Politics (Page 221)

The political crisis that has gripped Belarus for the past 18 months has seen president Aliaksandr Lukashenka (the preferred Belarusian spelling; “Alexander Lukashenko” is the Russian transliteration) transition from a peacemaker to a pawn in Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. After hosting talks in 2015 to end fighting in eastern Ukraine, Belarus has now opted to facilitate the Russian attack on its neighbour. In doing so, Lukashenka has surrendered the sovereignty of his own state without a single shot being fired on its territory. The relationship between Minsk and Moscow has a long and complicated history. Until the 2020 Belarusian revolution, Lukashenka maintained a cautious independence in foreign policy. This included keeping the Russian military out of Belarus. The fraudulentContinue Reading

A protest sign reads "Glory to Ukraine" in Ukrainian. Stefano Guidi / Shutterstock Vladimir Putin has written about the “historical unity” of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, in part through their language. In Ukraine, these statements are refuted by evidence of Ukrainian’s long history as a separate nation and language. As Putin continues his assault on Ukraine, the differences between these two languages have become part of the public discourse in the west – see the disparate spellings of Ukraine’s capital city, for example (Kiev being the Russian transliteration, Kyiv the Ukrainian). Most people assume that being “separate” languages means some sort of complete and clear division between them, but the reality is more complex than that. Ukrainian and RussianContinue Reading

Experiencing skin-shade prejudice can impact on a person's self-confidence and their relationships. AS photostudio | Shutterstock The Black Lives Matter movement, and the renewed focus on equality and social justice for black people that has come with it, has brought increasing attention to the issue of colourism. This form of prejudice privileges people of colour with lighter skin and discriminates against those with darker skin. Prominent black public figures, including the British singers Alexandra Burke and Beverley Knight, have begun to share their experiences. In June 2020, Burke spoke of how people in the music industry had told her to bleach her skin in order to succeed. That same year, Knight told ITV News that the music industry is keenContinue Reading

Images of gaunt, exhausted faces of people fleeing bombardment and death once again dominate global news. From Mariupol to Irpin, Russian artillery attacks on Ukrainian civilians have kept them trapped in hell. Every day, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky pleads for help. He begs for military support to save his people from Russian aggression. Every day, world leaders find new ways to say that they will not intervene militarily. The line is drawn at warm words and humanitarian aid. So, what has happened to the UN’s much-vaunted “responsibility to protect” – or “R2P” – doctrine? That willingness to use force to protect populations from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. United States secretary of state Antony Blinken has already claimedContinue Reading

A mother and father who engaged in the “savage” abuse of their daughter, “destroyed” her and left her with a catastrophic brain injury, have been jailed for 14 years. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the couple believed the girl was possessed by an evil spirit and that they inflicted “wanton cruelty” on her as a result. The then nine-year-old girl was regularly punched, beaten with a belt and a stick, choked, bitten and badly burned all over her body at the hands of her parents, whose other children testified against them at trial last year. The girl is now in a care centre and can no longer walk, talk or sit independently since the brain injury. Her 39-year-old father andContinue Reading

In many parts of the world, law enforcement uses WhatsApp chats, text messages, and photos from confiscated phones as “evidence” against persecuted groups.Continue Reading

In the 73 years since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) was founded, member nations have activated article 4 of its founding treaty only half a dozen times. The latest instance was on February 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Eight Nato members – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – immediately invoked the article, thereby convening a consultation of Nato’s principal decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council. Article 4 can be triggered when one or more Nato members deem the “territorial integrity, political independence or security” of any of the member states to be threatened. The North Atlantic Council meets regularly to discuss all items on its agenda, from military capability development to operations.Continue Reading