What's NATO, and why does Ukraine want to join?
Feb 02, 2022 09:04 am UTC| Insights & Views
International concern about Russias provocative stance toward Ukraine continues, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin denies plans for an attack and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned on Jan. 28, 2022,...
Ukraine crisis is reminding Nato why it was formed in the first place
Jan 26, 2022 04:39 am UTC| Politics
As Russian troops mobilise near Ukraines border and appear poised to invade, so the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) has assumed its traditional role as a bastion of European defence. That mission the one for...
In Kazakhstan, Russia follows a playbook it developed in Ukraine
Jan 10, 2022 13:54 pm UTC| Politics
Add Kazakhstan to the list of former Soviet republics whose independence is now being threatened by Russia. Russian leader Vladimir Putin is using a similar playbook in Kazakhstan to one that he has used over almost a...
The U.S. failed in Afghanistan by trying to moralize with bullets and bombs
Jan 10, 2022 13:07 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Last August, the world watched the chaotic and painful American departure from Afghanistan. It led to a profound reckoning: how could two decades of war end in such humiliating defeat at the hands of Taliban...
Can China win back global opinion before the Winter Olympics? Does it even want to?
Jan 03, 2022 12:11 pm UTC| Politics
The Beijing Winter Olympics are only weeks away and China has been forced on the defensive by a diplomatic boycott called by the US, UK, Australia and other western countries. There had been pressure for Western...
Does the US have the right to sail warships through the South China Sea? And can China stop them?
Dec 20, 2021 09:59 am UTC| Politics
Images of what appeared to be US warships emerged from China last month, but they were not anywhere near an ocean. In fact, they were thousands of kilometres away, in a desert in western China. Military experts said the...
Dec 20, 2021 09:55 am UTC| Economy
Afghanistan is in a major humanitarian crisis: the health sector is failing, the economy is collapsing, and amid the COVID pandemic, famine is inflicting ever-larger numbers of casualties. According to the most recent...
Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility
Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget
Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects