Showing 1 - 10 of 134
Freed Belarus dissident Bialiatski vows to keep resisting regime from exile
AFP, Published on 15/12/2025
» VILNIUS - Ales Bialiatski struggles to believe he is a free man and that he can -- after years in prison largely barred from outside contact -- speak to his wife in person.
The treacherous sycophancy of the populists
Oped, Published on 15/12/2025
» Until a few days ago, it had never crossed my mind that people across Europe -- including Londoners like me -- were living in a strife‑afflicted hell hole, "suffocated" by regulations, stripped of political liberties, and bound for "civilisational erasure". So, it was with some surprise that I read this assessment in the new US National Security Strategy -- a document that echoes pseudo‑intellectual propaganda more than resembling any serious foreign‑policy analysis.
Russians marking Stalin's repression warn against return to past
AFP, Published on 31/10/2025
» BOBROVO — Russians marking an annual day of remembrance for victims of Joseph Stalin's repression warned on Thursday that history could "repeat itself" and criticised attempts to rehabilitate the Soviet leader's legacy.
‘Raped, jailed, tortured, left to die’: the hell of being gay in Turkmenistan
AFP, Published on 18/09/2025
» WARSAW - Two men who escaped one of the world’s most secretive and repressive states have told AFP how they were tortured, beaten and raped in Turkmenistan for the “crime” of being gay.
Generational trust
Postbag, Published on 30/08/2025
» Re: "Tiny Vanuatu steps up to protect the climate", (Commentary, Aug 28).
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.
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.