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The US Has to Work with Russia, Not Against It
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The war in Syria has dropped out of the news, like almost everything else, in a time when the Coronavirus seems to dominate all discourse and reporting. But the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to strangle its own country. The Russians continue to bomb on his behalf, terrifying civilians and hospitals. The Americans work semi-clandestinely to undermine both the regime and its Russian backers.
Viewpoint by Cees Jan Hamelink*
This article was originally published on Other News, a vehicle for "voices against the tide" and is being reproduced with thanks.
AMSTERDAM (IDN) – As a scientist it is of course gratifying for me to hear that government policy on Covid-19 takes science seriously. And it is gratifying when press conferences of the prime minister and other authorities refer to scientific research. However, if it is not immediately mentioned by whom these studies were carried out and by whom they were critically assessed, I, as a scientist, become restless.
Viewpoint by Francesc Badia I Dalmases*
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
BARCELONA (IDN) – Meteorologists have warned that this year is on track to become the hottest since records began. The climate crisis continues, whose medium-term consequences will be devastating, without being controlled. And meanwhile, all of us are looking with uncertainty at the future that awaits us, and the daily Covid-19 lockdown news leave us dreaming of returning to a lost normality.
Viewpoint by Camille Rustici
The writer is chief editor of the e-magazine DirectIndustry. This article was first published on the online journal of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Brussels office, International Politics and Society on April 28.
MARSEILLE (IDN) – Since the outbreak in China, which led to the closing of a large number of factories in the country in late January, not a single industrial sector in the rest of the world has been spared. The automotive, electronics and textile industries, among others, have suffered and continue to suffer colossal losses unheard of in peacetime.
Viewpoint by Petra Molnar*
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
TORONTO (IDN) – Refugees, immigrants, and people on the move have long been tied to tropes of bringing disease and illness. From pandemics to genocides, people crossing borders whether by force or by choice are talked about in apocalyptic terms like ‘flood’ or ‘wave,’ underscored by rampant xenophobia, racism, and elemental fear of ‘The Other’. Not only are these formulations blatantly incorrect, they also legitimise far-reaching state incursion and increasingly hard-line policies of surveillance and techno-solutionism to manage migration.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
The US needs first and foremost to look after itself-– its often counterproductive foreign policy, its poverty, its third rate health services, its misdistribution of income, to save the economy and to save those most hurt by the Coronavirus crisis.
LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It might seem that the world is going to pot in a hand-basket. Not quite true. There are ways out. Asia has shown how to deal with the Coronavirus and how to stay politically stable. Europe, except for wise Sweden, has muddled along, following belatedly the conventional wisdom of its scientific community. As for the United States, President Donald Trump has made a fool of himself and his country, ending up with the highest death rate in the world.
Viewpoint by John McCarthy *
MELBOURNE (IDN) – Australia's decision to spearhead an international enquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic — read China's lack of transparency and the WHO's mistakes — is a nice hoary bellow from the domestic political ramparts, but it is a policy mistake.
The Australian opposition's support for the decision does not bathe the policy in divine light. It merely doubles the weight of the mistake.
Whichever country had decided to initiate such a policy, it would have been a bad idea.
By Ramzy Baroud *
This article was first published on the author's website www.ramzybaroud.net on 22 April 2020.
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Washington (IDN) -– It was intended to be a Machiavellian move, but the decision by Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) coalition, to join a Benjamin Netanyahu-led government is likely to destabilize the political fabric of Israeli society for years to come.
In a surprising move, Gantz has entered into precarious political compromises, whereby he would become the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), as a prelude to the formation of a national unity government which will include the ruling Likud party and Blue and White.
Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar
The writer is a former Indian diplomat. This article was produced in partnership by Indian Punchline and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute where it first appeared.
NEW DELHI (IDN) – A perfect deal is where all protagonists get something out of it. All oil-producing countries stand to gain if the oil price rebounds. In bare-bones, the OPEC+ group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia finalized, in a nail-biting photo finish on April 12, an agreement to steeply cut oil production by a combined 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June to rebalance the supply and demand in the world market and nudge the prices to go up amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Viewpoint by Jan Zielonka*
This article was originally published on open Democracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.
VENICE (IDN) – Our lives currently seem to be in the hands of doctors, and this concerns not only those who have caught the corona virus. New regulations on quarantine, social distancing and borders have been dictated to governments by their medical advisors.
This interactive WHO dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily Basis.
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