Category: THE WORLD

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A sweeping draft bill framed in the guise of “family values” has put a bullseye on Ghana’s LGBTQ community, proposing some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent. The bill gives LGBTQ members 2 options: Jail time or conversion therapy—practice which aims to […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Since the surprise coup by Sudan’s Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the nation’s international standing as a nascent democracy is endangered, essential debt relief and aid is threatened and peace with rebels in Darfur and the Nuba mountains has been jeopardized. Prominent civilian leaders including Prime […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — As American workers are demanding raises after years of stagnant wages, African workers are also seeking salary hikes, back pay and other benefits in a phenomenon dubbed “Striketober”. The official African response, however, has been anything but responsive. In Swaziland—renamed Eswatini, the home of Africa’s […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Drilling companies are on the run—or at least they should be. A worldwide movement to reduce global warming and protect endangered supplies of water has turned its firepower on the growth of oil well drilling, particularly in areas of precious wildlife preserves in southern Africa.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The Secretary General of SWAPO, Namibia’s governing party, appears to have been napping as women around the world stepped up to demand tough measures from their political leaders against gender-based violence. Sophia Shaningwa, who serves in SWAPO’s upper echelon of party officials, left her party’s […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The much-awaited pan-African film festival opened on October 16 in Burkina Faso’s capital city of Ouagadougou at the Palais des Sports with dancers, acrobats and celebrities, including Senegalese Grammy nominee Baaba Maal. This year’s theme was Cinemas of Africa and the Diaspora: New perspectives, new […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The trial of the accused killers of Thomas Sankara, revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso—including his former friend Blaise Compaore who succeeded him as president and went on to rule for 27 years— has now been adjourned to October 25 after defense lawyers asked for more […]

By Lisa Vives Global Information Network New YORK (IDN) — In the years he’s been president, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has never learned to love free speech on the internet. Long before the trial of prominent YouTube commentator and genocide survivor, Yvonne Idamange, the President issued a dire warning: “Those that you hear speak on […]

By Lisa Vives Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Facing a devastating report by the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledging sexual exploitation of Congolese women by WHO and local staff, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has called for a “frank” judicial collaboration between national and international authorities on the matter.

By Lisa Vives Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The consortium of cross-border journalists that produced the massive investigation into corruption known as the Panama Papers has released a new work that digs into the proliferation of offshore accounts, the mechanisms used to hide money and the millionaires and billionaires quietly siphoning money into […]