By Soheila Comninos* WASHINGTON DC | 25 August 2026 (IDN) — Since joining the Funders Roundtable on the Future of Development, I have had the opportunity to attend several high-level forums on international development and observe a powerful critique threading through these spaces: old, extractive development models have created a cycle of dependency, holding back […]
A Prisoner, A Peacemaker, and Israel’s Defining Choice
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 21 August 2026 (IDN) — What if the man Israel has imprisoned for murder is also the only Palestinian capable of delivering peace? Marwan Barghouti embodies a paradox at the heart of the conflict: legitimacy born of resistance, yet committed to coexistence. Although his release under the current Israelis’ […]
“Moderates” Support Extreme Injustice
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 20 August 2026 (IDN) — We’ve been hearing a lot of panicky warnings lately after Democratic primary voters chose socialists and other leftists instead of “moderates” in several major elections. The alarm bells got louder this month after Michigan’s progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens – […]
The Big American Mistakes with Russia
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 19 August 2026 (IDN) — Two mistakes, committed on President Barack Obama’s watch, were the triggers for the end of the long post-Cold War period of good relations with Russia. They were the attack on Libya by the US, France and the UK and the subsequent killing of its long-time […]
When Machines Decide Who Dies
The Race to Keep War Under Human Control By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/ BERLIN | 18 August 2026 (IDN) — As artificial intelligence moves from supporting military operations to becoming a weapon that can choose and launch attacks, governments must now decide, without further delay, whether machines should ever be […]
The Impossible Homecoming: Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey and the Trauma of War
By Sam Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 17 August 2026 (IDN) — Emily Wilson begins her celebrated translation of Homer’s Odyssey with an imperative that has become almost as famous as the poem itself: “Tell me about a complicated man.” Christopher Nolan has acknowledged the importance of that formulation to his own adaptation of Homer. Yet in […]
The Digital Quarantine: Youth Social Media Bans Undermine Fundamental Rights
By Gina Romero The writer is a UN Special Rapporteur for the rights to freedom of assembly and of association. BOGOTA, Colombia | 17 August 2026 (IDN) — The global trend of imposing blanket social media bans on youth under 16 creates a civic-political vacuum where they can neither assemble nor digitally associate, effectively stripping […]
Are Western Hopes Diving Ukraine Towards Collapse?
The Limits of Drone Warfare and the Growing Urgency of Diplomacy By Michael von der Schulenburg* BRUSSELS | 15 August 2026 (IDN) — As recently as 26 July this year, Ursula von der Leyen appeared full of confidence in victory during her visit to Kyiv: she claimed the tide of the war had turned, that […]
Wars, Inequality, And Poverty No Longer Confined To Faraway Places
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 16 August 2026 (IDN) — Fragmented power, deepening inequality, climate stress, dying democracies, and weaponized information have fused into one global crisis; we can break the cycle if we only summon the will We are living through a moment in time of cascading disorder. Wars, inequality, and poverty are […]
Paper Tiger: The Failure of America’s Trillion Dollar War Machine
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 13 August 2026 (IDN) — According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United States spent $21 trillion on its military between 2001 and 2024 (in constant 2024 dollars), equal to the combined military spending of the next eighteen countries. Iran barely […]