By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | 11 December 2024 (IDN) — A record number of armed conflicts and increased frequency and severity of climate-induced disasters are set to force a staggering 305 million people seek “urgent humanitarian assistance and protection” in 2025. 190 million of them will be facing “life-threatening” needs. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) […]
How The Loss of Naval Base in Syria Would Weaken Russia as A Global Power
By Basil Germond The writer is Professor of International Security, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University. The Conversation issued this article. LANCASTER, UK | 11 December 2024 (IDN) — The fall of the Assad regime constitutes a major blow to Russia’s foreign policy and prestige. Not least among the setbacks is the prospect […]
Colombia: Women-Led Fish Farming Is Offering an Alternative to Drug Crops
By Iñigo Alexander* BOGOTÁ, Colombia | 11 December 2024 (IDN) — The Amazon rainforest in southern Colombia stretches lush and green across the horizon, but beneath its dense canopy lies a shifting reality. The southern province of Putumayo—a remote region bordering Ecuador, at the edge of the country’s Amazon—has long been dominated by coca plantations […]
Sandbagging Trump: Obstacles to a Ukraine Settlement
Manages to Insult Trump After Meeting (After Demanding the Meeting!) By Stephen Bryen* This article was issued by Weapons and Strategy and is being republished with their permission. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 10 December 2024 (IDN) — President Donald Trump reluctantly met with Volodymyr Zelensky and Emanuel Macron in Paris to discuss the way forward in Ukraine. […]
China Completes 3,000-Kilometre Desert Green Belt
By Niu Yuhan* LONDON | 10 December 2024 (IDN) — Workers have planted the final 100 metres of trees along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, completing a 3,046-kilometre “green belt” encircling China’s largest desert, according to Xinhua. The Taklamakan Desert, covering an area of 337,600 square kilometres—roughly the size of Finland—is the second-largest […]
Arrivals Surge in South Sudan, The Rise of Digital Media, Haiti Crisis Update
By United Nations NEW YORK | 10 December 2024 (IDN) — UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, has issued an alert after a surge in the number of displaced people fleeing war-torn Sudan for neighbouring South Sudan. More than 20,000 crossed into South Sudan last week alone, with the number of daily arrivals tripling, compared to […]
Post-Assad Power Struggle: A New Battle Awaits Syria
By Bahauddin Foizee* DHAKA, Bangladesh | 10 December 2024 (IDN) — The watershed moment in Syria with the ousting of Bashar al-Assad has triggered a complex and high-stakes scramble for influence in a region already rife with instability. As Syrian rebel forces have seized Damascus, toppling over more than 50 years of Assad family’s autocratic […]
Israel-Palestine: Seeking a Two-State Solution by Insisting on One
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 9 December 2024 (IDN) — Albert Einstein once said that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”. That’s how it seems to be with President Joe Biden continuously sending his secretary of state to the Middle East to attempt to resurrect […]
Syria is the Big Enchilada
By James E. Jennings* ATLANTA, USA | 9 December 2024 (IDN) — In American slang, “the big enchilada” means something of supreme importance, more than any other item among a slew of alternatives. Historical comparisons over long millennia in the Middle East show that Syria, not Iraq or Palestine, is the keystone of the Fertile […]
Syrian President’s Ouster Ends a 14-Year-Old Rebellion Against a Dictatorial Regime
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 9 December 2024 (IDN) — The overnight ouster of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, who fought a relentless battle against home-grown rebels, has generated a positive but cautious response from the highest echelons of the United Nations. In a statement immediately following Assad’s ouster on December 8, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres […]