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By Julia Frances Everett, BA International Relations and Development Studies On 12th November, the border between Iraq and Iran was hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, leaving citizens desperately searching for signs of life amongst the rubble. The earthquake struck 20 miles south of the Iranian city of Halabja
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By Izzie McIntosh, MSc Migration, Mobility and Development At the beginning of November outlets around the world, including the BBC and the Guardian, released reports on the ‘Paradise Papers’ on offshore tax havens to which they relate. The papers are comprised of 13.4 million records, leaked to German paper
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By Edna Mohamed, MA Postcolonial Studies After the Brexit vote in June in which voters chose to leave the European Union, the intensely debated outcome of the vote has introduced questions of how this will work both legally and economically. The EU withdrawal bill, formally known as the ‘Great Repeal
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Interviews conducted and edited by Indigo Lilburn-Quick (BA History and Politics) With Spain in turmoil after the Catalan referendum we asked 4 people invested in the situation their opinion. For information on what’s happening in Catalonia please see the article. The author would like to thank all those interviewed
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By Ali Mitib (BA Law and Politics) On 4th August 2017, Paula Sanderson, the Registrar of SOAS, notified the Student Union that SOAS will ‘stop outsourcing its core support services to private contractors from September 2018’. In contrast to the previous plans of SOAS management to bring only the cleaners
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By Hannah Somerville (MA Arabic Literature) Calls for clarity were issued last week as SOAS squares up to a deepening financial crisis. The university is facing a £4.7m projected deficit this year and its executive board has been tasked with finding at least £3m of savings between now and
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By Lucy Beach (BA History) Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has come under scrutiny in recent months from the international community over the violence of the army towards the Rohingya people of the Rakhine state in Myanmar. Ethnic tensions between the Buddhist majority and the Rohingya have
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By Tom Matsuda (BA International Relations and Japanese) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a report saying that higher tax rates would not necessarily harm economic growth rates in major economies. Moreover, the Washington-based international organisation has also stated that this would reduce the high levels of economic inequality
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By Ahmad Jamal Wattoo (BA Politics) After a decade-long rift, Hamas and Fatah announced their reconciliation in Cairo, Egypt on October 12th. This settlement between both Palestinian factions will likely play a large role in strengthening the Palestinians’ bargaining power vis-a-vis Israel. It has been agreed under the settlement that
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By Ali Mitib (BA Law and Politics) The first SOAS Union General Meeting (UGM) of the academic year took place on 13th October 2017. UGMs are meetings involving all members of the Students Union (SU), where members of the SOAS community are welcome to put forward, discuss, amend and pass
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By Maya Alsughaiyer (BA Politics and World Philosophies) On October 12th, the U.S. State Department declared that the country will be withdrawing from UNESCO at the end of 2018 citing the organisations “continuing anti-Israel bias”. The announcement was followed by Israel’s decision to also quit the 72-year-old world
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By Indigo Eve Lilburn-Quick (BA History and Politics) On October 1st, I sat with my flatmates in pure horror and disgust watching video after video of peaceful protesters getting assaulted by an armed police force in Barcelona. Right there and then, I was ready to get “Visca Catalunya” tattooed across