Chinese New Year Celebration. Photo Credit: Christopher A. Dominic via Flickr
‘It Is a Government Crime’: The Coffins of Russia’s Ghost Soldiers In Ukraine Are Coming Home
By Lucy Kafanov
Vice News
As the death toll in Ukraine rises, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Kremlin to stick to its party line that there are no Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine, or if there are, they’re “vacation.” Kafanov looks into the soldiers who have been lost, how their families have coped, and how Putin’s carefully crafted narrative about the incursion could be falling short.
My Friend, Stalin’s Daughter
By Nicholas Thompson
The New Yorker
Once known as the “little princess of the Kremlin,” Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s only living child, became the most famous Cold War defector in 1967. But the attention didn’t last, and by the time the Cold War ended, she was hardly ever spoken of. Thompson, who first reached out to her in 2006 for a book, profiles her in this New Yorker piece.
How Yarmouk refugee camp became the worst place in Syria
By Jonathan Steele
The Guardian
Located near the center of Damascus, Yarmouk was once meant as a refuge for Palestinians. Now, though, with no running water, limited electricity, no access for food, and little hope for safely traveling between the community and the rest of the city, it’s quickly become one of the worst and most dangerous places in Syria.
“If My Family Knew Any of This, They Would Kill Me. I Mean Literally Kill Me.”
By Bel Trew
Matter
Being gay or transgendered may not be illegal in Egypt, but the government certainly acts like it is. Trew looks into how the challenges facing the gay community in Egypt have changed since Morsi’s ouster in summer 2013 and how matters have gotten worse, not better, under secular rule.
The Plot to Free North Korea With Smuggled Episodes of Friends
By Andy Greenberg
Wired
“Regime change in the hermit kingdom” is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the hit ’90s television show Friends. But for the North Korea Strategy Center, one of the largest in a series of political groups smuggling data into the secluded country, the two are undoubtedly synonymous.
Blogs:
Cyprus goes cap in hand to Moscow by James Nadeau
Turkish Kurds: The Predicament of Opportunity by Mark Varga
Poland and CSDP: From Wales to Warsaw with a strategic stopover in Brussels by Dominik Jankowski
By Any Other Name: The Words We Use by Cate Mackenzie
New Delhi Reacts to China’s Military Buildup by Gary Sands
