len

A Weapon of War? Sexual Violence in the Syrian Conflict




len

Managing the Real and Perceived Challenges Facing the World




len

Leadership in an Era of Geopolitical Turbulence




len

Chatham House Forum: Does Religion Incite Violence?




len

Iran’s New Foreign Policy Challenges




len

Indo-UK Collaboration: Opportunities and Challenges




len

The Transatlantic Relationship: Challenges and Opportunities




len

The Challenge of Ambition? Unlocking Climate Action and the Outcomes of COP24




len

Sustainable Solutions to Challenges Faced by Displaced People and Refugees




len

The Paradox of Progress: Health Challenges of the Future




len

Undercurrents: Episode 33 - Chinese Millennials, and Attacks on Infrastructure in Gaza




len

Africa’s Economic Outlook in a Challenging External Environment




len

Challenges and Opportunities in the Fight Against Corruption




len

France, the UK and Europe: New Partnerships and Common Challenges




len

Security Challenges in the Mediterranean Region




len

Structure-based discovery of a small-molecule inhibitor of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus virulence [Molecular Biophysics]

The rapid emergence and dissemination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains poses a major threat to public health. MRSA possesses an arsenal of secreted host-damaging virulence factors that mediate pathogenicity and blunt immune defenses. Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and α-toxin are exotoxins that create lytic pores in the host cell membrane. They are recognized as being important for the development of invasive MRSA infections and are thus potential targets for antivirulence therapies. Here, we report the high-resolution X-ray crystal structures of both PVL and α-toxin in their soluble, monomeric, and oligomeric membrane-inserted pore states in complex with n-tetradecylphosphocholine (C14PC). The structures revealed two evolutionarily conserved phosphatidylcholine-binding mechanisms and their roles in modulating host cell attachment, oligomer assembly, and membrane perforation. Moreover, we demonstrate that the soluble C14PC compound protects primary human immune cells in vitro against cytolysis by PVL and α-toxin and hence may serve as the basis for the development of an antivirulence agent for managing MRSA infections.




len

The recalibration of Chinese assertiveness: China's responses to the Indo-Pacific challenge

8 January 2020 , Volume 96, Number 1

Feng Liu

In response to the changing geopolitical landscape in Asia, both China and the United States attempt to alter the regional order in their own favour, both in the economic and security realms. This article shows how diverging views on future arrangements are leading to strategic shifts and increasing tension between these two Great Powers. As part of its quest for Great-Power status, China has been actively pushing its regional initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as well as adopting assertive security policies towards its neighbours. In contrast, in order to counter China's growing influence America's regional strategy is undergoing a subtle shift from ‘rebalancing to Asia’ to focusing on the ‘Indo-Pacific’ region. However, amid an intensifying trade war and other challenges facing the region, China has chosen to moderate its proactive foreign policy-orientation in the past few years. In particular, China has made attempts to downplay its domestic rhetoric, rebuild strategic relationship with India and Japan, and to reassure ASEAN states in the South China Sea. In response to the Indo-Pacific strategy, it would be more effective for China to articulate a more inclusive regional vision and promote an institutional framework that also accommodates a US presence in the region.




len

How Polarized India Erupted Into Violence

27 February 2020

Dr Gareth Price

Senior Research Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme
Growing social divisions, stoked by the BJP-led government, have mixed dangerously with a slowing economy.

2020-02-27-Delhi.jpg

A woman sits on the terrace of a damaged building following clashes between people supporting and opposing the amendment to India's citizenship law, in New Delhi on 27 February. Photo: Getty Images.

The outbreak of communal violence in Delhi this week is the worst in India’s capital for decades. It both reflects and will reinforce India’s polarization.

That polarization is between the view that India represents homogeneity, grounded on the fact that its citizens are overwhelmingly (around four-fifths) Hindu (the view of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] of Narendra Modi), and the alternative that India represents diversity – its population includes hundreds of millions of non-Hindus and speakers of dozens if not hundreds of different languages.

India’s polarization is reflected in the reaction to the three days of violence in northeast Delhi, which left hundreds injured and, at the time of writing, 34 dead. The government and its supporters portray the protesters as almost exclusively Muslim fifth-columnists, their actions facilitated by Islamist extremists or Pakistan or even the opposition Congress Party.

