By Thalif Deen NEW YORK (IDN) — A head of state, who presided over an authoritarian regime in Southeast Asia, was once asked about rigged elections in his country. “I promised I will give you the right to vote,” he was quoted as saying, perhaps half-jokingly “But I did not say anything about counting those […]
Tajikistan: Young Girl Out to Save The Community from Pollution
By Sharofat Shafieva KHOROG, Tajikistan (IDN) — The city of Khorog is generally clean, but it has a problem with waste management. Residents leave their garbage on the streets and especially in public places. The central market is one of the places where there is a large garbage dump. “Passing by garbage is very unpleasant. […]
Solomon Islands: Geo-Political Battles Engulf the Pacific as Australia Sends Troops to Honiara
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — The first batch of Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrived in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara on November 26 to help quell rioting, after the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare requested Australia’s help under a security treaty the country signed with Canberra in 2017. Australian troops are back in the independent […]
Driving Nuclear Submarines Through IAEA Safeguards!
By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA (IDN) — Let me start with giving the “bottom line” of this assessment. While many well-meaning experts have written legal, policy and technical tomes on how to verify naval nuclear fuel and to convert such fuel from weapon-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU); the unfortunate reality remains that […]
Are We Heading for a Cold War with China?
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. In recent months, we have often heard that the return of the Cold War is imminent, this time with China. How great is this danger? Some developments point at a dangerous confrontation; others are completely different […]
Universities Need to Be More Accessible Instead of a Privilege
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — If we are going to create a better world in the post-pandemic era higher education (HE) systems need to be more flexible and accessible, and governments need to be made to understand that funding the public university sector is essential to creating more equitable and socially stable societies. This […]
What Xi-Biden Summit Means for India and the World
Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) — The text as well as the subtext of the three-hour-long virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden held on November 15-16 is certain to be debated and dissected long after the event fades from the headlines before there is any conclusive view […]
The High Stakes of the U.S.-Russia Confrontation over Ukraine
Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK (IDN) — A report in Covert Action Magazine from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine describes grave fears of a new offensive by Ukrainian government forces, after increased shelling, a drone strike by a Turkish-built drone and an attack on Staromaryevka, a […]
Key to Ending the Fighting in Kiev Is Ukraine Giving up Donbass
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — As Russia/Nato passions are stirring once again, we should wind the clock back to seven years ago when the Ukraine crisis began. What’s it all about? The demonstrators in the Maidan, the central square of the capital, Kiev, were motivated by the arguments over a trade agreement […]
US Secretary of State Blinken Finds ‘Vibrant Democracy’ In Violence-Stricken Nigeria
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A whiz-bang tour through Africa had some discordant notes for US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken who was treated to wide vistas of Chinese-built infrastructure as his motorcade zipped from airport to airport. In Nigeria, he zoomed past the China Chamber of Commerce in […]