Amid structural, financial and liturgical reform at the Vatican, Pope Francis preached his yearly address to the Roman Curia, urging humility among the top cardinals as they work to reconcile tradition with the demands of the present. Pope Francis urged Vatican cardinals, bishops and bureaucrats […]
Recent killing of Priyantha Kumara, the Sri Lankan general manager of a garment factory in Sialkot city of Pakistan has again brought focus on infamous blasphemy laws of Pakistan. The charred body of a factory manager who was lynched by a mob in Pakistan for […]
In a surprise move, Pakistan, one of the 110 countries invited to U.S. President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy, skipped the event. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs offered an oblique statement, thanking the administration for the invitation, and saying that it looked forward to engaging […]
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban didn’t take the Afghan capital — they were invited, says the man who issued the invitation. In an Associated Press interview, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered some of the first insights into the secret and sudden departure of […]
India and Russia have blocked a proposal that would have allowed the UN Security Council to deliberate on climate-related issues. What is the UNSC’s role in such issues, and why was the proposal opposed? A contentious proposal to authorise the UN Security Council to deliberate […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s India visit has brought back the issue of ‘strategic balance’ in the Indian foreign policy narrative. Not many analysts doubt the independent nature of India’s foreign policy. Still, there has been an impression that in the changing geopolitical dynamics, New Delhi and […]
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to host a virtual summit this week for leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector to discuss the renewal of democracy. We can expect to see plenty of worthy yet predictable issues discussed: the threat of foreign […]
No Biden Administration officials will attend China’s Winter Olympics in February, the White House announced Monday, in a rebuke to Beijing over China’s use of forced labor and concentration camps to suppress a Muslim ethnic minority in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. “U.S. diplomatic […]
A week has gone by since COP 26 with 197 Parties ended in the Scottish city of Glasgow on extended time last Saturday. Climate change which covers wide array of issues affecting all living beings engaged the people around the world for COP 26 in […]
The global Covid-19 pandemic should be teaching people that security does not come from a country's possession of nuclear weapons, but from working together to promote the common good with greater access to health care, a reduction of poverty and care for the environment, the […]
Press and Media are the Fourth Pillar of Democracy. The term Fourth Estate or fourth power refers to the press and news media both in explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues. Though it is not formally recognized as a part […]
The two-week global conference ended with a historic agreement between the 200 national delegations who agreed to, for the first time, to target fossil fuels as a key driver of global warming in a bid to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero […]
Former President Obama made an appearance at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow where he praised the global community for making “meaningful progress” on tackling the climate crisis, while warning “we are nowhere near where we need to be yet.” Obama, whose administration helped […]
The announcement on November 2nd, 2021 by 105 countries, representing two thirds of the global economy, joining a U.S. and E.U.-led coalition to cut up to 40% of methane emissions by 2030 has been the most positive outcome from the ongoing Climate Summit from Glasgow. […]
Indian-origin Canadian politician Anita Anand was appointed as the country’s new Defence Minister in a Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on October 26th, over a month after his Liberal Party returned to power in the snap polls and amid calls for major military […]
For two weeks in early November, the nations of the world will gather in Glasgow, Scotland, to negotiate updates to the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, the landmark agreement in which more than 190 countries pledged to limit greenhouse gas emissions. With temperatures rising and extreme […]
With the Taliban back in power in Afghanistan, Pakistan may have come closer to achieving its long-sought “strategic depth” with respect to its western neighbor, with a Pakistan-friendly government in Kabul. But the Taliban’s victory is also seriously testing Pakistan’s long fraught bilateral relationship with […]
India’s economy is expected to grow by 8.3 per cent this fiscal year, according to the World Bank, making it the second-fastest-growing major economy. The Bank’s Regional Economic Update released on Thursday said that after the “deadly second wave” of Covid-19 in India “the pace […]
(Reuters) - Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, who braved the wrath of the leaders of the Philippines and Russia to expose corruption and misrule, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in an endorsement of free speech under fire worldwide. The two were awarded […]
When Max Pensky hosted courageous Philippine journalist Maria Ressa for a talk as part of Binghamton University's Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP), little did he know that he would wake up the next day to find out that Ressa had just been […]
