Human Rights

Myanmar's street protesters need the world's help to restore democracy

By Vasuki Shastry — The Guardian

By Vasuki Shastry* – The Guardian Sanctions against the coup plotters aren’t enough – the US, China and south-east Asian nations should collaborate to help bring about change Four weeks after he deposed Myanmar’s democratically elected government, General Min Aung Hlaing must be…

9 March 2021 · 5 min read

Civil rights

Prioritise Pandemic Relief, Recovery: No Time for Debt Buybacks

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram (*) SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 9 2021 (IPS) – Developing country governments are being wrongly advised to use their modest fiscal resources to pay down accumulated debt instead of strengthening pandemic relief and recovery. Thus…

9 Mar 2021 · 6 min read

Civil rights

Why Green Growth and Climate Action Fall Short Without Addressing Gender Inequality

By Frank Rijsberman, Ingvild Solvang y Bertha Wakisa Chiudza

Por Frank Rijsberman, Ingvild Solvang y Bertha Wakisa Chiudza (*) International Women’s Day, 2021 SEOUL, Republic of Korea, Mar 8 2021 (IPS) – As the global effort to address climate change has strengthened over the last few years, so has the realization that rising temperatures…

8 Mar 2021 · 7 min read

Armed conflicts

Norway must hold failed regime accountable

By Anders Breidlid and Tomm Kristiansen

By Anders Breidlid and Tomm Kristiansen (*) Norway is a new member of the UN Security Council from January 1 2021 and will, according to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “use the experience of decades of work for peace and reconciliation to be a bridge builder and seek…

8 Mar 2021 · 5 min read

Elections

'The police just shot': the terror inflicted on Myanmar's protesters

A reporter in Yangon and Rebecca Ratcliffe* – The Guardian Witnesses shaken by brutality of security forces but remain resolute in fighting military coup Fri 5 Mar 2021 – Early on Wednesday morning, the protests building in North Okkalapa, in Yangon, Myanmar, seemed…

5 Mar 2021 · 5 min read

Civil rights

Why Big Pharma Shouldn’t Have Any Control Over COVID-19 Vaccines

By Sonali Kolhatkar — Independent Media Institute

By Sonali Kolhatkar* – Independent Media Institute While a public desperate for protection against COVID-19 is quick to shame “vaccine hunters,” the real culprits are the companies refusing to share their publicly funded intellectual property and the governments allowing them to…

5 Mar 2021 · 7 min read

authoritarianism

Relief in EPP group, as Orbán's party finally leaves

Analysis, by Eszter Zalan – EUobserver’ Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday (3 March) announced his Fidesz party’s MEPs are leaving their centre-right faction in the European Parliament, marking a major breaking point in the more than…

4 Mar 2021 · 4 min read

Armed conflicts

Trump & Biden’s Secret Bombing Wars

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. Davies (*) – Countercurrents On February 25th, President Biden ordered U.S. air forces to drop seven 500-pound bombs on Iraqi forces in Syria, reportedly killing 22 people.

4 Mar 2021 · 10 min read

Democracy

Gorbachev turned 90. Andrey Grachev, his ex-adviser and ex-spokesperson, unveils his dreams

By Cecilia Capanna

Mikhail Gorbachev’s dreams, hopes and difficulties revealed by Andrey Grachev in an interview on the occasion of the 90th birthday of the last President of the Soviet Union. Michail Gorbachev, President of the USSR from 1985 to 1991 By Cecilia Capanna Mikhail Gorbachev is…

3 Mar 2021 · 11 min read

Human Rights

The ‘free world’ keeps shrinking

By Ishaan Tharoor — The Washington Post

By Ishaan Tharoor* – The Washington Post Three-quarters of the people on earth live in countries where freedom is declining. That’s one of the grim takeaways in an annual report produced by Freedom House, the Washington-based pro-democracy think tank and watchdog. This year’s…

3 Mar 2021 · 5 min read