Tag: politics

• Russia’s Military Mission Creep Advances to a New Front: Africa

  April 1, 2019

  OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Russia has been steadily expanding its military influence across Africa, alarming Western officials with increasing arms sales, security agreements and training programs for unstable countries or… more ›

• The Kremlin’s Campaign in Africa

  April 1, 2019

  Key Takeaway: The Kremlin is expanding its outreach and influence in Africa. Russia is boosting its military sales and economic cooperation across Africa, entering the continent’s emerging nuclear energy market… more ›

• Mind games: what magic reveals about how our brains work

  March 30, 2019

  The magician picks up a coin, conceals it in his hand and, after a magical gesture, it mysteriously disappears, only to reappear from behind your ear. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/mar/30/mind-games-what-magic-reveals-about-how-our-brains-work more ›

• Anatomy of a ‘caliphate’: The rise and fall of ISIL

  March 23, 2019

  Samer recalls the gruesome shock of seeing his friend’s headless corpse strung up above Raqqa’s main square. It’s this memory, from a hot summer day in 2015, that defines his… more ›

• How Strongmen Turned Interpol Into Their Personal Weapon

  March 22, 2019

  BRUSSELS — Hakeem al-Araibi thought he had escaped the reach of the Bahraini government when he fled to Australia years ago as a political refugee. But last year he ventured… more ›

• A New Age of Warfare: How Internet Mercenaries Do Battle for Authoritarian Governments

  March 22, 2019

  The man in charge of Saudi Arabia’s ruthless campaign to stifle dissent went searching for ways to spy on people he saw as threats to the kingdom. He knew where… more ›

• Mansa Musa: The richest man who ever lived

  March 11, 2019

  Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, according to the 2019 Forbes billionaires’ list released this week. With an estimated fortune of $131bn (£99bn) he is… more ›

• Embracing externalities

  March 8, 2019

  The world is better because industrialism made it better. The world is worse because industrialism made it worse. https://seths.blog/2019/03/embracing-externalities/ more ›

• Why Do India and Pakistan Keep Fighting Over Kashmir?

  February 28, 2019

  Two nuclear-armed siblings with a long history of armed conflict. Two prime ministers facing public pressure for military action. And a snowy, mountainous region that both nations have coveted —… more ›

• An Unflinching View of Venezuela in Crisis

  February 27, 2019

  Alejandro Cegarra’s photo series “State of Decay” is an unflinching portrait of Venezuela’s collapse. How this country went from being one of Latin America’s richest societies to one of its… more ›