By Ramesh Jaura* This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 16 November 2025 (IDN) — Ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on 30 October at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump declared he had ordered the resumption of U.S. nuclear testing. His statement shattered more […]
The Taliban Are Erasing Women from Public Life
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 15 November 2025 (IDN) — Human rights violations are a global scourge that have engulfed scores of countries on every continent. It appears as though violating human rights is a game in which governments of all national stripes take pleasure and even try to outdo each other in their […]
Every Woman Deserves a Safe and Respectful Birth
By Prof. Concepta Kwaleyela, Twaambo Mutinta, and Levy Mkandawire* LUSAKA. Zambia | 14 November 2025 (IDN) — There is a core issue in the Zambian health system that numbers alone cannot show. It is not simply a shortage of drugs or ambulances, but the need to give dignity to the many women who still give […]
Accessibility to the Disabled isn’t a Luxury – it’s a Necessity
By Tanja B. Sejersen & & Manal Hassan* BANGKOK | 14 November 2025 (IDN) — Imagine being invisible—not because you’re unseen, but because your existence isn’t officially recorded. For millions of children with disabilities across Asia and the Pacific, this is a daily reality. A recent UNICEF report reveals stark disparities in access to rights […]
“Regime Change” In Venezuela Is a Euphemism for U.S.-Inflicted Carnage and Chaos
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 13 November 2025 (IDN) — For decades, Washington has sold the world a deadly lie: that “regime change” brings freedom, that U.S. bombs and blockades can somehow deliver democracy. But every country that has lived through this euphemism knows the truth—it instead brings death, […]
Is a Critical Pillar of the Global Nuclear Arms Control Architecture About to Crumble?
By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA | 10 November 2025 (IDN) — On 26 September 1996, on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly, at the signing ceremony for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), then-US President William J. Clinton declared the treaty as “the longest-sought, hardest fought prize in arms control history.” He exaggerated; in […]
Festering conflict between Church and government in Armenia
By Benoit Lannoo* Antwerp | 5 November 2025 (IDN) – While President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan is ramping up his claim to the neighbouring country again, the conflict in Armenia between the government of Nikol Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church continues to fester. In recent weeks, Garegin II celebrated the 26th anniversary of his […]
East Timor Joins ASEAN — and Now Comes the Hard Part
Challenges and hopes for prosperity and stability. By Ramesh Jaura This article first appeared on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 3 November 2025 (IDN) — It took half a century, two foreign occupations, a UN peacekeeping mission, and one of the most extraordinary independence struggles of the modern era. But on 26 October 2025, East Timor — […]
Every Breath Counts
By Praise Nutakor The writer is a Partnerships and Communications Specialist at UNDP. NEW YORK | 2 November 2025 (IDN) — Every breath matters. For a newborn struggling for air, an expectant mother requiring surgery, or a patient battling respiratory illness, access to medical oxygen can mean the difference between life and death. Yet in […]
From A Beacon of Democracy to Authoritarian Rule
There is a growing consensus among many notable political scientists and historians that America is at a perilous crossroads; Trump has chosen the road that leads to disastrous authoritarianism. The question is what it would take to stop Trump from destroying our democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship. By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | […]