“Fourteen thousand babies could die in the next 48 hours in Gaza.” – United Nations, May 20, 2025 When I read this line, something ruptured deep inside me. Fourteen thousand babies—not numbers, not statistics, but breathing, crying, nursing newborns—are being consigned to death in the very first hours of life. How does one carry that…
A new kind of state is born Reflecting on what is happening in the US since the (second) Trump inauguration on 20 January 2025, people say it is becoming an authoritarian state, a corrupt state, an anti-immigrant state, a human rights crushing state, a white nationalist state, an oligarch-controlled state, and a state that is…
“Make Politics Great Again.” That was the parting remark following a conversation I shared with fellow participants at the Delphi Economic Forum (9-12 April 2025), featuring none other than Dimitrios Avramopoulos, former European Commissioner, former Mayor of Athens, and a long-serving Minister across more government portfolios than one can count. The discussion covered a wide…
Aspects of the ecological thinking and action of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople* For the past forty years or so, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has been undertaking important initiatives aimed at raising awareness on environmental protection issues. This is due, to a large extent, to Patriarch Bartholomew, who, immediately after his election to the…
The Sahara and the West Sahel region of Africa have long captured the Western imagination, known for their vast landscapes and rich cultural heritage. However, in recent decades, these areas have become synonymous with violence, instability, and crime. The early 1990s marked a turning point for the Sahel region. Following the coup in Algeria, which…
Initially formed as “BRIC” – Brazil, Russia, India, China – and subsequently becoming “BRICS”, with the addition of South Africa,[1] this group of countries constitutes a unique coalition of emerging economies that collectively represent a significant counterbalance to the established economic powers of the West. Despite their collective identity, BRICS members are markedly different in…
On July 4th, 2024, about half of all adults in the United Kingdom turned out to vote, the lowest turnout since universal suffrage was introduced in 1918, according to an Institute for Public Policy Research report. Turnout was 59.8% of registered voters, down from 67.3% in 2019. While the narrative that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party…
On Saturday, 6 July 2024, in Niamey, capital of Niger, during the first meeting of the Alliance of Sahel States[1] (ASS/AES) a new agreement was signed to mark the beginning of the Confederated Alliance of the Sahel States[2]. According to the communiqué final of the summit, the former military Alliance of the Sahel States has…
Situated in Central Africa, Lake Chad was once a flourishing freshwater reservoir that sustained the lives of more than 30 million people across Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. However, the lake has drastically shrunk by around 90% since 1963. This diminishing body of water crucial for irrigation, fishing and drinking is now at the heart…
After twenty months of multilateral negotiations, the Iran nuclear deal, formally called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in Vienna on 14 July 2015. The signatories were, on one side Iran, and on the other side the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, i.e. China, France, Russia, UK and US, together…
