Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — When the United Nations pulled its troops out of the Congo, a country the size of western Europe, in June 1964, Secretary General U Thant reported, “The UN cannot permanently protect the Congo from internal tensions and disturbances created by its own organic growth towards unity and […]
Calling for No First Use of Nuclear Weapons
Statement by Daisaku Ikeda, President, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) to 2022 NPT Review Conference TOKYO — Seventy-seven years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not only is there a lack of any concrete progress toward nuclear weapons abolition but the risk that nuclear weapons will actually be used has risen to […]
Caring about Nuclear Sharing: A Setback for Nuclear Arms Control
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN (IDN) — Russia’s repeated references to nuclear weapons since it started the war in Ukraine have put nuclear weapons back at centre stage of the strategic discussions. This has raised anxieties about a possible […]
Unsolved Cases of Police Brutality on The Rise in Kenya
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — For Kenyans who waited six years and one month for justice, a Nairobi court finally handed them a decision—finding three police officers guilty in the kidnapping and murder of a human rights lawyer, his client and their taxi driver—all of whom disappeared after being locked […]
Deep Cuts in Funds for African Drought Victims as Money Flows to Europe
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The war in Ukraine is draining millions of dollars away from crises in Africa as funds are being redirected to Europe. Somalia, facing a food shortage largely driven by the war, could be the most vulnerable. Its aid funding is less than half of last […]
Ivorian Parliament to Review Polygamy in a Blow for Women’s Equality
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A bill before parliament in the Ivory Coast would upend monogamy and restore polygamy—a marriage that includes one husband and at least two wives. Outraged women’s groups call it a return to inequality. The move mirrors setbacks worldwide, including the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on […]
Why Do Zimbabwean Women Shun Politics?
By Farai Shawn Matiashe MUTARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Cyberbullying and online sexual harassment are some dilemmas that young women trying to rise in Zimbabwe’s patriarchal and male-dominated political space face. What started as a debate on the opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), led by young and charismatic politician Nelson Chamisa not having structures, […]
White House Confirms Plans to Send US-NATO Jets to Fight Russia
Viewpoint by Andre Damon This article first appeared on the World Socialist Website MICHIGAN, USA (IDN) — In what may be the most provocative escalation of the US-NATO war against Russia to date, the White House has confirmed that the US is planning to send NATO-made fighter jets to Ukraine. John Kirby, the National Security […]
Land Lease System Threatens Sustainability of Cane Farming in Fiji
By Kalinga Seneviratne SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — Though sugar cane is thought to be indigenous to the islands of the South Pacific, it was the British who started to grow it as a cash crop in Fiji in the later part of the 19th century. In 37 years, beginning in 1879, they shipped some 60,000 […]
Pacific Leaders Endorse ‘2050 Strategy of the Blue Pacific’
Pledge to Promote “Accountable” Development By Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti SUVA, Fiji (IDN) — The leaders of the Pacific gathering for the first time in three years endorsed the 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific at the 51st Pacific Island Forum (PIF) from July 11 to July 14. “The success of this strategy is down to two […]