By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 20 October 2023 (IDN) — Following Hamas’s heinous attack on innocent Israeli civilians, senior Israeli military strategists are threatening the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This would be another Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe), akin […]
Retaliatory Attacks Threaten Palestinian People and Culture
By Jamshed Baruah NEW YORK | 19 October 2023 (IDN) — The US Pen Association, PEN America, mourns the devastating deaths of civilians in Gaza and condemns threats to free expression and the free flow of vital information to the public, including the international community, as a result of the escalating conflict between Israel and […]
Call for Prioritising Agrifood Sector to Attract Foreign Investment
By Bernhard Schell ABU DHABI | 18 October 2023 (IDN) — Government ministers and enterprises from around the world, participating in the World Investment Forum, have called for agrifood sector to assign a top priority for global investment. The 8th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) convened the Forum from 16 to 20 […]
Why the Ugly American?
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 17 October 2023 (IDN) — American foreign policymakers often wonder aloud why much of the world has such an anti-American reflex. Why the “Ugly American”? Graham Greene would never have written a novel entitled “Ugly Russian” or even “Ugly German”. Not just Iran considers the US the “Great Satan.” […]
UN Peacekeepers in The DRC Suspended Over Misconduct Charges
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 16 October 2023 (IDN) — South Africa’s military has ordered home a group of soldiers accused of operating a system of mass prostitution in front of their base in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Some nine South Africans, part of a UN peacekeeping mission, were […]
Water is life. Nourishing Humanity from the Ancient Past to the Future
A Feature by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) BERLIN | ROME | 15 October 2023 (FAO) — Water is finite but an infinitely valuable natural resource. Without it, there would be no food and no life. Centuries ago, the inventive nature of humankind spurred farmers to discover ways to irrigate crops, […]
No Blind Support for Israel in Asia
By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE. 14 October 2023 (IDN) — In the aftermath of Palestinian group Hamas’s terror attack inside Israel on 7 October and the Israeli state’s equally terrifying attacks on Palestinian settlements in Gaza, the media across many parts of Asia tend to take a more neutral stand to that of their western counterparts, […]
A Trust Redeemed: Celebrating and Reinforcing Achievements
By Ramu Damodaran* NEW YORK | 14 October 2023 (IDN) — Among all the conditions that convened at the creation of the United Nations, and have sustained what will be its 78 years on October 24, none was as unequivocal and decisive as that of trust, the trust demanded between States and invested by them […]
Who’s WHO?
BY Aayusha Pokharel* KATHMANDU. 12 October 2023 (IDN) — The World Health Organisation (WHO) will be nominating its South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) Director at its 76th session starting 30 October in New Delhi. Nepal’s candidate Shambu Prasad Acharya has emerged as a clear favourite among international public health practitioners. But vying for the […]
Hospitals in the Gaza Strip at a Breaking Point, Warns WHO
JERUSALEM | 12 October 2023 (IDN | WHO EMRO) — WHO warns that the health system in the Gaza Strip is at a breaking point. Time is running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe if fuel, life-saving health, and humanitarian supplies cannot be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip amidst the complete blockade. Hospitals have only a few hours of electricity […]