By Tajul Islam* DHAKA | 30 May 2024 (IDN) — Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared Bangladesh as a role model in establishing global peace. Speaking at the International Day of UN Peacekeepers 2024 on an event at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Dhaka on 29 May, she emphasized the country’s unwavering […]
Boosting Manufacturing Capacity Is Crucial for Vaccine Security in Africa
By Busani Bafana BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe | 29 May 2024 (IDN) — Africa’s limited vaccine manufacturing capacity means heavy reliance on imports to respond to outbreaks. However, boosting manufacturing capacities on the continent can change this, says Petro Terblanche, the CEO of Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, a biotechnology start-up company aiming to expand vaccine equity in […]
Smiling Buddha Turns 50: Impacts in Brazil and Worldwide
By Leonam dos Santos Guimarães* RIO DE JANEIRO | 29 May 2024 (IDN) — On 18 May 1974, India carried out its first nuclear explosion, called “Smiling Buddha”, in the Pokhran desert. That explosion was described by the Indian government as a “peaceful nuclear explosion.” India justified the explosion as a display of its technological […]
Bidens Throw Fabulous State Dinner in A First for African Leader
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 29 May 2024 (IDN) — It was Christmas 100 times over at the recent White House dinner for Kenyan President William Ruto—in fact, it was one of the largest-ever state dinners with a guest list of 500—and the first for an African leader since Ghana’s John […]
NGOs Urge Security Council to Enforce UN Court Orders on Israeli Actions in Rafah
By Rodney Reynolds UNITED NATIONS | 28 May 2024 (IDN) — A coalition of 19 non-governmental organizations* (NGOs), including Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Action Aid and CARE, has called on all five permanent and 10 elected members of the UN Security Council to enforce the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) orders regarding Israel’s actions […]
Trump Does Not Know Leadership
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 28 May 2024 (IDN) — Donald Trump is the antithesis of leadership. Walking into the cauldron of the Middle East and denouncing Iran when it had just almost at the same moment re-elected as president a man who presided over the deal that de-fanged his country’s nuclear program and […]
South Africans Weigh Gains and Losses Ahead of Voting
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 27 May 2024 (IDN) — As South Africa’s democracy turns 30, Nelson Mandela’s ANC party faces its toughest election yet. While the streets may be plastered with campaign posters of smiling politicians promising “A Job In Every Home” or to “Rescue South Africa”, many things have […]
Biden Defunds Uganda Programs Over Punitive Gay Laws
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 27 May 2024 (IDN) — Uganda, which expected to receive $18 million from the U.S. for peace efforts in Sudan, Somalia and other countries, is said to be shocked that President Biden has now pledged the money to Kenya. This was announced during a bilateral meeting […]
Wealth of Nations and the Poverty of Theory: Debt Restructuring as Rocket Science
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO | 26 May 2024 (IDN) — Calls for divestment from BlackRock and other International Sovereign Bonds (ISB), have echoed across Columbia, Yale and many non-Ivy League universities in the United States recently. BlackRock is heavily invested in weapons companies fueling a genocidal war in Palestine. However, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), […]
One Year of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of Nigeria
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 26 May 2024 (IDN) — It wasn’t five months after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office when folks started asking, how far? In middle class and elite social circles in Nigeria, that question, or its variant—how market?—is […]