Politics (Page 220)

Newly elected president Yoon Suk-yeol. Xinhua/Alamy South Korea has elected a new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, who now has the task of tackling a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis and a decision about whether to restart dialogue with neighbouring North Korea. The 2022 elections took place as South Korea faced its highest level of COVID-19 infections. Other significant challenges facing the incoming leader are the nation’s deepening social inequality, with surging housing prices leading to resentment, particularly among young people. For many voters, the most important current issue is the cost of living. There is also considerable discontent over youth unemployment, job creation and surging consumer debt. Rising property prices and stricter rules for mortgages have made it moreContinue Reading

The west has responded to the invasion of Ukraine by imposing economic sanctions on Russia. There has been plenty of discussion about whether economic sanctions are an appropriate response, what they hope to achieve and what the results will be – not only for Russia but for the world. Economic sanctions have been used as a tool of war for centuries. In 17th- and 18th-century Europe, when warfare was widespread, economic sanctions were frequently implemented. They included prohibitions on trade, the closure of ports against belligerent enemies, and bans on trade in certain commodities. Economic exchange was affected in more indirect ways, too, by increased privateering and piracy at sea, high taxes, and conscription. The economic consequences of war wereContinue Reading

As Russian tanks rolled into a foreign capital city, a BBC commentator captured the anguish of the moment: “And now must we stand by impotent and guilty watching the destruction of a nation … I think the feeling must be one of shame at this.” The year was 1956, the country Hungary. It marked the start of a new era for Europe – much as many suggest the invasion of Ukraine does now – and it clarified the purpose of the BBC’s international services in the wake of the Suez crisis. The events in Hungary resolved, for a time, disagreement between the British government and the BBC about the nature of its external broadcasts. In 1956 the UK Foreign OfficeContinue Reading

Lolampa, a Turkana herder, with his goats and sheep. Samuel Derbyshire, Author provided Loura Ekaale sits down on his carved wooden stool. He sips a cup of black instant coffee, a substance he has taken to calling his “medicine” (inexplicably, he claims it helps him fall asleep). I have been making it for him each afternoon, with my small gas cooker. This has become a routine for us; he roams over to my canvas tent as the sun begins to set and I boil the kettle. We sit there talking about the day as one of his sons, Lolampa, wanders in from the hills behind us, driving the family’s sheep and goats back into their enclosure. I have known LouraContinue Reading

VW’s all-electric people carrier has finally been revealed. It’s bursting with tech, can power your home, and even remembers how you drive.Continue Reading

Warning: this article is accompanied by an image that some may find distressing. “International law is not just an empty promise.” These are the words of Jean-Marc Thouvenin, one of Ukraine’s legal counsel, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on February 27. Thouvenin was appearing during the recent oral hearings following the application of Ukraine for provisional measures based on the Genocide Convention. But two weeks since the Russian war machine crossed into Ukraine, the images of civilian humanitarian suffering make people wonder whether international law has any value at all in the middle of an armed conflict. Where is international law within the “fog” of war? The relevant norms have plenty to say on this particular subject. TheContinue Reading

In a matter of days, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has escalated to one of the biggest military conflicts in Europe since the second world war. The fog of war can obscure our view of who is winning, who is losing, and how long all of this will last. While no one can provide definitive answers, academic research on war gives us some insights into how the conflict in Ukraine might unfold. Research suggests that the path to war resembles a bargaining game, where countries compete over issues like territory and resources to patriotism or the style of governance. Rather than going to war, which is very costly, competing states prefer to settle these disagreements peacefully. Ideally, the two sides doContinue Reading

What you need to know right now Ukraine said it will try on Wednesday to evacuate civilians through six “humanitarian corridors” Russia said it would provide, including from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will travel to Turkey on Wednesday for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. The European Union has agreed more sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine that will hit Russian lawmakers and oligarchs, the maritime sector and three Belarusian banks. A US ban on imports of Russia’s oil sparked a further increase in oil prices, which have surged more than 30 per cent since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24th. Moscow said on Wednesday it was working on a broad responseContinue Reading

To justify his designs on Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly referred to what Russians call the Kievan Rus. He sees this Orthodox medieval state which centred around the contemporary Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as the common point of origin for both Ukrainians and Russians. To his mind, this means the Ukrainian people are Russian. And he believes his mission is to restore the unity of the Russian lands, as a precondition for Russia being a great power. Ukrainians, meanwhile, refer to the same place as the Kyivan Rus and the cradle of their own nation. These are not Russian lands but the “lands of the Rus”. The word “Rus” derives from the old east Slavic word Роусь (which readsContinue Reading

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the Annual Meeting 2016 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/swiss-image.ch/Photo Michael Buholzer/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA Around the world, the activism of Black women has been instrumental in shaping social justice agendas and promoting human rights. Their work has improved the health and welfare of women and girls, protected the environment and elevated the voices of the oppressed, both in their communities and further afield. As researchers who focus on women and children’s wellbeing and rights, we have come across the work of many such Black women. The four introduced here are inspirational – for the changes they brought about, for their work ethic, and for their passion to improve the everyday lives ofContinue Reading