Latest news with #politicalhistory
Bloomberg
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Joseph Torigian on Xi Zhongxun and Elite Chinese Communist Party Politics
Markets Odd Lots Understanding the father of Xi Jinping. Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Subscribe to the newsletter The Chinese Communist Party is probably one of the most difficult entities in the world to grasp due to its opacity of its inner workings. A new book from Joseph Torigian, a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover History Lab and an associate professor at American University, sheds light on the entity by examining the life of Xi Zhongxun, the father of Xi Jinping. The elder Xi was one of the earliest and important players in the revolution, and his life trajectory -- having spent 16 years out of power during the Cultural Revolution -- offers a lens into how the party operates. On this episode, we discuss Xi Zhongxun's life, the constant pressure to stay on the correct line, and what his struggles might tell us about how his son rules China today.
Zawya
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Uganda: Parliament Mourns Rhoda Kalema, Pioneer of Women's Emancipation
Parliament has mourned the passing of Hon. Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema, a trailblazer in Uganda's political history and a champion of women's rights, who passed away on 3 August 2025. She was 96. Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, while opening the plenary sitting on Tuesday, 5 August 2025 described Kalema as 'a remarkable leader whose legacy will live after her demise.' Hon. Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema was one of the first two female members of the National Consultative Council (NCC), the third Parliament of Uganda, serving from 1979 to 1980, and later represented Kiboga district in the Constituent Assembly that drafted Uganda's 1995 Constitution. 'She served in several cabinet positions, notably as Minister of Culture and Community Development and Deputy Minister for Public Service. On behalf of Parliament and myself, we extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved family, the people of Kiboga, and all the women of Uganda,' Among said, before leading the House in a moment of silence. AUDIO: Speaker Among Hon. Christine Kaaya (NUP, Kiboga District) said the people of Kiboga had lost a mother, mentor and strategist. 'She was a woman activist who always offered guidance. When I was elected, she told me she would push for three more years and I thank God she lived to see them,' Kaaya said. Hon. Gorreth Namugga (NUP, Mawogola South), speaking on behalf of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA), described Kalema as a commendable figure who served with distinction as a public servant, politician, and cultural leader in Buganda. She urged Parliament to use the tribute sessions to highlight issues of human rights, including the pending bill on labour externalisation. 'As women, we have lost a hero. Her work in human rights should inspire us to pass legislation that protects migrant workers and vulnerable citizens,' Namugga said. State Minister for Trade, David Bahati, said that government will release the official burial programme on Wednesday. Speaker Among also directed the government to ensure that local leaders from Kiboga district are incorporated in all funeral arrangements. Born in 1929, Kalema was the daughter of former Buganda Katikkiro Martin Luther Nsibirwa. She studied social work in the United Kingdom before returning to Uganda, where she rose to prominence in 1979 as a member of the NCC and went on to shape Uganda's democratic journey during turbulent times. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
Telegraph
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The French revolution should never have happened this way
It is more than 50 years since Zhou Enlai said that it was too early to say how the French Revolution had turned out. However, in this well-researched, detailed, though sometimes dense book, simply titled The French Revolution, John Hardman appears to have brought us nearer a conclusion: although change had to come in a country where feudalism survived long after it had disappeared in England, and absolute monarchy was unsustainable, it would have been far better that matters changed in a different way to what actually occurred. Hardman claims, justifiably, to have written the first purely political history of the revolution for over a century. This does not mean that the colour of extraneous events is entirely eliminated; but if you want the full drama you would do better to start with a more generalised history that takes a bottom-up view of the proceedings, for Goodman's is unashamedly top-down. (Although it was written nearly 190 years ago, and has, in terms of material available, long since been surpassed, Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution, which in parts reads rather like a screenplay, still gives the reader all the atmosphere he or she could need.) Hardman does not write for the uninitiated. Although he begins his book helpfully with a dramatis personae, and ends it equally helpfully with a retrospective timeline, some basic idea of what happened in the years before and after 1789 is broadly assumed. New readers should not start here, but those who know the general story, or think they do, will find his book adds a thorough and different dimension to the events. Some, but not all, assumptions turn out to be true. King Louis XVI harmed his cause by his reluctance to end France's caste-based politics and system of rule, for castes that had been long excluded were only more determined to have a part in the running of their country. As for Louis's wife, Marie Antoinette of Austria (l'Autrichienne was one of the more charming sobriquets the French people found for her), she really never was quoted uttering 'qu'ils mangent de la brioche' – 'let them eat cake' – when the mismanagement of the economy by the ancien régime has caused grain and therefore bread shortages. However, her extravagance, her colourful private life (she was not faithful to her husband) and her willingness to become involved in the government of the country in which she had no constitutional right to interfere