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Photo: WHO Headquarters in Geneva, North and West sides. CC BY-SA 3.0

Trump's Withdrawal From WHO: A Cover-Up for His Abject Failure on COVID-19

Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha

The writer is the founding editor of Newsclick.in, a digital media platform. He is an activist for science and the free software movement. This article was produced in partnership by Newsclick and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Microbes do not recognize borders. We are all safe only when everybody is safe. In a pandemic, to attack the only body we have for global cooperation endangers everyone. That is why the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) is dangerous not only for the United States, but for all of the world.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 August 2020

Every Step the EU Takes Toward Financial Unity Sows New Seeds of Its Potential Collapse

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” is a play featuring two characters waiting for a character, Godot, who never arrives. As such, it is a useful metaphor for the goings-on of the European Union (EU). Observers of the EU’s evolution in the capital of Brussels have witnessed a Godot-like experience of the promised arrival of the long-awaited resolution of the group’s dysfunction and economic malaise that never happens.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 August 2020

Photo: Atomic Bombing in Nagasaki and the Urakami Cathedral. Credit: Google Arts&Culture

Japanese and American Catholics Take on the Bomb

By Drew Christiansen

Writer Drew Christiansen, S. J., is Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Human Development at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. He is the co-editor with Carole Sargent of A World Free from Nuclear Weapons: The Vatican Conference on Disarmament (Georgetown University Press, 2020). facebook.com/disarmnowgeorgetown

WASHINGTON, DC. (IDN) -- Nagasaki is the historic centre of Japanese Catholicism. In the 16th century, beginning with the missionary visits of one of the first Jesuits, Francis Xavier, Nagasaki was the focal point of their efforts to bring Christianity to Japan.

: Asia Editor; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 01 August 2020

Photo: A demonstration in El Alto, Bolivia against the 2019 Bolivian coup d'etat. CC BY-SA 4.0

‘We Will Coup Whoever We Want’: Elon Musk and the Overthrow of Democracy in Bolivia

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad and Alejandro Bejarano *

This article was produced by Globetrotter, project of the Independent Media Institute.

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – On July 24, 2020, Tesla’s Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that a second U.S. “government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people.” Someone responded to Musk soon after, “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people? The U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there.” Musk then wrote: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 01 August 2020

Photo: Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne at a joint press conference in Washington on July 29 with her U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo. Source: The Conversation

Southeast Asia Rejects Confrontation to Tame 'Increasingly Aggressive' China

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne during a joint press conference in Washington on July 29 with her U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo bluntly remarked that although the two countries often hold common positions because they share fundamental values, yet "we don't agree on everything".

She not only refrained from echoing Pompeo's bellicose rhetoric against China regarding its behaviour in the South China Sea, but, was also determined not to be seen as a hapless pawn in America's increasingly tense stand-off with China.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 31 July 2020

Image source: Talent & Organization Blog for Financial Services

A New Social Class of Voluntary Workers of Social Networks

Viewpoint by Glauco Benigni*

ROME (IDN) – The hierarchical and exploitative structure of the feudal era seems to have reappeared today on the Internet of the digital era. Regardless of any constitution and workers' statute, neither politics nor trade unions are intervening. It is accepted that globalisation rhymes with ‘glebalisation’.

The scene can be described as follows.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 31 July 2020

Image source: Midas FinServe Private Limited

Even If Joe Biden Wins in a Blowout, the 'Global Economy' Is Not Coming Back

New economic imperatives are forcing nations to make a choice.

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – COVID-19 has not only presented the global economy with its greatest public health challenge in over a century, but also likely killed off the notion of America’s “unipolar moment” for good. That doesn’t mean full-on autarky or isolationism but, rather, enlightened selfishness, which allows for some limited cooperation. Donald Trump’s ongoing threats to impose additional tariffs on a range of EU exports are exacerbating this trend as the old post-World War II ties between the two regions continue to fray.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 31 July 2020

Photo: Health workers demonstrate proper handwashing to a child at a community health centre in Central Java, Indonesia. © UNICEF/Fauzan Ijazah © UNICEF/Fauzan Ijazah

"Target Women in All Aspects of Economic Recovery and Stimulus Plans in Southeast Asia"

Viewpoint by António Guterres

Following is the text of remarks by UN Secretary-General on the occasion of his latest policy brief titled The Impact of COVID-19 on South-East Asia. It examines how the eleven countries of South-East Asia are addressing the immediate impacts of COVID-19, focusing on the subregion’s socio-economic response.

NEW YORK (IDN) – As in other parts of the world, the health, economic and political impact of COVID-19 has been significant across Southeast Asia — hitting the most vulnerable the hardest.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 30 July 2020

Photo: Collage of pictures of writers, Ritesh Tandon and Manish Uprety F.R.A.S.

The Risk of Democracy Compromising Democracy

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon

Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party candidate for the US Congress from California’s 17th District.

CALIFORNIA (IDN) – Politics makes strange bedfellows where one snores aloud and the other one turns a blind eye to it. The paradox goes beyond the marriage of convenience, and oft political parties and people involved in democratic processes tend to undermine the very process.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 July 2020

Photo: A cyclist in Wonsan City, in DPRK | OCHA/David Ohana

'Heart-Breaking' Accounts of Women Detained in DPRK

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | SEOUL (IDN) – A new UN report says that women forcibly returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are subjected to torture, ill treatment, sexual abuse, and other violations.

The report published by the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) on July 28 is based on 100 first-hand accounts by North Korean women who said they were beaten or suffered other individual or collective punishment while in detention between 2009 and 2019.