theSIGNAL NEWS
13 August 2026
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
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World

Russia jails dissidents at triple the KGB's rate

Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov warns that 1,500 people are now imprisoned in Russia for opposing the war — three times more than during the Soviet era.

At least 1,500 people are currently behind bars in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine. That number, cited by Novaya Gazeta editor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, is three times higher than the estimated number of political prisoners held during the harshest years of the Soviet KGB. The comparison is devastating: when dissident Andrei Sakharov delivered his 1975 Nobel lecture, he could name roughly 120 political prisoners. By the mid-1980s, Amnesty International put the Soviet figure at around 600.

Russia in 2025 has surpassed both counts by a wide margin. The crackdown has swallowed institutions as well as individuals. Novaya Gazeta — one of Russia's last independent newspapers — had its printing presses seized by government decree and its registration cancelled. Its website is blocked inside Russia; readers must use a VPN or access it from abroad.

Hundreds of journalists, activists and public figures have been formally labelled "foreign agents," "extremists," or "terrorists" by the Kremlin. Most opinion leaders, Muratov says, now carry at least one of those labels. Yet the war that triggered this repression shows no sign of ending on Kremlin terms. What Putin's government predicted in early 2022 would be a swift, successful operation has become the bloodiest conflict on European soil since 1945.

Photo: Bank Phrom / Unsplash
Dmitry Muratov's Novaya Gazeta has been silenced inside Russia since 2022, its presses seized by presidential decree.
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1,500
Russians jailed for opposing the war
Discuss
  • Why might a government imprison journalists and activists rather than simply ignore them?
  • Muratov compares today's Russia unfavourably to the Soviet KGB era — how reliable is that comparison, and what does it reveal?
World

DRC Ebola Outbreak Sets Deadly Record

The WHO chief has issued a stark warning after returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo: the current Ebola outbreak is now the second-largest in history — and it is spreading faster than any before it. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed 4,449 cases and 2,061 deaths across five provinces. He warned that unknown transmission chains are driving the crisis, because a high proportion of deaths are occurring in communities rather than treatment centres, making contact tracing almost impossible. At its current pace, the outbreak — fuelled by the Bundibugyo variant — is on track to surpass the devastating West African epidemic of 2014 to 2016, which killed more than 11,000 people.…
  • Should the WHO have the power to enforce outbreak responses in affected countries?
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It cannot be a victory when two Slavic nations have ripped a million people to shreds.
Dmitry Muratov, Editor, Novaya Gazeta and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
World

Pyongyang glows brighter on war profits

Satellite images confirm it: central Pyongyang is three times more illuminated than it was in 2020, a transformation that NK News links directly to Kim Jong Un's showcase construction drive. Since 2021, Kim has delivered 50,000 new apartments, a national hospital, a greenhouse rivalling New York's Central Park, and a 5-kilometre beach resort opened in June 2025. Chinese electric cars and QR-code payment apps have appeared on streets that were dark a decade ago.…
  • Who ultimately pays the human cost of North Korea's sudden economic boom?
AMERICAS · World
Magnitude 7.4 quake rocks western Colombia, killing at least 111 people
EUROPE · World
Turkey MPs back historic law on reintegrating PKK militants
AMERICAS · World
Zelenskyy says Ukraine has sent proposals to US to end war with Russia
ASIA · World
Samsung, SK Hynix Tests of Chinese Chip Tools Expose Cracks in US Export Strategy
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
IVOCABULARY
dissidentslaureate
crackdownforeign agentstransmission chains
munitionscontact tracing
IIGRAMMAR FOCUS
Reported speech — statements, questions, commands with tense shift
When reporting what someone said, verbs shift back one tense (e.g. 'is' becomes 'was', 'has' becomes 'had'), and pronouns and time expressions also change to match the new context.
had surpassed · was · were spreading · could never be · had earned · warned · said
  1. Muratov said that Russia in 2025 both Soviet-era counts by a wide margin.
  2. He stated that there never be a true victory in the conflict between the two Slavic nations.
  3. The WHO chief warned that unknown transmission chains the crisis at an unprecedented rate.
  4. Dr Tedros confirmed that a high proportion of deaths occurring in communities rather than treatment centres.
  5. Muratov that he could no longer dismiss the nuclear references on state television as mere extremist noise.
  6. NK News reported that Bloomberg Economics had calculated that North Korea over $14 billion since 2022.
IIIPHRASAL VERBS
Match the phrasal verb to its definition. All six appear in today's articles.
  1. speak out
  2. rule out
  3. swallow up
  4. set off / set out (on track to surpass)
  5. carry (a label)
IVCRITICAL THINKING
North Korea's economic boom is funded by weapons sales and troop deployments that directly prolong a war killing hundreds of thousands of people, yet Pyongyang's citizens benefit from new apartments, hospitals and infrastructure. At what point, if any, does benefiting from another country's suffering become a moral or legal responsibility — and does it matter whether ordinary citizens have any choice in the matter?
VCREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
VIWRITING
Using evidence from all three articles, argue whether the international rules-based order — covering human rights, public health, and arms control — is currently being upheld, eroded, or something more complicated. Support your view with specific details from the articles.
VIIDEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong using words and phrases from the articles. The missing steps are jumbled below each ladder.
  • criticised→→
  • monitored→→
  • mentioned→→
  • conflict→→
  • isolated cases→→
  • dimly lit→→
VIIISPEAKING
  1. How should historians measure political repression across different eras?
  2. Can economic growth ever justify a government's role in a foreign war?
  3. What obligations do ordinary citizens have when contact tracing becomes impossible?
  4. Does nuclear rhetoric on state television reflect genuine intent or political theatre?