By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Not long ago, movies made in Hollywood filmed in major cities in Africa displayed an unapologetic ignorance of even minimal facts about the continent. Cities named Lagos, Nairobi or Johannesburg became “somewhere in Africa”, anti-colonial sentiments became a “coloured struggle”, and the continent became a […]
Historic City of Stone-Hewn Churches Re-Opens to Pilgrims Barred by War
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A World Heritage Site and Ethiopia’s holy city of Lalibela is welcoming pilgrims once again. Throngs of Ethiopians recently flooded the streets of the town caught up in the fighting between the government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate the birth […]
Preserve Right of Asylum, UN Refugee Agency Urges EU Council Presidencies
By UN News NEW YORK (IDN) — Amid record global displacement, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has urged European countries to prioritize the better protection of people fleeing war, conflict, and persecution. UNHCR made the appeal in recommendations to France, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), and the […]
UN Chief Urges End to Conflict in Ethiopia
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN) — The UN Secretary-General António Guterres is deeply concerned about the impact the conflict continues to have on civilians in Ethiopia. He said he was deeply saddened by reports that more than 50 civilians were killed and injured in an airstrike in northern Ethiopia, on January 7.
Five Nuclear Powers Urged to Turn ‘Nuke-Speak’ into Real Action to Prevent Nuclear War
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — Disarmament advocates working within the Global Council of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons have called on the five Nuclear-Weapon States Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to follow up the affirmation made by them in their Joint Statement of January 3, 2022, that […]
Sustainable Development Observer Issue 4 Focuses on Global Health Crisis
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — This fourth issue of Sustainable Development Observer focuses on the global health crisis that has been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and pharmaceutical industry’s greed—at the cost of peoples’ health. While the world’s media has gone berserk about a new “Omicron” variant of the COVID virus, the World Trade […]
Kazakhstan Might Turn Out to Be Russia’s Next Ukraine
Viewpoint by James M. Dorsey* SINGAPORE (IDN) – With Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s borders, it’s not only Ukrainians who worry about what President Vladimir Putin may have in store for them. It’s Kazakhs too. For now, Kazakhs don’t have to be immediately concerned about Russian troop movements. What unsettles them is years of Russian […]
UN Report Concerned About Hunger and Food Insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean
By Jaya Ramachandran ROME (IDN) — The rise in hunger and food insecurity levels that have been occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2015, were exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The region is now even further off-track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 2.1 to end hunger and achieve […]
Putin and Biden: Who Will Blink First?
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. After constant Cold War rhetoric and sabre-rattling, the presidents of the USA and Russia talk to each other about the Ukraine conflict and more generally about the security architecture in Europe. The EU is directly […]
Three African Countries Lose U.S. Trade Benefits Over Rights Violations
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — The Biden administration has cracked down on three African countries accused of serious rights violations, expelling them from AGOA, a duty-free trade program worth millions in benefits. The three countries—Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea—had been warned in November of the threatened action which affects imports and […]