Tag: Ukraine
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…
“… 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…
Happy weekend everybody! I am trying to slowly get back into the habit of zeroing my Feedly by the weekend, so I started collecting some worhty blog posts to recommend during the week for you. Although I’ve taken quite long breaks between posts lately, this is actually the 250th Sunday Smack, believe it or not! I’d really like to revive it somehow, but I’m not making promises, just see how it goes. Here is a small collection of good reads in the topic of world affairs/international law for this weekend! What do you think? Let me know which one did…
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…
So, as the busiest week in international diplomacy is over now, here is what I thought of the general debate this year. The 72nd session of the UN General Assembly is well underway and of course keeps going on until next fall. Its most prominent week though with high level officials representing their countries on the GA floor is over now, with the closing of the general debate on Monday. The general debate must seem boring for many. I don’t think there is any one person who sits down and listens to almost 200 speeches in a row for days….
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…
Happy long weekend to everybody who have May 1 as Labour Day off, and happy regular weekend to everyone else! I am spending all three days of this weekend activating my right brain. Follow my Instagram for more on this! Meanwhile, things got wild in world affairs this week, so let’s read about it! (The photo is of course from the UN Security Council’s White House lunch with the President, courtesy of Getty Images.) The United States and China Just Presented Two Very Different Plans With the Same Goal: Getting rid of North Korea’s Nukes. Which Will Work? The hot…
Happy Sunday and happy World Book and Copyright Day! Isn’t this a great occasion for some Sunday reading? I hope you can take some time for that. This has been a busy and interesting week with winter returning to Central Europe (that may or may not be blamed on climate change), ongoing protests in Hungary and elsewhere and of course today’s elections in France. Now let’s do some reading! Referendum Results Risk Further Polarization in Turkey Last week’s referendum is the latest sign that Turkey is moving towards a dangerous direction. ‘Terrorism’ at the World Court: Ukraine v Russia as…
Happy Sunday, Everybody! I hope your spring is going well so far! I was on a short holiday for the second half of the week, so I missed Saint Patrick’s Day as well. Hope you all had a good one! I always wear green for work that day, but no-one ever notices (LOL), so this time I celebrated quietly at home. This week the victory of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy in the Netherlands is another hopeful sign that democrats are still in majority, and now alarmed by last year’s events, they don’t take risks by letting others…
Happy Sunday! Well, after this week, if you are still not worried about the next four years, then you’d better switch channels because you must be watching some other show by accident. I barely had the time to read everything alarmed bloggers posted this week, let alone report here about all that’s happened. I tried to pick posts on some of the most upsetting issues. Three Ways the Proposed Trump Refugee Ban is TOTALLY Unprecedented Let’s start with the most important, one of the bombshell news of the past few days. It is widely reported that the political staff haven’t…