By Gu Bin Joyce* SINGAPORE | 13 April 2024 (IDN | EastAsiaForum) — China, under President Xi Jinping, has demonstrated a critical shift in its rhetoric on climate change. Unlike his predecessors, who emphasised climate equity and China’s identity as a developing country, Xi’s rhetoric constructs China as a global climate change leader. Despite China’s […]
Vaccines Don’t Save Lives, Vaccination Does
By Busani Bafana SEOUL, South Korea | 13 April 2024) (IDN) — People are no longer dying from preventable diseases, thanks to vaccines. Despite this medical breakthrough, vaccine inequality has locked countries in the global south in a disease burden that would be eased through mass vaccination. COVID-19 led to approximately 7 million deaths, and […]
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: The “Sum of All Fears”
By Leonam dos Santos Guimarães* RIO DE JANEIRO | 12 April 2024 (IDN) — Drone attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, whether carried out by Ukraine or Russia, introduce a new and dangerous dimension to the conflict between the two largest former Soviet Socialist Republics, with possible far-reaching ramifications, not just for the region […]
Netanyahu Is Unfit to Serve; He Must Resign Now
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 10 April 2024 (IDN) — Netanyahu is writing and directing Israel’s darkest chapter. Each day he remains in power, he is preventing an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, dangerously eroding its moral standing while making the country a pariah state that lives by the sword. Since Hamas’ savagery […]
New Militarism: Biden Is Doing the Very Things He Criticized During His Campaign
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 9 April 2024 (IDN) — “Diplomacy is back”, President Joe Biden said shortly after becoming president. But then, in the middle of a delicate diplomatic dance with Iran, he went and bombed a small, politically inconsequential, Iranian surrogate in Syria in retaliation for the killing of one American soldier. […]
Agonizing over Europe’s Defence: Some Narratives are Getting Ahead of the Facts
By Herbert Wulf* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN, Germany | 9 April 2024 (IDN) — Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February two years ago was a shock to European security policy. It did not come entirely out of the blue, however, because Russia […]
Senegal’s New President Should Begin a Strategic Reset of Relations with France
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 09 April 2024 (IDN) —The words of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye were honey to taste. Following the bitter ending of the 12-year rule of Macky Sall, highlighted by the widespread belief that France is at the heart […]
India Considers Island States New Nodes of National and Security Interests
By C. Raja Mohan* This article was published in The Indian Express. MUMBAI | 4 April 2024 (IDN) — Delhi’s surprising focus on Katchatheevu, an island in the narrow strip of waters between India and Sri Lanka, is a part of the ruling BJP’s determination to break into Tamil Nadu’s electoral map. Hopefully, the potential […]
Latest Huge Transfer of 2,000-Pound Bombs from US to Israel Not Newsworthy to the Times
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 3 April 2024 (IDN) — When the Washington Post revealed Friday afternoon that “the Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel,” a lot of people cared. Readers of the story posted more than 10,000 comments on […]
US Downhill All the Way in The Middle East
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 2 April 2024 (IDN) — The Middle East is going to hell in a handbasket. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the principle living architect of the repression that has long preceded the war in Gaza. There is now effectively only one state in the old Palestine, yet most […]