IMF, Sri Lanka’s Resource Curse, and Privatization of the Central Bank By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 14 March 2024 (IDN) — With the world distracted by kinetic wars in Ukraine and Gaza, a hybrid economic proxy war against the Global South and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for global connectivity is unfolding […]
Multilateral Development Banks Play Crucial Role in Financing Global Public Goods
By José Antonio Ocampo and Karla Daniela González, Columbia University This article was first published in the 2023/2024 UNDP Human Development Report – Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world –on 13 March 2024. NEW YORK | 14 March 2024 (IDN) — There is broad-based agreement among the United Nations and the Group […]
G20 Grows at a Steady Pace in the Fourth Quarter of 2023
By Jaya Ramachandran PARIS | 14 March 2024 (IDN)—The G20’s Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.7% quarter-on-quarter, slightly down from 0.8% in the previous quarter, according to OECD provisional estimates. G20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). It works to address major issues […]
‘The Patriarchy May Be Pushing Back, But So Are We’, UN Chief Tells CSW68
By UN News NEW YORK | 14 March 2024 (IDN) — Women’s rights are under attack, and governments must act to reverse that dangerous trend, the UN chief told at his annual town hall event with civil society activists on 13 March, as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) session continued its first […]
Are We Stumbling into World War III in Ukraine?
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 13 March 2024 (IDN) — President Biden began his State of the Union speech with an impassioned warning that failing to pass his 61 billion dollar weapons package for Ukraine “will put Ukraine at risk, Europe at risk, the free world at risk.” But […]
US Denies Visa to Ugandan Lawmaker Who Called for Castration of Gay Men
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 13 March 2024 (IDN) — Ugandan legislator Sarah Achieng Opendi, who called for gays to be castrated, has been denied a visa to attend a major UN meeting in New York next week. Opendi said she was “shocked” after the US embassy in Kampala rejected her […]
UN Commission Asked to Focus on “Horrific Violence” Against Women in Tigray War
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK | 12 March 2024 (IDN)— Julia Duncan-Cassell, Former Liberian Minister of Gender and President of the Brussels-based European External Programme with Africa (EPA), has highlighted the urgent need for action regarding the proliferation of conflict-related sexual violence in an Open Letter to the 68th annual Commission on the Status of […]
More Kidnappings of Nigerian Children, Fuelled by Hefty Ransoms
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 11 March 2024 (IDN) — Close to 300 schoolchildren in a quiet agrarian village have disappeared in a new round of kidnappings by armed bandits, despite campaign promises by President Bola Tinubu to tighten security and stop the kidnappings. Nigerian security forces say they’ve been searching […]
The US Continues its Pre-eminent Role as the World’s Biggest Arms Supplier
By Thalif Deen NEW YORK | 11 March 2024 (IDN) — The United States has continued to maintain its pre-eminent role as the world’s biggest single arms supplier, while Russia, a major military power involved in a devastating war with Ukraine, has suffered a decline in its arms exports. According to the latest report by […]
The First Europeans Reached Ukraine 1.4 Million Years Ago—New Research
By John Jansen, Czech Academy of Sciences* PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia | 11 March 2024 (IDN) — During warm periods in Earth’s history, known as interglacials, glaciers the size of continents pulled back to reveal new landscapes. These were new worlds for early humans to explore and exploit, and 1.4 million years ago this was Europe: a […]