Peter Knight The Conversation President Biden has ordered the US intelligence agencies to deepen their investigation of whether the coronavirus emerged naturally from animal-to-human transmission or leaked accidentally from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The lab-leak theory had been floated by President Trump and others in his circle in April last year. It was widely dismissed at the time as an unfounded conspiracy theory with racist undertones. A statement in support of China

M V Ramana Inter Press Service Looking through my emails for the last year, I was struck by how often the adjective “unprecedented” occurred. The term, of course, referred to the global Covid-19 pandemic. One would imagine that this unprecedented year would result in unprecedented trends in other aspects of life. But this is not the case for preparations to kill lots of people. That for me is the message of the 2021 Yearbook from the Stockholm International Peace Res

Siddhi Jain IANSlife Experts are forewarning against the third wave of Covid-19 hitting India as early as September, with many fearing that it could hit children disproportionately. According to Rekha Mittal, Neurologist at Rainbow Hospitals, since many adults would have had the disease or the Covid vaccine, in comparison children would be a susceptible population. "Third wave and more waves can always occur in a pandemic till it burns out or there is herd immunity. So far

Fadel Ndiame Inter Press Service Every year, people in Sub-Saharan Africa consume 34 million tons of milled rice, of which 43 percent is imported. But the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly hampered supply chains, making it difficult for imported rice to reach the continent. Indeed, if immediate action is not taken, the supply shortfall will further strain the region’s food systems which are already impacted by the pandemic. Rice imports from Thailand, one of Africa’s lar

Busani Bafana Inter Press Service International correspondent Jeffrey Moyo, who was a released from detention today after being arrested for breaching Zimbabwe’s Immigration Act by helping two foreign journalists work in the country, says press freedom is undermined when journalists cannot work undeterred. “I feel relieved as it was so horrible inside for 21 days without my freedom,” Moyo told IPS upon his release from Bulawayo Prison today, Jun. 16. “The

Rev Fr C Joseph, Counsellor St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous) Jakhama The pandemic has forced the teaching and learning process to migrate to the digital mode, thereby impacting the education system to face an upheaval like never before. For most teachers and students, shifting to online classes was rather new and sudden. This has posed several challenges to teachers and students. Some students have taken to digital learning with ease and comfort like fish swimming in the wat

Dr. N Janbemo Humtsoe Wokha “Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart.O when may it suffice?That is heaven's part.” These famous lines were taken from the poem ‘Easter 1916’ by WB Yeats. The poem was written after a failed attempt by Irish revolutionaries to liberate Ireland from British occupation. An event that happened on April 1916, where the revolutionaries were captured and executed by a firing squad. Three years later, the Jallianwala Ba

The 2021 High-level Dialogue on Energy, scheduled to take place June 21-25, represents the first global gathering on energy under the auspices of the General Assembly, since the UN Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy held in Nairobi in 1981   Liu Zhenmin, Achim Steiner and Damilola Ogunbiyi Inter Press Service The industrial revolution took 100 years. The digital revolution, two decades. The next global revolution, the energy revolution, has already begun. Bu

A letter from Earth to Heaven through The Sentinel Dear Father,  It is Father’s Day once again. While many are busy, finding gifts for their fathers, I ignore the tears rolling down my cheeks and consoled myself that you are in a better place now. It is hard to accept the fact that I could not wish you personally on a day like today. There are thousands of things I want to tell you; I am writing a few lines for you today, expressing my thoughts, which I so dearly wanted

Kezhokhoto Savi Jakhama  Father’s Day is a day of honouring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society and on this Day we also thanks fathers and father figures for the sacrifices they make, for embracing the responsibility of nurturing and raising children, and for devotion to their family. The role of a father in the family is incredibly important to their children’s psychological and physical well-being. When a child has a h

Peter Rutsa Kohima  The opposition to BJP Nagaland president, Temjen Imna Along Longkumer's “solution under Indian constitution” wasn't unexpected since it doesn’t reflect the position or desire of Nagas in totality. But neither would the condemnations and opposition raised against him by ‘political’ groups, Naga CSOs and tribal organisations themselves have carried the explicit mandate of Nagas and possibly not even the complete voice

Rupin Sharma, IPS  What are App Permissions  An app is an external software which integrates with the operating system – iOS or Android, and Inter-links with the ‘Core features’ of an Operating System to provide additional functionalities on a Smartphone. Thus, a compatibility between the Operating System and an App is essential. An older version of Operating System would not be suitable for a new app – some or all features may not work. Si

Dr Salikyu Dimapur, Nagaland How do we make sense of India intensifying development and infrastructure projects across the north-eastern states, especially in the past decade? Is it because India wants to appease these mutinous states? Or are there more serious considerations motivating India to develop this region? These questions provide a distinctive lens (which is neither understood nor appreciated by many in Nagaland) for a broader and deeper understanding of how India has app

Z K Pahrü Pou Mission Colony, Pfutsero COVID-19 pandemic makes us to realise that there is an urgent need to establish better health infrastructures in the state and at the same time to have local food security to save life. Both are equally important to address if we are to avert loss of lives during epidemic/pandemic in the future. Thousands of our youths migrate to other states in search of job/employment. Many ended up working in unorganised sectors. Far away from home, th

Daniel Moss and Amrita Gupta Inter Press Service Acute hunger is expected to soar in over 20 countries in the next few months, warns a recent report on global “hunger hotspots” from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP). An estimated 34 million people are “one step away from starvation”, pushed to the brink by climate shocks, conflict, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The food aid industry is likely to be very

There is minimal risk of spread of COVID-19 infection from a dead body if standard precautionary measures are followed. However, misconceptions, stigma, and discrimination of the families remain when a person dies of COVID-19. Therefore, the following guideline is an updated and expanded version of the guidelines, which also includes additional sections on handling COVID-19 deaths in a home/community setting, safety guideline for the caregiver of the deceased, and prevention of stigmat

Sr  Pramila UFS NDWWT-Nagaland Region, ACID  Looking deep in to the problems of the Domestic Workers, their unseen struggles and problems stand out like “face behind the mask” of today. They contribute a lot to the household and the society, but who recognises them? Hardly a few good souls. They are still unrecognised.  It was on 16th of June 2011, exactly 10 years ago the ILO convention adopted the policy where in the workers, employers and government

Vishnu Makhijani IANS Ayesha Chenoy, a successful investment banker who won the prestigious Adam Smith Prize for economics at Cambridge, served stints at Merrill Lynch, UBS Global Asset Management and Credit Suisse before cofounding in 2013 an advertising agency that she says empowers brands and help them build their digital real estate: a universe of interactive and immersive experiences. Not surprisingly, her debut as an author is in the form of therapy delivered through a ser

Rupin Sharma, IPS Nothing works in isolation – at least not in this immensely inter-connected and inter-dependent world – neither climate, nor flora and fauna; neither countries or state or villages or communities nor institutions and organisations. Wired or wirelessly connected devices are no exception and nor are any computer systems. Though we are still some ways away from artificially driven world, we are already seeing changes where predictive texts, sentences or r

Sania Farooqui Inter Press Service What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read the words, women and power? The accepted wisdom is that women can be powerful, but not without the constant reference to their gender – which is often based on a set of unconscious biases towards them. Is she competent enough, effective, articulate without being too assertive or too aggressive. Is she a straightjacket, is she too emotional, will her family life impact her work or