By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 20 August 2024 (IDN) — Nearly everyone I talk politics to says the world is in a mess. But I live in a student town and most of them have nothing to measure their opinions against. They know not much about the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, Watergate […]
UN Urged to Probe Charges of US Complicity in Ousting Regimes in Pakistan and Bangladesh
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 20 July 2024 (IDN) — Two former leaders of major South Asian countries have reportedly accused the United States of covert regime change operations to topple their governments. One of the leaders, former […]
Wall Street Journal Story on Nordstream: Has Zelensky Become a Rogue Actor?
By Stephen Bryen* This article was issued by Weapons and Strategy and is being republished with their permission. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 17 August 2024 (IDN) — Both Germany and the US have put out numerous stories about the destruction of the Nordstream pipeline. They say the pipeline was destroyed by the Ukrainians. The latest story, […]
The Ghost of Hubert Humphrey Is Stalking Kamala Harris
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 16 August 2024 (IDN) — After the Democrat in the White House decided not to run for reelection, the vice president got the party’s presidential nod—and continued to back the administration’s policies for an unpopular war. As the election neared, the candidate had to decide whether to keep supporting […]
US Supports UN Cybercrime Treaty but With Reservations
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 12 August 2024 (IDN) — Amid strong protests from a coalition of over 110 human rights groups and civil society organizations (CSOs), the UN Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime adopted—by consensus on August 8—a global cybercrime treaty. Described as “broad in scope” with insufficient human rights safeguards, the treaty […]
Literary-Prize Politics, Cold War, and the Disinformation Game
Decolonizing History and Fiction in a Neo Colony Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* “Fair is foul and foul is fair”— William Shakespeare’s Macbeth COLOMBO | 7 August 2024 (IDN) — Why are there no Booker Prize-winning novels about mundane multicultural families that inter-married for generations, shared religion/s, language/s, histories, and co-existed for centuries, while living in relative […]
America Can be a Great Nation If It Wants
By Chaitanya Davé* CALIFORNIA, USA | 7 August 2024 (IDN) — One wonders why America goes to war every few years with other nations. In its history of 248 years, it has been at peace only for 20 years or only 8% of its independent history! Rest of the years, America has been fighting wars […]
Manila and Tokyo Ally with Washington but Keen to Strengthen Their Own Defences
By Richard Heydarian* This article is republished courtesy of Internatinal Politics and Society. Read original MANILA | 4 August 2024 (IDN) — Following years of intensive negotiations, the Philippines and Japan have consolidated their military cooperation with a new defence pact. Under the recently signed Reciprocal Access Agreement, the two Asian countries will define procedural […]
Seven-Nation Prisoner Swap Shows How Diplomacy, Not Law, Governs Exchanges
By William E. Butler* This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read original. PENNSYLVANIA | 3 August 2024 (IDN) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans were freed from Russia in a prisoner exchange on Aug. 1, 2024. In total, 24 prisoners, including 12 German nationals […]
US Strengthens Military Bonds with Asia—with 500 million USD to Philippines
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 1 August 2024 (IDN) — The US is strengthening its economic and military relationships with Asian allies, including Japan and 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand. Brunei Darussalam, Viet Nam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. As political and military tensions […]