insert_link Opinion Pieces Social media: Disinformation expert offers 3 safety tips in a time of fake news and dodgy influencers Boniface Muthoni/SOPA Images/LightRocke By Fabrice Lollia, Université Gustave Eiffel Social networks have revolutionised the way we communicate, stay informed and share moments of our daily lives. We use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to keep in touch with our friends and family, share our experiences, keep informed, and express our opinions. But beyond these personal and often superficial uses, social networks play a much more complex […] todayAugust 9, 2024 20
insert_link 3 Science & Technology ‘Gun control is dead and we killed it’: unmasking the ‘lonely incel’ who designed the world’s most popular 3D-printed firearm This anonymised image of FGC-9 creator ‘JStark1809’ was posted online with the gun’s designs in 2020. JStark1809/Deterrence Dispensed via Wikimedia, CC BY-NC By Rajan Basra, King's College London Every year, on Easter Sunday, Irish republicans commemorate their martyrs, remembering lives lost during the 1916 Easter Rising and in the years since. Such events have a pattern: a street parade, speeches and flowers at the cemetery. The […] todayJuly 1, 2024 49 3
insert_link World Trump’s post-conviction windfall shows democracy is increasingly a pay-to-play game By Daniel Drache, York University, Canada and Marc D. Froese, Burman University In the hours immediately following Donald Trump’s recent hush-money conviction in a Manhattan courtroom, his presidential campaign raked in US$53 million from small donors. Why are regular people without deep pockets throwing so much money at a convicted felon? In the United States today, as in many other countries with a populism […] todayJune 10, 2024 15
insert_link Africa Sudan’s descent into chaos sets stage for al-Qaida to make a return to historic stronghold By Sara Harmouch, American University “Sudan’s moment has come; chaos is our chance to sow the seeds of jihad,” warned Abu Hudhaifa al-Sudani, a high-ranking al-Qaida leader, in an October 2022 manifesto. His words may have seemed premature at the time, but a year of brutal civil war has now plunged Sudan into the kind of chaos in which terrorist groups thrive. The risk of […] todayMay 14, 2024 17
insert_link World Putin’s Russia: first arrests under new anti-LGBT laws mark new era of repression By Sergey Katsuba, University College Dublin Just over three decades after Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, three people have been arrested and charged under the country’s harsh new anti-LGBT laws and could face ten years in prison for membership of an “extremist organisation”. The arrests are a clear indication of how Russia has come full circle on its persecution of sexual minorities under Vladimir Putin. On March […] todayApril 10, 2024 15
insert_link World Australia suggests it could recognise Palestinian state Australia on Tuesday became the latest country to advocate formal recognition of a further shattering a long-standing diplomatic taboo in the West. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that recognising a state of Palestine could restart the moribund Middle East peace process and undermine extremist forces in the Middle East. "Recognising a Palestinian state -- one that can only exist side by side with a secure Israel -- doesn't […] todayApril 9, 2024 27
insert_link Africa Slums and guns in Bamako: what’s driving the illegal weapon trade in Mali’s capital city By Oluwole Ojewale, Institute for Security Studies As west Africa urbanises, many cities have become interconnected through trade, travel and technology, and crime has increased in complexity and scope. The proliferation of arms in west African cities, especially in the aftermath of conflicts in Libya (2011) and Mali (2012), has added to these challenges in Bamako, Mali’s capital. In 2018, the Small Arms Survey estimated that roughly […] todayFebruary 19, 2024 12