UN Academic Impact Talks to Students from Several Countries By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – COVID-19 pandemic has forced more than 1.5 billion students in 165 countries out of school, enforcing the global academic community to explore new ways of teaching and learning, including distance and online education, according to UNESCO estimates. This […]
UN Chief Calls for Addressing ‘unprecedented’ impact of coronavirus on Latin America and the Caribbean
By UN News NEW YORK (IDN) – As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world, Latin America and the Caribbean have become a “hotspot of the pandemic”, the UN chief said on July 8, releasing a new policy initiative on how best to recover in a region already embroiled in poverty, hunger, unemployment and inequality. […]
A Train Tour for Children of the World into 2030
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Grenada, Mr Denis G. Antoine, has authored an extraordinary children’s book: Get on Board, Dear Children of the World. He served as a Vice President of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly, marking the 70th anniversary […]
#CopingWithCOVID Webinar for Young People
Taking care of mental health while living in the new normal By UN News NEW YORK (IDN)— The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Ms Jayathma Wickramanayake, will host the 9th session of the United Nations’ #CopingWithCOVID webinar series on July 15 (livestream at bit.ly/CwCOVID9). During this session — focused on young people’s mental health […]
Bolton’s Book Fires Blanks at the Trump Administration
Viewpoint by Charlotte Munns Charlotte Munns is a London-based freelance writer who has specialized in English Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, New York LONDON (IDN) – John Bolton’s ‘The Room Where It Happened’ opens with a bizarre epigraph touting the British triumph over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo. To liken Bolton’s […]
Prelude to a China-India Strategic Showdown?
Viewpoint by PS Suryanarayana* This article first appeared on East Asia Forum on 5 July 2020. You might also like to read a related article: Cultural Wisdom Might Help Resolve India-China Conflict SINGAPORE (IDN) – Perpetual border tensions between Asia’s biggest neighbours turned ominous in the harsh Himalayan terrain of the Galwan Valley in the […]
Could Coronavirus Be Burning Out After 20 Percent of a Population Is Infected?
Viewpoint by Paul W. Franks and Joacim Rocklöv* LUND | Umeå, Sweden (IDN) – More than half a million people have died from COVID-19 globally. It is a major tragedy, but perhaps not on the scale some initially feared. And there are finally signs that the pandemic is shuddering in places, as if its engine is […]
Putin’s “Soft Authoritarian” Regime and Russian Freedom
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) – One of the founders of Russia’s Pussy Riot rock band, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, was interviewed at length on the BBC this past weekend. She has no time for President Vladimir Putin. When the group played inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour she was sent to jail for […]
‘Black Lives Matter’ Continues to Spur Changes in Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – As Americans explore the renaming of army bases, statues, streets, and schools that honour racist slave-holders or portray demeaning relationships between whites and Black, Brown and Latinx citizens, similar efforts are underway in Senegal and Liberia most recently. Goree, an island in Senegal linked closely […]
Murder of Popular Protest Singer Swells Opposition Against Ethiopian Leader
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Ethiopian protest singer and revered musician Hachalu Hundessa sang about love and unity, recalled his friend Amensisa Ifa, raising issues that many would not dare to bring up. He addressed issues of marginalization – capturing the struggles and frustrations of his Oromo people who faced […]