By Nicholas Mwangi* NAIROBI | 27 January 2025 (IDN) — Kenya has deployed another batch of 217 police officers to Haiti, adding to the 400 sent last year as part of a “multinational mission” aimed at addressing the country’s deepening crisis of gang violence. The intervention aims to protect critical infrastructure and conduct “targeted operations” […]
The Killing of General Cirimwami Escalates Conflict in DR Congo
Geopolitical scramble for the country’s vast mineral wealth By Kambale Musavuli* ACCRA, Ghana | 26 January 2025 (IDN) — Major General Peter Cirimwami, the military governor of North Kivu province, was shot near Kasengezi this past Thursday and later succumbed to his injuries. The incident occurred as he visited the frontline to assess the deteriorating […]
President Trump’s Interest in “Denuclearization” with Russia and China Greeted
WASHINGTON, D.C. | 25 January 2025 (IDN) — The Arms Control Association (ACA) has welcomed President Donald J. Trump’s comments on 23 January at the Davos World Economic Forum on the potential for nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China. ACA executive director Daryl Kimball highlighted in a media release what President Trump said […]
From Vietnam to Today: Lessons in Resistance as Trump Takes Office
By Bruce Jay Wasser* CHICAGO, USA | 25 January 2025 (IDN) — The return of Donald Trump to the presidency promises to be a time of significant national division and turmoil. He undoubtedly will pursue policies that reflect international bellicosity and a frightening dedication to xenophobia, misogyny, and intolerance. I take him seriously when he […]
Time to Change Course and the Conversation from Doomsday to Peace Day
By Alice Slater*, Toward Freedom NEW YORK | 24 January 2025 (IDN) — The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, with the advice of Albert Einstein and other scientists from the Manhattan Project who developed the atomic bomb, established a Doomsday Clock, in 1947, to illustrate the annihilating danger the earth is facing since the creation of […]
Money Wins Wars
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 24 January 2025 (IDN) — A new study reveals that financial resources play a significant role in determining the outcome of military conflicts. The comprehensive analysis of over 700 armed conflicts between 1977 and 2013 shows a clear causal effect of increased military spending on war outcomes, raising important questions […]
Haiti Calls for Restitution and Reparations
TURIN, Italy | 23 January 20254 (IDN) — The international movement Colonialism Reparation has welcomed Haiti’s decision to once again start to ask the restitution of the “independence indemnity” and reparations for the colonial period. It is also calling France to agree to apologize and compensate for the entire colonial period, bearing in mind its […]
Peace With China Is Far More Important Than Power Over China
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 21 January 2025 (IDN) —The West, the US especially, has got itself into a fretful mood over the rise of China. Quite unnecessarily so. The Chinese growth rate is slowing. As a BBC commentator said recently, reviewing this week’s government-issued statistics, China never will hit double digit growth again. […]
Human Rights Watch Takes Stock of 2024: A Year of Reckoning
By Jan Servaes* BANGKOK, Thailand | 18 January 2025 (IDN) — The Human Rights Watch Report 2025 was recently launched in Bangkok under the title “2024: A Year of Reckoning”. The press conference, which can also be followed via YouTube, started with a video message from Tirana Hassan, HRW Director General, who tried to put […]
Myanmar Four Years After the Coup
By Jan Servaes BANGKOK | 15 January 2025 (IDN) — Almost four years after the February 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar, the military junta’s widespread and systematic abuses against the population—including arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and aerial bombardments of civilians—amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. For ordinary citizens, the human rights situation […]