By Marlies Linke* ALMATY, Kazakhstan | 17 February 2025 (IDN) — The sixteenth BRICS summit, held in Kazan, Russia from 22 to 24 October 2024, bore the slogan “Strengthening Multilateralism for Fair Global Development and Security”. According to its concluding statement, the summit was intended to demonstrate that the participating Global South countries are expanding […]
The Upcoming Test Launch of a Nuclear Missile Is All Waste – and Dangerous Folly
By Ryan Black* FORT WAYNE, Indiana, USA | 17 February 2025 (IDN) — If President Trump and Elon Musk want to cut federal waste, they should listen to activists who’ve been targeting the land-based leg of the nuclear triad for decades. At a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (12 February), […]
Was the AI Summit in Paris a Missed Opportunity?
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 16 February 2025 (IDN) — Since the start of the Paris AI Action Summit, held on the 10th and 11th of February, the expectations were minimal. Yet there was a trickle of hope that the gathering would succeed at maintaining a modicum focus on safety and security of artificial […]
The Need for U.S. Action in the Democratic Republic of Congo
By Kate Hixon* WASHINGTON DC | 16 February 2025 (IDN) — On 18 January, the M23, a Congolese Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed rebel military group, launched a military operation to expand the territory it had gained over the past three years. The operation violated an August 2024 ceasefire agreement between Rwanda and the DRC established through the […]
Navigating a Low-Carbon Future: Maritime Decarbonisation on the 2025 Global Agenda
By Pascal Lamy and Geneviève Pons* BRUSSELS | 15 February 2025 (IDN) — Ten years ago, at COP21 the Paris Agreement was adopted as a global response to the threat of climate change, aiming at limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In the same year, world leaders also committed to thriving the […]
Ukraine War: Despite European Concern, Trump’s Peace Initiative is a Gamechanger
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 15 February 2025 (IDN) — As we approach the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a monumental shift is taking place that might just lead to the end of this calamitous war. This is not a breakthrough on the battlefield, but a […]
Realization Of Trump’s Gaza Plan Will be Crime of the Century
By James E. Jennings* ATLANTA, USA | 14 February 2025 (IDN) — The stark alternatives facing people in Gaza are both equally bad: stay in their little strip of Palestine and die or try to leave and die. It’s like choosing between the devil or the deep blue sea. They face death either way. Even […]
Military Infiltrations Undermine Thailand’s Democratization
By Jan Servaes* BANGKOK, Thailand | 14 February 2025 (IDN) — Since the abolition of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand has alternated between periods of relatively democratic rule and military coups. Officially, there have been 13 successful coups, but the attempted coups, which have been extensively gossiped about in the media, are countless. The […]
Opinion: Ukraine War, Impact of Rearmament, Economic Woes Loom Over German National Elections
By Michael von der Schulenburg* BRUSSELS | 13 February 2025 (IDN) — The war in Ukraine and its consequences will have a long-lasting negative impact on the political, security, economic and social future of Germany. It is the biggest war on European soil since the Second World War; a war which has brought us dangerously […]
How a Moroccan NGO Provides Services Based on an Ancient Religious Connection
By Noah Schrott-Schubert* MARRAKECH, Morocco | 13 February 2025 (IDN) — On the 7th of January, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, president of the Moroccan NGO, High Atlas Foundation, published an essay in Johns Hopkins University’s The SAIS Review, which sheds light on how people’s needs in Morocco can be addressed through participatory interfaith dialogue. The story […]