How a Massive Climate Project Can Help Win Peace for Ukraine – And Help African Job + Food Crises

How would the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu have reacted to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine? Differently than you might think. The invasion of Ukraine is a mass human tragedy. It is killing Ukrainians, exposing families to violent atrocities, and has driven a refugee crisis of over 4 million people and counting. The war in Ukraine has also reawakened our fear of global war - even nuclear war - and the importance we place on global peace.

China’s Entry into the Muslim World

The retrenchment of American power in the Middle East and the larger Muslim world, coupled with the war in Ukraine, has provided a geopolitical breather for China. Beijing is effectively deploying this to make strategic inroads into the region, given this vacuum and focus on Europe.

Egypt’s Tourism Hit by Ukraine Crisis

Tourism to Egypt’s GDP is as vital as the Nile to its people. After Egypt’s tourism sector began to recover following the Russian plane crash in 2015. Then COVID hit, and now the Ukrainian war shot a bullet through its heart.

Bennett Is Siding with the Ruthless Killer Putin

Prime Minister Bennett’s “neutrality” in the Russian war against Ukraine is outrageous and contemptable. It runs contrary to every moral principle that Israel is supposed to stand and fight for. Bennett must join the Western alliance in opposing Putin — a merciless tyrant who is committing crimes against humanity and must pay for it

Warning: Climate Crisis Is Now the Single Biggest Health Threat Facing Humanity

While the world’s top scientists and experts continue their arduous work to finally submit to politicians at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt (7-18 November 2022), a new alert now emerges: the climate crisis has already become the single biggest health threat to humankind.

US Migration Policy Is Enriching Cartels at the Busiest, and Most Dangerous, Part of the US-Mexico Border

“The migrants try to organize themselves to stay safe,” a humanitarian worker told me as we stood near a town square in Reynosa, Mexico, steps away from the U.S. border. More than 2,000 people from many countries, blocked from asking for asylum in the United States, were packed into this square block, living under tents and tarps, amid port-a-potties and cooking fires. Children were everywhere.

Zimbabwe Unsafe Roads Could Drive the Economy Around the Bend

When driving at night in Zimbabwe, watch out for a pair of eyes on the road and slow down. You may hit a giraffe inside a pothole. So goes an often-told joke.

Proposed Animal Protection Legislation Ignores Rights of Local Communities to Practice their Approach to Conservation

On the battleground that has become African wildlife conservation, rural communities find themselves in the middle of a tug-of-war that is bound to the past on one side, and their future, on the other.

Perils of Hunger, Food Insecurity in Southern Africa- Challenges & Opportunities

Food systems are under severe stress around the world now. The thresholds of tolerance are already exceeding limits with millions facing acute food and water scarcity throughout all continents. Over a quarter of Africa’s population are facing hunger and food insecurity. Conflict, droughts, flooding, rising unemployment, inequality, economic crises, and the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic have been ravaging the Continent on an unprecedented scale.

Deepening Stagflation: Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

The world is sailing into a perfect storm as key leaders seem intent on threatening more war, albeit while proclaiming the noblest of intentions. By doing so, they block international cooperation to create conditions for sustainable peace and shared prosperity for all.

Indian Agriculture Towards 2030

India began its journey as an independent nation in 1947 with fresh memory of the Bengal Famine of 1943 which claimed 1.5 to 3 million lives. Against this backdrop, the First Five Year Plan (1951-56) prioritized agriculture which, however, shifted to heavily industrialization in the second Plan.

Palm Oil for Biodiesel in the Amazon: Sustainable Fuel or Deforestation Risk?

Oil palm, known as dendezeiro in Brazil, can produce up to ten times more vegetable oil per hectare than other crops, but it is regularly condemned as harmful to the biodiversity of tropical forests in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Now, its cultivation looks set to advance in the Brazilian Amazon.

Youth Icon’s Fight for Rights Among India’s Destitute

Pooja Shukla, 25, a socialist candidate, has lost her maiden elections to the provincial parliament in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. But Shukla is no loser.

School Feeding Is Now the World’s Largest Social Safety Net

When Canada and Nepal are used in the same sentence it’s usually because the former is supporting development efforts in the latter. Not when it comes to feeding children at school.

In Sri Lanka, Rajapaksas on the Ropes

With the economy in freefall and basics such as food and fuel in dangerously short supply, there is mounting public anger against a failing and desperate government in Sri Lanka.

When Is Too Much Autism Awareness Still Not Enough?

When is too much Autism awareness still not enough? This thought recurs every April as we near World Autism Day on April 2, and parents reach out to me after reading enthusiastic and well-meaning news and journal articles – which are actually harmful and hurtful.

Can Legal Action Alone Put an End to Child Marriage?

On December 22, 2021, the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21, was sent to a parliamentary standing committee for further discussion.

War, Displacement & A Global Refugee Crisis: A Wake-Up Call to Increase Refugee Participation

It has been a month since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has now created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times. More than 3.7 million people have left the country, in what has become the fastest exodus globally since World War II.

UN Should Aspire to Turn Sports into a Tool for Social Change

The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, which will be commemorated on April 6, is a day that celebrates the positive effects that sports can have on the society.

A Battle Between a UN Chief & US Envoy Ends in a Decisive Blow with an American Veto

When Madeleine Albright was nominated to be the first female US Secretary of State back in 1997, some apparently questioned whether “a woman could go toe-to-toe with world leaders”. “Madeleine quickly quashed those misguided doubts,” says Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a tribute to Albright, who passed away last week at the age of 84. “There was simply no doubt that, in any room, she was as tough as anyone and often tougher. That said, it wasn’t always easy.”

Turning Agro-industrial Waste into Energy in Argentina

Three giant concrete cylinders with inflated membrane roofs are a strange sight in the industrial park of Zárate, a world of factories 90 kilometers from Buenos Aires that heavy trucks drive in and out of all day long. They are the heart of a plant that is about to start producing energy from agro-industrial waste, for the first time in Argentina.