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Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — Recent developments—such as the pandemic’s impact, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, its nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the release of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou—once again raise the question of whether the US remains the world’s sole superpower with its hegemony unchallenged. As is the wont in matters concerning the United States, analysts are divided on the subject, as they have been since the global financial crisis of 2008.
By Pattama Vilailert
BANGKOK(IDN) — Thailand’s famous tourist industry has been synonymous with its traditional massage parlours and treatment centres. But the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns are having a serious impact on the industry and may force foreign takeovers. The continuous lockdowns have impacted savagely on the spa and massage business.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on terror charges despite pleas from human rights watchdogs and other critics of Rwanda’s repressive government to lessen the judgement or cancel it.
Rusesabagina was credited with sheltering more than a thousand ethnic Tutsis during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and was a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. He boycotted the announcement of the verdict after calling the trial a “sham.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — The first Black African laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature has a precious gift for his place of birth. It’s a new book, his first novel in 50 years, scheduled to land on the 60th anniversary of Nigerian independence.
“I wanted this to be my present to the nation,” the 87-year-old Wole Soyinka told a reporter in a recent interview. “To the people who live here: both the governed and those who govern, the exploiters and the exploited.”
Viewpoint by Israel Rafalovich
BRUSSELS (IDN) — The EU and Asia are undergoing rapid changes in an increasingly globalised World. The Asian trade community is gripped with fear and Asia's economic growth will get to a slowdown because of the impact of coronavirus. The slowdown would be worse than the global financial crisis of 2008-09 and the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
BANGKOK (IDN) — The growing number and share of older persons in Asia and the Pacific represent success stories of declining fertility and increasing longevity; the result of advances in social and economic development. This demographic transition is taking place against the backdrop of the accelerating Fourth Industrial Revolution. But COVID-19, with its epicentre now in Asia and the Pacific, has exacerbated the suffering of older persons in vulnerable situations and demonstrated the fragility of this progress.
Interview with ProHumane Afrique International's Executive Director
MOSCOW (IDN) — Globally, violence against women and girls persists. Besides, there are all kinds of gender discrimination. Some governments are steadily making efforts to eradicate violence and discrimination using legislation, and supporting public platforms devoted to discussing these. In this interview with Kester Kenn Klomegah* of IDN-InDepthNews, Mrs. Baptista S. Gebu, Executive Director of ProHumane Afrique International, discusses the situation of women and girls in the Republic of Ghana in West Africa.
The writer, a scholar and practitioner, has taught at Yale, Brandeis, Mount Holyoke (where she received tenure), Georgetown, American and other universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad.
COLOMBO (IDN) — On September 17, New Fortress Energy (NFE), a U.S.-based energy infrastructure company, signed a momentous legal agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL). The signing apparently took place in the dead of the night, at 12.06 a.m., and the foreigner who came for the signing swiftly returned to the U.S. on a flight at 2 a.m.
Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf
This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
VIENNA (IDN) — After first suffering a seeming “brain snap” to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) some years back, at long last Australia has been promised a fleet of eight SSNs by the Biden administration under the newly minted and awkwardly named AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and United States) alliance against China.
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — When the United Nations hosted a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament on September 28, the annual event was characterized by one underlying fact: the participation for the first time of young climate activists who warned of an impending threat from a Climate-Nuclear nexus.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.