By Thalif Deen NEW YORK (IDN) — As the devastating war in Ukraine continues—with thousands of civilian killings and entire cities reduced to rubble—the United States has accelerated an unprecedented flow of weapons to the besieged nation. If Ukraine loses the ongoing war, battling one of the world’s major military and nuclear powers, it is […]
Ukraine War Hits Russia’s Tourism Industry
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW (IDN) — Russia’s tourism, both in-bound and out-bound, is severely hit by the war-ravaged crisis that unfolded in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine late February. For more than two years, the tourism industry was affected due to the widespread Covid-19 that shattered the world. Industry operators say that the […]
Racial Bias Against Blacks Fleeing Ukraine
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — As the US prepares to welcome tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war, scores of African and Caribbean refugees are being sent back to unstable and violent homelands where they face rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and other abuses. Racial bias? An African refugee thinks so.
EU and US Allocate Funds to Assist Refugees in Moldova
By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW | CHISINAU (IDN) — The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland, has documented almost five million refugees streamlining from the war-ravaged Ukraine crossing borders, most often with difficulties, especially into neighbouring Poland, Baltic republics, Moldova, Romania, and Hungary.
The MADness of the Resurgent U.S. Cold War With Russia
Viewpoint by Nicolas J.S. Davies* NEW YORK (IDN) — The war in Ukraine has placed U.S. and NATO policy toward Russia under a spotlight, highlighting how the United States and its allies have expanded NATO right up to Russia’s borders, backed a coup and now a proxy war in Ukraine, imposed waves of economic sanctions, […]
Does Russia No Longer Qualify as a Member of the Global Trade Group WTO?
By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW | PARIS (IDN) — Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in April 2011 after almost 18 years of persistent efforts and multiple negotiations, to fulfil stringent membership requirements, apparently because the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and replaced by the Russian Federation. Average accession period is five to […]
Avoidance of Nuclear Weapons in a Possible NATO-Russia War Should Be “Foremost” Responsibility
Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura BERLIN (IDN) — “We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” pledged the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states—China, France, Russia, UK, and the United States—in a joint statement on January 3, adding that they “consider the avoidance of war” between them and “the reduction […]
Putin’s War of Aggression: A Post-Soviet ‘Irredentist’ Pipedream in Ukraine
Viewpoint by Purnaka L. de Silva* “Anyone who falls into the habit of thinking and expecting the best of his subordinates at all times is, for that reason alone, unsuited to command an army”—Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) in Vom Kriege (1832) NEW YORK (IDN) — The Kremlin confirmed in September 2014 that Russia’s current President […]
The Ultimate Winners in Ukraine are the World’s Arms Merchants
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The war in Ukraine may not be a head-on conflict between Russia and the United States but it is certainly a battle between the heavily-stocked military arsenals of two of the world’s major military and nuclear powers. At a press briefing March 22, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was […]
Growing Number of Corporations Against Investing in Nuclear Weapons
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) — “The nuclear weapons narrative is changing. The implicit permission to make weapons of mass destruction is getting revoked by governments, parliamentarians, cities and the financial sector,” says a new report, released ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which marks a turning point in post-Cold War history. Significantly, the Russian […]