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Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
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1. Generation Putin: Positively apolitical
Young people in Russia are largely positive about their own lives and career prospects, but they’re apathetic about participating in their country’s politics, according to a new survey from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Levada Center.
The poll, which was conducted from February 6 to 26, surveyed 1,003 Russians between the ages of 18 and 34 — many of whom have known no leader other than President Vladimir Putin. A plurality of respondents say they are anxious about Russia’s political future, yet few vote or participate politically.
A few other findings:
- Eight in 10 respondents (82%) say they are very (65%) or somewhat (17%) proud to be Russian.
- A majority say their political views are the same (25%) or somewhat similar (32%) to those of their parents.
- Just under half of Russian youths (48%) say democracy is preferable to any other kind of government, while roughly equal amounts are amenable to authoritarian governments (20%) or do not think it matters for people like them (21%).
Read the full report
Related: Putin extends rule in preordained Russian election after harshest crackdown since Soviet era (AP News)
Public opinion survey by Dina Smeltz, Lama El Baz, Denis Volkov, and Stepan Goncharov
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2. Israel to send team to U.S. to discuss Rafah before potential incursion
During their first call in over a month, President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, the city in the southern Gaza Strip where at least a million Palestinians have sheltered from attacks. The two agreed that Israel will send “a senior interagency team composed of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials” to Washington to discuss the prospective incursion, reports NBC News. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said at a press briefing that U.S. officials expect any invasion in Rafah will not occur until after these discussions.
Related:
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3. Mass abductions spread in Nigeria
There have been hundreds of children kidnapped in Nigeria in the last few weeks, and at least 100 people were taken over the weekend from two villages.
With an estimated population of around 214 million, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country.
Mass kidnappings have been a part of life in Nigeria since at least the late 2000s, when the militant group Boko Haram began using abductions as a tool for expressing its political views. (For instance, they would often kidnap students to protest what they saw as the corruption of Western education.) Since then, though, many other armed bandit groups have emerged across the country, and their motivations are often financial.
Nigeria’s president has ruled out paying ransom to rescue the children taken in the latest abductions, BBC News reports.
Tria Raimundo and Sarah Cahalan contributed reporting.
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In other news
- Evacuation flights to US begin as Haiti deteriorates [BBC]
- Obama meets UK prime minister Rishi Sunak in surprise visit [The Hill]
- Is TikTok’s parent company an agent of the Chinese state? In China Inc., it’s a little more complicated [The Conversation]
- Why India’s upcoming election will last 44 days [Time]
- In case you missed it: Iceland volcano erupts in plumes of fire with little notice [The New York Times]
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Say that again
“Politicians should not have a salary.”
An 18-year-old woman in Argentina had that suggestion in response to a question from the Pew Research Center on how to improve democracy. Over 30,000 people in 24 countries were surveyed.
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“I am a Palestinian citizen of Israel”
Ibrahim Abu Ahmad of the Regional Organization for Peace, Economics & Security calls himself both Palestinian and Israeli. “For me, to feel whole is to accept everything,” he says.
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What we’re reading
Hayao Miyazaki, the beloved household name behind Studio Ghibli films such as “Spirited Away” and last year’s “The Boy and the Heron,” also has a lesser-known work – a graphic novel titled “Shuna’s Journey.” This manga was published in 1983 and translated into English in 2022, and I was thrilled to discover it recently at a Montreal comic store. It features Miyazaki’s classic watercolor scenes and whimsical, heartfelt storytelling based on a Tibetan folktale. The visual style blends Nausicaa with Mononoke and is sure to delight any Ghibli fan.
– Elizabeth Sokolich, designer
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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