became well known beyond the court, and made her deeply unpopular. Hardman makes the useful point early on that other revolutions have, regrettably, largely followed the template of France's; and one is constantly reminded of what happened in Russia after 1917, though that was, if anything, even more violent and divorced from anything approaching the rule of law than what had happened 130 years earlier. In both instances, the people rose up and some from what had not traditionally been the governing class took over. Once that happened, the ideology of those who ruled moved steadily to the Left (which in the end became largely indiscernible from what we now think of as the fascist Right), factions developed, and (to use a well-worn metaphor) the revolution began to devour its own children. Something that began in defence of liberty, and freedom of speech ended up creating a polity in which there appeared to be no liberty at all, and where free expression could easily lead to the guillotine. One conspicuous difference between the French and Russian revolutions, as Hardman outlines, was the fate of the monarchy. Although Louis was reluctant to cede rights as an absolute monarch he soon understood the practicalities and began to yield powers, albeit through an attempt at negotiation. In Russia, the Romanovs were simply arrested, imprisoned and, without any attempt at a trial, slaughtered. Louis XVI was eventually put on trial as the people in charge of the French government became more extreme and motivated by class hatred, and steadily imprisoned and executed members of those factions who were happy to retain a constitutional, as opposed to an absolute, monarchy. Louis's trial was, as Hardman points out, entirely unfair; he was charged with crimes against liberty, which could mean everything and nothing, and was predictably found guilty – though the decision to give him the death penalty was made by the margin of only one vote. There was then a vote on a reprieve for the King, which was rejected by 70 votes. Not only did the assembly that tried him seem reluctant to overturn the previous, albeit narrow, decision, but the roots of the bloody Reign of Terror were already taking hold: people disposed to take a lenient view of those deemed enemies of the revolution risked being viewed not simply as compassionate, but as enemies of it themselves. Louis went to the guillotine in January 1793; his wife followed a few months later after a trial that was less unfair but more grotesque than his. Not least to see whether she could be provoked into an act of treachery by revealing military secrets to the country of her birth, France had declared war on Austria. She duly obliged and passed secrets on to her Austrian contacts. The other charges she faced were as absurd and unprovable as those her husband had faced, and the grotesquerie came when entirely fabricated charges of her having sexually interfered with their son, the Dauphin, were presented. It was wholly unnecessary, as treason alone would have sufficed to send her to the guillotine, entrapped though she had been. At least the Bolsheviks who machine-gunned a cellar full of Romanovs in 1918 made no pretence of following the rule of law. The show trials of the King and Queen led to a rash of such outrages in the year or two afterwards, and massacres of large numbers in cities such as Lyon where people were deemed recalcitrant. Factions split into further factions – Girondins, Dantonists, Montagnards, Jacobins and so on – as those who found themselves temporarily in charge decided to kill many of those who were not. Something approaching civil war came when the Commune took on the Convention; a climax of sorts followed when Robespierre was put to death, in the wake of which a degree of sanity and order were eventually restored. A great lesson of the French Revolution is that, when much of the population of a polity has nothing to lose, they can behave rashly and accordingly. Louis should have realised this long before 1789. Hardman, leaving all possibilities open, invites us to question whether he failed because his upbringing and his place in France's constitution made him inflexible, or whether his wife's dominance undid him, or whether he was simply obtuse. This is a book of exceptional clarity and analytical force, reliant on evidence and not on supposition, and tells the story with great conviction. Hardman also astutely compares Louis's fate with those of Charles I – brought down not by a mob but by losing two civil wars and for refusing to accept the will of his people – and James II, forced to flee in 1688 at the Glorious Revolution for wilfully ignoring the reality of the Reformation and the move towards constitutional monarchy. But it is also clear that 17 th century England was a happier country than France, with nascent democracy and social mobility. These were examples France, and above all the Capetian dynasty, ignored until far too late: and some of the scars are still visible in France today. ★★★★★
Wall Street Journal
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
MAGA's Epstein Fault Line
We just witnessed a bit of political history. The Jeffrey Epstein story is big, and though it will be quieted eventually, it won't go away, it will stay as a fissure and may widen over time. The Trumpiest part of President Trump's base showed him—and showed itself—that it can buck him, push back in unison. He seemed startled. Maybe they are too. It struck me as not just a political event but a psychic one for his movement.
The Independent
13-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Nigeria's former president Muhammadu Buhari dies in London aged 82
The former president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has died aged 82 in London, his press secretary said Sunday. He led Africa's most populous nation twice: first as a military head of state from 1983 to 1985, then as a democratically elected president from 2015-2023. Buhari had been receiving medical treatment in London in recent weeks, and had often travelled to London in the past for medical attention. He was the first president to defeat a sitting president when he was elected in 2015, overseeing the country's worst economic period and fight against insurgency. Married twice, Buhari had ten children.
