Cabo Verde Hoists the Blue Flag

On 20 January, the world’s best sailors arrived in Mindelo, Cabo Verde, completing the initial leg of the 2023 edition of The Ocean Race. Coinciding with this stop was the launch of Cabo Verde’s first blue bond at the Ocean Summit, an event jointly organized by The Ocean Race and the Government of Cabo Verde on the sidelines of the grueling round-the-world race. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in attendance as this year’s keynote speaker.

Rahul Gandhi’s Long Walk Hailed, But Only Polls Will Determine Its Success

When countless supporters of the Indian National Congress, the main opposition party, arrive in Srinagar on January 30 to hoist the Indian flag, they would have walked 3,570 kilometres over 150 days.

Solar Energy Useless Without Good Batteries in Brazil’s Amazon Jungle

“Our electric power is of bad quality, it ruins electrical appliances,” complained Jesus Mota, 63. “In other places it works well, not here. Just because we are indigenous,” protested his wife, Adélia Augusto da Silva, of the same age.

India Can Use The G20 to Fight Corruption and Reduce Global Inequalities

The G20 India Presidency is marked by unprecedented geopolitical, environmental, and economic crises. Rising inflation threatens to erase decades of economic development and push more people into poverty. Violent extremism is also on the rise as a result of increasing global inequality, and the rule of law is in decline everywhere. All of these challenges impact the G20's goal of realizing a faster and more equitable post-pandemic economic recovery. But as India prioritizes its agenda for 2023, it is corruption that is at the heart of all of these other problems- and which poses the greatest threat to worldwide peace and prosperity.

How (Much) Are You Today?

Gone are those times when catastrophes were measured in terms of human suffering. Now, with an exception: Ukrainians victims of the Russian invasion, everything is calculated in just money.

New Business Technology Transfer Provides Benefits for African Pharmaceutical Industry

A few months after German biotechnology company BioNTech announced the establishment of the first-ever local vaccine manufacturing in Rwanda, experts believe the successful implementation of such initiatives across the continent will require countries to acquire know-how while encouraging potential industrial partners in the pharmaceutical industry.

Digital Politics: “Disconnected Citizens Are Kept Away from Opportunities”

In 2022, Saudi Arabia “quietly” sentenced Salma al-Shehab to 34 years in prison over her Twitter activity, marking the longest Saudi sentence ever for a peaceful activist. Fast forward and award-winning Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was charged with two counts of "offensive communication" after making unflattering remarks about the president and his son on Twitter. The message is clear: your well-crafted 280 characters can land you in jail.

United Nations Security Council, International Security & Human Security

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the principal organ within the United Nations System that is mandated under the tenets of the UN Charter for maintaining international peace and security. The focus here is to prevent and resolve international conflicts and disputes – i.e., using diplomatic means and leverage, as well as international treaties and laws that protect human rights and govern the rules of war.

On International Day of Education, We Must Prioritize Girls in Humanitarian Crisis

“Is it a sin to be a girl? We don’t want to be at home and illiterate. We want to go to school, study and be intelligent.” In just a few words, this plea for education from a young Afghan girl has captured the world’s attention. Her heartbreaking question shows how the Taliban’s recent ban on girls attending secondary school and university – effectively ending education opportunities for all Afghan girls and women – is not only violating their fundamental human right to education but shattering countless hopes and dreams in an instant.

The Mayan Train Pierces the Yucatan, the Great Jungle of Mexico – VIDEO

The Mayan Train (TM), run by the government’s National Tourism Development Fund (Fonatur), threatens the Mayan Jungle, the second largest in Latin America after the Amazon rainforest. its ecosystems and indigenous communities, as well as underground caves and cenotes - freshwater sinkholes resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater.

Biden 2024 Decision Pits the Party’s Elites Against Most Democrats

Denial at the top of the Democratic Party about Joe Biden’s shaky footing for a re-election run in 2024 became more untenable over the weekend. As the New York Times reported, investigators “seized more than a half-dozen documents, some of them classified, at President Biden’s residence” in Delaware.

Delivering On Our Promise of Universal Education

As we mark the International Day of Education, world leaders must make good on their promise of providing quality education for all by 2030. Education is our investment in peace where there is war, our investment in equality where there is injustice, our investment in prosperity where there is poverty.

Chile’s Mapuche Indians Hurt by Rejection of a Plurinational Constitution

Mapuche indigenous leaders were hit hard by what they see as a collective defeat: the rejection in a September referendum of a plurinational, intercultural constitution proposed to Chile by an unprecedented constituent assembly with gender parity and indigenous representatives.

Pope, Sasakawa in Global Appeal for a Leprosy Free World

In the four years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of leprosy or Hansen’s disease, seemed to be losing steam. Between 2016 and early 2020, new case numbers remained more or less constant.

Ukraine: No Peace Without a Military Victory

Russia has been at war with Ukraine for more than 10 months, with no end in sight and with just as little prospect for direct negotiations between the warring parties. These were last broken off mutually on 17 May 2022.

We Want to Be Legal; We’re Not ‘Zama Zama’ Criminals Say South African Artisanal Miners

Mining towns across South Africa have become hostage to a booming but bloody illegal mining economy.

Unstoppable Gas Leaks in Mexico

A dark mole dots the brown earth, among the green scrub at this spot in southeastern Mexico. A repetitive “glug, glug,” a noise sounding like a thirsty animal, and an intense stench lead to this site, hidden in the undergrowth, where a broken pipe has created a pool of dense oil.

US Installs New Nukes in Europe: As Destructive as 83 Hiroshima Bombs

As if the 100 billion dollars that the United States has so far provided to Ukraine in both weapons and aid were not enough, the US has now started to install in Europe its brand new, more destructive nuclear warheads.

Africa Wants IMF Special Drawing Rights Re-Allocated to Finance Its Development

African countries, many reeling under high debt and experiencing economic recession, could benefit from the reallocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR), financial instruments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Malaysia’s TVET Ecosystem in Need of All-of-Society Engagement

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Malaysia originated from the colonial and early post-colonial governments’ need for trained and skilled manpower to run state agencies and projects.