By J C Suresh WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration’s latest missile strikes in response to Syrian chemical weapons use is not embedded within a broader U.S. strategy to deter further chemical weapons use, protect Syrian civilians caught in the horrible Syrian civil war, and bring a political resolution to the seven-year misery of […]
UN Agency Adopts Climate Change Strategy for Shipping
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – More than 100 member states of the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) have adopted an initial strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping and, as a matter of urgency, phasing them out. The plan adopted by IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) during its […]
Campaign For Moving ‘Nuclear Weapons Money’ to Boost Peace
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – While governments meet in New York for the first ever United Nations High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament from May 14-16, 2018 campaigners for ‘zero nuclear weapons’ will be busy counting one million specially designed notes each of $1 million value, adding up to $1 trillion. The amount of […]
Donors Spend Less on Refugees, More on Poorest Countries
By Rita Joshi PARIS (IDN) – Foreign aid from 30 opulent nations, designated as “official donors”, totalled USD 146.6 billion in 2017, signifying a small decrease of 0.6% from the previous year in real terms because they spent less money on refugees hosted by them. But countries most in need of aid received more funds. […]
Reflection on Today’s World and Our Era
Viewpoint by Michele Nobile* The author wrote this as a reaction to the article by Roberto Savio entitled ‘Ten Reflections on the Crisis‘ which was published by IDN on 8 April 2018. – The Editor ROME (IDN) – The reflections of Roberto Savio touch problems which have roots that are not recent and have become […]
Lula da Silva – Condemned by the Courts, Absolved by History
Viewpoint by Boaventura de Sousa Santos* COIMBRA, Portugal (IDN) – The Lula da Silva case blatantly shows that something is rotten in the Brazilian judicial system. It brings to the fore procedures and practices that are incompatible with the basic principles and guarantees of democracy and the rule of law, in a way that needs to […]
Ganga Initiative Brings Culture Into New Asian Trade Routes
By Kalinga Seneviratne This article is the 23rd in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. BANGKOK (IDN) – A recent conference at Thammasat University in Bangkok brought together Indian and Southeast Asian scholars to discuss re-building cultural links along two major rivers in Asia – the Ganges […]
Sending Brazil’s Lula To Jail Is Absurd
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – President Barack Obama said that the then president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, was “the most popular president on earth”. Now, while fighting for a new term in office, he has been brought low, imprisoned for 12 years for corruption. He is still the most […]
A Journalist Joins the Presidential Race in Nigeria
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | LAGOS (IDN) – Next year’s race for the presidency in Nigeria just got a lot more interesting as a crusading journalist – an upstart known for exposing the millions and billions stolen by a national “loot-ocracy” – announced his candidacy for the nation’s top job. As […]
Trade War, Skripal, Arsenic and Old Lace
Viewpoint by Michele Nobile* ROME (IDN) – Like the rest of humanity, I have no way of identifying the instigator of the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. But I venture some reasoning, just to clear the field of fantasies and focus on real problems. It is true that […]