By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront M an is in a conflict with nature. 2015 has been recorded as the hottest year in world history. Climate change is happening right now and countries like Russia should put it high on their agenda because it has the world's largest reserves of forests and is a sanctuary of over one hundred twenty thousand rivers and two million lakes. Global warming will affect Russia more than other countries. Russian climatologists suggest that climate change is affecting Russia 30% faster than other countries.  Issues like giant methane holes, intense snowmelt floods, extreme weather events that have been predicted by Federal Environment Ministry of Russia will likely bring construction challenges. The energy sector will also likely suffer. For example, power cuts will make poor people suffer more who belong from the colder regions and it can also complicate migration policies. For a while, Russian scientists had been denying the existence of c...

By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront SYRIA’S WAR HAS BEEN ONE OF the most destructive conflicts of the twenty-first century. By 2013, the Assad regime was already regaining ground in Latakia against rebels, but it was not until September 2015 that Russia formally launched its air campaign in Syria. As BBC News reported, Moscow’s intervention marked a turning point, enabling Assad’s forces to recapture rebel-held areas with Russian air power and military support. The Syrian army, supported by Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, pushed northwards towards the Turkish border, raising tensions with Ankara. As Reuters reported, the Russian Foreign Ministry in February 2016 insisted it had “not received convincing evidence of civilian deaths” from its strikes. Humanitarian organisations, monitoring groups, and journalists, however, documented numerous incidents involving civilian casualties. Al Jazeera journalist Ibrahim al-Omar was killed in July 2016 while reporting in Idlib Provinc...