The People’s Republic of China is more than enthusiastic about hosting the Winter Olympics of 2022 in its capital city Beijing. However, many others are not so enthusiastic about this event. The opposers claim that China is not a suitable host for this event, citing various human rights abuses -including concentration camps, forced sterilization, suppression of religious rights- an overall totalitarian and corrupt regime, and an aggressive foreign policy. The question is, what is being done?

“This Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will rebuild America’s roads, bridges and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure every American has access to high-speed internet, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and invest in communities that have too often been left behind.”
-The White House Press Release

Freezing cold, lack of sleep, hunger and thirst. These are the difficult conditions from which the migrants at the Poland-Belarus border are suffering. From summer 2021 onwards, thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East with an overwhelming majority of men, are waiting at the border between Belarus and Poland in order to arrive in the European Union in which they hope to seek asylum. In recent years, the world faced different migration crises but this crisis has different aspects from the previous ones.

Being the worst atrocity Europe had seen since World War II, Srebrenica remains as a wound not only in Bosniak's hearts but also as a scar in many who had witnessed this horror even from their screens.

Each year on June 5th; governments, businesses, and citizens all around the globe celebrate the World Environment Day. The tradition started in 1974 to draw attention to urgent environmental issues. The main goal set for this year is to restore the ecosystem to combat climate change and the loss of biodiversity

When we distribute 7 billion people into 195 countries and put them all on a geoid-shaped planet, we are left with a world that never sleeps. While one hemisphere gets ready for bed, the other half is already done with breakfast. Naturally, this system of ours forms a never-ending event cycle that never spoils itself with a break. When scientists are done developing a vaccine in Europe, a businesswoman in South America initiates a new company, while in the Middle East, politicians ratify new treaties.

23rd of April is a special day known by every single people living in Turkey. It is a day to commemorate the establishment of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in Ankara on the 23rd of April 1920, which also marked the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. However, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal - later to be given the surname Atatürk, which means "father of Turks," wanted this day to be dedicated to the children. As a result, from that point onwards, the 23rd of April has been celebrated as Children's Day.

22nd of March is a special day: Global Water Day. On that day, the importance of water will be taught to kids by singing songs, drawing paintings at schools, while water resources are being poisoned. Special clothes for water will be bought, while cotton wastes water a lot. Considering these facts, today, a celebration of that day is not more than a birthday celebration.

COVID-19 vaccines that have been waited worldwide are just ready. Five main vaccines’ tests are just finished or currently undergoing the last phase. Now, everyone asks the same two questions: “Will the vaccines protect us from this disease?”, and “Will our country get vaccines as soon as possible?”. It can be seen as complicated as too much information circulates on the news and the Internet. Nevertheless, the answers are quite simple. Let us see what the answers are.

Unprecedented was a commonly used word to describe 2020. From university lecturers to big employers, it was widely communicated that 2020 was a time of unprecedented adversity, unprecedented hardship, and unprecedented sacrifice.

After 4 long and gruelling days of counting and projecting and worrying (on both sides), the 2020 presidential election is finally over. Joe Biden is going to be the 46th President of the United States, ending 4 long (and brilliantly covered by our writers last month) years of the Trump Administration.

Even though Turkey managed to reduce its COVID-19 cases throughout the last summer, as of September 2020, the number of cases began rising again. While the number of cases is tied back to the early-May statistics, and as the published cases not being all patients, perhaps there are hundreds or thousands more COVID-19 patients around. Amid these events and the relentlessly escalating number of COVID-19 cases all over the country, the Turkish Minister of Education lighted the spots over the reopening of the schools.

As it struggles in trying to keep its position of true neutrality, Switzerland’s international relations always become very intriguing to analyze as time passes. The country’s stance of true neutrality along with its unique application of direct democracy provides an ample amount of exciting circumstances for any international politics enthusiasts and experts looking for a new topic to dissect. One such event occurred on the 27th of September this year, as Switzerland held a landmark referendum on the controversial topics of free movement and immigration.

Varosha, an abandoned district located in the southern quarter of Famagusta, has been officially reopened to the public fairly recently. Its opening received many criticisms from all over the globe, both positive and negative. What is more interesting is the fact that the zone in question had been closed for 46 years, ever since Famagusta came under Turkish control. Then, why is Varosha being reopened to the public just now? What was the matter with this district that led to its closure in the first place? Let’s find out!

