By Kwame Buist ROME (IDN) – The United Nations is to involve millions of rural people in the 2021 Food Systems Summit as part of an ambitious public engagement process, in which indigenous communities, family farmers, rural women and youth are among those invited to take a seat at the table during Independent Dialogues to […]
Facebook News Ban Turns Attention to Tech Giants’ Impact on Journalism in Australia
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — The tech juggernaut Facebook’s shock decision to block all news feeds from Australian media outlets from February 18 in response to a proposed new Media Bargaining law, that will force social media giants to pay for news content that is posted on their platforms, has created fury among Australians […]
Mass Murders Threaten Colombia’s Peace Agreement
Viewpoint by Camilo Tamayo Gomez* BIRMINGHAM (IDN) – The murder of five students at a farm in Buga, in south-western Colombia, on January 24 highlights the fragility of the 2016 peace deal which brought to an end more than five decades of civil conflict between successive governments and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). […]
MYANMAR: The Complicated Politics & Geopolitics of the Coup
Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad* NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) — On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military — known as the Tatmadaw — invoked Article 417 of the 2008 constitution, dismissed State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and arrested her and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Condemnation of the coup was swift, although […]
President Biden Should Resurrect the Iran Nuclear Deal
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — General Colin Powell should know. He was chief of staff of the US military, and later secretary of state under President George W. Bush. When the Syrian civil war broke out and there was an effort in Congress and the media to persuade President Barack Obama to […]
Deportation of Africans Cancelled After Reports of Torture by the US Immigration Service
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A plane carrying Cameroonian, Angolan and Congolese asylum seekers due to take off from Alexandria, Louisiana, was cancelled with minutes to spare after advocacy groups published affidavits by detainees of torture by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The affidavits listed a host of violent […]
Ugandan Election Rights Violations Elicit Threat of European Union Sanctions
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | BRUSSELS (IDN) — As Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni bore down on rights groups and the opposition, the European Union (EU) Parliament responded with the threat of sanctions against Ugandan individuals and organizations they hold responsible for abuses during the recent general election. Museveni apparently sparked the […]
Chocolate Multinationals Collude with Mali’s Child Slavery Rings
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A federal class-action suit filed on behalf of eight Malian citizens against Nestle SA, Cargill, Hershey and Mars, Inc. among others for their alleged complicity in the trafficking and forced labour of African children, is now under review by the US Supreme Court. The plaintiffs […]
House Impeachment Manager Joe Neguse Is First Eritrean-American In US Congress
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse , one of the standout speakers at the impeachment trial of ex-president Donald J. Trump, got raves from news pundits, saying a new national political star had been born. He credits his parents with the values that propelled him into a […]
Children Experiencing Severe Harm in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS | NEW YORK (IDN) — A United Nations agency had drawn attention to the dire situation of children in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where fighting continues between Government troops and regional forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). As more supplies and emergency personnel reach the area, “an incomplete but troubling […]