Editor’s note:on December 18th Lloyd Austin, America’s defence secretary, announced the formation of a naval mission involving ten countries to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
IN OCTOBER CYBER-CRIMINALShacked into the British Library, a storied institution in the heart of London, encrypted its data and demanded money in exchange for the key. Months later the library and its catalogue of 14m books remain offline, with no end in sight. Similar ransomware attacks—in which criminals encrypt or steal data and demand a ransom to decrypt or refrain from leaking it—are not only undermining business and sapping prosperity across North America and Europe. Financially motivated attacks on infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and power utilities, also pose a large and growing threat to national security. Western countries now face what a British parliamentary committee described on December 13th as “a high risk [of] a catastrophic ransomware attack at any moment”.
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
Editor’s note: This article was updated on January 12th to incorporate news of the American and British strikes on Houthi targets, and more.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Gun, boat, diplomacy”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
SINCE ITScreation in 1946 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has heard an average of fewer than three cases a year. Many are obscure, such as a dispute over pulp mills in Uruguay. The trial that began on January 11th, though, was one of the highest drama, when it heard arguments from South Africa that Israel was committinggenocidein Gaza.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “War, war crime, or the crime of crimes?”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
EVEN IN RETIREMENTAharon Barak, a former president ofIsrael’s supreme court, remains a controversial figure. Binyamin Netanyahu’sright-wing governmentspent most of 2023 attempting to dismantle his constitutional legacy. Yet when asked to appoint a judge to join the panel of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing South Africa’s claim thatIsrael is committing genocidein its war in Gaza, it chose Mr Barak, Israel’s most renowned jurist.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Tough justice”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
After donald trumpcruised to victory in Iowa and New Hampshire, his odds of returning to the White House look shorter. That prospect directed much of the chatter at this year’s gathering of the World Economic Forum. One American lawmaker engaged in background diplomacy to calm allies fretted that foreign governments “are freaked out by what they see on social media about American democracy”.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Donald Trump’s looming approach ”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
Editor’s note:On February 14th the chair of America’s House intelligence committee asked Joe Biden to declassify information about “a serious national-security threat”, reportedly concerning a new Russian weapon in space.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Gathering the guardians”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
AROUND HALFthe world’s population, or some 4bn people, live in places that are holding elections this year. These polls will decide who governs over 70 countries. But together they also represent a big test for the health of democratic systems; for over a decade there have been fears that democracy as a political ideal is ailing. By February 14th, when Indonesia went to the polls, we estimate that countries with 770m people had cast ballots (or prevented their citizens from doing so): or roughly 18.5% of the year’s total. That makes it possible to take an initial look at how the 2024 democracy test is going. The short answer is: not particularly well.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Taking stock of 2024 so far”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
IT IS UNUSUALfor spymasters to taunt their rivals openly. But last month Bill Burns, the director of theCIA, could not resist observing that the war in Ukraine had been a boon for his agency. The remark might well have touched a nerve in Russia’s “special services”, as the country describes its intelligence agencies. Russian spies bungled preparations for the war and were then expelled from Europe en masse. But new evidence gathered by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think-tank in London, shows that they are learning from their errors, adjusting their tradecraft and embarking on a new phase of political warfare against the West.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The return of Russia’s spies”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
AFRICA’S WILLINGNESSto break with the West has been flaunted in recent years. After Russia invaded Ukraine 17 African countries abstained from aUNvote condemning the invasion. Last year, as the West refused negotiations with Russia, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and three other African presidents led a peace mission to Russia and Ukraine. This year South Africa’s case against Israel’s actions in Gaza in the International Court of Justice was a public act of defiance (America decried it as “meritless” and “counter-productive”). Mr Ramaphosa has also attended meetings with the presidents of China, Iran and Russia over the past eight months.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Africa’s giant game of risk”
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur
It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice
The answer matters more than you think
Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change
