By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 28 January 2025 (IDN) — When Donald Trump was last elected as president his secretary of defence, Jim Mattis, declared a new era: “There has been a return of great power competition……great power competition- not terrorism- is now the primary focus of US security”. In the then new national […]
Russia’s Acclaimed University Celebrates Eventful 65 Years of Existence
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 28 January 2025 (IDN) — Russia’s People’s Friendship University in Moscow—widely known as the RUDN—an acronym derived from its Russian name (Российский Университет Дружбы Народов) celebrates its 65th Anniversary on 5 February 2025. Just three years after he opened the former Soviet Union (USSR) to the world with the […]
Kenya Deploys 200 More Police Officers to Haiti as Crisis Escalates
By Nicholas Mwangi* NAIROBI | 27 January 2025 (IDN) — Kenya has deployed another batch of 217 police officers to Haiti, adding to the 400 sent last year as part of a “multinational mission” aimed at addressing the country’s deepening crisis of gang violence. The intervention aims to protect critical infrastructure and conduct “targeted operations” […]
President Trump’s Interest in “Denuclearization” with Russia and China Greeted
WASHINGTON, D.C. | 25 January 2025 (IDN) — The Arms Control Association (ACA) has welcomed President Donald J. Trump’s comments on 23 January at the Davos World Economic Forum on the potential for nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China. ACA executive director Daryl Kimball highlighted in a media release what President Trump said […]
From Vietnam to Today: Lessons in Resistance as Trump Takes Office
By Bruce Jay Wasser* CHICAGO, USA | 25 January 2025 (IDN) — The return of Donald Trump to the presidency promises to be a time of significant national division and turmoil. He undoubtedly will pursue policies that reflect international bellicosity and a frightening dedication to xenophobia, misogyny, and intolerance. I take him seriously when he […]
Peace With China Is Far More Important Than Power Over China
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 21 January 2025 (IDN) —The West, the US especially, has got itself into a fretful mood over the rise of China. Quite unnecessarily so. The Chinese growth rate is slowing. As a BBC commentator said recently, reviewing this week’s government-issued statistics, China never will hit double digit growth again. […]
India Takes Yet Another Step Toward Sending Humans to the Moon
By Devinder Kumar* NEW DELHI | 17 January 2025 (IDN) — The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)—which has been working on key technologies to realise its vision of setting up a space station by 2035 and sending humans to the Moon by 2040—on January 16 morning successfully demonstrated space docking, or the joining of two […]
Sri Lanka: Better Manage the Water Tanks to Ensure Food Security
By Mohan Seneviratne* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 16 January 2025 (IDN) — Water is at the centre of economic and social development. It influences whether communities are healthy places to live, whether farmers can grow food and underpins natural ecosystems. Moreover, humans experience Climate Change through water be it floods, droughts, cyclones or tsunamis. Sri […]
Twenty Million Radicalizing Muslims Pose a Challenge
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 14 January 2025 (IDN) — Besides dealing with Ukraine, Russia stands at a major crossroads as it works out how exactly to deal with the 14.5 million ethnic Muslims that live inside its borders. If, added to this are the migrant workers from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, the total […]
Trump, again… Everything About Him Is Unsettlingly Peculiar
The writer is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 14 January 2025 (IDN) — On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the U.S., on 19 January 2017, I wrote an article I could easily write now. It was […]