Author: Bernd Debusmann Jr

Global Voices reports that Uzbekistan has succeeded in phasing out forced labor in its cotton industry, but now faces new challenges. The country has made progress in ending forced labor and modernizing its cotton sector, driven by economic and political reasons. Forced labor hurts businesses and the nation’s international image, which the government has aimed to improve since 2016. Cotton production accounts for 12% of GDP. Since 2017, the government has introduced major reforms to modernize Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, led by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev after he took office in 2016. By 2018, labor control was strengthened, and the cotton cluster system, which…

Reporting from the NATO summitWe’re now hearing from US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, who began by talking about NATO’s history and how the principle of collective security was formed in the wake of the Second World War. He noted that the “first and only time” NATO’s Article 5 was invoked was after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. Article 5 sets out that an attack on one member of the NATO military alliance is an attack on all. “NATO stood by us,” he says. “We’re going to stand by NATO”. Looking forward, Austin said the US will “not…