By Daniel Cash The writer is Associate Professor at Aston University and Senior Fellow at the UN University Centre for Policy Research NEW YORK | 30 January 2025 (IDN) — Africa is in a debt crisis. On the continent, interest payments on debt have risen by 132% over the past decade. Thirty-two African countries now […]
Musk’s Nazi Salute Is a Shameless Display of Antisemitism
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 30 January 2025 (IDN) — No riches can obscure the ugliest manifestation of antisemitism and bigotry that Elon Musk displayed with his Nazi salute following Trump’s inauguration. Musk can send a spaceship to Mars with his fortune, but no money or social platform will erase the well-deserved shame […]
What’s UNDOF? Why UN Peacekeepers Patrol the Israel-Syria Border
By Eileen Travers NEW YORK | 29 January 2025 (IDN) — More than 1,100 UN peacekeepers are currently deployed in the Golan, a demilitarised zone along the Israel-Syria border at what is a tense and dangerous time in the history of the region. But why are the Blue Helmets there? One of the UN’s longest-standing […]
Social Media and Politics in Southeast Asia
By Jan Servaes* BANGKOK, Thailand | 29 January 2025 (IDN) — Southeast Asia exhibits a wide range of political structures, cultural systems, depths of political engagement, and histories. Nearly four decades since the advent of the Internet in the region, the online population has grown substantially, hand in hand with increased government capacity to exert […]
The US Should Not Hold Provocative War Games Near China
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 28 January 2025 (IDN) — When Donald Trump was last elected as president his secretary of defence, Jim Mattis, declared a new era: “There has been a return of great power competition……great power competition- not terrorism- is now the primary focus of US security”. In the then new national […]
Russia’s Acclaimed University Celebrates Eventful 65 Years of Existence
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 28 January 2025 (IDN) — Russia’s People’s Friendship University in Moscow—widely known as the RUDN—an acronym derived from its Russian name (Российский Университет Дружбы Народов) celebrates its 65th Anniversary on 5 February 2025. Just three years after he opened the former Soviet Union (USSR) to the world with the […]
Can Hamas Redeem Itself?
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 27 January 2025 (IDN) — Now that the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is in place, with some ongoing hiccups, the question is, will the second phase follow, and what lesson, if any, has Hamas learned following 15 months of horrendous death and destruction? The current first phase […]
Kenya Deploys 200 More Police Officers to Haiti as Crisis Escalates
By Nicholas Mwangi* NAIROBI | 27 January 2025 (IDN) — Kenya has deployed another batch of 217 police officers to Haiti, adding to the 400 sent last year as part of a “multinational mission” aimed at addressing the country’s deepening crisis of gang violence. The intervention aims to protect critical infrastructure and conduct “targeted operations” […]
The Killing of General Cirimwami Escalates Conflict in DR Congo
Geopolitical scramble for the country’s vast mineral wealth By Kambale Musavuli* ACCRA, Ghana | 26 January 2025 (IDN) — Major General Peter Cirimwami, the military governor of North Kivu province, was shot near Kasengezi this past Thursday and later succumbed to his injuries. The incident occurred as he visited the frontline to assess the deteriorating […]
Global Education Must Integrate AI, Centred on Humanity
By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 26 January 2025 (IDN) — Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility and the right to education is enshrined in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations General Assembly, therefore, proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in […]