By Reinhardt Jacobsen BRUSSELS | 4 April 2024 (IDN) — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has warned that the “scale of humanitarian right violations is unprecedented in Haiti’s modern history” and an already exhausted people are facing a “humanitarian catastrophe”. Mr Türk said in a video statement to the Geneva-based UN […]
India Considers Island States New Nodes of National and Security Interests
By C. Raja Mohan* This article was published in The Indian Express. MUMBAI | 4 April 2024 (IDN) — Delhi’s surprising focus on Katchatheevu, an island in the narrow strip of waters between India and Sri Lanka, is a part of the ruling BJP’s determination to break into Tamil Nadu’s electoral map. Hopefully, the potential […]
Latest Huge Transfer of 2,000-Pound Bombs from US to Israel Not Newsworthy to the Times
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 3 April 2024 (IDN) — When the Washington Post revealed Friday afternoon that “the Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel,” a lot of people cared. Readers of the story posted more than 10,000 comments on […]
US Downhill All the Way in The Middle East
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 2 April 2024 (IDN) — The Middle East is going to hell in a handbasket. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the principle living architect of the repression that has long preceded the war in Gaza. There is now effectively only one state in the old Palestine, yet most […]
‘Cataclysmic’ Situation in Haiti Needs Bold Action
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | 30 March 2024 (IDN) — A UN report has called for immediate and bold action to tackle the “cataclysmic” situation in Haiti. The international community has funded only seven per cent of 624 million US dollars in response to the UN humanitarian appeal in February for the Caribbean country. It […]
Prioritising National Unity to Rescue Pakistan from Economic Crisis
By M A Hossain* DHAKA | 30 March 2024 (IDN) — In the wake of ongoing economic turmoil, Pakistan stands at a critical juncture with severe financial challenges despite its abundant resources. Once hailed for its potential and economic growth, the nation now faces the spectre of bankruptcy. In the South Asian region, even a […]
No China Railway as Marcos Tilts Towards the US
By Kalinga Seneviratne DAVAO, Philippines | 22 March 2023 (IDN)—After being elected to the presidency in a landslide vote in June 2016, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte visited China in October and declared that his country was realigning its foreign policy to move closer to China. He was accompanied by 400 Filipino business executives and returned […]
US Should Create a Strategic Alliance to Stop Iran in Its Tracks
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 21 March 2024 (IDN) — Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the US has not developed a long-term strategy toward Iran but instead has made tactical moves to deal with the various conflicting issues with Tehran as they arose. Conversely, from the time the clergy assumed power, Iran […]
Sudan Will Soon Be the World’s Worst Hunger Crisis
By Edem Wosornu The author is Director of Operations and Advocacy of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Following are extensive excerpts from his Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Sudan. NEW YORK | 21 March 2024 (IDN) — In resolution 2417, you asked the Secretary-General […]
Small Island Developing States Meet in Antigua and Barbuda in May
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK | 20 March 2024 (IDN)—When the last International Conference on Small Island Developing States was held in 2014, there was no COVID-19 pandemic and no global economic recession and much fewer geopolitical tensions. The climate emergency, while present, had not reached the heights it has today. This year, as the […]