Agrégateur de flux

The Johor state election does not automatically presage a nationwide BN sweep because the results are heavily steeped in Johor's unique local context.

Will the region’s perpetually squabbling siblings -- India and Pakistan -- put aside their insecurities to make regional cooperation happen?

Wachsende geopolitische Spannungen und eine zunehmend multipolare Ordnung stellen etablierte Formen internationaler Zusammenarbeit infrage. Das hat auch Folgen für den globalen Klimaschutz, über den im Rahmen der Vereinten Nationen verhandelt wird. Doch was auf den ersten Blick wie eine Bedrohung für gemeinsame Klimaziele wirkt, könnte zugleich Handlungsspielräume eröffnen. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine Foresight-Übung, die bei der Konferenz »Multilateralism under Challenge and the Future of the Pact« des Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) durchgeführt wurde. 

Die Konferenz machte deutlich, wie vielfältig die aktuellen Herausforderungen für die Vereinten Nationen sind. In finanzieller Hinsicht müssen die drastischen Zahlungskürzungen, insbesondere seitens der USA, durch weitreichende Einsparungen im UN-Budget aufgefangen werden. Politisch belasten die Differenzen zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten die internationale Zusammenarbeit, etwa hinsichtlich der Konflikte im Nahen und Mittleren Osten sowie in der Ukraine oder der schleppenden Umsetzung der Sustainable Development Goals. Zudem beschäftigt die Mitgliedstaaten aktuell die Suche nach einer Nachfolge für den ausscheidenden UN-Generalsekretär Antonio Guterres.

Ein Blick in mögliche Zukünfte

Vor diesem Hintergrund rückt auch die Zukunft der internationalen Klimapolitik in den Fokus. Mithilfe von Foresight, einer zukunftsanalytischen Methode, lassen sich verschiedene denkbare Entwicklungen ausloten – ohne den Anspruch, sie vorherzusagen. Vielmehr stehen Exploration und Antizipation im Vordergrund: Welche Treiber könnten die wichtigsten sein, die in unterschiedliche Zukunftsrichtungen weisen? Und welche Maßnahmen wären dafür geeignet, unerwünschte Entwicklungen zu vermeiden oder wünschenswerte zu fördern? 

Gerade die Klimapolitik eignet sich für einen solchen Ansatz. Sie verbindet lokale, nationale und internationale Handlungsebenen mit sozialen, technologischen, ökologischen, ökonomischen, rechtlichen und politischen Fragestellungen. Die interdisziplinäre und internationale Ausrichtung der ACUNS-Konferenz bot daher einen geeigneten Rahmen, um mögliche Auswirkungen einer zunehmend multipolaren Weltordnung auf die Klimapolitik mithilfe einer Foresight-Übung auszuleuchten. 

Aus der Übung lassen sich drei wichtige Herausforderungen für die künftige internationale Klimapolitik ableiten: Erstens könnten Ideologisierung und Politisierung sowie steigende Anpassungs- und Transformationskosten die Bereitschaft zu gemeinsamen klimapolitischen Anstrengungen sukzessive schwächen. In der Folge droht zweitens eine stärkere Fragmentierung der internationalen Klimapolitik. Drittens könnte dies zu einer überdurchschnittlichen Belastung der weniger handlungsfähigen oder -willigen Mitglieder der Staatengemeinschaft führen. Damit würden sich die globalen Ungleichheiten weiter verstärken.

Fragmentierung als Chance?

Die diskutierte Fragmentierung wurde gleichzeitig auch als mögliche Dezentralisierung und Regionalisierung interpretiert, die Chancen für eine auf lokaler und regionaler Ebene konzipierte und damit womöglich anschlussfähigere Klimapolitik bietet. Diese könnte die Inklusion zusätzlicher Akteure ermöglichen und dadurch die Legitimität und Akzeptanz politischer Maßnahmen erhöhen. Allerdings betonten die Teilnehmenden auch die Notwendigkeit eines universellen Rahmenwerks. Die UN wären dafür weiterhin der geeignete Ort. Betont wurde etwa die Rolle der UN-Generalversammlung als multilaterale Plattform, auf der plurilaterale Koalitionen und Initiativen zusammenkommen könnten, um mit allen Staatenvertretungen über Fortschritte wie auch Hindernisse zu diskutieren.

