China’s rosewood lust endangers African security

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African countries are estimated to lose US$17 billion each year to illegal logging. High-value timber species are in global demand. Illegal logging is most prevalent in the continent’s tropical rainforests. Foreign demand for rare hardwoods from these forests has dramatically increased. A significant driver is Chinese demand for teak, redwood and mahogany. According to the […]Continue Reading

Documentary spotlights Russian ‘North Sea spy ship’

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A new documentary produced by a consortium of public broadcasters in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway has revealed what appears to be a profound threat to maritime and undersea energy and data infrastructure in the North Sea and the Baltic region. “The Shadow War” includes footage of a Russian research vessel called Admiral Vladimirsky allegedly […]Continue Reading

Salman Rushdie’s Victory City

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Victory City is an epic chronicle of the rise and fall of Vijayanagar (the capital city of the historic southern Indian Vijayanagara empire), which acquires the name “Bisnaga” through ill-fated attempts at pronunciation by a Portuguese traveler. The story unfolds as a fictional retelling of Bisnaga’s history, premised on the archaeological discovery of the Jayaparajaya, […]Continue Reading

US-China naval rivalry goes far beyond war ‘games’

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As part of a joint military exercise with the Philippines, the US Navy is slated to sink a mock warship on April 26, 2023, in the South China Sea. The live-fire drill is not a response to increased tensions with China over Taiwan, both the US and the Philippines have stressed. But, either way, Beijing […]Continue Reading

WWI comparisons underestimate Russia’s strengths

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The current conflict in Ukraine frequently elicits parallels with the first world war. It’s a comparison being made by politicians, journalists, analysts and military personnel. Coverage over the past winter months, for example, has focused on how Ukrainians are fighting in WWI-like muddy trenches in Bakhmut, while Russia suffers almost WWI levels of casualties. It’s […]Continue Reading

Military violence in Myanmar is worsening

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In the early days of a brutal 2021 military crackdown on anti-coup protesters in Myanmar, members of the nascent resistance movement began asking “how many dead bodies” it would take for the world community to act. More than two years on from a coup that installed military rule in the Southeast Asian country, pro-democracy protesters […]Continue Reading

Females pay the price as Taliban dodges sanctions

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The economic and political isolation of Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021 has worsened a humanitarian crisis in the country. The World Food Program projected that between November 2022 and March 2023 the number of food-insecure Afghans would rise to 20 million – 3.2 million of them under the age of five. Some […]Continue Reading

First Asian screenwriter challenged Hollywood racism

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A century before Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress, Winnifred Eaton,the daughter of a Chinese mother and a white English father, was working behind the scenes in Hollywood. Winnifred Eaton, often credited in Hollywood as Winifred Reeve, was born in Montréal in 1875. She wrote and adapted […]Continue Reading

Russia and US ignoring big new trouble in the Caucasus

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While the world is watching the destruction in Ukraine, in another corner of the former Soviet Union hostilities smolder. Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on April 11, 2023, of starting a firefight close to the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region in which seven soldiers were killed. That skirmishes in the region turned deadly is no real […]Continue Reading