News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura* TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – These news briefs deal with: the unstable situation in Afghanistan; Pakistan’s continued support for the Taliban; the deployment of military tracking technology to hunt COVID-19 patients; continued India-Pak tension on the alleged role of Islamabad in terror attacks in India-administered Jammu and Kashmir; […]
Kazakhstan Concludes One Year of Transition With President Tokayev
Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) – On June 12, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev completed the first year of his term as President of Kazakhstan, traversing a road to multifarious reforms at home, reflecting the maturity and stable political transition in Central Asia’s biggest nation-state. At the same time, he has been strengthening bilateral […]
Caribbean Leaders Urge Global Response to COVID Pandemic
Call for Addressing Inequality, Unsustainable Debt and Socio-Economic Disparities By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS | NAIROBI (IDN) – Caribbean leaders have joined the United Nations in calling for solidarity and increased funding, as some of the world’s most vulnerable countries scale up their efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. At a virtual summit in Kenya’s capital […]
Leaders and Media Respond to Police Killing of Shackled Black Man
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – The murder of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis yanked from his car, shackled and suffocated to death by a police officer aided by at least three other officers, was front-page news in most of the major newspapers in the U.S. It was also […]
Eminent Chomsky Says Trump a ‘Sociopathic Megalomaniac’
By Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams PORTLAND, USA (IDN) – World-renowned intellectual and author Noam Chomsky called U.S. President Donald Trump a “sociopathic megalomaniac” whose leadership drove the U.S. to become “singularly unprepared” for the coronavirus pandemic. Chomsky’s fresh criticism of the president came in an interview with Agence France-Presse published May 25. “The White House,” […]
Examining the Unravelling of Mexico’s National Petroleum Company Pemex
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl The writer is a former Senior Vice President for Bank of America in Los Angeles, CA. He currently resides in Queretaro, MX. His insightful analysis of global economic affairs have been published widely. He is a contributing columnist for Mexico News Daily, IDN-InDepthNews and Wall Street International Magazine. REDMOND, Oregon, USA […]
US Seeks Iran Arms Embargo Extension Riling Europe
By Kelsey Davenport and Julia Masterson While Julia Masterson is research assistant, Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy at Arms Control Association. The Association’s website published this analysis on May 15. WASHINGTON (IDN) – The United States is considering a range of options to prevent the October 2020 expiration of a UN embargo that […]
Russia’s Victory in WWII Changed the World but War Drums Continue
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK (IDN) – On May 9, 1945, after four years of violent battles inside Russia, recorded as the bloodiest and most destructive military conflict in the whole history of humanity, the Russians defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. It is the single most important day in Russian history that […]
Remembering Ludwig van Beethoven – A Genius with a Disability
By Heike Kuhn The writer, Dr Heike Kuhn, is Head of the “Human Rights Gender Equality, Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities” of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Bonn, the capital of divided Germany. The other part of the BMZ is in Berlin, the capital city of unified Germany since 3 […]
Why Russia Is Slow to Unlock Media Potential with Africa
Viewpoint by Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW (IDN) – Researchers and experts have identified a lack of interest and a well-coordinated mechanism as being behind the absence of effective Russian media cooperation with Africa. European and Western media brands, such as British Broadcasting Corporation, Cable News Network, Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Press, Quartz and Bloomberg, […]