World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

Ukrainian separatists claimed victory as a referendum in certain parts of Ukraine showed support for independence from Kiev.  The vote itself was highly controversial: the question asked was ambiguous, many Ukrainians boycotted the election, and there are many accusations of fraud.  Nonetheless, some of the separatists asked to join Russia, using the referendum as a valid sign of the legitimacy of their independence.  Russia has slowly backed away from overt support for the referendum, and it appears as if the Russians do not know what their next step should be.  The interim government in Kiev condemned the vote, but it risks open civil war if it moves too hard against the separatists.  One can only hope that negotiations between the separatists and the Kiev government can be fostered before too many irreconcilable steps are taken.

A video of about 100 of the 270 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram was broadcast today.  The girls had apparently been “converted” to Islam as they recited parts of the Koran and were dressed as Boko Haram believes Muslim girls should be dressed.  The leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, was seen in the broadcast and he delivered a speech in which he insisted that the girls would only be released as part of a prisoner exchange.  There is a large-scale intelligence effort by many countries who are assisting the Nigerian government in locating the kidnapped girls, but there is no real likelihood of a rescue attempt any time soon.

NASA has released a study that shows that the ice sheet in Western Antarctica has already melted past “the point of no return” due to climate change.  The US Public Broadcasting System has broadcast an interview with Thomas Wagner of NASA, one of the study’s lead scientists. According to Wagner, the rate of melt exceeds what had been expected and the main effect of the melt will be to raise sea levels far beyond what the IPCC had earlier predicted:  “The next century, we’re looking at maybe three-feet-plus. When we include these kinds of factors, we might have to revise that estimate upwards, maybe four, maybe five, maybe more, and that’s kind of the cutting edge of the research right now.”  Such levels would be catastrophic to all cities close to the seashore right now.

NASA