News Media

Photo: Prime Minister Boris Johnson making a statement at the coronavirus press conference on September 9.

Breaking the Law over Brexit: How the UK is Playing Dirty in EU Talks

Viewpoint by Simon Sweeney*

YORK, United Kingdom (IDN) – The UK government seems to be doubling down on threats to leave the European Union without a deal unless the EU gives in on issues of state aid and fisheries. These two concerns are as important in Brussels as they seem to be in London.

In the latest attempt to ramp up the drama as the deadline to reach an agreement nears, the UK has said it plans to revisit the withdrawal agreement it has already signed with the EU on the terms of departure. This will include changing the plan agreed with the EU in December 2019 on how trade will move between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 10 September 2020

Photo credit: Flickr/Paul Stein.CC BY-SA 2.0

History Gives Us Reason for Hope That Inequality Can Be Beaten

Viewpoint by Ben Phillips*

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.

LONDON (IDN) – 2020 isn’t just the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s also the year when protest has gone viral. Covid-19 has both supercharged our inequalities and shone a sharper light on them, exposing the reality that the status quo cannot hold. It has opened up a moment of opportunity, and young people are showing how we can seize that moment by building up a movement.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 07 September 2020

Photo: Dr. Palitha Kohona, Former Permanent Representative of UN to Sri Lanka. Credit: NewsinAsia.

Distinguished Diplomat Kohona Tipped to be Sri Lanka's Ambassador to China

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK | COLOMBO (IDN) – A major overhaul of the heads of Sri Lankan diplomatic missions abroad will come into effect in the next 30 days and new ambassadors have already been handpicked to key embassies abroad. These include New Delhi, Washington DC, Chennai, Tokyo, Beijing and Ottawa, reports Sunday Times.

At the same time, several retired diplomats who are over 60 years and heading embassies overseas have been summoned back by October 4 — i.e one month’s notice from when they were recalled. They include Kshenuka Senewiratne, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Asoka Girihagama in Ottawa, Sudanthaka Ganegamarachchi in Stockholm, Damayanthi Rajapaksa in Cairo, A.L. Ratnapala in Havana and Sumith Nakandala in The Hague. Sumith Nakandala will be given time till October 22 when he turns 60.

: Radwan Jakeem; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 06 September 2020

What Happens to the Plastic the UK Recycles?

Viewpoint by Regina Frei & Diego Vazquez-Brust*

SOUTHAMPTON | PORTSMOUTH, United Kingdom (IDN) – The secretive way in which plastic recycling is handled in the UK carries the potential for the next big scandal. While the government’s statutory guidance is supposed to clarify who is responsible, our research suggests that what happens to plastics we believe to be recycled in the UK is in reality quite obscure.

Each council in the UK contracts different companies for the disposal and recycling of household waste, so the rules for residents in different areas vary. But you probably separate recyclables before filling your recycling bin and expect that waste (except when it’s black) to be recycled.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 04 September 2020

A New Alliance Will Likely Shape U.S. Foreign Policy for Years to Come

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback and James Carden*

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – In early June, a group of former officials from the George W. Bush administration launched a PAC in support of Joe Biden’s candidacy. The group, 43 Alumni for Biden, boasts nearly 300 former Bush officials and is seeking to mobilize disaffected Republicans nationwide.

The mobilization appears to be having an impact: More recently, “more than 100 former staff of [recently deceased Senator John] McCain’s congressional offices and campaigns also endorsed Biden for president,” according to NBC News, as well as dozens of former staffers from Senator Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 03 September 2020

2020] Photo: Supporters of Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Credit: Gage Skidmore.

Trump's Strength Lies in Extraordinary Loyalty He Commands from His Base

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) – The last four years have been deeply traumatizing to millions of Americans as we have watched our nation in the stranglehold of a maniacal, dictatorial and compulsively deceptive president. But it is worth examining the relationship that President Donald Trump has with his voters in order to understand why he won the 2016 election and why he continues to command such fervent loyalty a few months ahead of the next election. Willing to overlook his lies, improprieties, and corruption, Trump’s voters have a transactional relationship with the president that is practical, powerful, and surprisingly instructional to the rest of us.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 August 2020

Photo: Nairobi National Park is the only national park in the world that shares a fence with a city. It boasts of abundant wildlife, including the “big five” animals – the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo. Credit: Olga Lev-Ari Ercolano

Concerted Campaign to Protect Nairobi National Park

By Dominic Kirui*

This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

NAIROBI (IDN) – The Nairobi National Park is a rare gem that defines the Kenyan capital and it is the only national park in the world that shares a fence with a city. It boasts of abundant wildlife, including the “big five” animals – the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo – that can, in places, be viewed against a backdrop of city skyscrapers and planes coming in to land at the local airports.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 August 2020

Photo: Commander-in-Chief Rodrigo Duterte (His Excellency) in full Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). Source: Wikimedia Commons

Four Ways the Philippine Strongman Rodrigo Duterte Could Fall

Viewpoint by Walden Bello *

“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.” — T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

NEW YORK (IDN) – The fix that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is in now illustrates the truth in the saying that the best-laid plans of mice and men are often unravelled by the least expected event.

In the case of the beleaguered Philippine president, the equivalent of the asteroid from outer space that killed off the dinosaurs was COVID-19, which threw him from the high horse he was riding in triumph after the midterm elections of 2019, which his partisans swept at all levels.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 27 August 2020

Photo: The Slave Ship by J.M.W. Turner depicts the Zong massacre. Credit: Wikimedia

How the Shadow of Slavery Still Hangs over Global Finance

Viewpoint by Philip Roscoe*

ANDREWS, Scotland (IDN) – When the infamous Zong massacre trial began in 1783, it laid bare the toxic relationship between finance and slavery. It was an unusual and distressing insurance claim – concerning a massacre of 133 captives, thrown overboard the Zong slave ship.

The slave trade pioneered a new kind of finance, secured on the bodies of the powerless. Today, the arcane products of high finance, targeting the poor and troubled as profit opportunities for the already-rich, still bear that deep unfairness.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 26 August 2020

Photo: President Trump signs an Executive Order at the White House Summit on Human Trafficking in honour of the 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Jan. 31, 2020. Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks.

President Trump's 'Orwellian' Policy Fosters Child Trafficking

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

LOS ANGELES (IDN) – President Donald Trump thinks of himself as a champion against human trafficking. He addressed a White House Summit on the issue in January claiming there was a “humanitarian crisis” at the border fomented by criminal organizations and that “traffickers victimize countless women and children.” He signed an executive order and diverted $400 million in funding to combat the issue, boasting in his usual manner that “we have signed more legislation on human trafficking than any other administration has ever even thought about.”