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Jagannath Rath Jatra Celebrated in Western Myanmar
Guwahati: The annual Rath Jatra (the festival of chariots) kicked off in the western Myanmar city of Maungdaw on 16 July 2026 with great fanfare and enthusiasm. Tens of thousands of Hindu families from different parts of the Buddhist-majority Rakhine/Arakan State gathered in Maungdaw locality to offer prayers to Sri Sri Jagannath during the religious…
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As forest fires devastate their ancestral territory, thousands of residents of the First Nations communities are evacuated across Northern Canada
Today more than 1,800 people are displaced in northern Ontario as nearly 200 wildfires continue to rage. Meanwhile, the entire city of Kimberley, B.C., in the province’s southeast region near the Alberta boundary has been placed on evacuation alert due to an out-of-control wildfire. The Regional District of East Kootenay says more than 8,000 residents…
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Thailand: Court to rule in first criminal case on conscientious objection to military service
On July 20, the Samut Prakan District Court will deliver its verdict in the case of Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, Thailand’s first publicly declared conscientious objector to stand trial for refusing military conscription. If convicted under the 1954 Military Service Act, he will face up to three years in prison. Netiwit is a democracy and human rights…
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BEYOND THE JOG: WHAT THE AFRICA FORWARD SUMMIT ACTUALLY SAID ABOUT PEACE, POWER AND DISARMAMENT
This article is written by Sahlim Charles, a Council Member at the International Peace Bureau and enthusiastic about Disarmament and Militarization discourse. Sahlim is also the Founder and Executive Director of Re-Imagining New Communities. I took time to analyze the stakes at the Africa Forward Summit 2026 co-hosted by Kenya and France in Kenya’s capital…
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Consequence Without Catastrophe: Why Sport Commands Human Attention
Why can a soccer match make billions of people tense when almost nothing in their daily lives depends on the result? Martina Moneke argues that sport is one of civilization’s greatest inventions: a symbolic form of conflict that creates genuine consequence without catastrophe. I was tense. Not mildly interested. Not casually curious. Genuinely tense. As…
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Russia Struggling to Sustain its Economic Sovereignty Despite Geopolitical Challenges
(Moscow Bureau) – More than a quarter of a century has passed since the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union with its centralised economy. And Russia has been experiencing a multitude of challenges, transitioning to a liberalised system. While ultimately aiming at strengthening its economic sovereignty, it has adopted several steps that characterise largely the…
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What’s Driving Germany’s Planned €800 Billion Remilitarization?
Ideological, economic, and personal interests are responsible for the ruling liberal elite’s fateful decision that’ll lead to Germany replacing the US as Russia’s top perceived adversary. The Financial Times reported in early July that “Germany to borrow €800bn for rearmament in historic shift”. The larger context concerns the “NATO 3.0” concept that the US is…
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Communities Pay the Price, Phileco-MIEC Gets the Profits: Questions Mount Over Smokey Mountain WTE Incineration Project
Community members and environmental advocates challenged claims that the proposed Smokey Mountain waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerator would benefit local residents, arguing that the project would leave the host community with the environmental and social burdens while delivering few direct benefits. Project proponents claimed the facility would generate 75–100 MW of electricity. However, Anna Mikko Realo, Chief…
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DENR Says No Project Activities in Smokey Mountain Should Occur Prior to ECC Issuance
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) stated that all environmentally critical projects must comply with Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) requirements before starting the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) project in Smokey Mountain. Engr. Jose Paolo Aragoncillo, Senior Environmental Management Specialist from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Environmental Bureau (DENR-EMB), said that no construction should…
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Bangladesh-Myanmar-China Economic Corridor: A New Equation in Indo-Pacific Geopolitics
By Asif Showkat Kallol (Dhaka Bureau) Bangladesh has emerged at the center of growing geopolitical competition in the Bay of Bengal region. Intense diplomatic analysis is now underway across South Asia and the Indo-Pacific regarding the feasibility of a Chinese-proposed Bangladesh-Myanmar-China Economic Corridor (BMCEC). Global diplomatic debate escalated following high-level bilateral talks between Prime Minister…