Dictators
Mausoleum of Assad’s father torched as new leader vows to punish those responsible for torture
The world is carefully watching to see if Syria’s new rulers can stabilise the country and avoid unleashing violent revenge.
- by Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari
Latest
A North Korean voice Kim Jong-un would love to silence
Kim Seongmin was on his way to Pyongyang for certain execution when he jumped out of the window. What he did next has infuriated the North Korean leader.
- by Choe Sang-Hun
The next-gen leader and the forced video confessions on Facebook
Observers say Cambodia’s change in leader is just an extension of times before, where opponents were threatened with beatings, “only they are younger”.
- by Zach Hope
This country will have Christmas in October. People are not happy
With a nationwide blackout, a broken economy and a widely contested election result there are only so many things a leader can do to win popular support.
- by Julie Turkewitz
Explainer
World politics
‘Grave provocation’: What does North Korea’s Kim Jong-un want?
K-pop is blasting into North Korea once more as bizarre tactics ratchet up tensions on the peninsula. We explore what’s behind this “tit-for-tat” in an Explainer updated from earlier this year.
- by Angus Holland and Jackson Graham
Opinion
For subscribers
Losing sleep over Trump? It’s time to wake up to the real tyrants
Donald Trump is dangerous because he takes too much of our attention. So much so, people become blind to much larger threats.
- by Parnell Palme McGuinness
‘They beat you constantly’: Chilean political prisoners reclaim torture sites
Fifty years after a coup ushered in a brutal military rule that imprisoned, disappeared, tortured or killed some 40,000 people, five former prisoners return to the scene of the crimes.
- by Ivan Alvarado and Natalia A. Ramos Miranda
Analysis
Russia-Ukraine war
If Putin is about to fall, why do 82 per cent of Russians support him?
Russia is sinking deeper into the quagmire of Putinism, and there are few signs that the population is resisting the path the president is leading them down.
- by Lisa Haseldine
From one dictator dad to another: Monica’s lost childhood in North Korea
Monica Macias was just seven when her African despot father left her with another feared leader, Kim Il-sung.
- by Julia Llewellyn Smith
Orphans, songs about spilling blood: Russia takes celebration of war to another level
“They’re trying to militarise the whole society,” said Grigory Yudin, a political philosophy professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.
- by Valerie Hopkins
Cambodia’s Hun Sen orders closure of independent news outlet
The Voice of Democracy has had its licence taken after leader says the media organisation attacked him and his son.
- by Clare Baldwin
Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/topic/dictators-hn9