World

North Korea has long been infamous for its hyperbolic rhetoric. While there are some subjects – such as the locations of its nuclear facilities – that it has so far managed to keep quiet on, the ongoing calls to oust South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, following his botched attempt to impose martial law last week has proved too irresistible for Pyongyang to hold back on for long. After all, in North Korea’s eyes, any attempt to delegitimise South Korea is one worth taking. North Korea’s week-long silence following Yoon’s bizarre invocation and revocation of martial law in the South last week was unusual. Pyongyang did not even conduct any missile

Carlsberg, the brewing giant whose presence in Russia transformed that country’s beverage market, has left. What remains is the lingering residue of a boozy party that peaked too soon, ended in a brawl and left many questions dangling. As it heads for the exit of Russia’s brutal, wartime asset reallocation process, Carlsberg – a flagship Danish company – takes with it something close to $322 million. This is the price reportedly struck for the sale of Carlsberg’s presence in Russia to a company called VG Invest that, according to the Financial Times, looks like a management buy-out.  It is not certain precisely how much cash Carlsberg will take home as it surrenders

A momentous fortnight in the Levant. Following a negotiated ceasefire agreed in between Israel and Hezbollah bringing a fragile possibility of peace to Lebanon, opposition forces in Syria drove the dictator Bashar al Assad into exile. They ended 54 years of autocratic rule by the Assad family and 14 years of acute suffering for the Syrian people since the uprising of the so–called ‘Arab spring’. Syrian Army soldiers not only abandoned their posts but also dumped their uniforms – though apparently not their guns – and thousands fled across the border to Iraq to avoid retribution. Around the world in countries that have given refuge to Syrian refugees in recent