By David M. Andrews* CANBERRA, Australia | 10 February 2025 (IDN) — The return of Donald Trump as US President marks an important crossroads in the future of two emergent Indo-Pacific security frameworks: the Quad, comprising Australia, India, Japan and USA, and AUKUS, the trilateral partnership between Australia, the UK and USA. Both institutions played […]
European Companies Feed the Dangerous Global Shadow Fleet
By Nathaniel Peutherer* LONDON | 9 February 2025 (IDN) — On 19 July 2024, the oil tanker Hafnia Nile was nearing its top speed when it collided with the supertanker Ceres I, off the east coast of Malaysia. Within minutes, flames engulfed both vessels, sending thick plumes of toxic smoke into the air. Several crew […]
From Crisis to Comeback: The Aral Sea’s Recovery
By Sophie Wenkel* VIENNA | 9 February 2025 (IDN) — The Aral Sea was once one of the largest lakes in the world. But within just a few decades, human actions nearly dried it up. The surrounding regions in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have faced drought, soil salinization, and severe sandstorms. However, in recent years, international […]
Breakthrough in UN Tax Convention Despite Talks Despite US Walking Out
By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 8 February 2025 (IDN) — The European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), a network of 60 European non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 28 countries, has welcomed “a major breakthrough towards more just and effective international tax rules” in UN Tax Convention negotiations in New York—despite the United States’ withdrawal. […]
Greenpeace Urges Poland to Seek EU Ratification of the UN Ocean Treaty
GDAŃSK, Poland | 8 February 2025 (IDN) — “Ratify Ocean Treaty” and “Ocean Treaty now!” were the messages Greenpeace Poland activists projected calling for ocean protection onto the iconic European Solidarity Centre building in the heart of the Gdańsk shipyard ahead of a high-level meeting between the Polish EU presidency and a delegation of European […]
AFRICOM Carries Out First Trump-Directed Airstrike On ISIS-Somalia
By Pearl Matibe* The premier online African defence and security news publication defenceWeb issued this article. It is being republished with their permission. WASHINGTON | 7 February 2025 (IDN) — At the direction of President Donald J Trump, the United States carried out its first airstrike of his second term, targeting ISIS-Somalia operatives in the […]
Reviving The Death Penalty Is One of Trump’s Greatest Moral Failures
by Kimberlee Hurley* NEW YORK | 7 February 2025 (IDN) — One of Trump’s most despicable day-one executive orders revoked Biden’s moratorium on federal executions, ensured that states that still carry out capital punishment have “a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection,” and urged the Attorney General to seek to overrule […]
Trump’s Campaign to Cut USAID May Have a Silver Lining
By Kalinga Seneviratne* Bangkok, Thailand | 7 February 2025 (IDN) — Since President Donald Trump made the shock announcement last week of freezing United States’ (US) foreign aid budget for three months while threatening to close down its main delivery agency, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the multi-million dollar aid industry has been […]
From America First to America Alone: The Lab Meets the Street
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 6 February 2025 (IDN) — It’s nearly 20 years since Mark Steyn wrote a non-fiction book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. Steyn, a Canadian newspaper columnist, could […]
“Riviera Of the Middle East”: A Paradise Inside a Hornet’s Nest
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 6 February 2025 (IDN) — President Donald Trump’s bombshell proposal that the United States would take over the war-ruined Gaza—that he described as a “demolition zone” – relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries—possibly in Egypt and Jordan – and redevelop the war-torn enclave into what he described as the “Riviera […]