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Rogue CNN Chapter 8: Collusion or not Collusion? That is the Question!

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High Level political Forum - Needs to Refocus and Reform

As someone who has been to all the previous Commission on Sustainable Development meetings and now the High Level Political Forum I probably have a unique view of what has worked and what has not.
The History
How did we get the HLPF? Well that is a good question. The old Commission on Sustainable Development had a good first ten year from 1993 to 2002. It had some major successes during those years such as:
Facilitating the discussion that birthed the POPs and PICs agreements;Facilitated the process on Forests that set up the UN Forum on Forests;Set a date for all countries to complete their Sustainable Development Strategies (2002);Expansion of the United Nations guidelines on consumer protection to include sustainable consumption; Birthed the process that became Financing for Development;Birthed the process that became the Conferences on Land Based Pollution to the Marine Environment (The latest will be in Indonesia in October) Set up under the UN General Assembly an open-ended infor…
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Video of the book launch of Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals

Book launch of  Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals: A transformational agenda for an insecure world by Felix Dodds, Ambassador David Donoghue and Jimena Leiva Roesch at the UN Bookshop in New York was live streamed hon Friday 14th July . the video is available to watch from here 1-2pm  from here

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal set of seventeen goals and 169 targets, with accompanying indicators, which were agreed by UN member states to frame their policy agendas for the fifteen-year period from 2015 to 2030. Written by three authors who have been engaged in the development of the SDGs from the beginning, this book offers an insider view of the process and a unique entry into what will be seen as one of the most significant negotiations and global policy agendas of the twenty-first century.

The book reviews how the SDGs were developed, what happened in key meetings and how this transformational agenda, which took more than three years to negotiate, …
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Accelerating the Synergetic Implementation of the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda

Republished from URBANET
URBANET fosters the international dialogue on development activities worldwide and conveys expertise in the areas of municipal and local governance, sustainable urban development and decentralisation. Articles, interviews, photo stories and multimedia publications draw their variety from numerous contributions by practitioners, research scholars, representatives of civil society organisations, international organisations, think tanks, development institutes such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and many more. The platform aims to trigger debates, share and distribute relevant information on sustainable urban development, municipal and local governance and decentralisation. In this regard, URBANET also looks at international processes and agreements such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement (COP21), and in particular the Habitat III process and the New Urban Agenda. It provides thought-provoking …
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Secretary-General's Report on Re-positioning the UN Development System to Deliver on the 2030 Agenda

Last week the Secretary General presented his report onRe-positioning the UN Development System to Deliver the 2030 Agenda. This is happening at a time when President Trump has told the State Department to reduce US funding by more than 50% to UN programs. and as he is cutting State and US AID budgets by 37%.

There will be a second Secretary General Report in December. This is in accordance with the request of the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR).

That document will provide further clarity on the measures and ideas mentioned in the present report, in particular regarding proposals for the improvement of the Resident Coordinator system.

That report will also respond to the QCPR call for a system-wide strategic document, and will provide recommendations on how funding efforts can better align with the work required from the United Nations in response to the 2030 Agenda.

So, what are the highlights of the first report? The report identifies three guiding principles for the de…
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Rogue CNN Chapter 7: The adventures of a reluctant White House Press Secretary

Wolf: We are here today to have a more in-depth look at Michael Strauss the White House Press Secretary. Strauss took over from Sean Spicer in April after Spicer’s disastrous three months in post. I guess the first question is what would Dr. Hunter Thompson say about his former intern Michael Strauss now White House Press Secretary? I like to think he would be proud of the way Strauss has handled the position. He is in many ways following the good Doctors lead. 
During the Gerald Ford Presidency - ‘Duke’ as Thompson was fondly known - while still working at Rolling Stone applied for the position of Governor of American Samoa. Surprising everyone he was confirmed by the US Senate. Some think because he had photos of most of the Senators joining him for some drug-related evening. Others think they thought it would be hilarious to give him the position and fxxx up the Ford Presidency. I think it was probably a bit of both.  Duke's time as governor was noticeable for a series of consecuti…
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Artists for Grenfell - Bridge Over Troubled Water (Official Video)

The single made number 1 within 48 hours and can be bought on iTunes or Amazon.

People who died in an inferno because of the policies of austerity and long-term government failure.

"Until 1986 all buildings in London fell under the London Building Acts which ensured that external walls must have at least one hour of fire resistance to prevent flames from spreading between flats or entering inside.

But under Margaret Thatcher’s government, those rules were replaced by the National Buildings Regulations and the crucial time stipulation was scrapped." Daily Telegraph

MPs from All-Party Parliamentary Group Fire Safety & Rescue Group also said that MPs had been calling for sprinklers to be fitted on the outside of tall buildings for years, but said their calls been ignored.

"Currently, sprinklers only need to be fitted up to 30 metres, but in tall buildings like Grenfell it is impossible for fire hoses to reach the upper heights, leaving the top floors without any prote…
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