This year has underscored a simple but profound truth: the world’s conflicts and political dramas don’t stop at borders. The notion that we can confine our attention to what’s happening at home feels increasingly naive in the face of global interconnectedness.

At The Walrus, we’ve sought to capture this reality, delving into stories from South Africa, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza, India, and the United States. It’s part of our effort to broaden the lens, to explore the threads that bind these events to our own lives, and to grapple with the complexities of a world that refuses to be neatly compartmentalized.

 



In Afghanistan, Women Haven’t Given Up

BY SORAYA AMIRI AND SAMIA MADWAR
Despite jail, torture, and death threats, activists are resisting the Taliban in the country and abroad




The Ukrainians Who Refuse to Fight

BY JONATHAN GARFINKEL
The government put in place a martial order that restricted some people from leaving the country. This is the story of how one family fled




Nowhere Safe: Twenty-Five Days in Wartime Gaza

BY LOUIS BAUDOIN-LAARMAN
A worker with Doctors without Borders describes the chaos, anger, and anguish following Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza




India Is Banning Critics from Coming Home

BY VIJAYTA LALWANI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is cracking down on dissidents in the diaspora by revoking their right to re-enter the country




How States Sanction Violence against Minorities

BY ANAM ZAKARIA
Pakistan offers a chilling window into the use of morality laws to legitimize mob assaults




South Africa Doesn’t Need More Heroes

BY ZANELE MJI
This election year marks three decades since the country defeated apartheid. But we still haven’t fully healed




“We Don’t Have Any Water. We’re Lost”: In the Footsteps of Migrants Who Never Made It

BY MARCELLO DI CINTIO
Thousands die trying to cross into the US from Mexico. Each year, activists follow their harrowing trek




The Day Assad Fled: Joy, Fear, and the Weight of History

BY SAMIA MADWAR
After years of silence, I can finally write about Syria again




Welcome to Mass Market Mountaineering

BY BERNADETTE MCDONALD
Personal guides. Private chefs. Helicopter rides. Tensions are rising between Sherpas who do the hard work and the foreign climbers they escort to the top




Canada’s Universities Are a Pipeline for Chinese Military Technology

BY JONATHAN MANTHORPE
How hundreds of Chinese researchers across the country were identified as undercover scientists

Various Contributors