Showing 1 - 10 of 340
Generational trust
Postbag, Published on 30/08/2025
» Re: "Tiny Vanuatu steps up to protect the climate", (Commentary, Aug 28).
A night of prodigies
Life, Published on 23/08/2025
» In 1978, composer John Williams won the Best Original Music Oscar for his work on the movie Star Wars. We've all heard the main theme countless times over the years, but listening to it performed by a live symphony orchestra is a whole new intergalactic experience. Such was the intense power of the Siam Sinfonietta as it swept over the Main Hall of the Thailand Cultural Centre that my nine-year-old nephew, Hummer, was pinned to his seat with wide-eyed wonder.
Minister’s death spooks Russian elite
AFP, Published on 11/07/2025
» SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia - The reported suicide of Russia’s transport minister hours after he was dismissed by President Vladimir Putin, sparking speculation he would be arrested on corruption charges, has shaken the country’s elite.
UN turns 80 amid wave of global crises
Oped, Published on 02/07/2025
» Amid wars, global strife and massive refugee dislocations, the current global scene is overwhelmed with crises ranging from the Middle East to Ukraine and a dozen African conflicts, which rarely make the news. The contemporary world situation in many ways resembles 1945 and the end of WWII. There's a strange deja vu of a history most people do not know or would rather forget.
Breaking the silence over North Korea
Oped, Published on 29/05/2025
» Speaking out to break the information barrier inside the North Korean dictatorship is in itself nothing new, and usually quickly forgotten. North Korean exiles, friendly governments, and humanitarian organisations periodically raise the oft-forsaken banner of human rights, only to be confronted by realpolitik through another round of North Korean missile launches or nuclear proliferation.
Umerov: 'Wonder' dealmaker from Crimea leading Ukraine peace talks
AFP, Published on 16/05/2025
» ISTANBUL - Rustem Umerov, who heads Ukraine's delegation at peace talks with Russia on Friday, is a skilled and pragmatic negotiator, hailed by his colleagues as a worker of diplomatic "wonders".
Be wary of the TikTokalypse on the radar
Oped, Published on 31/01/2025
» When the United States president, Congress and Supreme Court are all in a tizzy at the same time, the topic under discussion is usually a global meltdown or, at the very least, income taxes. Today, the concern is dancing cat videos. In his first day back in the White House, Donald Trump launched a strike against the Court and Congress by signing an executive order to pause the ban on TikTok, earning applause from the Chinese-owned company. TikTok's online content creators are relieved, too, for many warn that a ban (or a forced sale to a US company) would devastate them. I call it the TikTokalypse.
'Did not push hard enough': Navalny lawyer speaks of regrets
AFP, Published on 22/01/2025
» PARIS - The top lawyer of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February last year, told AFP she regretted not finding the right words to stop him returning to Moscow in 2021.
How Italy managed to beat fascism after WWII
Oped, Mark Gilbert, Published on 22/01/2025
» Americans are alarmed by their country's stark political divisions. But they shouldn't despair. After WWII, Italy was even more politically polarised than today. Yet by the mid-1950s, it had succeeded, against the odds, in turning the page on its fascist past and constructing a contentious but functioning democracy.
Russia hands Navalny lawyers long jail terms
AFP, Published on 17/01/2025
» PETUSHKI, Russia - Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexei Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world.