In April 2024, students across the United States were mobilising to demand an end to their universities’ complicity in the genocide in Gaza, I wrote an article explaining why I saw the emergence of these protests, and especially those at Columbia University’s New York City campus, as a turning point in the global movement for…
United States President Donald Trump’s blitzkrieg campaign against the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has demolished the organisation described as the “world’s largest donor” and left aid workers scrambling to salvage the international development aid and humanitarian response system. Many have lamented the grave consequences of the US president’s unprecedented decision as well as…
On February 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a long-awaited meeting with US President Donald Trump in an attempt to persuade him to continue US support for Ukraine. The encounter was likely not what the Ukrainian head of state had expected. Trump and US Vice President JD Vance chastised Zelenskyy in front of TV cameras…
Psst. Over here. Over here. You want to hear a trade secret? The bulk of journalists who cover the so-called “halls of power” in Washington, Ottawa, Canberra, London, Paris and beyond prefer routine over spontaneity. You see, predictability is easy. It’s comforting because most capital cities are mundane places where boring is not only an…
For four months now, Serbia has been gripped by unprecedented protests. The upheaval was sparked by the collapse of a roof at a newly renovated train station in Serbia’s second biggest city, Novi Sad, which killed 15 people and critically injured two on November 1. Despite various strategies by the government to try to suppress…
The black tea I sipped in the cafe seemed to curdle as I processed the words. An engaging conversation with an academic colleague had just turned bitter as I heard him repeat a slur and a biased narrative I’ve experienced far too often. I was making an argument about the lack of recognition of the…
On January 29, United States President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum instructing his government to expand detention capacity at Guantánamo Bay’s Migrant Operations Center. Speaking before the signing, Trump claimed the proposed 30,000 beds were necessary for “eradicating the scourge of migrant crime” and would hold “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American…
When Donald Trump reassumed the presidency of the United States of America in January, eternal New York Times foreign affairs columnist and Orientalist extraordinaire Thomas Friedman took to the pages of the US newspaper of record with some advice: “President Trump, You Can Remake the Middle East if You Dare.” And while punitive imperial makeovers…
Canada is in a MAGA world of trouble. The nation’s “dearest” and “closest” friend has declared a debilitating trade war by imposing stiff tariffs on most goods being imported into the home of unfettered capitalism – the United States of America. The impulsive man-child who treats America’s signature and most lucrative bilateral relationship like a…
It’s been a week since a ceasefire was declared in Gaza. For the first time in 15 months, the relentless sound of explosions has been replaced by silence. But this silence is not peace. It is a silence that screams loss, devastation, and grief – a pause in the destruction, not its end. It feels…
