BERLIN | 1 February 2025 (IDN) — The success of Deepseek shows one thing as clearly as it is impressive: Technological innovation is not only a question of capital and computing power, but also of creativity and pragmatism. The shortage of Western chips has forced Deepseek to adopt alternative strategies in the first place. “Innovation […]
Venezuela’s Maduro Crowned President for 3rd Term: Will Guyana’s Borders Face Increased Incursions?
By P.I. Gomes The writer is former Secretary-General, Organisation of African, Caribbean & Pacific States (OACPS), Brussels, Belgium. PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago | 31 January 2025 (IDN) — On 10 January 2025, Nicolas Maduro was bestowed with the Presidential sash of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela granting him a third 6-year term, 2025 […]
Why the World Needs to Listen to Mahatma Gandhi More Than Ever
By Sachin Pilot The writer is former Union Minister of Corporate Affairs and current president of Rajasthan a Congress Committee in the Indian State of Rajasthan. TONK, Rajasthan, India | 31 January 2025 (IDN) — Why should we remember Mahatma Gandhi 77 years after he was assassinated? Because more than ever, his legacy is of […]
Reform Credit Ratings to Fix Africa’s Debt Crisis
By Daniel Cash The writer is Associate Professor at Aston University and Senior Fellow at the UN University Centre for Policy Research NEW YORK | 30 January 2025 (IDN) — Africa is in a debt crisis. On the continent, interest payments on debt have risen by 132% over the past decade. Thirty-two African countries now […]
Musk’s Nazi Salute Is a Shameless Display of Antisemitism
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 30 January 2025 (IDN) — No riches can obscure the ugliest manifestation of antisemitism and bigotry that Elon Musk displayed with his Nazi salute following Trump’s inauguration. Musk can send a spaceship to Mars with his fortune, but no money or social platform will erase the well-deserved shame […]
What’s UNDOF? Why UN Peacekeepers Patrol the Israel-Syria Border
By Eileen Travers NEW YORK | 29 January 2025 (IDN) — More than 1,100 UN peacekeepers are currently deployed in the Golan, a demilitarised zone along the Israel-Syria border at what is a tense and dangerous time in the history of the region. But why are the Blue Helmets there? One of the UN’s longest-standing […]
Social Media and Politics in Southeast Asia
By Jan Servaes* BANGKOK, Thailand | 29 January 2025 (IDN) — Southeast Asia exhibits a wide range of political structures, cultural systems, depths of political engagement, and histories. Nearly four decades since the advent of the Internet in the region, the online population has grown substantially, hand in hand with increased government capacity to exert […]
The US Should Not Hold Provocative War Games Near China
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 28 January 2025 (IDN) — When Donald Trump was last elected as president his secretary of defence, Jim Mattis, declared a new era: “There has been a return of great power competition……great power competition- not terrorism- is now the primary focus of US security”. In the then new national […]
Russia’s Acclaimed University Celebrates Eventful 65 Years of Existence
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 28 January 2025 (IDN) — Russia’s People’s Friendship University in Moscow—widely known as the RUDN—an acronym derived from its Russian name (Российский Университет Дружбы Народов) celebrates its 65th Anniversary on 5 February 2025. Just three years after he opened the former Soviet Union (USSR) to the world with the […]
Can Hamas Redeem Itself?
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 27 January 2025 (IDN) — Now that the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is in place, with some ongoing hiccups, the question is, will the second phase follow, and what lesson, if any, has Hamas learned following 15 months of horrendous death and destruction? The current first phase […]