World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

A US Senate report has detailed the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 US national election.  There were two studies done: one by New Knowledge and another by the University of Oxford.  Much of the interference was done by a Russian entity called the Internet Research Agency (IRA) which conducted extraordinary misinformation campaigns, much of which targeted African-Americans.  The interference was huge:  “The new research also points to the previously underappreciated prominence of the IRA’s use of Instagram. It notes that IRA posts on the photo-sharing platform received 187 million engagements, which dwarfed the 76.5 million engagements that IRA posts received on Facebook.”  The Russian effort was incredibly sophisticated and showed an uncanny understanding of American culture and politics.   The effort shows that we need to have a more up-to-date understanding of war.

It appears as if Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban might be overplaying his hand in his attempt to turn Hungary into an “illiberal” democracy (whatever that means).   Large protests have taken place after the Parliament passed a number of controversial laws, particularly one which gave employers the right to demand overtime from employees.  The protests mimic somewhat the yellow vest protests in France in that there is no organized opposition or recognized leaders.   But there does seem to be widespread support for the protests and there are a number of issues that the protesters are raising.