NATO summit, the new Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons celebrated its first birthday on July 7 when 122 nations voted a year ago in the UN General Assembly to ban the bomb, just as we have banned biological and chemical weapons.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 July 2018

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Will Continue Support Of Africa's Transformation Under Way

By Amina Mohammed

Following are extensive excerpts from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks to the 31st ordinary session of the African Union in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on July 1, 2018. – The Editor.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (IDN-INPS) – The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, places great importance on our long-standing but new-found strategic partnership with the African Union. Sustainable development is at the centre of that work. Africa's Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development share a common vision and, together, they provide the basis for the African Union-United Nations Partnership framework for development informing the action plan to be launched in Addis Ababa in the coming days.