On 24 October 2025, the pro-reunification, Turkish Cypriot candidate Tufan Erhurman won the elections in Northern Cyprus. He won convincingly, with a whopping 62.8% of the vote. For the past 51 years, the island has been divided between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and a Turkish-occupied zone in the north - the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Many attempts to reunite Cyprus have failed due to disagreements between regional actors, primarily

When a conflict is in its twilight hours, its final death throes often manifest as an exponentially rapid alteration in at least one of its combatant’s positions, be they military or diplomatic. In the case of the largest and bloodiest war continental Europe has seen since the Second World War, we can now see clear evidence of the latter - and not from the Ukrainian camp. The culminating peace proposals from a weekend of breakneck cross-Atlantic detente-by-press-communique wi

Two peace proposals now frame the future of Ukraine . Washington's draft plan focuses on concessions and neutrality, while Brussels has unveiled a new framework built around the principle that "borders cannot be changed by force" . At first glance, they seem to represent different strategies. In reality, they reflect two competing ways the world has thought about security for nearly a century. The first is universalism, the idea that every state, large or small, enjoys the sa

Finland and Lithuania are about to send a young man to his death. The 21-year-old in question is Daniil Mukhametov , who has fled Russia to avoid forced military service. Pursued by Russian police, he bought a ticket on the Kaliningrad train that transits Lithuania, used keys purchased online to open a carriage, and jumped from a moving train. He then travelled via Tallinn to Finland, where he sought asylum. Now he is at risk of deportation.  It is almost impossible to believ

In Northern Ireland, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly turned down an invitation  to attend the inauguration of Irish President-elect Catherine Connolly. She had cited her attendance at a number of Remembrance Day events. Some nationalists and unionists claimed this rejection was political , rather than anything to do with Remembrance Day taking priority in a scheduling conflict.  It cannot be said definitively one way or the other if they are correct in this asserti

In the shadows, Putin’s intelligence services have been leaving civilian casualties, sabotaged infrastructure, burnt out buildings and downed planes in their wake for over three years. A ravaged Europe lies almost completely unresponsive. For sixty heartstopping minutes, a full-to-capacity Falcon 900LX jet circles above Bulgaria in a state of panic. The pilots and security detail are frantically scrambling over paper maps and charts, desperate to plot a safe route to the grou

Articles four and five  of the North Atlantic Treaty have been on every European leader’s lips this past week, as Russian drones were...

My family is based in a residential tower block in The Pearl – a small artificial oasis on the northern end of Doha. I had just sat down...

A peaceful sky is worth fighting for, and while Ukrainian air defence has been duelling Russian and Iranian drones since the beginning of...

Mid-August was filled with discussions on the Russia-Ukraine situation.  On the 15 th , Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin  in...

The shift in international perception of the United Arab Emirates that has occurred in the last two decades is a result of perhaps one of...

The persistence of the West’s continuing gluttony for Russian hydrocarbons doesn’t just counteract our aid but is utterly shameful. Why...

Whether Israel is a democracy or not has been the subject of fierce debate since October 7. According to Freedom House , Israel possesses a Global Freedom Score of 73/100. This far exceeds other Middle Eastern nations with Lebanon and Jordan being the next freest countries in the region while not even surpassing a score of 40/100. Israel, however, still lags behind its European and North American allies.  Within the past few weeks, the Netherlands has included  Israel for the

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia was long considered Russia’s most obedient and reliable partner in the South Caucasus....

Over the past three years, a combination of military coups , rising anti-colonial sentiment , and growing influence from alternative...

Myanmar’s civil war may seem distant to Europe, but it represents a crucial test of the European Union’s values and interests in the...

Between 1878 and 1959, Cyprus was administered as a British colony, first under nominal Ottoman sovereignty, then as a formal Crown...

While the international spotlight remains fixated on the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, a recent political upheaval in...

In the build-up to Glastonbury, all eyes were on Kneecap, them having become famous for raising awareness Israel’s genocide in Palestine  at their sets, and with member Mo Chara’s ongoing  terror lawsuit making headlines. Fearing they would pull out all the stops at the world’s biggest music festival, in an unprecedented move, the BBC cut short coverage of the festival’s West Holts stage only for the hour of Kneecap’s set. In a glorious moment of comeuppance, however, the act

Inside Myanmar, the pro-democracy resistance has gathered remarkable momentum against the military junta, even as international support...