By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 4 December 2024 (IDN) — As humanitarian emergencies in the Middle East and Africa keep escalating—including in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and most recently in Syria—there was a glimmer of hope to millions starved of food and deprived of shelter and medication in war zones. According to the Office of […]
Lebanon: Can Diplomacy Rise from the Ruins?
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 4 December 2024 (IDN) — On 26 November, Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement for a 60-day truce, during which Israel and Hezbollah are both supposed to withdraw from the area of Lebanon south of the Litani River. The agreement is based on the […]
Global Drought Resilience Partnership Secures USD 2.15 Billion in Commitments
By Bernhard Schell RIYADH, Saudi Arabia | 3 December 2024 (IDN) — Saudi Arabia, as host of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16), has announced the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership, which will leverage public and private finance to support 80 of the […]
Tear Down Those Walls and Fences — Manifestations of Shallow Thinking
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 3 December 2024 (IDN) — At first, I was a bit surprised to find that the English admonition, “Good fences make for good neighbours” exists in many other languages. I shouldn’t have been taken aback. A moment’s reflection should have told me that fences and walls to divide off […]
Relief Deliveries to Gaza and Syria Halted — Yet Another Summit Seeks to Combat Desertification
NEW YORK | 3 December 2024 (IDN) — While organized looting has constrained UNRWA to pause relief deliveries to Palestinian refugees, the sudden escalation of fighting in Syria’s northwest is continuing to impact aid deliveries there. Meanwhile, UN summit has got underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to combat desertification, drought and promote land restoration, writes […]
Africa: Sustained Partnership with Russia in Mutual Interest
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW | 2 December 2024 (IDN) — After the first Ministerial Conference on Russia-Africa, Louis Gouend, founder of Hello Africa and founding Executive Director of the African Business Club, noted that instability and security is still fragile across the African continent, but with an innovative and balanced approaches with Russia’s engagement, […]
The BRICS Plan for a New Financial Architecture
By Anuradha Chenoy* This article was published in Economic&Political Weekly (Vol. 59, Issue No. 48, 30 Nov. 2024) and is being republished with the author‘s permission. NEW DELHI | 1 December 2024 (IDN) — The Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) has established itself as a multilateral organisation distinct from others, evident from […]
Planetary Boundaries: Confronting the Global Crisis of Land Degradation
New report launched during UNCCD COP16 outlines critical steps towards keeping land in the safe zone By UN Department of Global Communications RIYADH, Saudi Arabia | 1 December 2024 (IDN) —A major new scientific report was launched today, a day ahead of the opening of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to […]
Sri Lanka: The IMF’s Remarkable Timing and a President’s Mandate for Debt Justice
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO | 30 November 2024 (IDN) — At Annual Meetings in Washington in October, International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva claimed Sri Lanka as a debt restructuring ‘success’ story.[i] Left unsaid was that Sri Lanka’s external debt had ballooned from $26 billion to a purported whopping $100 billion during two years of […]
Ukraine War: Polls Show Most Ukrainians Now Support a Negotiated Peace
By Stefan Wolff and Tetyana Malyarenko BIRMINGHAM, England | ODESSA, Ukraine (IDN) — The war in Ukraine is at a critical juncture. Kyiv has been given permission to use western-supplied Atacms and Storm Shadow missiles against targets inside Russia. It did so as soon as that permission was granted, with strikes against Russian military facilities […]