In the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack and subsequent war, Israel’s internal security apparatus, the Israel Security Agency, reported escalated concerns of violence between the country’s Jewish and Arab populations. This is not a fabricated anxiety. Many Israelis fear a repeat of the violence experienced in Israel’s mixed cities during the 2021 Israel-Palestine conflict. Thankfully,
Ukraine recorded solid progress last year in its long struggle with corruption, according to the latest edition of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Wartime Ukraine climbed twelve places in the 2023 edition of the annual survey to rank 104th among 180 featured countries, increasing its anti-corruption score from 33 to 36 out of 100. “Ukraine’s
To mark this year’s Ukrainian Unity Day on January 19, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a decree calling for efforts to research, publicize, and safeguard Ukrainian cultural identity in regions of today’s Russian Federation “historically inhabited by Ukrainians.” The move was a masterful piece of trolling by the Ukrainian leader, while also representing a long
Vladimir Putin has committed serious resources to ensure that the Russian people only see what he wants them to see. Yet despite the best efforts of the Russian dictator, the ever-evolving world of Big Tech offers a variety of avenues for free expression, even in closed societies. But without the right policy structures, Big Tech
Ukrainian officials have condemned a new decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early 2024 simplifying the process of conferring Russian citizenship on Ukrainian children abducted from wartime Ukraine. Issued on January 4, 2024, the citizenship decree is officially designed to ease the process of granting Russian citizenship to foreign nationals and stateless persons.
US-based international press freedom NGO the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling for an investigation into a series of recent Russian air strikes in Ukraine that injured journalists covering the war. The missile attacks in late December targeted a number of hotels known for hosting visiting international correspondents and representatives of international aid organizations.
On December 14, 2023, the European Union made history by designating Georgia as an official candidate country. On the same day, the European Council also confirmed its decision to start accession discussions with Ukraine and Moldova. European Council President Charles Michel heralded this as “a clear signal of hope for our continent.” Joseph Borrell, the
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa started the new year with a declaration of “internal armed conflict” against criminal groups, coupled with a sixty-day state of emergency. Earlier this week, two leaders of criminal groups—José Adolfo Macías Salazar, alias “Fito,” of the group Los Choneros, and Fabricio Colón Pico, alias “Capitan Pico,” from Los Lobos—escaped from prison.
No one expected the upstart American colonies to win a war of independence against the British Empire. However, after eight years of sacrifice, the underdog nation emerged victorious. The young country’s leaders then analyzed their weaknesses and realized that the existing framework for government needed changing in order to allow the nation to prosper. That
As Ukrainians fight for their country’s survival amid Russia’s ongoing invasion, defending Ukraine’s culture has never been more important. With Russia openly seeking to extinguish Ukrainian statehood and erase Ukrainian identity, safeguarding Ukrainian culture should be recognized as a national priority. This could be highlighted in Ukraine’s National Recovery Plan at both the national and
