By Dr. Asoka Bandarage* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 31 August 2025 (IDN) — In July 2025, the influential global travel website Big 7 named Sri Lanka the “most beautiful island in the world,” stating that the “teardrop-shaped island off the southern coast of India has it all—golden beaches, terraced tea plantations, timeworn temples, colonial towns, […]
From Guernica to Gaza, Mass Killers Have Been Above It All
By Norman Solomon / TomDispatch SAN FRANCISCO | 31 August 2025 (IDN) — Killing from the sky has long offered the sort of detachment that warfare on the ground can’t match. Far from its victims, air power remains the height of modernity. And yet, as the monk Thomas Merton concluded in a poem, using the […]
Crackdown in Quatit: Arrests and Isolation Deepen Tensions in Southern Eritrea
By Daniel Tesfa and Mirjam van Reisen 22 August 2025 (IDN) — A new wave of arrests in Quatit has heightened unease in Eritrea’s southern region, with locals reporting that dozens of residents have been detained in recent weeks. Among those arrested is the father of Shishay Tesfalem, the owner of the YouTube-based media outlet […]
Pashinyan Apologies For Insulting The Armenian Apostolic Church
By Benoit Lannoo* YEREVAN, Armenia | ANTWERP, Belgium | 21 August 2025 (IDN) — There is little chance that the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will congratulate the Armenian Apostolic Catholicos on his birthday today. This is a U-turn from five or six years ago, when a praising press release was issued every year by […]
Haiti Situation Report: Three-month state of emergency declared
Situation in Haiti Haiti declared a three-month state of emergency on 9 August in the West, Artibonite, and Center departments to counter escalating gang violence and its impact on food production. Two Haitian National Police (PNH) officers were killed in Kenscoff when their armored vehicle got stuck in a ditch dug by gangs and were […]
US-Russia Talks: The Choice Between Pursuing Peace and Escalation
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 17 August 2025 (IDN) — Donald Trump came into office promising to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Now, six months later, his high-stakes meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska may have put the United States and Russia on a new path […]
Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council: “Engage to Disengage”
By A.L.A. Azeez* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 14 August 2025 (IDN) — Time is ticking off. And it is ticking off on Sri Lanka’s human rights and accountability front, in Geneva. In less than a month from today, the question of promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka will come up for consideration […]
Seizing the Global Momentum for a Two-State Solution
Palestinians and Israel, with the unwavering support of the US, must seize on the growing international momentum in support of an independent Palestinian state by heeding France’s and Saudi Arabia’s call, initiated in the recent United Nations High-Level Conference. By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 9 August 2025 (IDN) —The unfolding horror in Gaza has galvanized […]
The Ximdo Gamble: TPLF-Eritrea Alliance and the Fragile Peace in Tigray and the Horn of Africa
By Daniel Tesfa and Mirjam van Reisen AXUM | 7 August 2025 (IDN) — The Horn of Africa, particularly Tigray, stands at a precarious crossroads. Ximdo is a new political strategy with at the centre a new alliance between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) with Eritrea People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ). Ximdo […]
The Dreadful Simplicity of Today’s Warmongers
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 29 July 2025 (IDN) — Does America know what a dangerous game its leaders have been playing? Does it know its history? And do the leaders of Europe, who should be a brake on American determination, go along with Washington because they are almost equally ignorant? The fact is, […]