A massive investigation from more than 600 journalists across the globe sheds new light into the shadowy world of offshore banking and the high-powered elites who use the system to their benefit. The exposé, dubbed the "Pandora Papers," shows how the world's wealthy hide their […]
Japan’s former foreign minister Fumio Kishida, a longtime stalwart of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is all set to become the country’s next prime minister after he was elected party president on Wednesday, last week. Kishida, 64, beat the head of Japan’s COVID-19 vaccination […]
Germany’s election on Sept. 26 ended without a clear winner, but one thing at least is certain: Angela Merkel will soon exit the political stage she has occupied for the past 16 years, kick starting much debate about her legacy for Germany, and for the […]
Though the United States and other countries talk of reforms in the United Nations, the world body’s reform movement has been at a snail’s pace. India has been in quest of a place at the UN high table for a long. The issue has arisen […]
India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar earlier this week tweeted about his separate meetings with his Australian and French counterparts. That hadn’t been the plan—there was supposed to be a meeting of their trilateral on the U.N. General Assembly sidelines. However, that meeting was an […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders from US, Australia and Japan attended the first in-person summit of Quad leaders and said that the four democracies would act as a “force for global good” and ensure peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific as well as the […]
United Nations– India and its three allies in the quest for Security Council reform have called for a determined push for the adoption of a text for conducting the negotiations and to set a time-frame for the changes.The foreign ministers of the G4 group “expressed […]
When the Taliban captured power back in 1996, one of its first political acts was to hang the ousted Afghan President Mohammed Najibullah in Ariana Square in Kabul. The newly-installed government played a triple role: judge, jury and hangman, all three rolled into one. Fast […]
Germany's center-left Social Democrats won the biggest share of the vote in a national election Sunday, narrowly beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel 's center-right Union bloc in a closely fought race that will determine who succeeds the long-time leader at the helm of Europe's biggest […]
“We need to re-establish a functional relationship between the two powers,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Warning of a potential new Cold War, the head of the United Nations implored China and the United States to repair their “completely dysfunctional” relationship before problems between the two […]
Pressure keeps building on increasingly anxious world leaders to ratchet up efforts to fight climate change. There’s more of it coming this week in one of the highest-profile forums of all — the United Nations. For the second time in four days, this time out […]
For centuries, oceans were the chessboard on which empires battled for dominance. But in the nuclear age, air power and missile systems dominated our worries about security, and for the United States, the economy was largely driven by domestic production, with trucking and railways that […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the United States from September 23 to 25 to participate in the Quad Summit and to address the United Nations General Assembly, reports here suggested. Modi, who will be making only his second visit abroad since the start of […]
The US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry congratulated India for its ambitious climate targets and said that India has demonstrated that economic development and clean energy can go hand-in hand. The US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry on Monday, September 13th […]
Twenty years to the day after 9/11 terror attacks, Americans nationwide and the world reflected on the events that forever changed their country. Twenty years to the day after a pair of hijacked airliners destroyed the World Trade Center towers and another plane punched a […]
In the last 2 decades, US poured money and resources into protecting the U.S. from another terrorist attack, even as the nature of that threat continuously evolved. In the fall of 2001, Aaron Zebley was a 31-year-old FBI agent in New York. He had just […]
Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, call on the world population – “whatever their beliefs or worldview” – to “listen to the cry of the Earth and of people who are poor.” Global Christian leaders have joined forces to […]
The United Nations has condemned the Taliban for what its "increasingly violent response" to dissent, weeks after the group's rapid takeover of Afghanistan. Demonstrations have taken place across Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul on 15 August, demanding respect for women's rights and greater freedoms. […]
The 2021 high-level commemoration of the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation, organized ahead of the opening of the seventy-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly, provided an opportunity to discuss Southern solidarity in support of a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable future while […]
Highlighting the importance of the UN peacekeeping missions, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi Sept. 8th informed the member states that India is the largest troop contributor to the peacekeeping operations since their inception. Addressing the UNSC Open Debate on “UN Peacekeeping […]
