features
Tanya Kainaat, MA Comparative Literature The 2010s was an interesting decade to be a teenager. It was a time when social media was still something new and exciting, but didn’t prey on our minds. The internet was something we discovered and explored, not something we were raised on. There
Newsletters
Welcome to the first SOAS Spirit Newsletter of this academic year! Our team of staff writers have been hard at work to keep you up to date with any recent developments that might have otherwise escaped your attention. This edition includes student demonstrations, the recent overhaul of the UK’s
Opinion
Salsabeel Yasir, BA History and International Relations Every November, as Remembrance Day approaches, debates over the red poppy resurface. As poppies appear on lapels, so do controversies surrounding them. These criticisms have inspired the rise of the alternative white poppy, created by a pacifist movement to remember all victims of
Opinion
Will O’Donnell, BA Politics and International Relations It’s been an odd year for student expression at SOAS. The shadow of Haya Adam’s expulsion, in combination with the Injunction and various disciplinary mechanisms surrounding student protest, still looms. It is interesting, then, beyond our campus, that repression against
Opinion
Luc Cadwaladr-Evans, BA International Relations and Languages and Cultures We’re often told that, as a result of its skyrocketing into the number one spot in UK party opinion polls, Reform UK has recently and unprecedentedly become the most likely contender to win a general election, if it maintains its
News
Ayah Abu Mraheel, BA History and Politics The takeover of El-Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in late October has been the latest atrocity in a 3-year war in which both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF are reported to have committed war crimes. Since the outbreak
News
Elizabeth Elrick, BA Chinese and Politics Before a parliamentary committee on November 7th, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi went further in her remarks on Taiwan than any previous Japanese Prime Minister. She made it clear that any use of force in Taiwan would ‘constitute a situation threatening [Japan’s] survival.
News
Deepika Anand, Features Section Editor, BA Politics and International Relations The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Dhaka. The verdict was reached in her absence as she is currently in exile
News
Emilie De Maerschalck, Bsc Politics, Philosophy and Economics On the 28th of October 2025, Hurricane Melissa, the strongest recorded storm globally this year, made landfall in Jamaica. The 185 mph winds, torrential rain and storm surges caused unprecedented destruction on the Caribbean island, killing 45 people according to the Jamaica
News
By Anon Yu Henriksen, International News Staff Writer, BA International Relations and Korean During the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with the host President Lee Jae Myung. Their meeting sparked a viral, light-hearted exchange over Xi’s gift to Lee: two
News
Chinaza Iwe, Culture Section Editor, BA History and World Philosophies On November 4th 2025, democratic socialist Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the mayoral election, becoming the youngest New York City mayor since 1892. Mamdani’s campaign was a thing of leftist beauty, from winning the democratic primary and forcing former Governor
News
Iman Hassan (718236), BA Politics and International Relations Between March 2024 and March 2025, 262 prisoners were released in error across England and Wales, more than double the 115 recorded in the previous year. To many, the increase reflects mounting pressure on the prison system, driven by rising population levels,