By Thalif Deen* NEW YORK | 9 May 2025 (IDN) — Will the rising military tension between two of the world’s heavily-armed nuclear powers –India and Pakistan—lead to a full-scale war? The guessing game is on. The two South Asian countries have long remained locked in a bitter confrontation, mostly over the disputed territory of […]
Russia’s Victory Day A Profound Symbol of National Resilience
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 7 May 2025 (IDN) — Russia celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany and holds its annual Victory Day parade on Red Square on May 9. Praising Russia as a nation of winners, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that “the victory was a profound […]
Humanitarian Corridors: A Trojan Horse Threatening Bangladesh’s Sovereignty
By Tajul Islam* DHAKA, Bangladesh | 6 May 2025 (IDN) — In the ever-shifting terrain of global politics, ‘humanitarian corridors’ are increasingly wielded not as genuine lifelines for suffering populations but as instruments of foreign influence and domination. The recent decision to establish a United Nations-backed humanitarian corridor along the Chittagong–Rakhine route in Bangladesh is […]
Japan’s Largest Bank’s Role in Financing Indonesia’s Fire and Haze Crisis
By Alex Helan The writer is a Senior Researcher at Rainforest Action Network. LONDON | 4 May 2025 (IDN) — Trade shocks and geopolitical restructuring likely mean economic instability is the new norm and will be compounded by climate and natural shocks like the fires in Indonesia, Brazil and the United States. Banks’ role in […]
Whither India’s Global Peace Making?
A New Cold War Weaponizes Religious Diasporas in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region By Darini Rajasingham Senanayake* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 2 May 2025 (IDN) — Several geopolitical developments have occurred in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. These include United States Vice President J.D Vance’s visit with his Indian-origin wife, Usha […]
Top Democrats Have Been Enabling Trump
By Norman Solomon* Original source: Tom Dispatch SAN FRANCISCO | 29 April 2025 (IDN) — America desperately needs a united front to restrain the wrecking ball of the Trump regime. While outraged opposition has been visible and vocal, it remains a far cry from developing a capacity to protect what’s left of democracy in the United States. With the […]
Migration Trends: The Myth of Humane Integration Policies
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS | 28 April 2025 (IDN) — The debate on migration has calmed down a bit in the news media. However, this does not mean that the issue has been ‘solved’. Quite the opposite. In most discussions about migration, we tend to start with numbers. Understanding the scale changes, emerging trends and […]
The Sad Demise of the Painstakingly Constructed World Trading System
By Dr Palitha Kohona The writer was the Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to China and one-time Permanent Representative to the United Nations. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 28 April 2025 (IDN) — We may very well be witnessing the flickering embers of a painstakingly assembled global trading system being callously extinguished by President Trump with brutal […]
Waiting for an African Pope
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 27 April 2025 (IDN) — It’s nothing to laugh off, however tempting. If the movies imitate life, we may not be as far away from an African pope. It happened in The Conclave, […]
Peace Corps: The Third Rail of US Global Development Assistance
By Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir* MARRAKECH, Morocco | 27 April 2025 (IDN) ― Whereas there has been broad consensus that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is in need of reform, there is also an even wider and more deeply held belief that the value of Peace Corps ― begun in 1961 ― is […]