The Grand Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopia is building, will be the biggest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed. The dam is being built on the river Nile, thus causing increasing conflict with Egypt. Some fear this tension could lead to a potential war, thus meditation talks have been taking place under the supervision of the US.

We’re at a point in the COVID-19 pandemic where so many people came down with the virus that it’s impossible to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 with contact tracing and quarantining. The world wasn’t ready for this, our pandemic prevention policies have failed because of the lack of political will to implement them and the virus isn’t going away anytime soon. For months now our only hope for ending this pandemic is finding a safe and effective vaccine. According to the New York Times 44 vaccines are in human trials with 5 of them being in the third and final phase of tests.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born into an immigrant Jewish family in 1933, was a widely known US Supreme Court Justice who passed away just a few weeks ago. She was an important figure for the progressive side of the Democrat spectrum, especially known for her revolutionary work in the fields of civil, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. Despite the political dispute surrounding her mortem, RBG has left behind a legacy that would outgrow anyone who might be filling in her spot.

If you have been somewhat present within the circles of gaming in the last few years, online streaming and dedicated followings of various livestream and video sharing platforms, you probably have noticed that streaming platforms do not have the best reputation. As the biggest livestream platform, Twitch is not falling behind. The various controversies of Twitch would take up about two proper articles and a half, and that would still only be scratching the surface.

In the current state of our world, one can only consider one disease when talking about health problems: the novel coronavirus. In the span of half a year, COVID-19 has pushed away all the old discourse about health and healthcare to the side and recreated it from the scratch. Nowadays, experts seem to only talk about respiratory failures, social distancing norms, the virus spread curves and ICUs. Although with a disaster of this magnitude no one can truly be blamed for forgetting other threats still exist, this still does not absolve the world of its traditional duties and responsibilities.

North African country Sudan took the decision of separating the rule of law from religion, meaning that their 30-year-old Islamic rule is now at its end. The transition government signed a treaty with Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North in Addis Ababa on the 3rd of September. This treaty states the importance of the place of secularism in Sudan’s constitution. The treaty also recognizes how Sudan is a multicultural nation with several different religions, thus it needs to protect the freedom of religion and conscience of its people for a more democratic and peaceful state.

When U.S bestseller and globally renowned investigative journalist Robert Woodward secured an up-to-then unseen agreement with President Donald Trump for interviews to use in his then-unpublished book Rage, many people were curious as to what a meeting between the man who uncovered the Watergate incident and one of the most controversial presidents of recent United States history would yield. Now that Rage has come out earlier this month and the interview tapes have been released to the public immediately prior, we can now say that, as expected, there is some significant knowledge worth being discussed in these tapes.

The state of California is once again battling a disastrous wildfire called the El Dorado fire due to its starting location being the El Dorado Ranch Park in San Bernardino county. El Dorado fire started on September 5 Saturday at 10:23 a.m. PT due to a malfunctioning smoke-generating pyrotechnical device used in a gender reveal party. Even though this incident can be regarded as a tragicomical event due to its reasoning for existence its effects had quite been hellish for the people and wildlife affected by it.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exams needed for UK students to get into universities known as A-Levels were canceled leaving grades to be decided by a mix of factors including grades of previous assignments, results of mock exams, teacher predictions of pupils’ grades, and an algorithm.

Both Japan and South Korea play a huge role in today’s economy and politics, regardless of their complicated and long-dated history. The relations between the two nations/states date back to ancient times. Japan has repeatedly tried to invade the peninsula since the 7th century and fully colonized it in 1910.

In early August, we heard from Russia that it approved a coronavirus vaccine for its people, without enough human testing. Putin claimed that he knows that “the vaccine has proven to be efficient and forms a stable unity.” Scientists from all over the world criticized the lack of transparency in the making of the vaccine.

Lebanon has always had a unique place in the Middle East, for being the most religiously diverse country in the region. It has 18 recognised religious groups. Roughly 60% of its population is Muslim, 33% is Christian and 5% is Druze. To sustain peace and provide representation in the country, Lebanon has a sectarian rule.

It goes without saying that the current state we are living in is an unusual time for all of us. Although we all hoped that this pandemic would be over by now, it is still going strong and infecting more people as we speak, even six months after its outbreak. If there is one thing we can be sure of in these uncertain times, it is that this summer was and still is different to any other we have experienced before.

