Like in a Wagnerian music drama, there is an associated melodic theme that accompanies the situations behind the two big regional developments last week — the announcement of the AUKUS, security alliance of three “maritime democracies” on September 15 and Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as full member on September 17. Both developments broke the glass ceiling. The[Read More...]
Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a co-founder of the Taliban who will control prisons under the new regime in Afghanistan, said strict punishment, including amputations and executions, will return. “Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi said in Kabul during an interview, which was published Thursday by the[Read More...]
The AUKUS despite being coined a security partnership, is a nuclear arms deal aimed at increasing pressure against China and should be cause for concern On September 15, 2021, the heads of government of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced the formation of AUKUS, “a new enhanced trilateral security partnership” between these three countries. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison[Read More...]
With that orange haired brute of a president supposedly ushered out of the White House with moralising delight, the Biden administration was all keen to turn over a new leaf. There would be more diplomacy, and still more diplomacy. There would be a more humanitarian approach to refugees and asylum seekers – forget, he claimed, the Border Wall. Kindness would[Read More...]
Global food prices have risen 33 percent in the last 12 months, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Basic staples such as vegetable oil, grains and meat have shown some of the highest increases. Coming on top of the economic catastrophe visited on billions by the pandemic, these pressures will fuel inflation making it difficult for[Read More...]
The fallout over the AUKUS deal, as we are now seeing, has been a severe rift in relations between two historic allies, the U.S. and France. And the collateral damage may also include NATO. Only weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden courageously ended the war in Afghanistan—in the face of bitter opposition from the media and Congress—came the announcement of the formation of AUKUS,[Read More...]
Scenes of thousands of Afghans flooding the Kabul International Airport to flee the country as Taliban fighters were quickly consolidating their control over the capital, raised many questions, leading amongst them: who are these people and why are they running away? In the US and other Western media, answers were readily available: they were mostly ‘translators’, Afghans who ‘collaborated’[Read More...]
Just a few days ago, the international human-rights groups called INVESTIGATE PH released its final report on the Philippine State’s violations of civil and political human rights aggravated by the lack of domestic remedies to address widespread abuses by the Duterte regime. The first six months of 2021 witnessed an unprecedented rampage of extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, disappearances, and[Read More...]
A business bad in standard of business has been done, and the business involves the World Bank (WB) and China. Media reports said: Some investors and campaigners expressed dismay on September 17, 2021 at revelations that the WB leaders pressured staff to boost China’s score in an influential report that ranks countries on how easy it is to do business[Read More...]
As York prepares to welcome Afghan refugees, housing is becoming a critical issue. It is not that York lacks rental housing, but rather that it lacks affordable housing, a particular problem for people who will likely have left their country with nothing. This article seeks to offer an alternative solution and to investigate ways and means of welcoming more refugees[Read More...]
