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By Moumita Maji*
SANTINIKETAN, India (IDN) — Different units of Visva-Bharati University have come together since the onset of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, in an attempt to fight the virus and ensure the safety of the community with minimum expenses but maximum courage. The home-grown strategy developed is unique with an emphasis on a scientific approach that enables maximum penetration within and outside the campus.
By Aar Jay Persius
BERLIN (IDN) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed at their June 16 summit in Geneva the principle agreed on by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. They also decided to engage in a robust “strategic stability” dialogue to “lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures”.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — New troubles are facing Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, already struggling to rein in the kidnappings of Nigerian schoolchildren in the country’s Northwest. Now, a federal High Court has ordered the Government to pay $951 million to the Bayelsa State government, while another court has ordered the Federal Government to pay over $3.3 billion to Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, as a share of the revenue from crude oil sales.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Two anthems, one country. Such was the inspiration for President Nelson Mandela in 1994 to declare that both "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" (Lord bless Africa) and "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" (English: "The Call of South Africa")—the state anthem inherited from the previous apartheid government—would be the national anthems of the new South Africa.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — While Africa has moved to center stage as a Russian foreign policy priority, questions are being raised about the record of human rights abuses by Russian mercenaries in Chad and the Central African Republic, among other countries.
United Nations investigators are examining allegations of atrocities outlined in a report for the UN Security Council that was obtained by the New York Times.
Merkel and Macron Ready to Talk Despite EU Refusal
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — That bar, the Red Star, on the far side of eastern Europe is closed. So why is the Black Star on this side of the street still open, and even extending its drinking hours?
Once the Warsaw Pact closed shop there was no good or honest reason for keeping NATO going. The threat that NATO was created to deter disappeared when the Soviet Union collapsed.
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
The writer, Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Social and Medical Anthropologist, at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
COLOMBO (IDN) — On June 24, Poson Poya (full moon) day, one of the most sacred days in a Sri Lankan Buddhist’s calendar, the day that Buddhism arrived on the island centuries ago, the country was inexplicably locked down in a Covid-19 curfew.
By Jamshed Baruah
GENEVA (IDN) — Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for improving the delivery of healthcare and medicine worldwide, but only if ethics and human rights are put at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO's report, Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health, is the result of two years of consultations held by a panel of international experts appointed by WHO.
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) — Convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France, in partnership with youth and civil society, the Generation Equality Forum is taking place in Paris, from June 30 to July 2. The Forum will bring together governments, feminist leaders, youth, and change makers from every sector, to announce trailblazing gender equality investments, programmes, and policies. It will mark the beginning of a five-year action journey led by six Action Coalitions and a Compact on Women, Peace and Security, and Humanitarian Action.
By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja, Omar Abdi*
BANGKOK (IDN) — With health systems at a breaking point, hospitals at capacity and desperate family members searching for oxygen for loved ones, the devastating second wave of COVID-19 that has swept across South Asia has felt unreal. Official figures have indicated record-breaking daily coronavirus cases and deaths, not only in South Asia but across the entire Asia-Pacific region during the latest surge. As devastating as it has been, the truth is we may never know how many people have died during the pandemic.
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.