Aid
UN DESA Assistant Secretary-General Bjørg Sandkjær (right) and Rashmi Banga, Chief of the Development Research Branch, brief journalists at UN Headquarters on the launch of the 2026 World Social Report, emphasizing the…
Artificial Intelligence
Woodlands in nearly every forested country face threats from climate-change-driven fires and deforestation pressures fueled by economic interests exploiting natural resources. Credit: Imran Schah/IPS By Stephanie Dowlen…
Uncategorized
Trump tore up the nuclear deal in 2018. Tehran kept it alive for another year, and that was not weakness. It was strategy. I’ve had this article sitting in storage waiting for the right moment to publish it. Tonight…
Germany
As the U.S. midterms approach, headlines regarding the Ukraine war are emerging at breakneck pace. But amid the noise and recurring outrage, the fundamental dilemma has not changed: how can the United States build up a…
East Asia
External
When Sanae Takaichi called China “an important neighbor” in her October 5 policy address, the line had to compete with a consumption tax cut on food, from 8 percent to 1 percent for two years. The tax cut won the…
Military
External
North Korea’s recent underwater launch of strategic cruise missiles underscores its accelerating drive to field a survivable, sea-based nuclear deterrent, even as significant engineering hurdles and platform limitations…
External
The key to properly implementing the major decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee lies in people, and we must be alert to “two-faced people” who harbor divided loyalties and whose words and deeds do not match…
Americas
External
On 23 January 2026 the United States published a National Defense Strategy promising an end to interventionism, endless wars, regime change and nation building. American force had removed Nicolás Maduro from power in…
Opinion
External
When Rudolph Diesel disappeared in 1913, many suspected foul play. The prime suspects were Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II and US oil man John D. Rockefeller. Both would have had reason to want the inventor of the diesel…
Aid
External
By External Source Oct 15 2026 (IPS) A safe home is more than a roof over our heads. It is the foundation of health, security, opportunity and human dignity. Yet for billions of people, that foundation remains out of…
Economics
The 2026 award revives a fifty-year objection: economics keeps rewarding theories that overlook the power of creditors. Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a…
Active Citizens
By Sania Farooqui BENGALURU, India, Oct 15 2026 (IPS) When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Zahra Nader was pursuing a doctorate in Women and Gender studies at York University in Canada. Nader had…
In Brief
External
Since the end of World War II, the United States has maintained hundreds of military installations abroad. While U.S. forces have faced some objections to their presence, many allies and partners have seen U.S. bases and…
National Politics
Investigative journalist Daniel Boguslaw uncovers collusion between law enforcement, Corporate America and academics to create new targets for the expanding US security state. Transcript Chris Hedges: In the wake of the…
This statement was originally published on cipesa.org on 5 October 2026. For four days, the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica26) brought together voices from across Africa and beyond to engage in discussions…
Economics
Just how resilient is the world economy really? Michael Roberts is an Economist in the City of London and a prolific blogger . Cross-posted from Michael Roberts’ blog Resilient – that is the message of the International…
Ethiopia
External
Biruk Mekonnen , the Ethiopian ambassador to the UK, responds to an editorial on the war in Tigray Your attention to Ethiopia is welcome, but your editorial ( 8 October ) presents an incomplete account of the crisis…
This statement was originally published on mediarightsagenda.org on 6 October 2026. A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has fixed a hearing for October 29, 2026, in a suit filed by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) against the…
Eritrea
External
Country has not had an election in 33 years and has withdrawn cooperation with UK on migrant returns Eritrea, the east African country embroiled in a row with the UK over its refusal to accept the return of rejected…
External
(Photo by: Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images) I don’t like double standards. I personally try to avoid them anywhere I can, which often puts me in some uncomfortable positions. Still, a kind of internal consistency is…
Activism
This election is not like any other. You’ve heard that before, and so have I. But after decades of “this presidential election is the most important election in your lifetime,” I have finally conceded that this midterm…
Biography books
External
Biographer who altered perceptions of Henry Morton Stanley, David Livingstone, Robert Baden-Powell and other figures active in Africa Thanks to the biographer and novelist Tim Jeal, who has died aged 81, we now know that…
Activism
“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” — attributed to Joseph Stalin If the Trump administration fails to stop Democrats from taking back Congress in next month’s midterms, as nearly…
Activism
“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” — attributed to Joseph Stalin If the Trump administration fails to stop Democrats from taking back Congress in next month’s midterms, as nearly…
AI
External
