By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A smoky building fire that raced through a 19-story building on an early Sunday this month took 17 lives—adults and children, many from the African nation of The Gambia—is raising questions about the building’s reported insufficient heat and automatic doors that should have been shut […]
Three African Countries Lose U.S. Trade Benefits Over Rights Violations
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The Biden administration has cracked down on three African countries accused of serious rights violations, expelling them from AGOA, a duty-free trade program worth millions in benefits. The three countries—Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea—had been warned in November of the threatened action which affects imports and […]
US Hosts Summits Promoting Democracy But 83 are Missing from List of Invitees
By Thalif Deen NEW YORK (IDN) — A head of state, who presided over an authoritarian regime in Southeast Asia, was once asked about rigged elections in his country. “I promised I will give you the right to vote,” he was quoted as saying, perhaps half-jokingly “But I did not say anything about counting those […]
Breaking Down Barriers to Food Entrepreneurship to Connect Us Beyond Our Differences
By Elizabeth Frame Ellison The writer is president and CEO of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation. TULSA, United States (IDN) — As Oklahoma is poised to resettle nearly 2,000 Afghan refugees in the near future, it is more important than ever to welcome newcomers who are fleeing war, poverty, trauma and many other hardships. That […]
AUKUS Threatens to Damage NATO
Viewpoint by James W. Carden This article was produced by Globetrotter in partnership with the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord. James W. Carden is a writing fellow at Globetrotter and a former adviser to the U.S. State Department. Previously, he was a contributing writer on foreign affairs at the Nation, and his work has also […]
US-China Relations Face Transitional Period Ahead
Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar * NEW DELHI (IDN) — The ‘official working visit’ by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House on July 15 has been most conspicuous for its subdued tone regarding the most fateful topic of her discussion with President Joe Biden—China. Merkel’s guarded remarks about China at the joint press […]
What About Iraq and Iran Now That U.S. Afghan War Is Over?
Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK (IDN) — At Bagram air-base, Afghan scrap merchants are already picking through the graveyard of U.S. military equipment that was until recently the headquarters of America’s 20-year occupation of their country. Afghan officials say the last U.S. forces slipped away from Bagram in the […]
New Efforts to Reduce Homeownership Disparity in the US
By J W Jackie RENO, Nevada, USA (IDN) — The White House has announced that it will be taking new actions to build black wealth and narrow the racial wealth and homeownership gaps that currently exist in the US. The Administration has vowed to “Take action to address racial discrimination in the housing market, including […]
Russia, US and The Churning Arctic Geopolitics
Viewpoint by K.M. Seethi* KOTTAYAM | India (IDN) — The Arctic geopolitics has become one of the strategic policy planks of big powers. This has been reflected in the separate statements issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden after the US-Russia summit in Geneva on June 16. Putin told reporters that […]
The US to End its War In Afghanistan, “The Graveyard of Empires”
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK (IDN) — President Joe Biden of the United States announced that its war in Afghanistan, the US’s longest war ever, will end on September 11, 2021. A glimpse of Afghanistan’s history—dubbed as “the country where Empires go to die” will help us understand why many empires failed in that country. […]