Humour is effective as a line of attack against authoritarian post-truthers like Trump. And like post-truth, humour is about feelings and the effect on your audience. But Lasse Thomassen suggests that humour – used well – can help make us see new truths to which we were otherwise blind
A recent ruling in the case of a Slovak journalist who suffered years of online abuse is a stark reminder of widespread gendered violence against women in public life. Ján Michalko argues that this form of violence puts democracies at risk and demands an urgent response, including efforts to transform unequal gender norms that enable it
Mexico has adopted rules requiring broadcasters to flag programmes that mix news and opinion. Julio Alberto Barajas Servin argues that these labels should be judged by whether the people they are meant to help notice and understand them. A legal duty matters little when viewers cannot use the signal to distinguish news from commentary
In the run-up to Sweden's 2026 election, far-right parties treated the hijab as proof that migrants neither belong nor can be assimilated. Azher Hameed Qamar argues that this debate reveals a democratic tension. Does equality demand sameness? Or does it protect participation despite cultural differences
Haktan Ural draws on social media posts from Türkiye's anti-alimony campaigns to show how a currency crash and years of economic insecurity fuelled rage against gender equality. When progressive politics failed to answer economic pain, anti-gender movements stepped in
Pakistan has emerged as an important diplomatic channel between Iran and the United States. Saima Afzal explains why Islamabad’s relationships with Iran, Washington and the Gulf often seen as a difficult balancing act have instead become a source of diplomatic leverage
A quarter-century after 9/11, Islamist terrorism no longer dominates headlines. But has the public really become less responsive to it? Many politicians, journalists, and scholars think so. But research by Amélie Godefroidt, Micha Germann, and Fernando Mendez suggests that Islamist attacks continue to shape political attitudes in Western democracies as much as they did two decades ago
Eytan Ellenberg uses Israel’s fragmented party system to ask four questions often collapsed into one: can a new party enter parliament, enlarge its political bloc, improve its chances of governing, and reconfigure the alliances through which a majority becomes possible?
Last year, Slovakia overturned controversial new reporting and disclosure requirements for non-governmental organisations. The country's subsequent turn to administrative scrutiny illustrates a broader problem. Drawing on new survey experiments in Slovakia, Hungary and Türkiye, Ilker Kalin shows that targeting 'foreign-funded' organisations does little to legitimise restrictions. Yet quieter administrative pressure may be harder to recognise and resist
Icelanders have voted against reopening accession talks with the European Union. Veronica Anghel and Erik Jones claim that the result prevents Iceland from seeking a formal decision-making role for now, but changes nothing about how deeply Iceland already participates in the European project
We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. These will be set only if you accept.
▼
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.
▼
Analytics Cookies
Google Analytics
We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone. For more information on how these cookies work please see our Privacy Notice.