The next gains from AI in semiconductors will come less from models and more from making fab and test data reliable, connected and tied to engineering decisions. By Sriram Nithin Gopal Lanka Every few months there is a…
External
Our Q&A discussions are a lot of fun and, we hope, thought-provoking, and we’re grateful to all of our subscribers who submit their questions. If you missed any of our live shows, you can find the full streams here on…
Armed Conflicts
Impunity for past crimes has fueled decades of violence and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Credit: MONUSCO/Aubin Mukoni By Ida Sawyer WASHINGTON DC, Oct 15 2026 (IPS) It has been 30 years since…
Europe
External
When Donald Trump announced on 9 October that Vladimir Putin would release Russian diesel onto world markets, it read at first like another episode of an American president freelancing on Russia policy. The substance is…
AI
External
Artificial intelligence is becoming part of the infrastructure that powers healthcare, transportation, finance, manufacturing, and everyday digital services. As these systems grow more capable, they also process more…
Labor
Perhaps the two international agencies that would score lowest in popularity among Thais would be the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This is why many Thais have greeted with consternation the news that…
Active Citizens
External
Kenia Inés Hernández Montalván. Credit: @CDHVitoria By Clare Quirk JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Oct 15 2026 (IPS) Kenia Hernández is an Indigenous Mexican lawyer and human rights defender dedicated to advancing women’s…
China Doesn’t Grant Foreign Lawyers Bar Licenses—So What Did Katie Zacharia Do in Beijing? Katie Zacharia, President Donald Trump’s newly appointed White House Press Secretary, has claimed that she passed a bar exam…
Military
External
The US Navy’s bunker-busting Tomahawk push reflects growing recognition from the Iran war that striking deeply buried missile sites protected by robust air defenses requires long-range standoff weapons. But the missile…
Cogs of War
External
For as long as nuclear-armed, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles have existed, strategists and engineers have pursued a seductive idea: a shield effective enough to diminish —…
Global development
External
At least 320 people detained for ‘acts against nature’ after law criminalising homosexuality toughened, HRW reports Mass arrests, forced HIV testing and barriers to legal representation are part of an escalating…
Uncategorized
External
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Right Navi Pillay was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The choice was widely praised in the human rights community. Pillay headed the UN Commission of Inquiry investigating…
Commentary
External
In June 2026, I visited Khartoum, my hometown, for the first time since the war broke out in Sudan in April 2023. I left the city to seek safety with my family after the war spread into civilian neighborhoods. I never…
Commentary
External
The Chinese Ministry of Defense’s announcement of a “joint support and training center” at an airport in Ban Keun, Laos, on Sept. 29 drew attention to the People’s Liberation Army’s growing footprint in Southeast Asia…
Strait-of-hormuz
President Donald Trump, seeing the success of the U.S. Navy’s operation in the Strait of Hormuz in blocking most of Iran’s imports and oil exports while restoring some of the non-Iranian oil trade through the strait…
Larry C. Johnson
I am back in NYC at the invitation of the Russian delegation to the United Nations. Unlike my previous appearance before the full UN Security Council, this was an Arria session. An Arria-formula meeting is an informal…
External
By: Xiaochen Su Photo from East Asia Forum A young Japanese woman signs up for an international language exchange app, hoping for a buddy who can help her understand the Korean dramas she’s become addicted to. Soon, her…
Opinion
External
A recent ISEAS Fulcrum commentary by Hoang Thi Ha and Pham Thi Phuong Thao offers a useful mapping of how Chinese culture and economic opportunity are drawing in young Vietnamese. The authors are right that this…
Ukraine War
External
Russia’s drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s population and infrastructure continue to dominate coverage of the conflict. But on the ground, Ukraine has been making significant, if still limited, gains. In…
External
When some people discuss China’s trade today, they often see only import and export figures and overlook the real effects behind them. China is both a “super seller” and a “super buyer.” As a “super seller,” the effect…
Active Citizens
UN Secretary-General António Guterres opens the general debate of the General Assembly’s 81st session on 22 September 2026. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe By Andrew Firmin LONDON, Oct 14 2026 (IPS) At this year’s…
Daily Digest
Al- Hodeidah- Yemen – Having failed to defeat Yemen’s Armed Forces and lift their Red Sea blockade in support of Gaza, Tel Aviv began establishing a foothold in neighboring Somaliland as a means of preparing the stage…
AI (artificial intelligence)
External
Article in Atlantic claims The Blue Fighter was artificially generated, days after it won Caine prize for African writers The Zimbabwean writer Simbarashe Kundizeza has denied using AI to write a prize-winning short…
Nicaragua
External
US media and the human rights industry are portraying Jeffrey Jarquin as a heroic freedom fighter tortured and wrongly imprisoned by Nicaragua’s government. It turns out he was an opposition hooligan who destroyed a…