USA and Canada

Photo: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab hosts the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers' Meeting in London, 3 to 5 May 2021. Credit: GOV.UK

Europe and the US Need to Talk About Sanctions Against Russia

Viewpoint by Agathe Demarais

The writer is Global Forecasting Director at The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU). This commentary* was published on the European Leadership Network (ELN) website on May 7.

LONDON (IDN) — Convening in London this week (May 3-5), the G7 foreign ministers expressed their interest in standing together in the face of a variety of challenges, including how to engage with Russia and China.

After four years of bombastic tweets and erratic declarations from Donald Trump, the first 100 days of the Biden presidency have shown that the new US president is more willing to work with European allies than his predecessor was. Yet this does not mean that all is well for the transatlantic alliance.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 May 2021

Photo: Tents of the homeless in San Francisco, California, May 2020. CC BY 2.0

Conquering Poverty in America Is Possible

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Adam Smith who in 1776 wrote “The Wealth of Nations”, the Bible of capitalism, which has become the standard economics text for over two centuries, was quick to single out monopolistic tendencies as the most important tool in undermining the virtues of capitalism. It kept the poor poor. The laws that give these capitalists their freedom to exploit the marketplace, so-called rent-seeking, “may be said to be all written in blood”. At the moment, Amazon is in the firing line for practicing such practices. Indeed, a majority of Silicon Valley companies rent-seek. Big pharma companies, like Pfizer, which is expecting this year 25% profits on its corona virus vaccine are another.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 04 May 2021

The US and EU Boost Access to Covid-19 Vaccines and Waive the Patents

Viewpoint by Lori Wallach

Lori Wallach is the director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. This is a slightly abridged version of a blog post by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) New York.

WASHINGTON DC (IDN | IPS-Journal.EU) — As we see infection rates in India and other parts of the world skyrocketing, European Union (EU) and US government officials regularly declare that the Covid-19 public health disaster and resulting economic crises will not end anywhere unless people everywhere are vaccinated. Yet the two World Trade Organization (WTO) heavyweights are blocking an initiative now supported by 100 nations that could boost access to Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests worldwide. On 5 May the issue will again come to a head at the WTO. The US and EU must join the rest of the world.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 04 May 2021

Photo: Debris of Afghan civil war: A boy runs past a destroyed Soviet-made armoured tank on a Kabul street, Afghanistan. (File photo)

Viewing Post-American Afghanistan Through Looking Glass

Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar

The writer is a former Indian diplomat. This article was first published in the Indian Punchline.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Ex-CIA officer Bruce Riedel at Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, whose familiarity with Afghanistan is never in doubt, has held a looking glass to figure out the future course of events even as the US troop withdrawal commences.

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Riedel sees in the haziness old familiar shapes appearing—the erstwhile Northern Alliance warlords. And he invokes the fate of the communist regime led by Dr Najibullah after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 29 April 2021

Sleepwalking into Nuclear War?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — On April 20, US Strategic Command, the part of the military responsible for nuclear weaponry and its use, posted an official Tweet that read, “We must account for the possibility of conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option”.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 27 April 2021

Photo: Terrorist attack in Sri Lanka. Credit: Sri Lanka government.

A Counterpoint to 'Geopolitics of the 2019 Easter Sunday Crime in Sri Lanka and Cover-Up by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake'

Viewpoint by Muttukrishna Sarvananthan PhD*

POINT PEDRO, Sri Lanka (IDN) — I have read with great interest Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake’s well-crafted conspiracy theory on the Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka in a two-part viewpoint dated November 2020 and April 18, 2021. There are a few factual inaccuracies or deliberate hyperbole to insinuate that the United States of America (USA) was directly or indirectly responsible for the carnage.

: South Asia Bureau; OPINION; 24 April 2021

Image: A NASA image of the Earth. Public Domain.

Rich Countries, Are You Listening? Pay Up the Climate Debt Owed to Global South!

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A number of African activists were listening in at President Joe Biden’s major climate summit on April 22 at which 40 world leaders were invited. Among the listeners was Kumi Naidoo, special adviser for the Green Economy Coalition’s Social Contract Initiative and Dipti Bhatnagar of Friends of the Earth International.

Naidoo, former head of Amnesty International and Greenpeace, claimed that foot dragging, particularly on the part of the United States, not only with Trump but with previous administrations, has left the world basically at one minute to midnight in terms of the climate crisis.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 April 2021

Photo: Capt. Matthew Dixon, who deployed with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, receives a combat patch during his deployment to Afghanistan during the spring of 2020. U.S. ARMY

The US to End its War In Afghanistan, “The Graveyard of Empires”

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — President Joe Biden of the United States announced that its war in Afghanistan, the US’s longest war ever, will end on September 11, 2021.

A glimpse of Afghanistan’s history—dubbed as “the country where Empires go to die” will help us understand why many empires failed in that country.

Afghanistan, rightfully called a “graveyard of empires”, is a mountainous landlocked country located along the ancient Silk Road between Asia and Europe, and surrounded by powerful nations such as India, Pakistan, and Russia.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 23 April 2021

Photo: The talks in the Joint Commission of the JCOPA in the Austrian capital on bridging what the US calls “tremendous and profound differences” over how to salvage the nuclear agreement. Source: Eureporter.

Optimism Over Progress in Vienna Talks on Iran Nuclear Deal

By Kelsey Davenport, Julia Masterson and Sang-Min Kim

While Kelsey Davenport is Director for Nonproliferation Policy and Julia Masterson, Research Associate at the Arms Control Association, Sang-Min Kim is Scoville Fellow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — The United States, Iran, and the other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal expressed varying degrees of optimism over the progress made during recent talks in Vienna on the necessary steps to restore full implementation of the accord.

: Arms Control Association; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 April 2021

Volunteers Are Helping Venezuela To Rebuild US-Devastated Industry

By Leonardo Flores

This article was produced by Globetrotter. Leonardo Flores is a Venezuelan political analyst and peace activist with CODEPINK. He is a Globetrotter/Peoples Dispatch fellow.

VENICE, CA (IDN) — “We don’t just repair machines; we repair consciences,” says Sergio Requena of the Productive Workers Army (EPO by its Spanish-language initials) in Venezuela. The EPO is a group of 2,270 volunteers with a broad range of technical expertise. They go from factory to factory repairing broken machinery. Their mission is to recover Venezuela’s industrial production by empowering workers to take matters into their own hands.