That the Taliban is back is power in Afghanistan on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 is immensely painful to the United States, NATO, and many Afghans. In 2001, the U.S. overthrew the Taliban regime to defeat al-Qaida, a goal it largely accomplished. But the U.S. […]
Twenty years later, Jack Grandcolas still remembers waking up at 7:03 that morning. He looked at the clock, then out the window where an image in the sky caught his eye — a fleeting vision that looked like an angel ascending. He didn’t know it […]
Yoshihide Suga is bowing out as prime minister of Japan, amid increasing anger over his government’s handling of COVID-19 in the wake of the Tokyo Olympics. He announced Friday that he will not seek re-election as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) at the […]
“What happened in Vietnam?” - we had been hearing the question on different platforms for so many years. On U.S. withdrawal from South Vietnam in 1975, many political analysts said China or the Russians would take it over; even now, we are blaming it as […]
The last US military planes have left Afghanistan, Commander of US Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie announced Monday, August 30th at the Pentagon. The US departure marks the end of a fraught, chaotic and bloody exit from the United States' longest war."I'm here to announce the completion […]
The COVID-19 pandemic killed millions, infected hundreds of millions, and laid bare the deep vulnerabilities and inequalities of our interconnected world. The accompanying economic crash was the worst since the Great Depression, with the International Monetary Fund estimating that it will cost over $22 trillion […]
President Biden said on Tuesday that this week that he still expects to meet the August 31st deadline to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. But that he was working with the Pentagon to develop contingency plans in the event that operations need to be extended. […]
Kamala Harris' first trip to Asia as vice president was meant to signal the United States' staunch commitment to partners. They are in the Indo-Pacific region in the face of a rising China. Instead, Harris' three-day stop in Singapore quickly turned into a platform for […]
The Taliban arose in 1994 amid the turmoil that followed the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. The group was rooted in rural areas of Kandahar province, in the country’s ethnic-Pashtun heartland in the south. It was surprising, because until taking up arms […]
Where did the Taliban find funds to sustain themselves over a two-decade war with the US? With the Americans gone and the Afghan opposition collapsed, what military assets do the Taliban have? In returning to power in Kabul over the weekend, the Taliban demonstrated both […]
“Many of these bureaucrats in Washington who are the true architects of these infamous wars have little in common with the folks who are sent to these godforsaken places to fight these unseen enemies. They are part of the elite society, mostly come with Ivy […]
India has called upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) not to “take a selective, tactical or complacent view” of terrorism saying groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Haqqani Network still operate with impunity. It said some countries continue to “undermine or subvert our […]
The final collapse of the 20-year western mission to Afghanistan took only a single day as Taliban gunmen entered the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, August 15th while President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and the US and other coalition countries abandoned their embassies in panic. […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the first Indian PM to chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on maritime security, which saw unprecedented high-level participation from other countries On August 9th. India decided to focus on all aspects of maritime security […]
The United States is willing to work with the Taliban if they respect “basic rights” of its people - of women and girls, specifically - and do not harbor terrorists, secretary of state Antony Blinken said in an interview to CNN on Sunday. Missing from […]
The presence of Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at the inauguration of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran this week might simply be a matter of protocol and an unremarkable expression of mutual goodwill. But as Afghanistan descends into crisis following the withdrawal of U.S. […]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called upon wealthy nations to halt their plans for administering booster doses till at least end of September in order to ensure enough vaccine availability for the less developed and poor nations. The agency said the halt should last […]
“It is a singular honor for us to be presiding over the Security Council the same month when we are celebrating our 75th Independence Day,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti said here on August 1st. India on Sunday assumed the […]
Six months after seizing power from the elected government, Myanmar's military leader on Sunday, August 1st declared himself prime minister and said he would lead the country under the extended state of emergency until elections are held in about two years. "We must create conditions […]
It’s not often that a line-item foreign policy budget decision can be low-cost, high-impact, and send positive ripple effects throughout the international system. Fortunately, the Biden administration is currently facing just such an option, nested within debates over UN reform and the UN Development System. […]
