Photo by Evgeny Opanasenko on Unsplash The European Commission says it is allocating an extra €40 million in humanitarian funding to help Ukrainians endure a fourth winter of Russia’s war of aggression. This new support will strengthen the country’s preparedness for winter and protect civilians against extreme cold. Comment came from Hadja Lahbib, who is…
Photo by Valery Tenevoy on Unsplash The Socialists and Democrats in the EU Parliament are sounding the alarm over the rapidly deteriorating political crisis in Serbia. The group, the 2nd biggest in the assembly, is also calling out the European People’s Party (EPP) for what S and D calls its complicit silence and…
Photo by Elize Bezuidenhout on Unsplash In the last days of August, Sudan’s two rival governments both held cabinet meetings which, in their different symbolisms, reflected very different visions for the future of their benighted country. Those different visions were best captured in the redesigned state coat of arms that hung on the wall behind…
Photo by MW on Unsplash Today, the world faces mounting uncertainties and challenges from prolonged conflicts and democratic backsliding to economic coercion and disinformation campaigns. Authoritarian regimes increasingly employ gray-zone tactics that undermine the rules-based international order. In this fragile global environment, peace cannot be taken for granted. Democracies must unite to bolster resilience and…
UN Photo/Loey Felipe When a general tightens his grip, it seems more likely he is afraid of losing it. How else to interpret the three significant power plays General Abdel Fatteh Al-Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces has attempted in the last month? In July he ordered all armed groups out of Khartoum, though…
Photo by sander traa on Unsplash The conflict in Sudan, which has been raging for well over two years, is no closer to a peace deal, and the humanitarian crisis deepens on a weekly basis, with famine, disease and displacement. One name comes up, often as a stumbling block, in any article that speculates on…
Photo by Roman Skrypnyk on Unsplash Europe and the United States are now succeeding where Russia has long tried and failed: maintaining steadfast unity in support of Ukraine, alongside a cool, pragmatic scepticism towards any so-called guarantees that Moscow tries to use to position itself as both aggressor and arbiter. Following diplomatic musical chairs in…
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash Twenty years after Saddam Hussein was hanged, Iraq remains mired in corruption, sectarianism, and repression, particularly towards Kurdish citizens and women, writes Denis MacShane. The hope that the 2003 US-UK invasion would bring democracy and the rule of law has long faded. One woman’s story reveals just how…
Freeing all the unlawfully detained in the Ukraine war should be an absolute priority. That is the view of Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent Ukrainian human rights lawyer. Matviichuk was speaking to this website on Monday ahead of a crunch meeting in the White House between President Donald Trump and his Ukraine…
Photo by Jørgen Håland on Unsplash Denis MacShane, the former Europe Minister in the UK, says the Alaska summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin should be a wake up call. The high profile meeting broke up without any deal or ceasefire in war torn Ukraine. Speaking on 16 August to this site after the…
