Situation in Sudan (per 15 September) The UN Security Council (UN SC) has extended sanctions on Sudan for another year, maintaining an arms embargo and targeted sanctions while also prolonging the oversight of a UN Panel of Experts until October 2026. Disagreements emerged among UN SC members, primarily US and European allies, advocating for stronger […]
Trump’s Geoeconomics and Africa’s Fork in the Road
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW | 12 September 2025 (IDN) — When Donald Trump returned to the White House earlier this year, observers braced for another bout of upheaval in U.S. foreign policy. But what’s unfolding isn’t merely a rerun of his first term. This time around, Trump is deploying geoeconomics—strategic use of economic tools—as […]
The Need for Non-Violence in Ukraine
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 9 September 2025 (IDN) — Is it too late to say non-violence would have served the Ukrainians better? Probably yes, although it shouldn’t be discounted. This war with Russia reminds me of 1968, when the Soviet Union sent its tanks into Budapest to overthrow a reforming (but still communist) […]
Cuba’s Economic Collapse: Inflation, Dollarisation, and a Nation at Breaking Point
By J. C. Suresh TORONTO | Havana | 8 September 2025 (IDN) — For decades, Cuba stood as one of the Caribbean’s most distinctive economies—heavily centralised, politically resilient, and symbolically influential across Latin America. Once a regional reference point for social programs and state-driven development, it now finds itself among the hemisphere’s weakest performers. The […]
Situation Report Horn of Africa: UN peacekeepers in South Sudan ambushed by armed group
Situation in Sudan (per 8 September) Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have committed grave violations against civilians, including killing, arbitrary detention, torture and inhumane treatment, states a new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan to the UN Human Righst Council. According to the report findings, the RSF committed […]
Climate change impact on workers’ health explored at Osaka EXPO
By Mahinda Seneviratne* OSAKA, Japan | 8 September 2025 (IDN) — As the sun rose over the picturesque, volcanic mountain region of central Kyushu in Japan, four young women from Myanmar were reporting for work as house maids at a local ryokan (Japanese-style inn). They are part of the growing number of migrant workers evident […]
Humanitarian Response Critically Underfunded as Refugee Numbers Surge in Gambella, Ethiopia
By Daniel Tesfa & Mirjam van Reisen AKSUM | 02 September 2025 (IDN) — The refugee situation in Ethiopia remains one of the most complex and pressing humanitarian challenges in the region. Ethiopia hosts 1,080,563 refugees and Gambella hosts the largest refugee population with 395,470 South Sudanese refugees. Approximately, 79% of the South Sudanese (SS) […]
Is the West accepting Azerbaijan to hold political prisoners?
By Benoit Lannoo* ANTWERP (Belgium) | 02 September 2025 (IDN) — For two years, at least twenty-three Artsakhis are jailed in Baku. Their crime: wanting to be what they are, namely Artsakhis. And what does the European Union do? Nothing! Today, it is Independence Day in Artsakh. But there is nothing to celebrate, since the […]
Sri Lanka: The Beautiful, Besieged Island
By Dr. Asoka Bandarage* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 31 August 2025 (IDN) — In July 2025, the influential global travel website Big 7 named Sri Lanka the “most beautiful island in the world,” stating that the “teardrop-shaped island off the southern coast of India has it all—golden beaches, terraced tea plantations, timeworn temples, colonial towns, […]
From Guernica to Gaza, Mass Killers Have Been Above It All
By Norman Solomon / TomDispatch SAN FRANCISCO | 31 August 2025 (IDN) — Killing from the sky has long offered the sort of detachment that warfare on the ground can’t match. Far from its victims, air power remains the height of modernity. And yet, as the monk Thomas Merton concluded in a poem, using the […]