The Republic of Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean and has been independent for five decades after three centuries of being colonized by multiple nations. Island’s economy depends on 74% on the service sector (mostly tourism), which has already been negatively affected by the COVID lockdown for the last six months.

The United Arab Emirates has announced that it is going to fully normalize its relations with Israel on 13th August 2020. With the agreement which has the name Abraham Accord United Arab Emirates now becomes the thirds Arab nation and the first Gulf state to normalize its relations with Israel.

Amidst heavy criticism over its recent steps in handling the COVID-19 crisis, the polish cabinet saw two of its members resigning back to back in a shocking turn of events. Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski notified the public of his resignation this Tuesday, on the 18th of August, only two days later, the Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz joined him in the Polish Cabinet Resignees Club.

Belarus, a small Eastern European country, took most of us by surprise earlier last week when the news about police violence and rigged election blew up on social media. Unfortunately, a closer look shows that these were not actually news and that Belarus has had a history of dictatorship since before we hit the 21st century.

Following the end of the much-contested presidential primary elections, the tickets on the 2020 presidential election’s ballot are finalized: on the Democrats’ side are former vice president Joe Biden for president and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) for vice president, and incumbent President Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence fighting for reelection on the Republicans’ side.

Two events marked the first eight months of 2020 for the USA: their failure in decreasing the number of COVID 19 cases and the Black Lives Matter protests. Both events had an impact on people globally. We saw the news about the rapid COVID increase in the USA everywhere. We were talking with our friends and family about racism - even if it is a very different concept in our cultures.

Contrary to the belief of people outside the United States, the capital of the US-Washington, District of Columbia-is not part of any state. Washington, DC is a “federal district,” meaning it’s governed by the United States Congress. DC residents have been able to vote in presidential elections since 1964 and they have a mayor and a council but they don’t have a vote in congressional elections and DC Council’s decisions can be overridden by Congress.

Uyghurs are one of the minority groups, living mostly in Xinjiang autonomous region in China. Most of them are Muslim and their language is similar to Turkish. They are closer to Central Asian ethnicity than that of Han Chinese. Similarly, it is somewhat recent that they started living under Chinese rule. Xinjiang officially came under the rule of Communist China in 1949.

Hosting the third-largest perennial mass of ice in the world, the Tibetan Plateau, deservedly, holds the title of being the “Third Pole” of the Earth. This sizable quantity of ice acts as a water source for most rivers in the surrounding region such as the vitally important Brahmaputra.

Nobel winning biologist Joshua Lederberg once stated that “The single biggest threat to man’s continued dominance on the planet is the virus.” But for a long time, scientists had believed that the upcoming threat would be because of influenza viruses. So accordingly, the pharmaceutical industry was prepared for that type of viruses.

On the 20th of July, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) successfully launched its first space mission “Al Amal”, or “Hope”, which will conduct research in the Martian orbit. This is the first space mission of the UAE and the first Arabian space mission to Mars. Therefore, it marks a milestone for both Emirati and Arabian space endeavors.

Over the 4 years of the Donald J. Trump administration, one of the USA’s most consistent foreign policies has been hostility towards Iran. President Trump first started attacking the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was seen as one of the greatest diplomatic breakthroughs of the Obama presidency.

Passing by the abandoned and neglected schoolyards on their way to work could have people recall how crowded and noisy these schools were and ask themselves how children would spend their time at their home. The COVID-19 has brought social and economic upheaval to our lives and changed our normalcy over the last six months, but it may be overlooked how children’s and teenagers’ lives undergo an extensive and rapid change throughout this pandemic.

Recently, several internet conspiracy theorists emerged and claimed that Wayfair, an American e-commerce company that sells furniture and home-goods, was facilitating an illegal child trafficking concealed by high-priced storage cabinets in product listings. What is more, these cabinets contained female names – Neriah, Yaritza, Alyvia, and Samiyah – which, from the conspiracy theorists’ perspective, were claimed to be matching with those of real missing children.

Protests began in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia on the 8th of July after the government of Alexander Vucic declared another curfew against the rising number of cases in the country. Both the police and the protestors were hurt during the protests and did not easily come to an end despite Vucic’s decision to cancel the curfew.

Hong Kong is in a crisis that is changing its fate over the last six years. There were signs that the bound with China is about to change. The Umbrella Movement was a series of protests in 2014 that called for more transparent elections for the city’s chief executive and it is clearly a movement against the Chinese government.

