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Photo: The long lines for kerosene, used in cooking, which is in short supply island wide. Credit: Sunday Times, Sri Lanka

The Politics of Misfortune in Sri Lanka

By Neville de Silva*

LONDON, (IDN) — Never in Sri Lanka's 74-year post-independence history has a democratically elected leader been forced to flee the country, running away from the economic shambles and social disarray he was largely responsible for creating.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa with 6.9 million votes under his belt was elected president at the butt end of 2019. Two and a half years later, one of the siblings of the most powerful political family in the country, was forced out of his private residence in the outskirts of the capital Colombo by angry crowds as essentials such as fuel, cooking gas, medicines ran out and some foods were hard to find.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 10 August 2022

Photo: Screenshot of "The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara". Source: BBC Eye Investigations.

A Film Explores Fulani-Hausa Conflict in Nigeria's Zamfara State

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — In a deeply disturbing new documentary, Nigerian journalist Yusuf Anka presents a devastating portrait of his country's worst security crisis. In the north-western state of Zamfara, heavily armed bandit gangs raid villages, attack drivers, abduct children and kill anyone who resists.

As seen through this hour-long video, we hear the voices of Fulani-dominated bandits, as they are popularly called in Nigeria, and Hausa-dominated vigilantes, including the men who abducted almost 300 secondary schoolgirls in February 2021.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 August 2022

Photo credit: Leicester Museum Art Gallery

Asians Recall Expulsion from Uganda 50 Years Ago

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | LEICESTER (IDN) — It remains a bitter memory for Asians, some life-long and others more recent residents of Uganda, of their sudden, unexpected expulsion from the African country they called home 50 years ago this month.

They had just 90 days to pack up and leave, then President Idi Amin declared in a televised speech. For now, he was "giving Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans".

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 August 2022

Photo (from left to right): Achieng Oneko (1920–2007) was a Kenyan freedom fighter; Jomo Kenyatta, an anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978; Kenyan trade unionist, Makhan Sign, born in India's Punjab; Oginga Odinga in 1961. Wikimedia Commons.

Evidence of How British Dirty Tricks Smeared Kenya's First Vice-President

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — As election fever was cresting in the East African nation of Kenya, declassified documents were published exposing the spread of fake news by the UK's propaganda arm against the country's first vice president, Oginga Odinga (October 1911-20 January 1994), for his leftist views.

Provisional results of the current elections suggest a tight presidential race in Kenya between Deputy President William Ruto and Raila Odinga, Oginga Odinga's son and a former prime minister.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 August 2022

Photo: Demonstrators are stopped by police as they try to march towards the border with Rwanda, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 15, 2022. Source: France 24

New Jersey Senator Seeks Review of Aid to Rwanda For Rights Abuses in DR Congo

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Rwandan government's human rights record is under a harsh spotlight over its role in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sen. Robert Menendez, chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would place a hold on U.S. security assistance to Rwanda in Congress over concerns about the Rwandan government's human rights record.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Senator Menendez called for a comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Rwanda.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 August 2022

The Poor Can be Saved from the Coming Depression

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The gathering economic crisis, which the financial papers are sombrely predicting, has too many of the makings of turning into a World Depression and must be a time for mental stock-taking. If we wind back the clock just a few years to the beginning of the century when big banks in Wall Street precipitated the "Great Recession", we could say, looking back, that today’s imminent crash comes after one of the most successful boom periods in history.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 09 August 2022

Photo: Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan, chairman of the Group of 77 and China.

A Briefing on Carbon Capture Technology and Sustainable Energy Transition

By Razeena Raheem

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Group of 77 and China, the largest single coalition of developing nations, hosted an Ambassadorial-level briefing on carbon capture technology at the United Nations. The briefing, which took place August 1, was titled "Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage—Technology Essential for an Equitable Energy Path Forward."

Addressing the meeting, Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan, chairman of the G77, said: "I think our goals as the Group of 77 and China are clear."

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 August 2022

Photo: President of Russia Vladimir Putin meeting with US President Joseph Biden (via videoconference). Source: Kremlin.ru. CC BY 4.0

The Irrevocable End of Russia-US Relations

Moscow says NYET to Washington's "Rules-based Order"

By Somar Wijayadasa*

"After the present crisis in Ukraine, there can be no return to attempts at a rapprochement with the US and its allies". - Alexey Drobinin

NEW YORK (IDN) — Alexey Drobinin, Director of policy planning of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, has published a keynote article on Russia’s foreign-policy concept describing that Russia’s special military operation was a milestone on the way to new world order.

The document entitled "The Lessons of History and the Vision of the Future: Reflections on Russia's Foreign Policy" aptly describes Russia’s thousand-year history as well as the imperial ambitions of Sweden, France, and Germany.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; Russia; 08 August 2022

Photo: (Left) Álvaro Alberto, Brazil's first nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) concept, courtesy of Serviços e Informações do Brasil; (Right): US Navy Virginia-class SSN, courtesy of General Dynamics Electric Boat Public Affairs, Creative Commons Licence 040730-N-1234E-002)

Nuclear Submarines and The Non-Proliferation Treaty: Brazil Gets a Jump on Australia?

By Tariq Rauf*

VIENNA (IDN) — Originally scheduled for April-May 2020, due to postponements because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) finally convened in these turbulent times at the United Nations in New York on 1 August and will conclude its deliberations on 26 August.

NPT review conferences are held every five years to assess the implementation of the NPT across its three "pillars": nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, and cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 08 August 2022

Photo credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri. IDN-INPS Multimedia Director

NPT Review Conference Urged to Seek "No First Use" of Nuclear Weapons

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — When academics, anti-nuclear peace activists and civil society organisations (CSOs) met at the United Nations earlier this month to discuss the growing threats of a nuclear war worldwide, one of the underlying themes was captured in the title: "Avoiding Nuclear War: What Short-Term Steps Can be Taken?"

The discussion included a call on the world's five major nuclear powers—the UK, US, France, Russia and China, all permanent members of the UN Security Council—to commit "No First Use" of nuclear weapons.