By Bernhard Schell CAIRO | 17 March 2024 (IDN) — “There are currently more Syrians in need of aid than any other time since the war began,” said Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “An entire generation has been born into war, knowing nothing but insecurity and deprivation, and facing shock […]
Is There a Way Out of Nuclear Stalemate?
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 16 March 2024 (IDN) — Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has entered its third year. President Vladimir Putin has been threatening the use of nuclear weapons. Republican Presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, doubled down his threat and appeared to invite Putin to invade any NATO member failing to meet […]
Papua New Guinea Ratifies CTBT, Advancing Treaty Universalisation in Pacific
NEW YORK | 16 March 2024 (IDN | CTBTO) — Papua New Guinea has become the 178th State to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). As a State Party to both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Treaty of Rarotonga, Papua New Guinea had already committed to fulfilling the core […]
Online Activism in China
By Jan Servaes BANGKOK| 15 March 2024 (IDN) —There are already more than 1 billion netizens in China, more than 3 times the population of the USA and almost one and a half times that of Europe. This means that about 20% of the world’s internet users, or almost 1 in 5, live in China. […]
Biden’s Balancing Act: Israel’s National Security vs The Palestinians’ Humanitarian Crisis
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 15 March 2024 (IDN) — In recent weeks, the Biden administration has found itself facing a serious dilemma as to how to balance its commitment to Israel’s national security along with the humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinians in Gaza. Whereas the United States provides military aid to Israel, […]
The Wealth of Nations and the Poverty of Theory
IMF, Sri Lanka’s Resource Curse, and Privatization of the Central Bank By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 14 March 2024 (IDN) — With the world distracted by kinetic wars in Ukraine and Gaza, a hybrid economic proxy war against the Global South and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for global connectivity is unfolding […]
Multilateral Development Banks Play Crucial Role in Financing Global Public Goods
By José Antonio Ocampo and Karla Daniela González, Columbia University This article was first published in the 2023/2024 UNDP Human Development Report – Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world –on 13 March 2024. NEW YORK | 14 March 2024 (IDN) — There is broad-based agreement among the United Nations and the Group […]
G20 Grows at a Steady Pace in the Fourth Quarter of 2023
By Jaya Ramachandran PARIS | 14 March 2024 (IDN)—The G20’s Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.7% quarter-on-quarter, slightly down from 0.8% in the previous quarter, according to OECD provisional estimates. G20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). It works to address major issues […]
‘The Patriarchy May Be Pushing Back, But So Are We’, UN Chief Tells CSW68
By UN News NEW YORK | 14 March 2024 (IDN) — Women’s rights are under attack, and governments must act to reverse that dangerous trend, the UN chief told at his annual town hall event with civil society activists on 13 March, as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) session continued its first […]
Are We Stumbling into World War III in Ukraine?
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 13 March 2024 (IDN) — President Biden began his State of the Union speech with an impassioned warning that failing to pass his 61 billion dollar weapons package for Ukraine “will put Ukraine at risk, Europe at risk, the free world at risk.” But […]