While Brazil has been attacked internationally, British Columbia is cutting old-growth forest in some areas where trees date back to the Middle Ages three times faster than the Amazon rainforest.
This year topic of the Valdai Discussion Club was around the theme of “The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use,” aimed to go beyond merely describing a multipolar world and instead explore how to live in and navigate it.
The outbreak of the latest Iranian War on February 28 is far more significant and dangerous than the 2025 Twelve-Day War. The stakes have been raised considerably: the United States has been directly involved from the outset, Iran’s head of state has been killed, and there is an explicit attempt to overthrow the regime established by the Islamic Revolution forty-six years ago.
Europe’s current crisis can no longer be explained solely in economic or migratory terms. What began as a pragmatic decision to sustain economic productivity has evolved into a profound demographic, cultural, and spiritual transformation that threatens historical continuity. An aging, secularized, and fragmented continent appears to have lost confidence in itself. Declining birth rates, large-scale immigration from predominantly Muslim-majority societies, and the erosion of Europe’s Judeo-Christian identity are not isolated phenomena but symptoms of a deeper existential crisis.
With the Trump administration’s 2025 “reciprocal tariff” program under legal attack, its trade team has signaled it will immediately seek alternative legal grounds if the Supreme Court invalidates the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The relationship between the ECHR and the CRPD shows a growing convergence in the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. While not formally bound by the CRPD the ECtHR in some cases refers to it in its judgements, emphasizing the need for procedural accommodations to comply with the requirements enshrined in Article 6 of the ECHR. Landmark cases, such as Stanev v. Bulgaria (2012) highlight the Court’s emphasis on legal capacity and meaningful participation contributing to a coherent human rights framework in Europe.
