Africa

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME (IPS) – Urgent action is needed to save the lives of people facing famine in North Eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, the UN leading food and agriculture agency’s chief on April 28 warned. “If nothing is done, some 20 million people could […]

Africa

The Coming Muslim Century: Bad news for President Bannon

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Demographically, the 21st century will be the Muslim Century, as the Pew Research Center on Religion in Public Life has shown. Muslims will go from 24% of the world’s population today to 31% by 2060. I.e. they will equal the Christian population of the world by […]

Africa

Does Trump’s slashed Foreign Aid Budget give China the Advantage?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US foreign aid budget is not mainly about helping the poor. It is an instrument for buying influence in countries important to the US. The poorest countries in the world do not get much help from the US. Israel, which is a wealthy country, gets […]

Africa

Africa Trade Summit in US Had Zero Africans After Visas Denied

contributors

TeleSur | – – “This year it was 100 percent. Every delegation,” organizer Mary Flowers told the media. An African trade summit organized by the University of Southern California ended up with zero Africans as they were all denied visas to enter the United States just days before the summit despite applying months ahead of […]

Desertification

As Trump Bans Somalis, 100s dying from Hunger in Severe Drought

contributors

The Watchers : Watching the World Evolve and Transform | – – 110 people have died from hunger in the past 48 hours in just one region of Somalia as severe drought gripped the country, causing hunger crisis. The death toll was announced by prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire today and it comes from the […]

Africa

In Shocker, Federal Judge in Seattle Halts Trump Muslim Ban

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – When Trump issued his executive order halting immigration from seven countries, suspending the refugee program, and banning Syrian refugees indefinitely, I wrote that he might well get away with it, since the judiciary tends to defer to the executive on issues of national security and on […]

Africa

Gambia’s ‘Trump’ and the dilemma of the Int’l Criminal Court

contributors

By Ebrahim Shabbir Deen | (Informed Comment) | – – The stepping down, under duress, of long-term Gambian president Yahya Jammeh clearly illustrates the impact of credible collective security. However, for this ‘African solution’ to be replicable, much will need to be allayed regarding possible future attempts to renege on the deal, which reportedly provides […]

Latin America

When Reagan backed S. Africa Racism and Castro inspired Mandela

contributors

TeleSur | – – The world remembers Nelson Mandela as the freedom fighter and president who liberated South Africa from apartheid. But many look back with a selected memory of how the former prisoner’s story unfolded. The man who former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher [and US President Ronald Reagan] branded a “terrorist” was a […]

Boko Haram

Family & Friends, not Religion, Draw People into Terrorist Groups

contributors

By Rose Delaney | (Inter Press Service) | – – LONDON (IPS) – A recent study supported by the government of Finland has found widespread misconceptions regarding what drives people to join Islamist militant groups like Boko Haram. Boko Haram is Nigeria’s militant Islamist group, wreaking havoc across the nation through a series of abductions, […]