By Timothy Garton Ash* – The Guardian After Merkel, the incoming coalition will have to prove that democracy can meet Europe’s great challenges In Brussels last week, I found everyone waiting for Berlin. In Berlin, I found everyone electrified by an unexpectedly wide-open election. One thing, however, is clear: the...

By Amy Goodman* – Democracy Now! Guests: Deepa Kumar, author, activist and professor of media studies at Rutgers University on How Racism Fueled U.S. Wars Post-9/11 According to the Costs of War Project, the wars launched by the United States following 9/11 have killed an estimated 929,000 people in Afghanistan,...

By  Alfred W. McCoy* – TomDispatch A Debacle Marks the Decline of Washington’s World Leadership The collapse of the American project in Afghanistan may fade fast from the news here, but don’t be fooled. It couldn’t be more significant in ways few in this country can even begin to grasp....

UN  news The incoming President of the General Assembly says that hope is desperately needed for those billions around the world struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, devastation, and strife. In his first major interview, he told UN News that the General Assembly, as the UN’s most representative body, is ideally placed to give shape to that hope.   “The General Assembly is the only body which has the 193 countries represented and this body, when it speaks...

By Weeda Mehran* – The Conversation Despite what they insisted as they swept through Afghanistan, the Taliban appear to have remained largely the same since the days they ruled the roost in the 1990s. But Afghan society has changed tremendously since they were ousted by the US-led invasion in 2001....