The alternative view is that violence has been initiated by state-supported thugs, with the police turning a blind eye. In this view the protesters reflect a broader spectrum of Indian society, with a shared aversion to communalism and a commitment to India’s secular ideals.

Delhi recently held a state election, and while the BJP lost, some of the rhetoric used by its politicians was vitriolic. One compared protesters to rapists and murderers. Another led his supporters in chants of ‘shoot the nation's traitors’, referring to the protestors.

In such an environment, in which Hindu vigilantes feel empowered and India’s Muslims feel defenceless, Delhi’s worst communal violence for decades erupted.

Some have drawn parallels between events in Delhi with the violence in Gujarat in 2002 when at least 1,000 people – the majority Muslim – were killed. There, the accusation against Modi, then chief minister of the state, was that the state turned a blind eye to violence.

In general, past outbreaks of communal violence in India have been dampened by the rapid imposition of a curfew and deployment of substantial security forces to enforce it. Such an approach was notably absent in both Gujarat and, thus far, Delhi.

The BJP, emboldened

The violence takes place in the wake of two controversial actions the BJP has taken since its re-election in 2019.

First, the BJP-led government revoked the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. To the BJP, the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, was simply the most egregious example of their long-held view that other parties pandered to the Muslim community.

While the move gained some international criticism, the general response in India to the crackdown that followed – including the restriction of internet access and arrest of a number of politicians – was muted.

Then, the government put forward the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

In 2013, a year before the BJP’s first term in office, India’s Supreme Court ordered that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) be updated in the northeast Indian state of Assam.

Migration from what is now Bangladesh has been a contentious issue in northeast India region since colonial times and was the cause of widespread agitation, and conflict, in the region from the late 1970s.

While militancy continued thereafter, tension was partly resolved by the 1985 Assam Accord, which stated that people who had moved into Assam after 1971 (after the creation of Bangladesh) should be deported. However, this provision was not acted upon until the 2013 order.

In August 2019, the final NRC was published. Just under 2 million people were found to be non-citizens. A substantial proportion of these, however, appear to have been Hindus, a dilemma for the BJP.

To solve this, the government put forward the CAA, under which Hindus (along with followers of several other religions) could become Indian citizens. Muslims, however, were excluded. The BJP argued that the act was a generous gesture to illegal immigrants who faced persecution in neighbouring countries, and not a discriminatory gesture.

Unlike moves in Kashmir, the CAA sparked nationwide protests across India. While Assam is something of a special case, concern over the possible nationwide rollout of the CAA caused alarm. The government has recently been ambiguous over its intentions, though had earlier directed states to establish at least one detention centre.

The economy, creaking

That this is all taking place during an economic slowdown provides additional cause for concern. Many of India’s long-running internal conflicts subsided in recent years as the economy grew rapidly. But for the past year and a half, growth has slowed each quarter, to just 4.5% year on year.

The common assumption has been that India needs to grow at 8% to stand still, given the need to create millions of jobs. Unemployment currently stands at a 45-year high. Among 20 to 24-year olds, unemployment stands at 37%. India’s demographic dividend is being wasted.

For now, India seems trapped in a self-created vicious circle. The more it focuses on social and religious division, the more its economy will suffer. And while its economy worsens, the need to double-down on division as a distraction for its underemployed young men will intensify.




len

The calendar for the fair on national experiences with the national implementation of the Biosafety Protocol during MOP 6 is now available.




len

CBD News: Message from Executive Secretary, Ahmed Djoghlaf, on the occasion of the High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy FAO, Rome, 3 June 2008.




len

CBD News: Statement by the Executive Secretary Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf on "Biodiversity challenges and responses: Towards the Nagoya Summit on Biodiversity" at the Sixteenth Environment Congress for Asia and the Pacific, 14 September 2008, Nagoya, Ja




len

CBD News: The province of Santa Elena, Ecuador, proclaims "A Provincial Day for Protected Areas"

