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Opinion & Comment

The search for a just peace in Ukraine.

“Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth by falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages”.  That’s Samuel Johnson in November 1758 writing in his The Idler essays for the London Weekly about the growing role of journalists – ‘news-writers’.  You wonder what he might have made…

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Inequalities. Africa and Climate Change, New Fiscal Rules Are Needed.

Africa is responsible for only 4% of CO2 emissions but is suffering enormous agricultural and health damage. It is proposed to provide help by taxing multinationals and the consumption of the richest countries. Climate change is making its effects felt on humanity, affecting the cornerstones of survival and social organization. But accountability and consequences don’t…

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Green hydrogen: To transform Mauritania into a Euro-African regional hub.

The sustainability of the energy sector and the search for clean and low-carbon energy technologies are the basis of the European Union’s strategy on energy policy which has as its main objective the so-called carbon “neutrality” by 2050. Europe, in addition to increasing the domestic production of clean energy, aims to diversify its import basket,…

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Chinese Private Security Companies in Latin America.

The expanding presence of China-based companies in Latin America, and the security problems they have experienced there, create an inherent demand for Chinese private security companies. The enormous expansion of global engagement by China and its companies over the past two decades has generated a corresponding need to protect Chinese operations and personnel in the…

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China’s Arctic strategy.

To facilitate its Arctic ambitions, China aims to increase bilateral influence over its Arctic pariah, Russia. China’s northernmost tip is over 1,400 km south of the Arctic Circle. It sees the mass of sea, ice, and land as a new strategic frontier, and as Arctic space becomes increasingly critical for infrastructure and defense, China has…

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Europol: How Organized Crime Groups Infiltrate the Ports of Europe.

Of the 90 million containers that find their way through EU ports every year, law enforcement is able to physically inspect only two percent. This, combined with the criminal tricks, makes it almost impossible to detect the enormous amount of illicit goods that enter the continent through ports, according to a new Europol report. The…

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Chip. Competition in Asia is becoming fierce.

The competition between Asian countries for chips is fierce. But not everyone is willing to give up the Chinese market to satisfy Washington. The global demand for semiconductors has been declining in the last six months: after years in which the demand for electronic devices had also skyrocketed the demand for semiconductors used for their…

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Rare Earths: four recipes for safe supply chains.

The growing demand for Rare Earths for energy transition requires more resilient supply chains. Are stockpiling and recycling part of the solution? In the coming years, energy transition and the progressive electrification of our economies will increase the consumption of Rare Earths and other elements, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper collectively indicated as…

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Do Sanctions work?

We think of sanctions as an alternative to war.  They are also a projection of power.   States, corporations, and recently, individual citizens, are punished economically. The aim is to stop or curtail actions which are inimical to the interests or values of the sanctioning State or contrary to international law, or to both.  In the…

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Sweden, South Africa & the Churches.

Finland has just joined NATO.  Norway was a founding member in 1949. Sweden wishes to join but to date is blocked by Turkey. A few weeks ago, the Russian Ambassador in Stockholm, Ukrainian-born Viktor Tatarinsev, commented “the Swedes will undoubtedly be sent to their deaths in the interests of others” adding that joining NATO would…

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Africa. Organised crime and global supply chains.

The fishing and cocoa industries show how criminal networks and corrupt officials exploit multinational supply chains. Transnational organised crime is usually associated with violent mafia-style groups that traffic drugs, people, arms and wildlife. Less dramatic but equally damaging is the effect of organised crime on global supply chains for legal goods. These logistics networks provide…

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The Strategic Importance of the Indian Ocean.

While the focus remains on the western Pacific and the South China Sea, because of the China-US direct interests, the Indian Ocean is a major geopolitical theatre. Several key energy-producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar and the UAE are located in the region. More than 60 percent of the world’s oil shipments,…

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Advocacy

Maria Ressa. Information that gives hope.

“We want to create a federation of international journalistic organisations that collaborate in this effort, starting from the global South,” says Filipino journalist and 2022…

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Baobab

The Leopard, the Dog and the Tortoise.

Once upon a time, there was a leopard. He had a huge walnut tree that was full of nuts. Stingy as he was, however, he forbade…

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Youth & Mission

Mission. In the school of life and humanity.

Three young Comboni missionaries from three continents share their vocation stories and missionary experiences. Fr Victor Cunanan Parungao from the Philippines reflects on 15 years of…

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