Analysis & Opinion

Despite many setbacks and disappointments, Russia appears to be making significant progress with regards to the officially declared goals of its war on Ukraine.

In the course of the next few days, Priti Patel will make the most important ruling on free speech made by any home secretary in recent memory. She must resolve whether to comply with a US request to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges.

The Palestinian territories are overcome with grief following the death of 51-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead in the West Bank city of Jenin on the morning of May 11.

Security forces are deployed across Sri Lanka with orders to shoot looters on sight amid continuing protests at the government’s handling of a devastating economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has vowed to restore order, in his first national speech since protests began last month. Ignoring calls to resign, he offered …

Announcing his £35bn ($44bn) acquisition of Twitter this week, Elon Musk made a typically sweeping claim: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

In separate letters, legislators and advocacy groups ask the administration of US President Joe Biden to do more to protect Tunisian democracy.

Four days before France votes on its next president, the two remaining candidates are going head to head in their only televised debate.

A recent incident in Egypt ignited a controversy regarding women’s bodily autonomy and the coercive control that men could exercise. The incident concerned a woman who needed a lifesaving hysterectomy but was entangled in a divorce battle that she initiated.

The damning fact is that once I finish writing this column and you finish reading it, you, me and the rest of the world will likely return to our regularly scheduled stuff while we keep whistling towards a dead end – literally.

The country was the first to use lockdowns, and may well be the last. But as the social and economic costs become clearer, it is tweaking its tactics