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Viewpoint by Prabir Purkayastha*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — The COVID-19 pandemic continues its brutal march across India. Figures of new infections reached 355,828 on May 3—which accounted for more than 62 percent of the world’s new infections on that day. As hospitals run out of beds, ICU capacity, and even oxygen, these factors have been contributing to the already skyrocketing death toll in the country. Dead bodies in mortuaries, crematoria and burial grounds speak of the awful toll of the pandemic.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Adam Smith who in 1776 wrote “The Wealth of Nations”, the Bible of capitalism, which has become the standard economics text for over two centuries, was quick to single out monopolistic tendencies as the most important tool in undermining the virtues of capitalism. It kept the poor poor. The laws that give these capitalists their freedom to exploit the marketplace, so-called rent-seeking, “may be said to be all written in blood”. At the moment, Amazon is in the firing line for practicing such practices. Indeed, a majority of Silicon Valley companies rent-seek. Big pharma companies, like Pfizer, which is expecting this year 25% profits on its corona virus vaccine are another.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) — A controversial ban on flights from Covid-hit India landing in Australia, has blocked around 9,000 Australians from returning home. Most of them are Australians of Indian origin, while there are also a handful of Australian elite cricketers, coaches, and other officials currently taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket extravaganza.
This unprecedented move of banning its own citizens from returning home has angered many Australians, who have also branded this move by Prime Minister Scott Morrison government as "racist" because no such bans were imposed on flights from the UK and US during the peak of the pandemic there.
Viewpoint by Lori Wallach
Lori Wallach is the director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. This is a slightly abridged version of a blog post by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) New York.
WASHINGTON DC (IDN | IPS-Journal.EU) — As we see infection rates in India and other parts of the world skyrocketing, European Union (EU) and US government officials regularly declare that the Covid-19 public health disaster and resulting economic crises will not end anywhere unless people everywhere are vaccinated. Yet the two World Trade Organization (WTO) heavyweights are blocking an initiative now supported by 100 nations that could boost access to Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests worldwide. On 5 May the issue will again come to a head at the WTO. The US and EU must join the rest of the world.
Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens
GENEVA (IDN) — Three days (April 27-29, 2021) of "informal" talks on the future of Cyprus were held in Geneva under the leadership of UN Secretary-General António Guterres. There have been no formal negotiations on the issue since 2017.
The UN-sponsored meeting with representatives of Greek and Turkish Cypriots as well as representatives of Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—the former colonial power—was to ascertain if there is enough common ground to start negotiations later this year.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — News of working journalists in Africa is often a tale of threats, abduction, forced disappearance and arrest.
Most recently, two Spanish journalists and an Irish national were abducted near a nature reserve in Burkina Faso. Government officials confirmed their deaths on April 2. It remains unclear who carried out the attack.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — In riveting testimony before a South African commission investigating corruption and graft, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that the ruling ANC party did little to prevent corruption, including by his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
“State capture and corruption have taken a great toll on our society and indeed on our economy as well,” Ramaphosa said. “They have eroded the values of our constitution and undermined the rule of law. If allowed to continue they would threaten the achievement of growth, development and transformation of our country.”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Senior military commanders, including the son of President Yoweri Museveni, have been named in a case before the International Criminal Court for a wave of abductions and torture—adding new charges to claims levelled by opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, the former reggae singer known as Bobi Wine.
Prosecutors at the ICC are already reviewing an early submission from Wine that described widespread human rights abuses before presidential polls held in January.
“The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over, and then expecting different results”……attributed to Albert Einstein, but first said by Rita Mae Brown (Sudden Death)
Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf *
VIENNA (IDN) — For more than a year, a vain search has been continuing to find an appropriate date to convene the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), as the deadly COVID-19 pandemic rages taking millions of lives with it.
A special feature by Kalinga Seneviratne* to mark UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day.
SYDNEY (IDN) — In recent months, there has been alarming one-sided reporting in the so-called mainstream media—both internationally and nationally—that sounds more like public relations handouts from the big pharmaceutical companies from the West. This 'vaccine consent' journalism and the labelling of anyone questioning the safety or ethics of the vaccine roll out as "conspiracy theorists" is slowly but surely killing the "watchdog" role of journalism.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.