Headlines

Former Soviet states have become unlikely defenders of the rule of law.

Oct. 26.– In too many places around the world, freedom is denied. In theocracies such as Afghanistan and Iran, women lack the right to dress as they please. In countries from Myanmar to Sudan, juntas rule. And Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has not only launched a lawless war against his neighbour, Ukraine, but clamped down further on his own people’s rights. Yet there are bright spots too—and some of these can be found on Mr. Putin’s doorstep (see chart).

This can be seen in a report published on October 26th by the World Justice Project, a charity based in Washington, DC. It draws on tens of thousands of responses from legal practitioners, local academics, and household surveys to produce the Rule of Law Index, a ranking of 140 countries and jurisdictions according to a series of indicators: constraints on government powers, the absence of corruption, fundamental rights, and criminal and civil justice.

NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia Thursday not to cross "a very important line" of using nuclear weapons.

Both NATO and Russia are scheduled to hold nuclear exercises this month.

 Brussels, Oct. 14 (DP.net).– A meeting of NATO’s secretive Nuclear Planning Group was held among defense ministers in Brussels, as concerns deepen over Putin’s insistence that he will use any means necessary to defend Russian territory. NATO is believed to have warned its members about the possibility the Russian dictator may have decided to detonate a nuke on Ukraine's borders, in an escalation designed to terrify the West. A senior defense source, however, said that a more likely demonstration of Putin’s readiness to use nuclear weapons could come in the Black Sea, The Times of London reports.

Asked what NATO would do if Russia launched a nuclear attack, NATO General Secretary Stoltenberg said: “We will not go into exactly how we will respond, but of course, this will fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. It will mean that a very important line has been crossed.” He added that "even any use of a smaller nuclear weapon will be a very serious thing, fundamentally changing the nature of the war in Ukraine, and of course, that would have consequences."

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also warned Putin not to cross that threshold. “Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated,” he said in a speech in Bruges, Belgium.

 Stockholm, Oct. 9 (DP.net).– The American economists Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig are the three winners this Sunday of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Economics for having "significantly improved our understanding of the role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises", reported the Royal Academy of Sciences.

"Modern banking research clarifies why we have banks, how to make them less vulnerable in crises and how bank collapses exacerbate financial crises. The foundations of this research were laid by Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig in the early 1980s", the jury reported.

"Their analyses have been of great practical importance in regulating financial markets and dealing with financial crises", explained the Swedish institution. "The laureates’ insights have improved our ability to avoid both serious crises and expensive bailouts,” says Tore Ellingsen, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences.

Ben S. Bernanke was director of the United States Federal Reserve (FED) between 2006 and 2014 and is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. Douglas W. Diamond is Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago. Philip H. Dybvig is Professor of Banking and Finance at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Previous Nobel Prize awards last

week

• Peace: Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties
• Physiology or Medicine: Dr. Svante Pääbo
• Physics: Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger
• Literature: Annie Ernaux
• Chemistry: Carolyn R. Bertozzi, K. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal
• Economy: >>To be granted in October 10.

 Stockholm/Oslo, Oct.7 (DP.net).– The Noble prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. The first awards were handed out in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death. Each prize is worth 10 million kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out with a diploma and gold medal on Dec. 10 — the date of Nobel’s death in 1896. The economics award — officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — wasn’t created by Nobel, but by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

The Swedish International Development Corporation Agency, (SIDA) through the Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia and Naymote Partners for Democratic Development has signed a three-grant agreement valued at US$1,150,000.

Monrovia, Oct. 2.– The grant is NAYMOTE’s biggest ever and is intended for the implementation of the project titled Democracy Advancement Program (DAP) which is a three-year program with the overarching goal to enhance democratic governance for inclusive development in Liberia.

The program will adopt a three-prong approach: Research, Advocacy, and Civic Engagement (RACE) and is informed and guided by the principle of Change that “If a government is politically accountable, the quality of democracy is improved, and citizens benefit from their participation in democratic processes.”