News Media

Photo: Panorama of the west facade of United States Supreme Court Building at dusk in Washington, D.c. CC BY-SA 3.0

A Tilt to Far-Right Looming Over the U.S. Supreme Court

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

LOS ANGELES (IDN) – In the hours after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, shocked Americans speculated about whether or not Republican Senator Mitt Romney would oppose a Senate confirmation vote just weeks before the election.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 26 September 2020

Photo: The port at Tema, Ghana. @ Jonathan Ernst / World Bank.

COVID-19 Crisis Underlines the Importance of Economic Diversification in Africa

Business as Usual Will Only Reinforce Economic Hardship

Viewpoint by Njuguna Ndung’u*

NAIROBI (IDN) – Africa’s low level of economic diversification is a leading factor in the continent’s economic fragility. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the risks of countries’ over-dependence on a single natural resource such as oil.

Africa is endowed with abundant natural resources, including minerals, and revenues from their export constitute a major source of income for many countries.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 19 September 2020

Photo: Downing Street said in February 2020, its adviser Andrew Sabisky had resigned, following criticism of alleged past remarks on pregnancies, eugenics and race. Credit: BBC.

The Need to Address That British Eugenics Scandal

Viewpoint by Justin Podur*

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

TORONTO (IDN) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been known to have an interest in eugenics, but despite the persistence of support for this discredited idea over the years, eugenics is a scientific and moral failure.

In February, an adviser to Johnson resigned when some old racist posts he wrote in 2014 emerged. The contractor, Andrew Sabisky, called himself a “superforecaster” by trade and trafficked in theories of race and intelligence. Footage resurfaced of Boris Johnson talking about genetic inequality and IQ in 2013.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 September 2020

Photo: Iranian women wearing masks to protect themselves from coronavirus walk at the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on February 20, 2020. Credit: © 2020 WANA/Nazanin Tabatabaee via Reuters

Iran's #MeToo Movement Challenges Patriarchy and Western Stereotypes

Viewpoint by Sara Tafakori*

BEIRUT (IDN) – It has been called an Iranian #MeToo movement, and it is. Thousands of women in Iran – and some men – are going online to speak about the sexual assault and harassment they experienced. What is crucially important, at what promises to be a historic turning point in Iranian women’s struggle for their rights, is to set the movement clearly in its proper local and global context, rather than locating it in terms of the familiar binaries of East and West, as much of the coverage in the coming weeks and months will do.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 15 September 2020

Image: COVID-19 Outbreak in the U.S. Per Capita Cases. Source: Wikipedia

COVID-19: U.S. Deaths and Infections Several Times Higher Than Those in China

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad and John Ross*

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts | LONDON (IDN) – In Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, reports on interviews he did in February and March with U.S. President Donald Trump about the coronavirus. Trump admitted that the virus was virulent, but he decided to underplay its danger. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said, “because I don’t want to create a panic.” Despite months of warnings from the Chinese authorities, Trump and his health secretary Alex Azar completely failed to prepare for the global pandemic.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 September 2020

Photo: inland Northwest National Wildlife Refuge Fire Management staff conducted a fifty-acre prescribed fire at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge earlier this spring. Credit: Ken Meinhart, USFWS. Public Domain.

Indigenous Techniques Could Help Fight Out-Of-Control Wildfires in California

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

LOS ANGELES (IDN) – In more than 20 years of living in Southern California, I have never been in a potential fire evacuation zone—until now. The entire state is seemingly on fire with a record-breaking 2 million acres already burned this year alone, with months to go before the end of fire season. The situation is so dire that the state’s fire officials are warning they “simply do not have enough resources to fully fight and contain every fire.”

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 September 2020

Photo: The Port of Beirut eleven days after the disaster. The French amphibious assault ship Tonnerre is the large ship on the right, which arrived in the port on 13 August to provide food, construction materials, medical supplies, and personnel. CC BY-SA 4.0

People Are Leading Beirut's Recovery in the Absence of the State

Viewpoint by Aseel Naamani and Ruth Simpson*

This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

BEIRUT (IDN) – Recent events in Lebanon tell a story of interwoven crises, culminating in the explosion in Beirut on August 4. To overcome the crisis in the long-term, recovery efforts must be participatory and take a bottom-up approach, based on communities’ needs, while protecting shared spaces and cultural heritage.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 13 September 2020

Photo: Degraded – but not deforested. Credit: CIFOR/flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

Forest Degradation Is Outpacing Full Deforestation in the Amazon

Viewpoint by Tommaso Jucker*

BRISTOL, United Kingdom (IDN) – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased abruptly in the past two years, after having been on a downward trajectory for more than a decade. With the country’s president Jair Bolsonaro notoriously enthusiastic about expanding into the rainforest, new deforestation data regularly makes global headlines.

But what fewer people realise is that even forests that have not been cleared, or fully “deforested”, are rarely untouched. Indeed, just 20 percent of the world’s tropical forests are classified as intact. The rest have been impacted by logging, mining, fires, or by the expansion of roads or other human activities. And all this can happen undetected by the satellites that monitor deforestation.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 12 September 2020

Photo: Remnants of an old shipwreck on the outer reef of Mauritius where the MV Wakashio would run aground two years later. Robert Blasiak, Author provided.

An Increasingly Crowded Ocean Calls for a New Role for Transnational Corporations

Viewpoint by Robert Blasiak*

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – The MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef in Mauritius in late July 2020, leaking 1,000 tonnes of oil into the crystal blue waters of a lagoon, threatening mangrove, seagrass and mudflat habitats. Since then, dozens of dead dolphins and porpoises have washed ashore. Anger has grown and sadness has deepened.

But this is a different story – it starts two years ago in the same place in Mauritius, and I am walking down a muddy path in a mangrove forest. A guide is telling me about how the community has removed invasive species, cleaned up waste and planted mangroves.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 12 September 2020

Photo: Kyle Rittenhouse (left, with backwards cap) walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 25, with another armed civilian. Adam Rogan/The Journal Times via AP.

Many Police Can Hardly Be Distinguished from Armed Vigilantes

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

LOS ANGELES (IDN) – Police in America, whose mottos claim to “protect and serve” us, have been openly declaring allegiance with the forces of white supremacy. It is no coincidence that this has become a hallmark of Donald Trump’s presidency.