democracys

A lament for Yemen’s cultural renaissance

A rich civic culture was built in Yemen in the 1970s. Much of it has now been dismantled.

Inside Serbia’s student protest

Serbia’s largest student movement in decades is challenging President Vučić’s grip on power

Journalism in Burkina Faso: “submit or disappear”

What the kidnapping of two leading figures in Burkina Faso's independent press says about media repression

Legalise comedy

Romania’s evolving political satire reveals what jokes can say and what they can’t In this thoughtful and subtly sharp essay, Romanian writer Dan Panaet traces the country’s long, awkward relationship

Young people to the rescue in Turkey?

Mass protests in Istanbul have rekindled old notions about the role of young people in political resistance to authoritarianism – but just below the surface there’s anxiety and fragmentation On

Ethiopianism: A political agenda or a four kilo entry ticket?

A critical reflection on the hollowing out of a historic term, and a plea for its renewal In a nation where politics is dominated by questions of identity and social

The People vs. Javier Milei

What recent pension clashes reveal about Javier Milei’s political project – and Argentina When Argentina is discussed in international news, it’s often as an economic basket case. (To what extent

Dollars and sense

Why the election of Donald Trump in the United States has turned into an existential crisis for independent media in Latin America How do democracies die? Quickly, or slowly? In

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