Columns
Dear readers of the Spirit, Welcome to our final edition of the Spirit for this academic year. I never really know what to write in these notes because, unlike an academic essay, I don’t have to stick to a theme or a certain structure. I don’t have to
Columns
Written by Sam Lailey, Senior Staff Writer, MA Anthropology of Global Futures and Sustainability. For my last Spirit article, I wanted to write about food justice, a subject I have been discovering more about over the past year. Yet, it is a topic so infinitely vast that even deciding where
News
Written by Roxanna Brealey, Editor-in-Chief, BA History and Politics. From March 10-11th, academic and non-academic support staff took part in UNISON strikes across campus. 85.5% of SOAS UNISON members were in favour of strike action, protesting the 1.4% national pay increase for the higher
culture
Written by Charlotte Allex, BSc Politics, Philosophy and Economics. On December 5th 2025, Netflix publicly announced their intention to purchase a large portion of the Hollywood giant, Warner Bros. For an initial bid of $82.7 billion in total enterprise value, it appeared that WB would quickly become a Netflix
features
Written by Ava Bland, BA Politics & International Relations. Allow me to paint a picture for you. I am at the London Green Party conference in 2025, and after many panel discussions, the Q&A begins. A woman stands up and emotionally delivers her gratitude to Zack Polanski, leader
National News
Written by Isabel Balkhi, MA Social Anthropology and Persian. The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer achieved a historic win in the Gorton and Denton by-election on Thursday, February 26th. Defeating both Reform UK and pushing the incumbent Labour Party into third place, the Manchester native secured a surprising majority
National News
Written by Emilie De Maerschalck, BSc Politics, Philosophy and Economics. On February 13th 2026, three senior judges at the Royal Court of Justice ruled that the UK government acted unlawfully in designating the direct-action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Crowds outside the court erupted in chants of
Your Independent Student Newspaper
Written by Mahliqa Ali, MA Global Media and Digital Communications. The UK’s driving test backlog has reached a crisis point, with three-quarters of test centres now hitting the 24-week maximum average waiting time to book a practical test, according to data from the Driver and Vehicle Standards
Written by Kenza Bajjar, Sports & Societies Section Editor, BA Politics and International Relations. On March 1st 2026, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer positively replied to the United States’ request to use British air bases for ‘defensive’ retaliatory strikes against Iran. Only a few hours later, he rescinded that permission,
Written by Sylvie Topps, LLB Law. Former Labour minister Peter Mandelson has emerged at the centre of the fallout from the second release of the so-called ‘Epstein Files.’ After more than four decades at the heart of Labour Party politics and UK economic policy, Mandelson is now under criminal
Written by Anon Yu Henriksen, International News Staff Writer, BA International Relations and Korean. Ever since the ‘Greenland crisis’ escalated at the end of last year, major Western state leaders seemingly had quite a ‘Chinese time of their lives,’ flocking to Beijing. Chinese state-run media outlet ChinaDaily has named
Written by Camilla Taylor, Senior Sub-Editor, BA International Relations. When Stephen Odour (false name) arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia, last August, he believed he was at the start of a bright new future. After months of being unemployed in Nairobi, the plumbing job he had secured in Russia promised
Written by Rachel Tay, MA Middle Eastern Studies. On the first Friday prayers of Ramadan, Israeli authorities tightened access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, limiting entry to 10,000 Palestinian worshippers. This figure represents only a fraction of the over 2.5 million muslims living in
Written by Dhruva Nagesh, BSc Politics, Philosophy and Economics. On Christmas Day 2025, a US Navy ship situated in the Gulf of Guinea fired 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles towards Sokoto State, in north-west Nigeria. American Vice President J.D. Vance and senior National Security Council officials framed the operation
Written by Imaan Ashraf, BA Politics and International Relations. "We are urged to consider Sara Zirak's evidentiary question: Where are the bodies of Iranian women? The answer lies in systematic political erasure." The Iranian regime’s metaphor of women as ‘flowers’, reveals a logic of expendability
Written by Ahmed Can Sever; Iris Brown; Samir Chowdhary-Fitton; Sigitas Botvycius; Wagena de Tommasi. For the past two weeks, heads of state and government have descended on New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly to address the international community, speaking not only about their own countries, but
Written by Midnight Adams, MSc Humanitarianism, Aid and Conflict. Amelia Dimoldenberg’s recent event on the future of digital media at the Southbank Centre in London proved that even the current kings and queens of the digital world are uncertain about its future. The selection of panellists was at best
"My boyfriend posts political infographics on his Instagram story all the time…but refuses to post me." Dear Reader, My sincerest apologies that you have been put in this scenario. It can be tough dating a guy who refuses to post you. I often hear the infuriating excuses:
"Both movements normalise the idea that certain groups are inherently ‘other’, justifying exclusion and violence."