By Thalif DeenUNITED NATIONS, Jan 5 2026 – The statistics are staggering: while military spending keeps skyrocketing, Official Development Assistance (ODA)– from the rich to some of the world’s poorer nations– has been declining drastically. According to a Fact Sheet released by the UN last week, the $2.7 trillion allocated in just one year (2024) to global military spending...

Pro-Democracy protesters gather in front of the headquarters of the Sudanese army in the capital, Khartoum. Credit: Masarib/Ahmed Bahhar via UN News By Robert MisikVIENNA, Austria, Jan 5 2026 – Consider our political systems not merely as battlegrounds of passions, ideologies and economic interests, but as systematically functioning arrangements of interactions, akin to game theory. In recent...

Security Council Meets on Threats to International Peace and Security. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten By Cecilia RussellUNITED NATIONS & JOHANNESBURG, Jan 5 2026 – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern about the immediate future of Venezuela. In a statement read by Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, Guterres...

By CIVICUSJan 2 2026 –   CIVICUS discusses Kazakhstan’s anti-LGBTQI+ bill with Temirlan Baimash, activist and co-founder of QUEER KZ youth initiative, a Kazakhstani LGBTQI+ organisation. Temirlan Baimash On 12 November, Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament unanimously passed a bill banning ‘LGBTQI+ propaganda’, introducing fines and up to 10 days’ imprisonment for repeat offences....