Another fault line has opened in the mining wars. In Serbia, resistance is gathering steam against various deals made between Belgrade and companies that risk environmental degradation and lingering spoliation. In this regard, the globe’s second largest metals and mining corporation, features prominently. Rio Tinto, bruised in reputation but determined in business, finds itself in a hunting mood in the[Read More...]
As Germany has just reached the 100,000 Corona death mark, the debate on mandatory vaccination is heating up in the country. As a matter of fact, Germany has had ample time to properly discuss or introduce such a Pflicht or duty. After all, it is home to philosopher Immanuel Kant. And even before Kant’s philosophical elaborations on a duty-based ethics[Read More...]
Ever since COVID-19 pandemic appeared, the year 2020 saw advocates of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) vending it as a preventive and later curative medicine for Coronavirus infection. The Indian Government ‘gifted’ HCQ to sixty odd countries. Subsequent research found the drug to be useless. Till date no curative medicine has been discovered. Whatever treatment is given in clinics/hospitals/ICUs qualifies only to be[Read More...]
The UK government is considering boycotting China’s winter Olympic Games to be held in Beijing. The British foreign office cites “international efforts to hold China to account for its human rights violations in Xinjiang.” “It is the longstanding policy of the government that the determination of whether genocide has taken place should be made by a competent court with[Read More...]
Unknown is Afghanistan’s trajectory of developments. None of the players, external and internal, knows the highly-contested land’s flight path. All of the players are unsure of possible impact of each of the tactical moves being taken by each of them. So, there’re compromises or postures to compromise, and contest – cold and hot. Already an empire has experienced, as has[Read More...]
In September, I sat down in Khartoum with the mother of a medical student killed by security forces during Sudan’s 2018-2019 protests. “The reason why I wake up every day is that I have a little hope that I can find justice for my son,” she confided. “This will not be only for him, but to prevent other parents from[Read More...]
Security forces fired tear gas at anti-coup protesters in the Sudanese capital on Tuesday, as tens of thousands marched in the latest demonstrations against a military takeover that took place last month. Thousands of people protested near the presidential palace in central Khartoum, the capital city. Protesters took to the streets in Khartoum and other cities around the country to[Read More...]
Britain, Germany and Italy confirm cases of Omicron while other countries suspect cases of their own. Chaos at a Dutch airport exemplified the scattershot response across Europe. A New York Times report (Covid News: Omicron Variant Puts Nations on Alert, Nov. 27, 2021) said: Scientists raced to study a new coronavirus variant as several cases were spotted in Europe and[Read More...]
“This war has to end,” President Biden intoned in his first major foreign policy address at the State Department in early February 2021. He wasn’t talking about the war in Afghanistan. Rather it was the bloody, mostly one-sided, six-year battering led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the Houthi insurgency in Yemen. A war underwritten by U.S.[Read More...]
A number of defence analysts are convinced that the United States of America, supported by Britain and Australia, is goading China to go to war over Taiwan. They point to constant statements by officials from the three countries pledging to come to Taiwan’s defence if it is attacked by China and the actual presence of US warships in the vicinity[Read More...]
