There are more than 16,000 sanctions imposed against Russia. Yet the Russian economy and war machine grew by 3.6 per cent in 2023 and is projected to grow another 2.6 per cent in 2024. Nearly six per cent of Russia’s gross domestic product goes towards military spending. At a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is...
Climate change is threatening to turn sublime summer stone fruits disgusting, or rob us of their pleasures entirely. Summer, to me, is all about stone fruit: dark-purple plums, peaches you can smell from three feet away. But last summer, I struggled to find peaches at the farmers’ markets in New York City. A freak deep...
A top U.N. regulator said Friday that mining of the world’s ocean floors should not move forward without rules in place, but that his agency cannot stop companies from trying to move ahead if countries can’t agree on a framework. Michael Lodge, secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority, told reporters at a news conference that...
Last September, I had argued why “a war of arms and a peace of commerce cannot co-exist”. This is a follow up to that and events of the last 2 years sadly reinforce the point. With Russia’s GDP (troublingly) growing by 3.6% in 2023, Putin is overseeing the fastest-growing G7 economy with unemployment at an...
Elmedin Konaković, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, denied allegations of ties to the “Tito and Dino” drug gang. He claims that he is the target of certain media close to the former regime, and that he will resign if any of the allegations incriminating his name are proven. The EUROPOL document is...
New research is ringing alarm bells about how climate change may impact one of Africa’s most iconic and vulnerable animals: the rhinoceros. “Climate change has the potential of wiping out all of them in the blink of an eye,” says Hlelowenkhosi Mamba, an Eswatini native and Fulbright scholar. Read more: news.mongabay.com Photo: news.mongabay.com
Banana prices have risen by up to 18.5% since January and by 35% in the past year as climate change puts a squeeze on supply, new data has revealed. A five-pack of Asda’s Organic Fairtrade Bananas was subject to the biggest annual rise of 35% from £1 to £1.35, found analysis of Assosia data by The Grocer. The same line has...
Why have democracies failed in curtailing Xi Jinping’s human rights abuses? And how can they better insulate themselves from Beijing’s transnational threats? CDDRL Visiting Scholar and former China Director at Human Rights Watch Sophie Richardson presented her research on the Chinese government’s deteriorating human rights record. Why have democracies failed in curtailing Xi Jinping’s human...
The world must expand its channels of communication with North Koreans working overseas to prevent human rights abuse. In mid-November 2023, Daily NK posted a banner ad on our website that said, “We want to hear from North Koreans living overseas.” A number of North Korean workers who saw the banner emailed us directly about...
The biggest and dirtiest secret of the energy market is that most of it is lost in generating, transmitting, distributing, and using it. Solving this problem would be revolutionary, reducing competition for resources that contributes to conflict as well as climate change. Energy is one of the most valuable businesses in the world, worth trillions...