Montreal, 26 September 2008 - The province of Santa Elena, the newest province in Ecuador, emerged as the first jurisdiction in the world to proclaim a provincial day for protected areas, the Prefecta of the province, Ms. Ana Triviño Cisneros, has announced. To be celebrated annually on 23 September, the Day celebrates the designation of a new marine protected area off Ecuador's coast aimed at conserving about 47,000 hectares of some of the world's most spectacular biodiversity.




len

CBD World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, Message from Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on the occasion of World Food Day, 16 October 2008.




len

CBD News: Message from the Executive Secretary, Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, to the International Mountain Biodiversity Conference on "Biodiversity Conservation and Management for Enhanced Ecosystem Services: Responding to the Challenges of Global Change&quo




len

CBD News: Statement by Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of IGES International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP) Panel Discussion on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity: Challeng




len

CBD Communiqué: Biodiversity Challenges and Reponses on the Agenda of the G8 Summit of L'Aquila, Italy.




len

CBD News: Statement by Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the Third Business and the 2010 Biodiversity Challenge Conference, 30 November 2009, Jakarta, Indonesia.




len

CBD Communiqué: Young Talent Recognised in Global Photography Competition.




len

CBD News: UNESCO/Convention on Biological Diversity Press Release: Preserving Biodiversity: A Vital Challenge.




len

CBD News: Statement by Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the Resumed Plenary Meeting of the Sixty-Fourth Session of the General Assembly, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 15 April 2




len

CBD Press Release: Executive Secretary Hails Record Replenishment of the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund.




len

CBD News: Message by Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of World Oceans Day "Our oceans: opportunities and challenges", 8 June 2010.




len

CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the Pan-European Conference on Biodiversity and the Millennium Development Goals, 7 July 2010, Gabala, Azerbaijan.




len

CBD News: Enhanced Inter-Agency Partnership for Post-Nagoya Biodiversity Challenges.




len

CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the 2010 Millenium Campus Conference at Columbia University, 19 September 2010, New York, Unites States of America.




len

CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the High-Level Roundtable on the Importance of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Meeting the Challenge of Enhancing Food Se




len

CBD Press Release: Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation and land degradation addressed as a single challenge at the Aichi Nagoya Biodiversity Summit.




len

CBD News: Statement by Mr Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the Launch of the 2011 Rio Conventions Calendar, 8 December 2010, Cancun, Mexico.




len

CBD Communiqué: Joint GEF and CBD Exploration for Financial Solutions to Global Biodiversity Challenges in Eastern Europe.




len

CBD News: As governments meet in the Republic of Korea to address the challenges of land degradation under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, global actors will meet at the Rio Conventions Pavilion to communicate their coordinated




len

CBD News: Statement on behalf of Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD Executive Secretary, at the Eighth Plenary Session of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO-VIII), 16-17 November 2011, Istanbul, Turkey




len

CBD News: Statement by Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of the Second Session of the IPBES Plenary




len

CBD News: Message of the CBD Executive Secretary, Mr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, on the occasion of Weeds across Borders 2020 -Meeting the Challenge of the Future, in Cancun, Mexico, 24-27 April 2012




len

CBD Press Release: UN biodiversity meeting to discuss progress made and challenges to implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 - 2020.




len

CBD News: Second phase of Caribbean Challenge Initiative launched.




len

CBD News: Increasing urbanization over the next decades presents not only unprecedented challenges for humanity, but also opportunities to curb climate change, reduce water scarcity and improve food security, according to the world's first global asse




len

CBD News: Statement by Mr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, on the occasion of the Second Session of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Antalya, Turkey, 9 To 14 De




len

CBD News: Opening Statement by Mr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, to the Seventh Plenary Session of the Third United Nations Small Island Developing States (UN SIDS) Conference, Apia, Samoa, 4 September 2014




len

CBD News: The GBIF Secretariat has launched the inaugural GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge, hoping to inspire innovative applications of open-access biodiversity data by scientists, informaticians, data modelers, cartographers and other experts competing for a




len

CBD News: Five new press sheets available that explain the role of wetlands for: the Aichi Biodiversity Targets; Ecosystem services; SDGs, as well as Challenges of the future and the value of wetlands.