By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 1 November 2023 (IDN) — A decision by the Russian parliament to pass a bill on 18 October to revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has come under heavy fire. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he was “dismayed” by the Duma’s decision to revoke […]
The US Foreign Policy Elite Leans Towards War
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 31 October 2023 (IDN) — At last, a book that attacks the “Blob” and holes it below the water line. Whether it can sink it is another matter. I’m talking about a book published by Harvard Professor of International Affairs Stephen Walt, “America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Hell […]
No-Go For Kenyan Troops to Haiti — At Least For Now
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 30 October 2023 (IDN) — One thousand Kenyan soldiers will not be going to Haiti anytime soon. That’s the word from the High Court in Kenya freezing a UN Security Council-approved mission to the Caribbean nation to combat gang violence there. The mission was put on […]
Israel-Palestine: India’s Surprising Change of Course
While many countries of the Global South stand by the Palestinians, India is on Israel’s side. Why? By Herbert Wulf* BONN | 27 October 2023 (IDN) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement immediately after the Hamas attack left no room for ambiguity: We are ‘deeply shocked by the news of the terrorist attack in Israel […]
UN Rapporteur Bashes Eritrean Defence Forces for Atrocities in Tigray
BRUSSELS | 27 October 2023 (IDN) — UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, has expressed “great concern” that almost a year after the signature of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), “Eritrean families continue to […]
The New EU List of Tax Havens: Much Ado About Nothing
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS | 25 October 2023 (IDN) — The European Finance Ministers recently revised the European list of tax havens. They added Antigua, Barbuda, Belize and Seychelles to the blacklist and removed the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Cayman Islands and the Marshall Islands. The list includes Russia, Panama, and other […]
Schengen Is Extinct Because the EU Border Is Rather Porous
By Aurora Weiss VIENNA | 25 October 2023 (IDN) — Slovenians claim that the entry of the Republic of Croatia into Schengen* resulted in a record number of illegal migrants. Since the beginning of 2023, 40,000 illicit entries have been registered from the Croatian side. But the actual numbers are believed to be much higher. […]
Look Again at That Dot—That is us
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 24 October 2023 (IDN) — “Suppose aliens existed and that some had been watching our planet for its entire forty-five million centuries; what would they have seen? Over most of that vast timespan, Earth’s appearance altered very gradually. Continents drifted; ice-cover waxed and waned; successive species emerged, evolved, and […]
US Likely to Persist with Renewed Pacific Role Despite Island Nations’ Doubts
Viewpoint by Shailendra Bahadur Singh* SUVA, Fiji | 23 October 2023 (IDN) — Pacific Island nations have been skeptical about the recent revival in U.S. interest in the region. Despite those misgivings, likely, Washington is back for the long haul. China’s rise to a major economy—second only to the United States—is reshaping the world, notwithstanding […]
A Milestone in the History of Nuclear Diplomacy
70th Anniversary of President Eisenhower’s Speech on “Atoms for Peace” By Leonam dos Santos Guimarâes *The writer is a Nuclear and naval engineer (PhD) member of the Brazilian National Academy of Engineering. CEO of Eletronuclear S.A. Coordinator, Brazilian Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. RIO DE JANEIRO | 23 October 2023 (IDN) — On 8 December 1953, […]