West Bank: it is a land located on the west bank of the River Jordan and it is surrounded by Israel to the north, west, and south. Israel has occupied the land since the 1967 Middle East war but its final status has been left unresolved. Also, it became a home to some 430.000 Israeli Jews who built settlements under Israel’s occupation, though the settlements are considered illegal under international laws.

1500-year-old building first served as a church during Byzantinian age, later converted into a mosque by the Ottoman Empire, Hagia Sophia had been used as a museum. On July 10, 2020, President of Turkey Mr. Erdogan announced its reversion to a mosque, which was greeted both positively and negatively. That said, let us take a closer look at the situation retrospectively.

Humans have been developing ways to convince consumers to buy their products since they had any products to sell. This desire gave rise to advertising which, until recently, depended on broad strategies to convince masses through manipulation of human psychology. With social media, companies, organizations, and politicians alike now have the power to individualize their advertisements to more effectively target specific people and audiences based on their user profiles.

Vladimir Putin is a name that needs no introduction. He has been actively ruling the Russian Federation since the end of 1999. In the last 20 years, his country went through countless events from Moscow Theatre Siege to the annexation of Crimea. Yet, he successfully kept his votes and approval ratings at a constant high level.

On the 3rd of July, a firework factory in the Sakarya province of Turkey exploded, killing 7 people. A few days later, another explosion happened while the Turkish Gendarmerie was emptying the factory of unexploded fireworks, killing 3 officers. The factory in which the first explosion occurred had 7 previous explosions, the latest in 2019.

Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline has been in use since 1953, transporting crude or refined oil from Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, a coastal city in British Columbia. In 2013, Kinder Morgan expressed their wish to expand the pipeline by building a new pipeline in parallel to the existing one, including several new pump stations, terminals, and a dock complex in Burnaby for their tankers.

The times we are going through are anything but normal. Many people lost their loved ones, their health, their jobs, their freedom, and their overall well-being to the COVID-19. Everyone has a common wish to return to normalcy. In some successful -or as some may suggest lucky- countries, the normalization process is undergoing. Despite being welcomed by most people, the normalization process carries a huge risk of causing a second wave.

Either in the news or social media, we see that there is an ongoing war in Yemen. Aside from knowing why there is a war in this Middle Eastern country, most of us do not even know where Yemen is. However, it is a fact that one of the worst humanitarian crises of the modern world is now taking place in this country. Having cost thousands of lives and a nation's future, what is the story behind this civil war?

It is often said it is impossible to know when an earthquake will happen. It is true to an extent, but wouldn’t it be nice to have some warning before an earthquake happens, allowing us to make life-saving decisions such as finding a place to hide and brace ourselves from the quake before a tremor hits? Earthquake warning systems do exactly this.

George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on the 25th of May. In the video that went viral, the officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds: 526 seconds in total. Despite Floyd’s repetition of the phrase “I can’t breathe” and the reactions of the bystanders, the officer keeps on kneeling even after Floyd is motionless.

For nearly half a year, Coronavirus has been within our lives, altered today’s world completely. Many countries have been working towards the future, trying their best to cure the disease. However, amid crisis, the eyes have been turned towards the World Health Organisation.

From the earlier days of coronavirus pandemic, there have been discussions of whether this pandemic could possibly alter the world order. This question does not have an answer yet, however, scholars argue that this shift could reverse some patterns of international and national politics and everyday life for the better or worse and arguably could be connotated a “critical juncture”.

Founded in 2011, the video-conference software Zoom has seen a massive surge in its popularity after the COVID-19 outbreak. Going from 10 million to 300 million users amidst the outbreak, the company has almost multiplied its user count by 30.

Political economy is the study of the interaction of politics and economics, which asks the question “How can optimal policies be achieved given the existing political constraints?”. Calculating what is best to do is in the field of economics, and implementing those calculations according to the political landscape in the most efficient way is the political economy’s work.

The Boeing 737-MAX is the 4th generation of the famous Boeing 737 aircraft family. But recently, it is better known for its unreliability and crashes. After experiencing 2 fatal crashes within 5 months, all the 737-MAX planes remain grounded.

In the last few weeks, after it has been declared as a “Pandemic” by World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, the novel coronavirus has managed to invade all aspects of our life. This global emergency has forced countries to close their borders, to suspend schools and universities, and even to utilize wartime measures of curfew.