USA and Canada

Photo: Dozens of Palestinian children have been killed, with many more injured and displaced since the escalation of hostilities began in the Gaza Strip © UNICEF/Eyad El Baba

DON'T QUOTE ME: Do US Politicians Run for Seats in The Israeli Knesset?

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN)— When I walked out of a polling booth after voting in one of the US Senatorial elections in New York city several years ago, I was accosted by a reporter and a cameraman for the Middle Eastern TV network Al Jazeera.

The woman reporter, who was also a UN correspondent at that time, thrust the mike before me for my comments on the elections. My response was wildly sarcastic: “Frankly, I think American politicians are not running for office in the US House of Representatives or the Senate. I think they are really running for seats in the Israeli Knesset.”

: Thalif Deen; THE WORLD; Middle East; 26 May 2021

Photo: Palestinians protest Israeli ban on Al-Aqsa guards. Source: The Rahnuma Daily.

Netanyahu Has Raised the Stakes Over Jerusalem

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Poets as diverse as William Blake and Yehuda Amichai have sung the praises of the heavenly Jerusalem, a land without strife or rancour, war or bitterness, envy, acquisitiveness or hatred. Israel, Fatah and Hamas, in the midst of the present chaos and carnage, have the historic opportunity to take a giant step towards making the present-day Jerusalem acquire, at least in some of its aspects, the earthly prototype of the heavenly Jerusalem.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 18 May 2021

Photo: US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and other members of NATO Ministers of Defense and of Foreign Affairs meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 14, 2010.

NATO Plans to Focus on Russia and China

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (IDN) — “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a blunt interview with The Economist in November 2019. Europe stands on “the edge of a precipice”, he said, and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power; otherwise, we will “no longer be in control of our destiny.”

: Robert Johnson; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 May 2021

Photo: Kamala Harris and Joe Biden at the White House on 2/10/2021 © Adam Schultz / The White House

Biden Should Return Quickly to the Obama-led Iran Nuclear Deal

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It was the Americans who helped the long-ago-deposed Shah of Iran start Iran’s nuclear power research. He wanted a bomb. The Americans seemed insouciant about where this might lead.

After the revolution, the research was bequeathed from the wrong pair of hands to another wrong pair of hands—the revolutionaries who overthrew the Shah in 1979.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 11 May 2021

Photo: The Senegal Special Forces during the pass and review of the 45th Navy Day Anniversary Parade. Photo by Staff Sgt. Flor

Bandits Constrain Nigeria to Seeks Return of ‘Africom’

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Early Pentagon plans for a US military command based in Africa were once firmly rejected by almost every country on the continent. African governments were reluctant to associate themselves with America’s "war on terror" and fearful of US intervention.

Libya and Algeria both refused to host the combatant command. Even Morocco considered Washington’s closest North African ally, rejected the idea, saying it would not welcome a permanent military presence on its soil.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 11 May 2021

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”.