EU & Europe

Photo: Overlooking the central Kumasi market at closing time in Kumasi, Ghana, June 22, 2006. Credit: Jonathan Ernst / World Bank (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Ukraine and Africa: Food Crisis, Energy Ambiguity and An Uncertain Political Outcome

This article was issued by The Institute for International Political Studies - ISPI.

MILAN (IDN) — Since the war in Ukraine broke out in Europe, its consequences and side effects have been reverberating across African countries. Rising food and energy prices, supply disruptions, and inflationary pressures have created additional challenges on the road to a post-pandemic economic recovery the continent painstakingly embarked upon, in what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a 'perfect storm'.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 May 2022

Photo: Boris Johnson meeting with Volodimir Zelenski@Boris Johnson – Twitter

UK Premier Reportedly Pressured Ukrainian President to Quit Peace Talks with Russia

This article was issued by Common Dreams. It is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

By Jake Johnson

PORTLAND, Maine, USA (IDN) — The Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda reported May 5 that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used his surprise visit to Kyiv last month to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cut off peace negotiations with Russia, even after the two sides appeared to have made tenuous progress toward a settlement to end the war.

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 06 May 2022

Image: Remains of Russian tanks in Ukraine, March 2022 | Credit: Twitter/@DefenceU. Source: theprint.in

Russia Is Financially Prepared for Longer War—Even in Case of An Oil Embargo

Viewpoint by Prof. Dr Rolf J. Langhammer

Prof. Langhammer is a trade expert at Kiel Institute for World Economy (ifw). The following comment on the resilience of the Russian economy against the background of the discussion about an oil embargo was issued by the Kiel Institute Media Information.

BERLIN | KIEL (IDN) — Hopes that Russia will soon give in to the Ukraine war in the face of drastic Western sanctions are likely to be disappointed. Both the state budget situation and structural characteristics of the Russian economy create sound conditions for a prolonged persistence of a war economy based on autarky.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 May 2022

Image: Migrant logistics centre on the Belarus/Poland border, November 2021 Djordje Kostic/Shutterstock

Double Standards

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf

BONN (IDN) — At present, historical analogies are very often used to explain reasons for or against the causes of the war in Ukraine or to describe the horrors of this war with historical arguments. Some of these comparisons are downright perfidious, like equating Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 May 2022

Image: Pipeline construction in Nigeria as part of the Trans-Sahara natural gas pipeline, expected to run through Northern Nigeria into Niger and Algeria, connecting to Europe. Credit: Pipeline & Gas Journal.

The Russian Oil Ban Opens Up New Prospects for Africa

Viewpoint by Olatubora Ayodeji

LAGOS, Nigeria (IDN) — It's very important to understand that Russia is the world's third biggest oil producer, behind the US and Saudi Arabia and of about five million barrels of crude oil it exports each day, more than half went to Europe before the sanctions were announced. Before the announcement, Russia accounted for about 8% and 3% of the UK and US oil demand respectively.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 May 2022

Image: The U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership being signed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken (right) and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Washington, D.C. on November 10, 2021.

Ukraine Conflict: Why Won’t Europe Call for an End to This War?

Viewpoint by Boaventura de Sousa Santos

This article was produced by Globetrotter. Boaventura de Sousa Santos is the emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. His most recent book is Decolonizing the University: The Challenge of Deep Cognitive Justice.

COIMBRA, Portugal (IDN) — The North Atlantic media is entangled in an unprecedented information war. It is characterized by a relentless erosion of the distinction between facts and the manipulation of emotions and perceptions, between conjectures and unassailable truths.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 04 May 2022

Climate Action Is a Matter of Global Justice

By Annalena Baerbock

Following is the text of a speech by Germany's Minister of Foreign Affairs at the “Sustaining Peace amidst the Climate Crisis: The Role of Data Science, Technology & Innovation" Conference on May 2-3 in Berlin.

BERLIN (IDN) — The climate crisis is a threat to our world, to our lives.

Many of you have known this for years.

Many of us in Germany realised that vividly last year, when deadly floods killed almost two hundred people in our country.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 03 May 2022

Image: Swedish and NATO flags. Source: NATO

Sweden Is Playing with Fire as It Plans to Join NATO

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

This article builds on a column of 1974 the author wrote for the New York Times. It was the most prominent article printed that day on the op-ed page. Over a long career, he has developed those ideas and the following is the result.

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Sweden has been a different land from almost every other. If we overlook Sweden’s military contribution on the side of the US in Afghanistan when it deployed a mere 500 troops, it’s been 206 years since it went to war—and lost to Norway, which then achieved its independence. Immediately before that, it lost two wars to Russia—in 1790 and earlier in 1721.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 May 2022

Image source: Global Information Network

German Deal with Namibian President on Hold Because Herero and Nama Were Left Out

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Reparations—a system of redress for egregious injustices—are not a foreign idea imposed from the outside on the United States. On the contrary, the U.S. has given lands to Native Americans, paid $1.5 billion to Japanese Americans interned in the U.S. during World War II, and helped Jews receive reparations for the Holocaust, including making various investments over time.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 May 2022

Image: Ukrainian Baroque, St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv. CC BY-SA 4.0

Putin's Russia Is Also Attacking Ukrainian Culture

By Barbara Crossette, Passblue

NEW YORK (IDN) — In Europe and around the world, the landmark drama theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will long be associated with crimes against humanity, whether or not a formal trial of the Russians who bombed it is ever held.

At least 300 people, including many children—the final toll is not known—died there on March 16 during Russia’s savage war on Ukraine. The theater may have been harboring as many as 1,300 people when it was hit.