Tag: Russia

Thoughts coming from a book I didn’t even want to read

I had the story of Russian protest group Pussy Riot on my shelf for quite some time, but only in the last few months have I felt inclined to take a look behind the workings of the Russian state machinery. The book was actually a friend’s copy, and I had it for an embarassingly long time. About two years ago she gave it to me saying it’s something I need to read, and I was meaning to, but there was always some other book to be read first (you know how it is with books). I even tried to give…

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Podcast recommendations to make sense of these uncertain times

Many of my favourite international law/world affairs podcasts dealt with the war in Ukraine in the past two weeks, here’s what’s worth a listen. It feels kind of insensitive to indulge in brilliant professional conversations or clever writings when it’s on the account of millions of people suffering, but at the same time it’s more important than ever to find trusted sources and be well informed. When the situation is unfolding and things can change by the hour, news items have a pretty short expriation span, and I think the ones that stay useful even after the facts change are…

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We the peoples…

“… of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scrouge of war…” starts the preamble of the Charter of the UN. I am no expert to wirte an extensive post about what’s happening in the world right now, and I have a very different post half-prepared (or half-finished) about Russia to be shared sometime, but as everybody, I have thoughts. Instead of pretending to be knowledgeable about this stuff, let me share those. Fanatic as I am about the ideals of the post world war system of international organizations, I have a dove-shaped copy of the above…

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Sunday Smack

Happy International Women’s Day everybody! We are closer to gender equality than ever before, but we have a lot of work ahead of us. We are #GenerationEquality and we will not give up on an equal future.#IWD2020 #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/9GGdME2oma — UN Women (@UN_Women) March 8, 2020 Check out the details of the IWD2020 campaign on UN Women’s site. And here’s some additional reading for you. We Should Be Thanking Our Lucky Stars for the World Health Organization Right Now We do have an international organization that can deal with public health emergencies such as we’re facing these days, when it…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everyone! It’s been a while. A long while. Being away from this platform had nothing to do with my professional life, as I am still very much interested in world affairs, I am still reading a lot on the topic, and I really do want to blog about it again. This week’s collection is some kind of a test as I am planning to bring this blog back to life. Today’s weather in Hungary brought a strong autumn-y feeling, and fall is a good (well, as good as ever) occasion to start new things, so I will try…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, Everybody! I have had the best time in London earlier this week. Although sunny London is still my favorite London, snowy London was a spectacular sight to see! And I’ll be back in just four months! Until then, there is a holiday season to get through. Every year I pledge not to become so overwhelmed and overloaded by this time, and every year I fail. It is a busy time at work and with everything else to get done, by the time it’s actually Christmas I just wish to get it over with and be able to sleep….

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! I hope all is well with you all. I am still not in a chatty mode, but I have several posts and even a big change planned on this site. Until then, I hope you’ll enjoy this weekend’s reading. Saudi Power Play Sends Shockwaves Abroad More than one week on, it is still not clear where this all leads. A Coup in Zimbabwe? Robert Mugabe is Seemingly Deposed It does indeed seem like the end for one of the longest ruling leaders in Africa. Hopefully the change will serve the people of Zimbabwe in all positive ways. The…

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Sunday Smack

Happy weekend! I hope this finds you well. We are about to see the end of yet another extreme heat wave that affected several parts of Europe, and science says in the years to come, it will only get worse (while others still say climate change is myth).  My Feedly feed was unusually easy to keep clean this week, my favorite bloggers must be on holiday. And there is not much to write about in terms of world affairs too, which I guess, in a certain perspective is good. Souring Relations Between the United States and Russia May Impact North…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! How about that Emmanuelle Macron moment at the family photo? Apparently they thought they could make him stand in the back row and they were wrong. I bet all the others were thinking “huh, who knew you could do that?”. The G20 had more memorable moments of course, as this BBC collection shows, poor Chancellor Merkel must have had a hard time handling all these difficult men (wouldn’t it be much simpler if women ruled the world?). LOL at her eye-rolling at Putin. I hope your summer is going well so far, here’s some reading for today. Can this Woman…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! Wow, what an eventful week!  I couldn’t agree more with the Monday cover of La Razón, thank you France for voting inclusion and democratic values! Vive la France! The most turmoil of course was in US politics this week, as is kind of usual these days. It’s also kind of usual for me to refer you to late show clips, because these guys are doing their jobs amazingly no matter how hard it is these days (*coughs* #fakenews). Nothing proves it better than the fact that they actually irritate the president. On a lighter note, U2′s #U2TheJoshuaTree2017 Tour…

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