Die Übung macht deutlich, dass Foresight weniger der Vorhersage als vielmehr der Orientierung dient. Anhand der Klimapolitik zeigt sie das Potential partizipativ strukturierter Auseinandersetzungen mit der Zukunft auf. Diese können das Spektrum der in Betracht gezogenen denkbaren Entwicklungen erweitern, die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit ihnen fördern und so nicht zuletzt eine Grundlage für plausible und robuste Politikempfehlungen bieten. In einer zunehmend komplexen internationalen Ordnung kann Foresight dazu beitragen, nachvollziehbare Handlungsempfehlungen für die Klimapolitik zu entwickeln.

As the Takaichi administration strives to strengthen Japan’s intelligence capabilities, it’s important to build up counterintelligence capabilities too.

Au moins 18 personnes se sont noyées alors que des migrants tentaient de rejoindre à la nage le territoire espagnol, dans un climat de chaos à la frontière.

By CIVICUS
Jul 31 2026 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses disinformation campaigns targeting the LGBTQI+ community in Armenia with Hripsime Kizogyan, Executive Director of Pink Armenia, a community-based organisation that defends the human rights of LGBTQI+ people and advocates for policy change.

Hripsime Kizogyan

Ahead of Armenia’s recent parliamentary election, a coordinated online campaign tried to portray Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government as secretly backing the LGBTQI+ community. The campaign spread AI-generated images showing Pashinyan at a Pride event that never happened and falsely claimed Pink Armenia was behind the event, as part of a wider effort to present LGBTQI+ organisations as vehicles for foreign agendas. Campaigns such as these help drive hostility against LGBTQI+ people.

What was the fake Pride campaign about?

In late January, online stories started appearing that claimed that Armenia’s first LGBTQI+ Pride march would take place in the capital, Yerevan, on 7 April, supported by our organisation and personally led by Nikol Pashinyan. The date was no accident, because 7 April is a religious holiday and Mother’s Day in Armenia.

None of it was true. The stories first appeared on a brand-new website that had been created only 11 days earlier. It used an AI-generated image of Pashinyan and disappeared shortly after. But the damage was done. Georgian and Turkish media outlets and dozens of Facebook and Twitter/X accounts had already picked up the story.

The same false campaign came back in April, this time amplified by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and Russian outlets. It came with two new claims, both equally false: that Pink Armenia helped write same-sex marriage into a supposedly leaked new draft of the Armenian constitution, and that we’re funded by the US Agency for International Development. We denied this publicly, but by then the story had travelled.

The fake Pride story was just one piece of a much bigger campaign against our organisation and, more broadly, against LGBTQI+ people. A fake account impersonating Pink Armenia on Twitter/X managed to buy a verification checkmark before being suspended. Someone also set up a lookalike domain and sent emails in the name of our former president, telling schools that an LGBTQI+ curriculum would be introduced in 2027.

We also know that foreign bloggers were approached and offered paid trips to Yerevan to publicly urge Pashinyan to ‘support Pride’ as a show of solidarity with Europe. Someone pasted images of same-sex couples on walls in Yerevan, then photographed them as ‘evidence’ of activism that wasn’t happening.

What was the campaign trying to achieve?

Whoever was behind the fake Pride campaign wanted two things: to provoke fear and hostility towards LGBTQI+ people and to damage the government and its pro-European course by association. The false claims reinforced a familiar storyline in which European integration will bring the imposition of ‘foreign values’ and LGBTQI+ rights are the leading edge of that imposition.

This rhetoric didn’t come out of nowhere. Across the region, anti-LGBTQI+ discourse is increasingly tied to anti-democratic narratives, attacks on civil society and conspiracy theories that portray human rights organisations as foreign agents and threats to national identity. The same thing happened in Moldova and elsewhere in the region, with LGBTQI+ rights used to split the electorate ahead of a vote.

