by Karin Leukefeld,* Germany/Syria
(20 June 2025) Flags are waved again in Syria. Shots of joy ring out through the cities – dancing people laugh at the cameras of international media, waving flags and clapping their hands. Syrians have waited more than ten years for the sanctions against their country to be lifted, and now the moment has finally arrived.
by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India
(13 June 2025) President Donald Trump had a difficult week. No, this isn’t about Elon Musk or Harvard University. On Wednesday, his call to Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t go well. It turned into a ‘conversation’, as Trump wrote on Truth Social, lasting only an hour and 15 minutes, which means, setting aside the time for interpretation, it left no room for substantive discussions.
The call took place against the backdrop of the attack on Russia’s nuclear force on 1 June Trump acknowledged in his Truth Social post later that Putin spoke “strongly” about Russia’s response to come. The post was notable for its subdued tone.
by Pascal Lottaz,* Kioto/Japan
(6 June 2025) In a new publication, historian and legal scholar David Keanu Sai establishes (again) that the Kingdom of Hawaii never ceased to exist, as its 1898 annexation by the USA was void even under US law.
by Dr Peter F. Mayer*
(23 May 2025) More and more former colonies are throwing out their former colonial rulers. In doing so, they are ending more than a century of exploitation. Natural resources such as gold and uranium benefited only the colonialists, while the inhabitants were kept in poverty. That has changed, and the political West is not happy about it.
(16 May 2025 Today we commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War 80 years ago. We remember the estimated 60 million people who died, including 27 million in the Soviet Union, and the immeasurable human suffering caused by this war.
by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India
(9 May 2025) (CH-S) In the Indian region of Kashmir, suspected extremists opened fire on tourists on 22 April, killing at least 26 people according to police reports. Most of the victims were visitors from various parts of India, as well as several people from the resort area near Pahalgam. The situation between India and Pakistan escalated immediately – in the Kashmir region, which has been disputed for decades, the two neighbouring countries accuse each other of stirring up unrest.