Targeting civilian power supply earns Russia the “state sponsor of terror” title as winter’s chill begins to bite
By Jonathan Este, Associate Editor, International Affairs Editor Large areas of Ukraine, including the capital, are now without power much of the time. And still Moscow persists with its strategy of targeting Ukraine’s power supply. It’s hard to argue – as the Kremlin...
Mariupol’s Holodomor Memorial destroyed by occupation troops to further erase Ukrainian history
Russian occupiers of Mariupol dismantled the Monument to the Victims of Holodomor in late October, the Famine of 1932-33 created by dictator Joseph Stalin that claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians. The current Russian regime has asserted...
Ukraine United: Following his failed military strategy Putin’s war of false narratives is also crumbling
By Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan People understand the world, where we came from, how we got here, and where we are likely to go because of the stories we tell about ourselves and others. The very political and social...
Online language tools: A personal journey to learn Ukrainian after Russia’s second invasion began
I began to learn Ukrainian in the early spring of 2022, shortly after the start of Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine. For me, languages are an important way of making sense of the world and creating connections. At that time, more than anything, I wanted to feel...
Years of investigating Holocaust atrocities are helping unearth Russian war crimes in Ukraine
“Everywhere, when we liberate our land, we see one thing … Russia leaves behind torture chambers and mass burials of murdered people. This was the case in Bucha and other cities in the north of the country after the occupation. This was the case in the Kharkiv...
Could Russia collapse? It may be unthinkable but nobody predicted the end of the USSR either
By Matthew Sussex, Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Among the many questions asked about Russia’s disastrous war against Ukraine, one of them is posed only very rarely: can Russia survive what seems increasingly likely to be...
Revisiting Red Dawn: How war imitated art with the 1984 movie that inspired Ukrainian resistance
By Alfio Leotta, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington When images from Ukraine of abandoned Russian tanks tagged with the word “Wolverines” circulated in early April after the invaders failed to capture Kyiv, movie buffs got the message...
LGBTQ club mass shooting: How Red flag laws failed to prevent a gunman from acquiring AR-15-style weapons
By Alex McCourt, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University The killing of five patrons in a Colorado LGBTQ bar on November 19 is the latest mass shooting to garner headlines in the United States. Police have said they have yet to...
Waste not, want not: Lessons from the Japanese philosophy of not throwing everything away
By Kevin C. Taylor, Director of Religious Studies and Instructor of Philosophy, University of Memphis The word “waste” is often frightening. People fear not making the most of their time, whether at work or at leisure, and failing to live life to the fullest. Warnings...
Demise of Twitter? The world would lose valuable eyewitness accounts but also a habitat for trolls
By Anjana Susarla, Professor of Information Systems, Michigan State University What do a cybersecurity researcher building a system to generate alerts for detecting security threats and vulnerabilities, a wildfire watcher who tracks the spread of forest fires, and...
What the midterms taught us: While the “Red Wave” was thwarted our fragile Democracy remains at risk
The winds blowing in Washington and many communities post-election just might be a sigh of relief. The red wave, or red tsunami as Ted Cruz boasted, evaporated. “There wasn’t even a red splash,” as New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie put it....
Vote at your own risk: 21st-century voter intimidation follows long history of illegal bullying by racists
By Atiba Ellis, Professor of Law, Marquette University In Travis County, Texas, home to Austin, a local Republican Party official allegedly knocked on people’s doors in November 2022 to accuse people who cast ballots by mail of having been ineligible to vote. In...