By Sophie Wenkel* VIENNA | 9 February 2025 (IDN) — The Aral Sea was once one of the largest lakes in the world. But within just a few decades, human actions nearly dried it up. The surrounding regions in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have faced drought, soil salinization, and severe sandstorms. However, in recent years, international […]
Breakthrough in UN Tax Convention Despite Talks Despite US Walking Out
By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 8 February 2025 (IDN) — The European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), a network of 60 European non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 28 countries, has welcomed “a major breakthrough towards more just and effective international tax rules” in UN Tax Convention negotiations in New York—despite the United States’ withdrawal. […]
Greenpeace Urges Poland to Seek EU Ratification of the UN Ocean Treaty
GDAŃSK, Poland | 8 February 2025 (IDN) — “Ratify Ocean Treaty” and “Ocean Treaty now!” were the messages Greenpeace Poland activists projected calling for ocean protection onto the iconic European Solidarity Centre building in the heart of the Gdańsk shipyard ahead of a high-level meeting between the Polish EU presidency and a delegation of European […]
Reviving The Death Penalty Is One of Trump’s Greatest Moral Failures
by Kimberlee Hurley* NEW YORK | 7 February 2025 (IDN) — One of Trump’s most despicable day-one executive orders revoked Biden’s moratorium on federal executions, ensured that states that still carry out capital punishment have “a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection,” and urged the Attorney General to seek to overrule […]
Moving from a Doomsday Clock to a Peace Clock
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 6 February 2025 (IDN) — This year’s Doomsday Clock Statement landed like a damp squib in a Trump-swamped corporate news cycle on January 28th. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists only moved the hands of the Clock forward by one second, from 90 seconds […]
Will The Election Bring a New Dawn to Kosovo?
By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 5 February 2025 (IDN) — Most Kosovars hope that the February national election and the formation of a new coalition government will usher in a promising new era that will substantially improve the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Will the new government be in tune to meet much […]
Arctic Council: Too Important to Be Squeezed Between the Great Powers
By Ingeborg Breines The writer is Norwegian peace educator, former director in UNESCO and former president of the International Peace Bureau-IPB. OSLO, Norway | 04 February 2025 (IDN) — There are many reasons to pay close attention to what is happening in the far north. The Arctic is attracting strong international interest as global warming […]
RFK Jr. vs. Modern Farming: What’s at Stake for America’s Food Supply
By Dan Kelley* NORMAL, Illinois USA | 4 February 2025 (IDN) — “There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks,” said Robert F. Kennedy in 1964. Those words resonate today as Congress considers the nomination of his son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for Secretary of Health […]
Sri Lanka: Facades of Independence and Masks of Conquest
Of ‘GLADIO’ Operations, Raj Nostalgia History and Literary Festivals By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 3 February 2025 (IDN) — Independence has been a long mirage in geostrategic Ceylon / Sri Lanka, where history seems to repeat itself as tragedy and farce in equal measure. This week, the geostrategic Indian Ocean island is set […]
Summit Pledges to Connect 300 million Africans to Electricity by 2030
By Lakshmi Thor DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania | 3 February 2025 (IDN) — Ahead of the African Union Summit on 17-18 February in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, thirty African Heads of State and government have committed to concrete reforms and actions to expand access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity to power economic growth, improve […]