From Gaza to the U.S.-Mexican border, the latest innovations in detecting illicit tunnels that transport people and goods below the radar.
Month: August 2014
Images that made news around the world.
A century ago, those reporting on wars were little more than military puppets. Since Vietnam, journalism is freer and more complicated. Now social media is changing the equation again.
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Segregating The Sexes In Tehran
Tehran’s city government is trying to separate male and female employees within its offices, a move parallel with moral norms favored by Iran’s Islamic government but likely to irk less conservatie segments of the population. This would not be the first such move in Iran since the 1979 revolution. There have been previous attempts to […]
BOGOTA — Maria Carolina Rodríguez, who describes herself as an “upper-middle class mother from Bogotá,” was kidnapped by the communist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2001. Her captivity allowed her a rare glimpse at how one group of female guerrillas were treated by their male comrades. Rodríguez kept notes during her captivity, which […]
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Feeding Time At The Zoo: Ice Cream Edition
It’s hot in Colombia, and severe drought conditions are affecting most of the country. Though forest fires have sadly killed thousands of wild animals, those at the zoo in the southern city of Cali are getting some pampering and a little help cooling off. Staff there have decided to mix the animals’ food with ice, […]
MESSINA — From the moment the plane lands, it seems as if all the beauties of Sicily — its Mediterranean vegetation, its lemon trees loaded with heavy fruits, and its groves of broom and prickly pears — have gathered to welcome you. In the distance, Mount Etna, the “immense volcano” described by French writer Guy […]
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Saharan Fun
Was this Tuareg going to the “fête du Mehri,” the spring celebration during which Algerians attend and participate in camel races? Or was he simply leading his mount to water in Ghardaïa, the city known as the “pearl of the oasis”?
The emirate of Qatar is tiny, but it wields disproportionate power in the world, where it maintains complicated and often troubling relationships. Just ask Israel.
If you’re ever in Gaza and have the time for a museum visit, pop by the Al-Mathaf Hotel. Here in dusty glass showcases you’ll find treasures on display dating back to the days when this coastal area was still one of the ancient world’s major trade centers. Tempora mutantur (times change) — the wealth of the Philistines is well in the past: Gaza today is about misery, war and death. The Palestinian strip of coastland has become a cipher for an apparently unsolvable conflict. For decades this small scrap of land has been thrown back and forth between powers, administered […]
A reporter follows international doctors into the heart of the West Africa where Ebola is spreading, from Gueckedou (Guinea), Kailahun (Sierra Leone) and Foya (Liberia).
The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, located on the Moldovan border with Ukraine, has relied on Russia for the past two decades. A perfect example of potential new burdens for Moscow.
Modern Buenos Aires can overwhelm much of its vintage architecture, but like tough old weeds, certain significant buildings have been able to survive or find new life.
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In The Footsteps Of Maria Callas
We had a friend take this family shot in the spectacular theater of Epidaurus, in the sanctuary of Asclepius. The place is impressive, but unlike the Ancient Theater of Orange in southern France, it’s missing its scaenae frons (its decorated rear wall). Too bad we missed Maria Callas by just a couple of years: The […]
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Making Iran’s Traditional Sounds Universal
Siavash Mozaffari, a professional musician based in San Francisco, plans to travel to Iran to record sounds from the country’s traditional instruments and gather them into a sample digital library. With this project, he aims to make Persian music more accessible to the Western world. On Kickstarter, where his “Sonic Journey Through Iran” project has […]
BEIJING — Eight days after the Osi Group meat scandal was exposed, the chief executive of the company’s U.S. headquarters finally spoke out. But the apology and the promise of reforming company regulations are so far not convincing enough for the Chinese customers who have been traumatized by the scandal. Chinese customers, who have long […]
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Chile’s Chicago Toys Bring Back The ’90s
The four members of Chicago Toys are actually neither from Chicago nor toys. They are from Santiago, Chile, and have recently made their latest tracks free to download. If it weren’t for the Spanish lyrics, the casual listener hearing their reverb-filled guitars, energetic drumming, and dreamy vocals for the first time might think Chicago Toys […]
DAMASCUS — As part of a collaboration between Syria Deeply and Rookie, we’re publishing the memoirs of a teenage girl living in the midst of Syria’s war. Marah, a teenage girl from one of Syria’s besieged cities, shares her stories of life in the war. She recently moved to Damascus to continue her education, in the face of the ongoing war that has destroyed her local schools. Her father was killed in the violence and she now lives with distant relatives in the capital. Earlier installments can be read here and here. He is a handsome man in his 50s, […]
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Fast Traffic, Slow Day
The swarms of motorcycles and rickshaws, known as samlo in Thailand, can be pretty scary for the uninitiated. But there are so many rental places that business is sometimes slow for the drivers.
In his 40s, Ra’ed al Atar has emerged as a key to the future of Hamas, both militarily and economically.
When a journalist visits an old horse stable converted into a sado-masochist club, he finds surprisingly normal people who just have a different idea of foreplay.
The jihadist movement is not only reshaping the situation in Syria — it might completely shift alliances across the region. Will Assad ally with Turkey, Iraq and even the West against ISIS?
In September 2011, in Thessaloniki, Greece, Apostolos Polyzonis set himself on fire outside his bank, which had refused to ease his debt payments. He survived, and so did his anger.
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Why Hamas Will Never Surrender
Military defeat can still be a strategic victory for the Islamist militants of Gaza.
Justice is twisted in a country where a man is jailed for stealing candy from a store, while gangsters and corrupt politicians are always able to negotiate prison reductions.
The news, quantified.
To remember the iconic canopied path of the Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana, I took both this picture and a piece of bark that had fallen down. I keep it in my living room, next to an ornate leaf from the Taj Mahal which had also fallen down — I’m not that kind of tourist! […]
-Analysis- Over the past few days, armed gangs have been setting Libya ablaze. The slogans sound familiar: “May the martyr’s blood not be shed in vain!” Nothing could be less certain. The country is sinking into chaos, and many Libyans say things are worse than the era of Muammar Gaddafi — the dictator who was […]
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Are Mind-Powered Drones Next?
MUNICH — As the pilot sits in the cockpit with his hands in his lap, the airplane’s control stick moves all by itself. The plane lands perfectly. Automatic pilot? No, the pilot controls the flight simulator — using only the power of thought. From electrodes on the test pilot’s head, “We read brain signals that […]
A view from afar on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where the Jewish-American lobby looks all too much like the Cuban-American lobby.
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The Cambodian Brides Of China
A market of matchmaking has sprung up to wed poor Cambodian women and middle-class Chinese men, spurred by both China’s newfound wealth and one-child policy. It’s not all roses.
Reactions are coming in after the U.S. and Europe doubled down on economic sanctions against an ever more defiant Moscow.
A brave group of women are taking on the enormous task of finding and destroying millions of unexploded bombs in Laos, the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in the world.
The world bid farewell to a Nobel author, several international actors, a guitar hero and the last foreign minister of the Soviet Union.
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Toboggan Fun For All
Going up to Funchal’s Monte neighborhood in a cable car is very picturesque. But the way down is all about fun. Two gentlemen dressed in white and wearing straw boaters will take you downhill at relatively high speeds in these large wicker baskets they call “toboggans.”
An impassioned defense of a fellow Algerian-born writer who dares to think for himself in the face of Arab identity politics and the eternal Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
SAO PAULO — Vitamin D was named as such when it was first discovered in 1910, but it wasn’t until two decades later that its real structure was identified. In fact, it is a steroid hormone. Even today, the use of the term “vitamin” is a source of debate among health professionals. Vitamin D deficiency […]