The Colombian presidential election showed a clear victory for the centre-left candidate Gustavo Petro. Although it was by only 3 points, it is a difference that avoids the disputes that would have arisen if it had been closer.  It should be noted that the winning candidate, in the days before the election, mentioned the possibility…

At the height of the numerous protests that have swept through Sri Lanka over the past 4 months, a crowd of protesters stormed the presidential palace in the capital Colombo, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee. Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is elected as the ninth President via a parliamentarian election. Uncertain future. On Saturday…

Total world military expenditure increased fractionally in 2021 to reach $2 113 billion, surpassing the $2 trillion mark for the first time, new research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has revealed. Military spending also increased in Africa. SIPRI saw the seventh consecutive year of spending increases, with the five largest spenders last…

An unprecedented initiative that provokes contrasting opinions and evaluations. A double standard in migration policy.  There have been reactions both in favour and against the recent agreement between Great Britain and Rwanda regarding asylum seekers in the United Kingdom and their possible diversion to Rwanda. The agreement was signed on April 14th. Regardless of whether…

Why did British Home Secretary Priti Patel, claiming her aim is to destroy the cross-channel traffickers’ “business model”, choose Rwanda for her recent £120 million Migration and Economic Development Partnership?  And from what budget does the funding come? Asylum seekers and migrants seeking a safe or better life in the UK are to be treated…

Putin’s mother may or may not have been a closet Orthodox Christian who had her son secretly baptized. Metropolitan (head of a major diocese) Tikhon, friend of Putin, first trained as a screenwriter, is known for his ultraconservative nationalist theology, his opposition to democracy and support for censorship as well as his promotion of Orthodoxy…

Fighting climate change requires a basic condition: peace. Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s decarbonization efforts had progressed in the context of COP 26 as it submitted its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with a target of a 65% reduction below 1990 levels by 2030, a net-zero targets by 2060 and an anticipated coal phase-out from 2050…

For more than two decades, the Gulf monarchies have found themselves at the centre of countless geopolitical, economic, and strategic challenges at the regional level. Among these, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have emerged as pivotal actors in the climate of strong transformations taking place in the whole…

On May 29, the first round of presidential elections takes place in Colombia, the third-largest electorate in Latin America in terms of population. It is a country that has been ruled for more than six decades by centre-right forces, following an agreement between them after a long period of political instability, dictatorships and violence, in…

On February 1st, 2021, the Myanmar army (Tatmadaw) announced the change of regime in the country. Within a few hours, the military arrested the leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that won the elections twice in five years, gaining about 80% of the seats in Parliament in November 2020. The army’s…

With its petrodollars and religious penetration, Saudi Arabia is broadening its influence on the continent. It is spreading the Salafi doctrine of radical and conservative Islam. The Saudi heir Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced that next April a summit will be held in Riyadh on collaboration between Saudi Arabia and Africa. What are the…