San Francisco News

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu: Turkey’s opposition leader is leading in the polls, here’s what you need to know
Balki Begumhan Bayhan, Coventry University Turkey’s general election on Sunday, May 14 will see voters cast their ballots for 600 members of its parliament and the country’s powerful presidency. This election has become intensely competitive in a country which has undergone severe democratic erosion over the past decade, but may now be looking for change. Turkish president, and previously prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is attempting to extend his 21-year rule, but the unified opposition candidacy is now consistently ahead the in the polls. Many opposition parties agreed to nominate the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu,

The coronation of King Charles III: 5 Essential reads on the big royal bash – and what it all means
Matt Williams, The Conversation The United Kingdom is about to embark on an orgy of flag-waving pomp and pageantry in celebration of King Charles III’s coronation. Charles is already the ruling monarch, having ascended to the throne following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. So this is more of a chance for him and everyone else to dress up and have a bit of an old-fashioned royal knees-up. Despite events taking place in a relatively small island off the coast of mainland Europe, the footage of King Charles being anointed with oil and accepting the regalia

Deadly heatwaves threaten to reverse India’s progress on poverty and inequality – new research
Ramit Debnath, University of Cambridge and Ronita Bardhan, University of Cambridge Record-breaking heatwaves in April 2022 put 90% of people in India at increased risk of going hungry, losing income or premature death, according to our new study. After 2022 was designated the hottest in 122 years, extreme heat has appeared early again this year with over 60% of India recording above-normal maximum temperatures for April, according to the country’s Meteorological Department. El Niño, a natural climate event that can increase global temperatures, is also expected to occur this year. The increasing frequency of such deadly heatwaves could halt or

Sudan’s conflict has its roots in three decades of elites fighting over oil and energy
Harry Verhoeven, Columbia University Sudan stands on the brink of yet another civil war sparked by the deadly confrontation between the Sudan Armed Forces of General Abdelfatah El-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”). Much of the international news coverage has focused on the clashing ambitions of the two generals. Specifically, that differences over the integration of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces into the regular army triggered the current conflict on April 15, 2023. I am a professor teaching at Columbia University and my research focuses on the political economy of the Horn of Africa. A

Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ are a problem – but a lot of thought is going into preventing their spread
@, Nottingham Trent University Last week, Colombia recorded its first road traffic incident involving a hippopotamus. A car collided with the animal at speed leaving it dead on the road. The hippo was a descendent of the four animals that notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar imported from a zoo in the US to his luxurious Hacienda Nápoles estate in Colombia in the 1980s. The four hippos, which included three females and one male, were abandoned after Escobar’s death in 1993 due to the difficulty associated with moving them to a wildlife sanctuary. The hippos then escaped the untended estate and

Explainer: why has fighting broken out again in Sudan and what does it mean for the region?
Anne L. Bartlett, United Arab Emirates University In the last few days, a deadly conflict has erupted in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, between rival factions of the armed forces, leaving at least 180 people dead and at least 1,800 civilians and combatants injured. The fighting, which broke out between the Sudan Armed Forces led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, saw fighter jets take to the skies over the capital and armed fighters take to the streets. Militia vs military The latest fighting comes as no surprise to many in Sudan,

The US is about to blow up a fake warship in the South China Sea – but naval rivalry with Beijing is very real and growing
Krista Wiegand, University of Tennessee As part of a joint military exercise with the Philippines, the U.S. Navy is slated to sink a mock warship on April 26, 2023, in the South China Sea. The live-fire drill is not a response to increased tensions with China over Taiwan, both the U.S. and the Philippines have stressed. But, either way, Beijing isn’t happy – responding by holding its own staged military event involving actual warships and fighter jets deployed around Taiwan,

All wars eventually end – here are 3 situations that will lead Russia and Ukraine to make peace
Andrew Blum, University of San Diego It’s been a year since Russia first launched a full invasion of Ukraine, and, right now, peace seems impossible. Peace talks between the two countries have launched, and then faltered, multiple times. In February 2023, a senior Ukrainian official said that peace talks are “out of the question” – without Ukraine’s reclaiming its territory that Russia overtook 2022. All wars end, however, and research shows that almost half end in some type of agreement to stop the fighting. The others end in victory for one side or when, for a variety of reasons, the

How Putin has shrugged off unprecedented economic sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine – for now
Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University The U.S. and four dozen other countries have imposed punishing sanctions on Russia in reaction to its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The sanctions were unprecedented in their scope and severity for an economy of Russia’s size. The initial sanctions included the freezing of Russian assets abroad and a ban on the export of key technologies to Russia. Over the course of 2022, the sanctions were ratcheted up significantly as the European Union eventually phased in a radical reduction of the purchase of Russian oil and gas. Separately, over 1,200 Western companies closed their

Russia announces its suspension from last nuclear arms agreement with the US, escalating nuclear tension
Nina Srinivasan Rathbun, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences After decades of progress on limiting the buildup of nuclear weapons, Russia’s war on Ukraine has prompted renewed nuclear tensions between Russia and the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his annual State of the Nation address on Feb. 21, 2023, that Russia is “suspending” its participation in the U.S. and Russia’s last remaining nuclear arms agreement – known as New START. “Our relations have degraded, and that’s completely and utterly the U.S.’s fault,” said Putin, who stopped short of entirely withdrawing Russia from the deal that

A year on, Russia’s war on Ukraine threatens to redraw the map of world politics – and 2023 will be crucial
Matthew Sussex, Australian National University Wars are world-shaping. Beyond their immediate human and physical tolls, wars alter the fates of societies and states; of clans, cultures and leaders. They establish new lines of access to resources and influence, determining who has what – and who doesn’t. They set precedents for how future wars are justified and, in the case of attempted conquest, wars can ultimately redraw the map of world politics. One year after its unprovoked invasion on February 24, 2022, Russia’s war against Ukraine encompasses all these dangers. With Ukraine waging an existential battle for its very survival, and

Nicola Sturgeon resignation: the unanswered questions for Scotland and the SNP she leaves behind
Murray Leith, University of the West of Scotland When Jacinda Ardern resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister a few weeks ago, Nicola Sturgeon assured voters she still had plenty left in the tank. Yet apparently, Scotland’s first minister had been thinking about her own future for some time. She said so in her resignation speech on Wednesday, which came as a surprise to much of Scotland. Despite a recent and consistent wave of difficulty and controversy over the gender recognition reform bill, the quest for another independence referendum, a finance investigation into the SNP and an ongoing “ferry fiasco”, there

Turkey’s historic city of Antakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, has been flattened by powerful earthquakes in the past – and rebuilt itself
Christine Shepardson, University of Tennessee Tens of thousands have died and millions have become homeless in southern Turkey and northern Syria after the massive 7.8 earthquake that struck on Feb. 6, 2023. But the ancient Turkish city of Antakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, has been here before. In the late fourth-century Roman world, two days after a powerful earthquake shook the border of Turkey and Syria, the Christian preacher John Chrysostom delivered a sermon to the frightened congregation in his shaken city of Antioch, much as survivors today struggle to understand the destruction. “Your nights are