The Sunday Magazine

The Sunday Magazine for November 24, 2024

Fawaz Gerges explores the consequences of the ICC arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, Maria Popova unpacks recent escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war, Julie Sedivy talks about how language defines our lives, and we consider how Donald Trump's return to the White House may affect democracy worldwide.
Piya Chattopadhyay is host of The Sunday Magazine. (CBC)

This week on The Sunday Magazine with host Piya Chattopadhyay:

The global consequences of the ICC's arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu

On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes amid Israel's bombardment of Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks. The ICC also issued a warrant for Hamas official Mohammad Deif, who the Israeli military said it killed in July, but which has not been confirmed. Fawaz Gerges is an international relations professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He joins Chattopadhyay to discuss the geopolitical response and consequences of this move.

What may come next as the Russia-Ukraine war escalates

The Russia-Ukraine war entered a new phase this past week. For the first time, Ukraine launched Western long-range missiles at Russia, which Moscow says it responded to by firing a new medium-range ballistic missile. Maria Popova is an associate professor of political science at Montreal's McGill University. She joins Chattopadhyay to explore the soaring tension in the region and how U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's vow to end the war fits in.

How language defines our lives, from young gains to aged loss

Julie Sedivy was speaking five languages by the time she was four-years-old. The Calgary-based linguist and author has come to understand that language isn't just something we speak and write in.... but something we live and breathe, and is essential to who we are. In the latest instalment of Word Processing – our ongoing look at language – Chattopadhyay speaks with Sedivy about her memoir Linguaphile, which takes us on a journey of language love... from inside the womb, where we first start to recognize the rhythm of our mother tongue, to old age where words begin to escape us.

2024 Stanfield Conversation: The U.S. election and democracy's global fate

2024 has been dubbed the "year of elections," and it comes as democratic backsliding is on the rise. Now that Donald Trump is returning to the White House, what does that spell for the fate of democracy worldwide? Chattopadhyay moderates the 2024 Stanfield Conversation – a series focusing on challenges to democracy and responses to them – at Dalhousie University in Halifax. This year's featured guests are The Globe and Mail's international affairs columnist Doug Saunders and McGill University political scientist and Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies, Debra Thompson.