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Opinion & Comment

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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Yemen. Houthis and Iran: A Marriage of Wartime Convenience.

After eight years of conflict, the Houthis are now militarily closer to Iran. They are also more integrated than before in the pro-Iranian armed network. However, the Houthis differ from Iran’s proxies in the region, and not only for being part of the Zaydi Shia doctrine. The Yemeni armed movement is economically autonomous from Tehran,…

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Turkey and the earthquake: what are its implications for the future?

Between the night and early afternoon of Monday 6 February, two violent earthquakes struck south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria, causing what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the greatest disaster recorded in the Country since 1939, the year in which the earthquake in Erzincan killed about 33,000 people and injured more than 100,000. The two…

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Advocacy

Kenya. Mama Shamsa. “I am a mother to them”.

Faced with the violence of criminal gangs that have overwhelmed the lives of many children, the Kenyan activist opened the doors of her home, giving…

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Baobab

Maya. The Magic Town.

The ltzaes, a brave and peaceful group of Maya have been in these lands since time immemorial. They were led by a priest named Zamna, and while…

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Youth & Mission

World Youth Day. Pope Francis: “Each of us is an…

More than one and a half million people took part in World Youth Day (Lisbon, 1- 6 August).  Fragments of the Pope's speeches. “You are not here…

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