By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 28 May 2024 (IDN) — Donald Trump is the antithesis of leadership. Walking into the cauldron of the Middle East and denouncing Iran when it had just almost at the same moment re-elected as president a man who presided over the deal that de-fanged his country’s nuclear program and […]
Wealth of Nations and the Poverty of Theory: Debt Restructuring as Rocket Science
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO | 26 May 2024 (IDN) — Calls for divestment from BlackRock and other International Sovereign Bonds (ISB), have echoed across Columbia, Yale and many non-Ivy League universities in the United States recently. BlackRock is heavily invested in weapons companies fueling a genocidal war in Palestine. However, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), […]
Economic Recolonisation Bill Tabled in Sri Lanka Parliament
By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka* COLOMBO | 25 May 2023 (IDN) — A bill named the ‘Economic Transformation Bill’ (ETB) was tabled in parliament this month by President Ranil Wickremesinghe while the country is debating whether Parliamentary or Presidential elections should be held first. Both are due within the next 12 months. In Parliament in August […]
Vesak at the United Nations: Still not a UN Holiday?
By Dr Palitha Kohona (Former) Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China and (former) Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, COLOMBO | 25 May 2024 (IDN) — Sri Lanka celebrated the Vesak day 2024 last week with much pomp and ceremony in historic Matale where the Buddha’s teachings were first formally […]
The Automated Fortress Europe: No Place For Human Rights
By Fabio Chiusi* The writer is a Research Associate at the AlgorithmWatch NGO TURIN, Italy | 24 May 2024 (IDN) — 29,000 people have died in the Mediterranean over the past ten years while trying to reach the EU. You would think that the EU wanted this tragedy to stop and scientists across Europe were […]
ICC Faces Controversies and Allegations of Hypocrisy
By Tajul Islam* DHAKA, Bangladesh | 22 May 2024 (IDN) —The International Criminal Court (ICC) and its chief prosecutor Karim Khan, a Pakistani-British member of the Ahmadiyya community, with deep-rooted connections with Buckingham Palace and UK’s intelligence establishments are hitting headlines in international media in recent days. Criticising ICC, in a recent statement on his […]
How Big Money Finances Indian Politics
By Swagato Sarkar, O.P. Jindal Global University, India in Sonipat* NEW DELHI | 22 May 2024 (IDN) — The business elite funds political parties and elections in return for economic favours or for securing favourable policies for their industry Many years ago in West Bengal, I encountered school-age boys playing Carrom or cricket all day. […]
Europeans Should Part from the US Solitary Foreign Policy
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 21 May 2024 (IDN) — The greatest American foreign affairs columnist since Walter Lippmann was William Pfaff of The International Herald Tribune. He wrote in his path-breaking book, “Barbarian Sentiments”, that the US political atmosphere was full of “exhausted ideas, like a dead star”. Nevertheless, “these ideas remain central […]
Ukraine War Costs the West More Than Two Trillion Dollars
By Nik Martin* BERLIN | 19 May 2024 (IDN) — Governments face increased borrowing, taxes and public sector cuts to finance their soaring military budgets. European NATO members are set to spend a record $380 billion on defence this year—a tough sell to voters. If you want a reminder of the security threats faced by […]
Fifty Years On: The Decision of India to Conduct Its First Nuclear Tests
By Ashish Kumar Singh* NEW DELHI | 18 May 2024 (IDN) — On this day in 1974, India conducted its landmark first nuclear tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan, as part of the ‘Smiling Buddha’ operation. Until it actually happened, secrecy surrounded the event, as many major world powers at the time attempted to restrict the proliferation […]