From an international humanitarian perspective, the first half of 2021 has been disappointing. We’re no further ahead in ending the conflict in Syria and Yemen. From the fledgling democracy that it had become, Myanmar has descended into what most of its people had hoped was […]
President Joe Biden has decided to formally conclude the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, another step toward winding down the two prolonged military engagements that began in the years following the September 11 terror attacks. Biden told reporters in […]
The theories vary widely in credibility and likelihood, but no one is really sure how COVID-19 became the world’s worst health crisis. But researchers should dig deeper into the origin of the virus that has caused the world pandemic to prepare for future viral outbreaks, […]
Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on Friday, July 16th while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan. As per reports, he was killed while on assignment in southern Afghanistan after coming under fire […]
The White House is publicly blaming China for an attack on Microsoft's Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers worldwide, allowing hackers to gain access to troves of sensitive data. Separately, the Department of Justice announced Monday that a federal grand […]
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 19 2021 (IPS) - With Henrietta Fore’s decision last week to step down as UNICEF Executive Director, her successor is most likely to be another American since that post has been held– uninterruptedly — by US nationals for almost 74 years, an […]
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar presented the Indian view at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. He said the world is against the ‘seizure of power by violence and force’ and wouldn’t ‘legitimize such actions’ Earlier, and he called on members of the […]
Nearly one tenth of the global population, between 720 million people and 811 million, were undernourished last year, according to a UN report. Global hunger levels have skyrocketed because of conflict, climate change and the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; and one in five […]
President Joe Biden on Monday called protests in Cuba “remarkable” and a “clarion call for freedom,” praising thousands of Cubans who took the streets to protest food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis — one of the island’s biggest antigovernment demonstrations in recent […]
Kurt Campbell, White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, gave a briefing and participated in a conversation with the Asia Society Tuesday morning that provided the clearest picture yet of the Biden administration’s approach to Asia. In a wide-ranging discussion with Asia Society President and CEO […]
A hundred years ago, sometime in July 1921, 13 young men gathered in the Chinese city of Shanghai to found a tiny political grouping: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Today that party rules a quarter of humanity, presiding over the second biggest economy and second-best […]
The United States could complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan within days, CNN quoting US officials reported last week. “This makes the current week a critical one for President Joe Biden's campaign to end America's longest war even as US military officials warn the country […]
EbrahimRaisi ,Iran’s president-elect staked out a hard-line position in his first remarks since his landslide election victory, rejecting the possibility of meeting with President Joe Biden or negotiating Tehran’s ballistic missile program and support of regional militias. The comments by EbrahimRaisi offered a blunt preview […]
The UN General Assembly has appointed Antonio Guterres to a second term as the Secretary General to lead the world body through the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the fight against global warming, which he has made his priority. After being sworn-in to his […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden spent his first trip overseas highlighting a sharp break from his disruptive predecessor, selling that the United States was once more a reliable ally with a steady hand at the wheel. European allies welcomed the pitch — and even […]
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first face-to-face meetings on June 16, 2021 at a historic summit in Geneva.At the end of their talks,first such meeting since 2018, both the leaders praised their talks, but have made little concrete progress.Biden […]
Leaders of the world's largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan Saturday for the developing world to compete with China’s global initiatives, but there was no immediate consensus on how forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses. Citing China for its forced labor practices […]
As U.S. President Joe Biden returned from his Europe tour, seeking to rally the leading democracies, a looming question is the future role of NATO. As the alliance contemplates the conclusion to its 20-year operation in Afghanistan, it confronts serious questions about its roles and […]
The long and divisive reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, the dominant Israeli Prime Minister who led the nation for a long dozen years, officially ended, as the country’s Parliament gave its vote of confidence to a precarious coalition government stitched together by widely disparate anti-Netanyahu forces. […]
India's Deputy Ambassador to United Nations Nagaraj Naidu will be the Chef de Cabinet of the President-elect of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Abdulla Shahid. This is for the first time that an Indian diplomat has been given this post, […]