Although Armenia isn’t like neighbouring countries where anti-LGBTQI+ campaigns are written into state policy, the election showed our community being used when politically convenient. That kind of rhetoric makes the public environment hostile, legitimises discrimination and creates conditions in which hate speech and violence become more socially acceptable.

What has changed, and what hasn’t, for LGBTQI+ rights in Armenia?

Some things have improved. Earlier this year, Pink Armenia was formally included in public advisory councils at the health, internal affairs, justice, and labour and social affairs ministries. This means we can now raise issues directly with them.

But the law hasn’t changed. Armenia still hasn’t recognised same-sex partnerships. There’s no anti-discrimination protection covering sexual orientation and gender identity in most areas of life. When someone is the victim of a hate crime just for being LGBTQI+, that still doesn’t count as an aggravating factor.

Social attitudes are the other barrier. LGBTQI+ people still face discrimination in education, employment, family settings and healthcare. Being open about who you are still carries a risk, so many people hide it or leave Armenia in search of safety.

How is Pink Armenia countering disinformation?

We monitor media and social media systematically, documenting disinformation and hate speech targeting LGBTQI+ people and tracking the politicians and outlets pushing it. This gives us the evidence to respond publicly, take issues to policymakers and, when needed, go to court.

When false claims about us circulate, we answer them directly. We issue public clarifications and work with independent fact-checkers such as the Fact Investigation Platform and Media.am.

On digital security, we report impersonating accounts and fraudulent lookalike domains so they get taken down, and we warn partner institutions such as schools when fake messages go out in our name.

What support does Armenian civil society need?

We need stronger international cooperation to deal with disinformation networks that operate across borders to spread anti-gender narratives. Sharing of advocacy strategies, best practices, digital security expertise and research would strengthen civil society across the region.

We also need long-term support, not just project funding that responds to one crisis at a time. We need funds that are sustainable and flexible enough to keep our services running while we react quickly to disinformation campaigns and security threats.

International partners can do something else too: keep raising discrimination, hate speech and attacks on civil society in their diplomatic conversations with Armenian authorities. Public attention and international scrutiny make it harder to treat these issues as optional.

Ultimately, supporting LGBTQI+ rights in Armenia isn’t only about one community. It’s about defending democratic values, protecting civic space and making sure no group is excluded from human rights because it has become a politically convenient target.

CIVICUS interviews a wide range of civil society activists, experts and leaders to gather diverse perspectives on civil society action and current issues for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and do not necessarily reflect those of CIVICUS. Publication does not imply endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they represent.

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SEE ALSO
Armenia: ‘Foreign interference was real and documented, but its impact is hard to measure’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Samvel Martirosyan 16.Jul.2026
Armenia’s westward turn overshadowed by personal rule CIVICUS Lens 18.Jun.2026
Armenia/Azerbaijan: ‘Civil society has an essential role in preparing societies for peace’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Konul De Moor 19.Sep.2025

 

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How transactional is the massive shift in their relations and how sensitive is it to the Ukraine war?

The Arakan Army’s quest for international recognition should be tied to Rohingya rights and accountability.

Le mégafeu en Gironde, qui a ravagé 42 000 hectares depuis plus d'une semaine, est "contenu dans son périmètre", bien que "des secteurs actifs" persistent, a informé vendredi la préfecture du département. La situation est "stable" du fait des conditions météorologiques "favorables" de la nuit.

Images of the Pentagon, Washington DC. Credit: Kevin Doyle / Unsplash

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 31 2026 (IPS)

An age-old axiom in Statistics reads : Figures Cannot Lie, But Liars Can Figure.

And more so, in military conflicts, including the five-month-old US-Iran war, where casualty figures are difficult to track down because of lack of transparency and false accounting.

According to CNN, the Pentagon updated its war casualty database last week, recording more than 140 additionally wounded, and restoring the four soldiers killed due to Iranian strikes amid questions about a lack of transparency over the war’s toll.

