By Michael von der Schulenburg* BRUSSELS | 13 February 2025 (IDN) — The war in Ukraine and its consequences will have a long-lasting negative impact on the political, security, economic and social future of Germany. It is the biggest war on European soil since the Second World War; a war which has brought us dangerously […]
Message To the US and Russia: Don’t Think About Nuclear War
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 11 February 2025 (IDN) — War over Ukraine? It mustn’t be. Some of us believed that at the end of the Cold War in 1991 American and Soviet nuclear rockets would be left to rust and rot in their silos. Indeed, we actually saw Ukraine, where the Soviets made […]
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. […]
“Riviera Of the Middle East”: A Paradise Inside a Hornet’s Nest
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 6 February 2025 (IDN) — President Donald Trump’s bombshell proposal that the United States would take over the war-ruined Gaza—that he described as a “demolition zone” – relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries—possibly in Egypt and Jordan – and redevelop the war-torn enclave into what he described as the “Riviera […]
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 […]
United States Quits UN Tax Convention Process
Eurodad NEW YORK | 5 February 2025 (IDN) — The United States has pulled out of the process to deliver a new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. The announcement came during the afternoon on the first day of the Organisational Session, which is taking place at UN Headquarters in New York and runs […]
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 […]
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 […]
UNGA President Urges Member States to Commit to Security Council Reform
By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 2 February 2025 (IDN) — UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang has in an exclusive interview with India’s leading news agency PTI called on all member states to “engage actively” and commit to reform, including of the Security Council. Yang, who is set to travel to India from February […]
Reform Credit Ratings to Fix Africa’s Debt Crisis
By Daniel Cash The writer is Associate Professor at Aston University and Senior Fellow at the UN University Centre for Policy Research NEW YORK | 30 January 2025 (IDN) — Africa is in a debt crisis. On the continent, interest payments on debt have risen by 132% over the past decade. Thirty-two African countries now […]