Tag - democracy

 
 

DEMOCRACY

U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to punish Brazil with tariffs to protect former President Jair Bolsonaro is just one sign that the far right is shifting from rhetoric to real cross-border solidarity that undermines democratic norms.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2025
Trump is trying to build a far-right international alliance
There has been a lack of concrete solidarity among populist leaders. But Trump is changing that in his second term.
A woman casts her vote during parliamentary elections in Qom, Iran, in March 2012. Regime change in the Islamic country is harder than many think, but it has the institutions needed for democracy if it happens.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2025
Iran is more prepared for democracy than many realize
Some commentators, like the economist Nouriel Roubini and the Stanford political scientist Abbas Milani, see regime change as plausible or imminent.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (left) and Donald Trump during their meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 8, 2024
WORLD / Politics
Jul 21, 2025
'Trump before Trump': Orban's illiberal model on show
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been accused of silencing critical voices from the judiciary, academia, media and civil society, and of restricting minority rights.
Since January, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed to secure more power for himself, calling for judges to be axed, firing independent watchdogs and sidestepping the legislative process.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 19, 2025
'Frightening': Trump's historic power grab worries experts
The Republican leader has spent six months testing the limits of his authority like no other modern U.S. president.
The recent massive pride parade in Hungary shows that even under authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, popular resistance for liberal democracy persists — but the region’s deeper political stalemate endures.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2025
Is democracy stalemated?
Yet neither triumphalism nor fatalism captures the real dynamic. A more measured analysis shows that history’s arc is not bending at all — it is stuck.
Lawrence Lau arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building, ahead of hearing appeals from 13 jailed pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 14, 2025
Twelve Hong Kong activists appeal convictions in landmark '47 democrats' case
The court found 45 of defendants guilty of organizing an unofficial primary election in in 2020 after massive pro-democracy protests brought the city to a standstill.
Pro-China supporters hold Chinese flags at an event celebrating the 28th anniversary of the former British colony's handover to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 1, 2025
Hong Kong rights record under fire as it marks China handover anniversary
Lee's government enacted a separate security law of its own in 2024 saying it was needed to restore order.
Taiwan, under constant threat from AI-powered disinformation by authoritarian regimes, has emerged as a global leader in digital democratic defense.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2025
Taiwan provides a model for digital defense of democracy
As the U.S. and others struggle to confront AI-driven disinformation, Taiwan’s resilience has become its latest key export.
Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Sham (center) speaks at a League of Social Democrats press conference at their headquarters in Hong Kong on Sunday. The League of Social Democrats, one of the city's last remaining opposition parties, said it will disband after a five-year political crackdown by Beijing, a year ahead of its 20th anniversary.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 30, 2025
Hong Kong opposition party disbands, citing 'immense' pressure
The League of Social Democrats is the latest opposition party to cease operating after Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 to end democracy protests.
The United Nations Security Council holds a vote during a meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the bodies headquarters in New York on Feb. 24.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jun 26, 2025
Democracy shouldn’t be used as an ideological weapon
The democracy-vs-autocracy framing has widened the divide between democratic countries — “us” — and Russia and its allies — “them.”
Members of an inspection team check the apparent remains of a ballistic missile in northern Israel on Wednesday following the attacks by Iran.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2025
It will take democracy and regime change to end Iran’s nuclear threat
Thanks to Khamenei, Iran has spent almost four decades on a path to war with Israel, which he calls a “cancer” in the region that must be annihilated.
Security personnel keep watch near the portrait of late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong displayed on the Tiananmen Gate, in Beijing on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 4, 2025
We will never forget Tiananmen crackdown, Taiwan and U.S. say on 36th anniversary
The events are not publicly discussed in China and the anniversary is not officially marked.
A vehicle exits Shek Pik Prison after former leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, Jimmy Sham, served a four-year, three-month sentence for conspiracy to commit subversion in a landmark national security case, in Hong Kong, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2025
Second group of Hong Kong democrats freed after 4 years in jail
Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham, who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups.
A woman casts her early vote for the upcoming South Korean presidential election at a polling station in Seoul on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2025
How a Gen Z gender divide is reshaping democracy
Many angry, frustrated men in their 20s were seen breaking to the right in recent elections spanning North America, Europe and Asia.
The Chinese Communist Party has significantly expanded its global influence operations by using tactics like election interference, disinformation, elite capture and pressure on the diaspora to sway politics and policies in democracies worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2025
Is Beijing engineering election wins for 'soft on China' politicians?
Beijing legally requires all citizens to support Communist Party policies and views ethnic Chinese everywhere as instruments for advancing its global goals.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempt to punish Harvard by targeting its international students is an unconstitutional power grab aimed at intimidating free institutions and advancing his authoritarian agenda.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2025
Harvard is fighting for much more than foreign students
Trump is trying to break the world’s leading university because he knows that higher education — everywhere — is one of the bulwarks of a free society.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in parliament in Budapest on Tuesday. Critics have likened recent moves by the prime minister to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to crack down on domestic rivals.
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2025
Viktor Orban tightens grip on freedoms in Hungary ahead of election next year
Over the past 15 years, the premier has expelled a university, overhauled the judiciary and whipped up propaganda campaigns against political opponents.
A car with curtains drawn, one of two, is seen leaving Hong Kong's Shek Pik prison just before sunrise on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 29, 2025
First batch of Hong Kong democrats freed after four years in jail
Four former pro-democracy lawmakers, including Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan, were driven away from three separate prisons across Hong Kong around dawn.
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 21, 2025
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Among the world’s largest democracies, Japan has some of the highest minimum age requirements for politicians.
A wave of fear is spreading in immigrant communities as ICE uses secretive, aggressive tactics, bypassing legal protections and spreading panic reminiscent of authoritarian crackdowns.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2025
Unmarked vans and secret lists. The police state has arrived.
"It’s the unmarked cars,” a friend who grew up under an Argentine dictatorship said. He had watched the video of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction. In the video, which Khalil’s wife recorded, she asks for the names of the men in plainclothes who handcuffed her husband.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person