The Pentagon drew scrutiny from media outlets and lawmakers last week when the number of US troops killed and wounded decreased in the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, as Iranian attacks continued. CNN observed fluctuating casualty totals when monitoring the site on a minute-by-minute basis last week.

Pentagon updates Iran war casualty count to 624, restoring 4 deaths to tally, CNN’s Davis Winkie reports on why casualty numbers decreased & were later revised.

The Iranian government, not surprisingly, hasn’t provided any casualty figures at all.

In a bygone era, the United States reportedly suffered 58,281 military deaths in the Vietnam War and 2,459 military deaths during the war in Afghanistan.

The exact breakdown of total casualties—including deaths and those wounded in action (WIA)—differs significantly between the two conflicts:

Stephen Zunes, a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco specializing in Middle Eastern politics, told Inter Press Service (IPS) many thousands of Iranians, Lebanese, and others have been killed as a result of the U.S. war on Iran but Americans–as in previous wars–tend to focus on U.S. casualties. Though they have thankfully been limited, the eighteen fatalities and more than 600 wounded–some of them seriously–have become a major focus of war opponents.

Trump has tried to downplay and manipulate these figures by comparing the casualties with other U.S. wars which included significant ground operations, claiming without evidence that the dead soldiers strongly supported the war, and undercounting those wounded by initially only listing those with severe injuries, said Zunes.

More recently, he pointed out, the administration was caught placing those killed and wounded, subsequent to the collapse of the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, in a separate category than those killed and wounded during the first phase of the war, thereby lessening the overall total.

“Such efforts are only strengthening antiwar sentiment in Washington and elsewhere, adding to the upset by veterans and others over Trump’s draft dodging during the Vietnam War and his insults of those who fought in unpopular conflicts, including war heroes”.

During his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, and to a somewhat lesser extent in his 2024 campaign against Kamala Harris, he portrayed himself as the antiwar candidate who opposed Democrats’ “forever wars” and who as a president would “bring our troops home.” As U.S. casualties in the Middle East mount, his credibility will only be eroded further, declared Zunes.

Meanwhile, a group of Democratic Senators sent a letter last week to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requesting a “comprehensive accounting” about the number of service members wounded or killed.”

The Senators wrote: “First, we wish to honor the service members who have lost their lives in Operation Epic Fury and extend our deepest condolences to their families. We thank all those who continue to serve in harm’s way. Their sacrifice is why we write to express our concern regarding the Department of Defense’s (DoD or the Department) public reporting and statements on U.S. military casualties associated with Operation Epic Fury.

We formally request a comprehensive accounting of the number of service members who have been killed, wounded, or injured in support of the operation. The American people, Congress, service members, and their families are entitled to a full and accurate accounting of the human costs of war. The information currently available to the public suggests that the Department has not consistently provided timely and comprehensive public casualty reporting throughout the conflict.

The Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), which the Department has described as being “regularly updated,” has reported inconsistent casualty figures, raising additional questions about the transparency and reliability of the Department’s public reporting and statement.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Elections set for September 14 will mark an important step forward, but the peace process will continue for long after the ballots have been counted.

Bangkok has been evolving toward measures that target the financial infrastructure used by region-spanning criminal networks.

Cambodia's Prince Holding Group and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, a Myanmar-based rebel group, were among the targeted groups.

An offer posted on encrypted messaging app Telegram on 26 February by an account claiming to belong to the cybercriminal group Lapsus$, has alarmed cybersecurity experts. Lapsus$ is an international group that claims to be apolitical and not affiliated with [...]

A businessman claiming links to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been spearheading a plan to move British microchip company [...]

Acronis AG, a Swiss software firm that was banned by the US's Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) [...]

The EU's diplomatic service, the EEAS (European External Action Service), led by former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, is looking for a new director to head its crisis management team.

How Trump’s lack of clarity leads to escalation.

Putin sees little need to negotiate.

The port call, the fourth by a U.S. carrier group since 2018, is a sign that relations between Washington and Hanoi remain healthy, despite ongoing trade tensions.