Politics
Sudan’s Generals Started a War Neither Can Easily Afford to Lose.
Two weeks ago, fighting began in Sudan between the regular military led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemedti. What initially looked like a…
India Is Becoming the World’s Most Populous Country. That Is Neither Good News nor Bad News Yet.
India is becoming the world’s most populous country. The United Nations Population Fund estimates India’s population at roughly 1.429 billion in 2023, marginally ahead of China’s 1.426 billion. The symbolic significance is enormous, particularly because…
Sudan’s Democratic Transition Was Supposed to Transfer Power to Civilians. The Men With the Guns Never Really Transferred Theirs.
Heavy fighting erupted across Sudan yesterday between the country’s regular armed forces and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Gunfire and explosions have been reported across Khartoum, while fighting has occurred around airports, military installations…
Tsai Met McCarthy in California Instead of Taipei. China Still Surrounded Taiwan With Military Exercises.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California on Wednesday. Three days later, China’s People’s Liberation Army began major military exercises around Taiwan involving aircraft, warships and simulated operations against the…
Sanna Marin Became One of Europe’s Most Recognisable Leaders. Finnish Voters Still Judged Her Government on Finland.
Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats have lost Finland’s parliamentary election tonight, although describing the result simply as a rejection of Marin would be misleading. The Social Democrats actually increased their share of the vote compared with…
Macron’s Pension Reform May Be Constitutional. That Does Not Automatically Make It Politically Legitimate.
France’s retirement age is supposed to rise from 62 to 64 under a pension reform that President Emmanuel Macron argues is necessary to protect the financial sustainability of the country’s pension system. The policy itself…
If Banks Know Governments Will Rescue the System, Why Should They Ever Be Careful?
One week ago, Silicon Valley Bank was the sixteenth-largest bank in the United States. Today it no longer exists as an independent functioning bank, American authorities have guaranteed all of its deposits, financial markets are…
Georgia’s Government Says It Wants Transparency Over Foreign Influence. Protesters Think It Is Borrowing Russia’s Method of Silencing Critics.
For several nights this week, thousands of Georgians gathered outside parliament in Tbilisi carrying Georgian and European Union flags. Police responded with tear gas, water cannon and arrests as protesters attempted to prevent parliament from…
Two Trains Were Put on the Same Track. Calling That “Human Error” Does Not Explain Enough.
Late on Tuesday night, a passenger train travelling from Athens towards Thessaloniki collided head-on with a freight train near Tempi in central Greece. The passenger train was carrying around 350 people, many of them university…
Nigeria Has Voted. The Harder Task Is Convincing Nigerians That Their Votes Became the Result.
More than 93 million Nigerians were registered to vote yesterday in an election that could reshape the politics of Africa’s most populous country. Eighteen candidates contested the presidency, but three dominated the campaign: Bola Ahmed…
Russia Does Not Need to Invade Moldova to Make Moldova Less Stable.
Moldova is not at war with Russia. Russian tanks are not advancing towards Chișinău, and Moldovan soldiers are not fighting Russian forces along the border. Yet the war in neighbouring Ukraine has increasingly made the…
Turkey Could Not Prevent the Earthquake. That Does Not Mean Every Death Was Unpreventable.
At 4:17 on Monday morning, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey near the Syrian border. Hours later, another enormous earthquake measuring 7.5 struck further north. Entire neighbourhoods collapsed across cities including Antakya, Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman…
