By Peter G. Feher* WASHINGTON, D.C. | 26 August 2024 (IDN) — Ukraine blackmails Hungary and Slovakia in a vile way. The quarrel between Hungary and Slovakia, as well as Ukraine, has been going on for more than two months. Indeed, on June 24, without any prior warning, Kyiv prohibited the privately owned Russian oil […]
New Approaches to Tackling Child Labour in Nepal
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 26 August 2024 (IDN) — Child labour remains one of the most pressing issues of our times. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), child labour remains a pervasive and persistent issue, 160 million children – 63 million girls and 97 million boys—are in child labour, accounting for almost […]
Muhammad Yunus Faces a Herculean Task in Bangladesh
By Ishrat Hossain* BERLIN | 24 August 2024 (IDN) — Bangladesh’s new leader is facing a difficult task. He needs to rebuild a country that has been in democratic decline for decades, suffering from systematic corruption and a shattered relationship between state and society. Just 72 hours after the resignation of the authoritarian Prime Minister […]
Iran: Neutralizing Nuclear Threat Without Force or Sanctions
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK 22 August 2024 (IDN)— All past efforts to block Iran’s march toward becoming a nuclear power have failed. It is time for the US and Israel to develop a new strategy that factors in the possibility that Iran will become a nuclear power but renders it futile without using […]
The US Democratic Convention Fiddles While the World Burns
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 22 August 2024 (IDN) — An Orwellian disconnect haunts the 2024 Democratic National Convention. In the isolation of the convention hall, shielded from the outside world behind thousands of armed police, few of the delegates seem to realize that their country is on the […]
Nuclear-Weapon States Should Pledge No First Use
By Chie Sunada The writer is the Director of Disarmament and Human Rights at Soka Gakkai International. TOKYO | 21 August 2024 (IDN) — This summer, Hironobu Maekawa, alongside his wife Hiroko, spoke for the first time about an experience from almost eight decades earlier. Just weeks after the August 6, 1945, atomic bombing of […]
Compromise Is a Way Out of the Cold War Turning Hot
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 […]
Kazakhstan Hosts UNODA-backed Non-proliferation Regional Conference
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NEW YORK |19 August 2024 (IDN) — Nearly twenty years ago, the United Nations Security Council took a consequential step to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by unanimously adopting resolution 1540 (2004). This global instrument requires Governments to prevent non-State actors or terrorists from acquiring, proliferating […]
UN Worried about Nuclear Safety Situation in Ukraine
By Reinhard Jacobsen VIENNA | 18 August 2024 (IDN) —- The UN’s atomic energy agency IAEA is concerned about the nuclear safety situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the plant site perimeter on 17 August. The attack occurred as Ukrainian forces […]