Month: March 2024
The Gulf between Men and Women
The growing gulf between young men and women in developed countries is striking. Polling data from 20 such countries shows that, whereas two decades ago there was little difference between the share of men and women aged 18-29 who described themselves as liberal rather than conservative, the gap has grown to 25 percentage points. Young
Outgunned Ukraine in the war against Russia
Continued ammunition shortages could lead to his forces being compelled to sacrifice further territory, while a Russian victory in Ukraine would increase the likelihood of Vladimir Putin ordering an attack on a Nato state. Ukrainian commanders are also deeply concerned about the prospects of a victory for Donald Trump in November’s presidential election. The head
A truce in Gaza
In the run-up to the holiday, negotiators shuttled between Cairo, Doha and Paris for talks. They hoped to secure a six-week pause in the fighting. Hamas would have released roughly 40 Israeli hostages during that time, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Israel was adamant that it would resume fighting once the deal expired.
The new Russia
Many in the West hoped that Western sanctions and Mr Putin’s blunders in Ukraine, including the senseless sacrifice of legions of young Russians, might doom his regime. Yet it survived. Russia’s economy has been re-engineered. Oil exports bypass sanctions and are shipped to the global south. Western brands from bmw to h&m have been replaced
The new Starship Launch
Starship is unlike any rocket system we’ve seen to date. The 33 engines at the base of the booster produce 74 meganewtons of thrust. This dwarfs all previous vehicles, including those that sent men to the Moon in the 1960s/70s. The rocket is intended to be fully and rapidly reusable, to operate much like an
No Taurus missiles for Ukraine
The Taurus KEPD-350 missile is considered one of the Bundeswehr’s most modern weapon systems. The missile, fired from the air by fighter jets, travels at almost the speed of sound and can strike targets as far as 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. The Ukrainian army already has similar weapon systems but with a shorter range.
Ukraine troop conscription problems
Zelensky and his military officials have not come up with a comprehensive plan to conscript or recruit the thousands of soldiers Ukraine needs to continue its fight against Russia’s advances.Ukraine is now entering a dangerous period of the war where its current manpower has become a “strategic crisis,” and may be one of the several
TikTok on Cutting Chinese Ties
TikTok has evolved into a broad media platform with 170m users in America alone. A third of American adults under 30 consider TikTok a source not just of entertainment but of news. It is therefore a real concern that it has links to China, whose government is in deep ideological conflict with the West and
The Arab world in Africa
Economic ties are the clearest evidence of closer Gulf-Africa relations. In the 2010s annual average trade between sub-Saharan Africa and the United Arab Emirates was less than half of that between the region and America. But since 2020 the sum of imports and exports between the United Arab Emirates and sub-Saharan Africa has been larger. Gulf interest in African
Ukraine war “crisis”
The conflict has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Russia reacted angrily after French President Emmanuel Macron last month refused to rule out sending troops to Ukraine. Russia warned on Wednesday that the war in Ukraine could spin out of control and expand geographically