On the occasion of World Environment Day, 5 June 2021, IPS features and opinion editorials focusing on Environment and Youth. Theunn reproduces the voices by youth at the UN Youth Summit on Environment Following almost two weeks of talks on issues such as climate change, […]
President Biden embarks this week on the first foreign trip of his presidency to attend a series of European summits. He’ll attend the meeting of the Group of Seven nations (G-7) in Britain. Then, he’ll head to a NATO summit in Brussels. President Biden embarks […]
President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will donate 75% of its unused COVID-19 vaccines to the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program, acting as more Americans have been vaccinated and global inequities have become more glaring. President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will […]
The upcoming G7 Summit in Cornwall, UK from June 11 to 13 is perhaps the first international event, in the backdrop of the continuing Covid pandemic, when the leaders from the worlds wealthiest countries — the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada […]
China is hosting foreign ministers from the 10 ASEAN countries on Monday and Tuesday, with Beijing pushing for closer economic cooperation and aligning COVID-19 recovery efforts even as it looks to push back against the recent regional outreach of the Quad grouping. Chinese officials have […]
While Bennett and his new partners, headed by opposition leader YairLapid, still face some obstacles, the sides appeared to be serious about reaching a deal and ending the deadlock that has plunged the country into four elections in the past two years. With the announcement […]
India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has offered India's support to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his re-election during a meeting in New York at which they discussed a range of issues from Covid-19 vaccines to terrorism.In a tweet after the meeting May 25, Jaishankar […]
Amid calls for a fresh probe into the origins of Covid-19, a new study has claimed that Chinese scientists created the virus in a laboratory in Wuhan and then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — In April, the Biden administration announced plans to share millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world by the end of June. Five weeks later, nations around the globe are still waiting — with growing impatience — to learn where the vaccines […]
China’s ruling Communist Party has said, it will ease birth limits to allow all couples to have three children instead of two in hopes of slowing the rapid aging of its population, which is adding to strains on the economy and society.The ruling party has […]
American University experts are available for commentary and analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the rise of antisemitism in the United States and Europe. Experts available for comments include: Dan Arbell, scholar-in-residence in the Dept. of History, is a 25-year veteran of the Israeli Foreign Service, […]
A face to face meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putinhas been planned in Geneva, Switzerland The summit would cover a "full range of pressing issues" as the US seeks to "restore predictability and stability" to its Russian relations. The White House […]
My second son Stephen Palathingal graduated from the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, a couple of days ago. He has accepted a job offer with Capital One in their software engineering department, where he did his internship last year. His elder […]
The US health secretary has urged the World Health Organization to ensure the next phase of investigation into Covid-19's origins is "transparent".Speaking to a ministerial-level WHO meeting, Xavier Becerra said international experts should be allowed to evaluate the source of coronavirus.US media reports suggest growing […]
The current crisis between Israelis and Palestinians in East Jerusalem, between Arabs and Jews in cities inside Israel, and between Israel and Hamasunravelling has its roots in the political dysfunction of both Israel’s party system and the Palestinian national movement’s decayed one-party dictatorship. The current […]
Hundreds of Hindu Americans stood in solidarity with the Jewish community, showing their steadfast support to Israel against the Hamas terror attack during an event jointly organized by: Stand with Israel and US India Friendship Council on May 17th. A peaceful vigil led Dr. Bharat […]
UNITED NATIONS, May 14 2021 (IPS) - The UN Security Council (UNSC), the most powerful political body at the United Nations, has largely remained silent or ineffective in resolving one of the longstanding military conflicts in the Middle East involving Israelis and Palestinians. But, at […]
Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as Mayor of London for a second term after beating his closest rival with a vote share of 55.2 per cent versus 44.8 per cent in an election that was closer than expected. Labor Party candidate Khan, 51, defeated his […]
President joe Biden has supported the waiver proposal, drafted by India and South Africa, winning praise from the World Health Organization which called it “a monumental moment.” It seems patently obvious. But for the first time U.S. President Joe Biden has said he supports lifting […]
A sobering and fascinating study on war in the modern era, Unrestricted Warfare carefully explores strategies that militarily and politically disadvantaged nations might take in order to successfully attack a geopolitical super-power like the United States. American military doctrine is typically led by technology; a new […]
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