Editorial

Hi all, when the news broke that there would be a summer general election in the UK, colleagues across BBC News went into full election mode. While for us in BBC Monitoring it feels like we have been in election mode all year!

In this latest edition of Monitor magazine, BBC Monitoring’s experts delve deep into elections taking place around the world. We explore the key themes in the Russian, Belarusian, Iranian and Indian polls, with a particular focus on turnout and reaction in the local media. We also take a look at Russian and Chinese reaction to the UK election result.

The Israel-Gaza war and the wider implications in the region also feature in this edition. Florence Dixon, one of our Middle East specialists, looks at how Yemen’s Houthis are using social media to promote their message to the world and how their media machine has evolved since 7 October 2023.

And finally do have a look at the article on how we are evolving our reference material, bringing information from distinctive source material on high priority countries and themes to our consumers.

Best wishes, Liz