World News
How Famine Gets Officially Declared — and Why the Word Is So Rare
The IPC scale is the world's famine meter: statistical thresholds, committees of specialists and a politics of the word itself.
Valentina Sokolov · August 1, 2026
World News
International news as it develops: election results and disputed counts, coups and government collapses, strikes and infrastructure attacks, sanctions packages, border closures, evacuations and humanitarian emergencies. Items carry enough background to be read without prior coverage, and note what is confirmed versus what remains a single-source claim.
World News
Peacekeeping's Annual Cliffhanger: The Mandate Renewal
Eleven missions, eleven expiry dates and one veto-wielding party with opinions — how UN blue helmets survive year to year.
Valentina Sokolov · July 9, 2026
World News
How Inspectors Verify That States Aren't Building Bombs
The IAEA's safeguards system runs on seals, cameras, samples and statistics — the most intrusive verification regime states have ever accepted.
Amara Okonkwo · June 16, 2026
World News
The WTO's Supreme Court Has Been Vacant for Years. Trade Law Improvises
Washington blocked every appointment to the Appellate Body since 2019 — and the system's workaround tells you where trade power really sits.
Amara Okonkwo · May 25, 2026
World News
When the Security Council Blocks, the General Assembly Pushes Back
Emergency special sessions let all 193 states act where the five permanent members cannot — a 1950 mechanism having its busiest decade since the Cold War.
Amara Okonkwo · May 2, 2026