By Tor Wennesland The following are extensive excerpts from the Briefing by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, on the Situation in the Middle East. UNITED NATIONS | 22 February 2024 (IDN) — As we approach 140 days of devastating war, there is still no end in sight. No end to […]
Kenyan Women Rally Against Gender-Based Violence
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 22 February 2024 (IDN) — Hundreds of women dressed in black gathered in Kenya’s capital at a vigil dubbed “Dark Valentine” to protest the rise in femicides in the country. More than 16 cases were reported by police and local media since the start of the […]
Is Nuclear Outer Space a Possible Reality or an Empty Threat?
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 21 February 2024 (IDN) — The growing fear of a nuclear weapon in outer space was perhaps never anticipated 65 years ago when the UN General Assembly routinely created a Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) back in 1959. The 102-member committee, described as one of […]
The Missing Nexus between Foreign Policy and Domestic Policy: Overseas Sri Lankans
By A.L.A. Azeez* COLOMBO | 21 February 2024 (IDN) — During my recent visit to Australia I took a keen interest in engaging with several young persons of Sri Lankan origin in different cities. They were among the second and third generation youths from Sri Lanka’s migrant communities resident in Down Under. For me, this […]
The World Appears to Be Getting Happier
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 20 February 2024 (IDN) — Can we be happier? It is difficult to be happy when there is war in Ukraine, in Gaza, Myanmar and the Sudan. According to a new map I saw this morning, there have been over 50,000 wars since counting began, overwhelmingly concentrated in Europe. […]
Gaza War: Biden Still Has the Chance to Prevent Genocide
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 20 February 2024 (IDN) — The cabinet of Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is filled with religious extremists who believe that Israel’s brutality in Gaza is at God’s command. According to the Book […]
Ending the Existential Risks of the Menace of Nuclear Weapons
By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA | 20 February 2024 (IDN) — Following the Trinity nuclear test detonation of 16 July 1945, nuclear scientist Leó Szilárd observed: “Almost without exception, all the creative physicists had misgivings about the use of the bomb” and further that “[President] Truman did not understand at all what was involved regarding nuclear […]
UN Meeting Agrees Actions for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN | 19 February 2024 (IDN) — While human migration continues to stir up emotions, the world’s migratory species that undertake astonishing journeys between ecosystems, often through air, land and water—increasingly damaged by unsustainable human activities—remain out of focus. The State of the World’s Migratory Species report—launched at the start of the […]
Dodging Biden’s Moral Collapse Is No Way to Defeat Trump
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 18 February 2024 (IDN) — For more than four months, President Biden has been the main enabler for Israel’s mass murder of Palestinian people in Gaza. Every day, hundreds of civilians are killed by U.S. weaponry and, increasingly, by hunger and disease. The cruelty and magnitude of the slaughter are […]
Is Thailand the “Most Unequal Semi-Democratic” State In SE Asia?
By Jan Servaes BANGKOK| 18 February 2024 (IDN) — On January 31, 2024, the Constitutional Court in Bangkok ordered the kingdom’s most popular political party to end its campaign to amend the country’s infamous defamation law – the lèse majesté law or Article 112 of the Criminal Code. Thailand has one of the strictest lèse […]