By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 10 April 2024 (IDN) — Netanyahu is writing and directing Israel’s darkest chapter. Each day he remains in power, he is preventing an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, dangerously eroding its moral standing while making the country a pariah state that lives by the sword. Since Hamas’ savagery […]
New Militarism: Biden Is Doing the Very Things He Criticized During His Campaign
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 9 April 2024 (IDN) — “Diplomacy is back”, President Joe Biden said shortly after becoming president. But then, in the middle of a delicate diplomatic dance with Iran, he went and bombed a small, politically inconsequential, Iranian surrogate in Syria in retaliation for the killing of one American soldier. […]
Agonizing over Europe’s Defence: Some Narratives are Getting Ahead of the Facts
By Herbert Wulf* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN, Germany | 9 April 2024 (IDN) — Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February two years ago was a shock to European security policy. It did not come entirely out of the blue, however, because Russia […]
Senegal’s New President Should Begin a Strategic Reset of Relations with France
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 09 April 2024 (IDN) —The words of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye were honey to taste. Following the bitter ending of the 12-year rule of Macky Sall, highlighted by the widespread belief that France is at the heart […]
Kenyan Doctors’ Strike Enters Third Week As Gov’t Stonewalls Talks
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 8 April 2024 (IDN) — Kenya’s health sector, underfunded and understaffed, is closed for business until the government makes good on salary arrears and agrees to hire badly needed trainee doctors as promised to the union. The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) also […]
New Leadership in Senegal Inspires a Continent Seeking Change
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 8 April 2024 (IDN) — A firebrand politician and a young tax inspector opposed to French colonialism have taken the government of Senegal by storm, say journalists inspired by the electoral victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, and Ousmane Sonko, 49, on a platform of major […]
Indian Ocean “Zone of Peace” Sinking in Troubled Waters
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS | 8 April 2024 (IDN) — Just after a group of mercenaries tried to unsuccessfully oust the government of the Maldives in 1979, I asked a Maldivian diplomat, using a military jargon, about the strength of his country’s “standing army”. “Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, and remarked […]
A Flame of Remembrance for Victims of the Rwandan Genocide
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 7 April 2024 (IDN) — Rwandans are marking the 30th anniversary of a genocide that took the lives of an estimated 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis over 100 days between April and June 1994. President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame laid wreaths at the Kigali […]
Are Voluntary National Reviews Helping Achieve UN’s Development Goals?
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 7 April 2024 (IDN) — What do jargons like “whole of government” or “whole of the society” approach or really mean when we talk about implementing the SDGs? What about “multi stakeholders’ engagement”? These are some key questions that UN policymakers should ask when they encourage member states to […]
WHO Urges Additional Funds to Ensure Primary Health Care in Poor Countries
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | 6 April 2024 (IDN) — The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, has launched “My health, my right” campaign to champion the right to health of everyone, everywhere—urging an additional US$ 200–328 billion a year globally, to scale up primary health care in low- and middle-income countries. Because of necessary […]