They call themselves the “Barbarians,” ready to challenge both the status quo in France and the prevailing ethos of U.S. startups obsessed with power and money.
Month: April 2015
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Eurovision Contestants 2015: France
France hasn’t won the Eurovision Song Contest since 1977,when Marie Myriam moved the audience with her song “L’oiseau et l’enfant”. Nobody has been able to renew that performance in 38 years, even though France has tried extremely hard to seduce the members of the jury. The country has sent some of its biggest stars to […]
AL-QAEDA GAINS AMID YEMEN CHAOS Airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen’s Houthi rebels have “indirectly helped empower al-Qaeda in ways the group had not enjoyed before” because the focus elsewhere leaves them “unopposed,” The New York Times writes. The jihadist group has seized a major airport, a military base and a significant oil terminal, […]
TIME Magazine revealed, as it does every year, its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, with five different covers. Kanye West was chosen as head of the “Titans,” in the same category as his wife, Kim Kardashian. Representing the “Pioneers” is African-American ballet dancer Misty Copeland, accompanied by actresses Emma Watson […]
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Iconic Cyprus
The Stavrovouni Monastery in southern Cyprus is one of the few places that boasts a piece of the Holy Cross. It was particularly interesting to see how one of the oldest monasteries in the world manages to maintain the island’s tradition of Byzantine icon painting.
It’s an untold story that offers hope during troubled times in Europe, the Middle East and beyond. Anna Boros survived the Holocaust thanks to a courageous Egyptian doctor.
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Kurdish fighters and the forces loyal to the Syrian regime have settled into a delicate coexistence against jihadists in this city marked by chaos and competing interests.
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Eurovision 2015 Contestants: Finland
Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät — which, for brevity’s sake and because we don’t want the Internet to run out of space, we shall refer to as “PKN” — is a punk rock band that was formed in 2009 in a charity workshop for adults with developmental disabilities. They entered the Eurovision Song Contest to raise awareness […]
TEL AVIV ― Annual results for 2014 for Israeli tourism companies, hotels and airlines are not good, though few are surprised. Every sector linked to the travel and tourist industry is losing money due to the consequences of last summer’s conflict in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had approved a measure that promised that […]
SUNKEN S. KOREAN FERRY TO BE RAISED South Korean President Park Geun-hye has promised to raise the sunken ferry Sewol to recover the nine bodies still missing, as the country commemorates the disaster’s one-year anniversary, Yonhap news agency reports. A total of 304 people, most of them high school students, died when the ship sank […]
El Tiempo, April 16, 2015 “Airstrikes resume after FARC massacre,” the front-page headline of Bogota-based daily El Tiempo reads Thursday, alongside a picture of Colombian soldiers retrieving the bodies of their comrades who died in an ambush by the rebels late Tuesday in western Colombia’s La Esperanza. At least 10 soldiers were killed in the […]
This is the arresting Rock of Monaco, back when you could snap a picture without having to slalom between obnoxious sports cars.
Earning cash and starting a business are no longer frowned upon on the island nation, as the rapprochement with the U.S. sets the stage for a different kind of Cuban economy.
The Nobel laureate, who died this week, helped Germany find its voice after the horrors of World War II. But his life ultimately embodied his nation’s struggles to come to terms with its past.
Daniel Kajmakoski, the Macedonian singer who will represent his country at the Eurovision Song Contest this year, was actually named after Daniel Popovic, the charmer who ran for Yugoslavia in the 1983 edition of the contest. Daniel, who always kisses the picture of his mother he keeps in his pocket before going on stage, will […]
Financial Times, April 15, 2015 The European Union announced plans Wednesday to charge Google with violating antitrust laws by using its dominant position in the search engine market to favor its own services over those of its rivals. The Financial Times had details of the expected action in its Wednesday edition, noting the EU’s move […]
China is moving into a new phase of both political and economic power that will test both its skills and ambitions far beyond the factory walls.
U.S. TO REMOVE CUBA FROM TERROR LIST After this weekend’s historic meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro in Panama, Barack Obama announced plans to take off Cuba from the list of countries the U.S. accuses of sponsoring terrorism. The Washington Post reports on what this latest step in the rapprochement between the two neighbors means. […]
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Surprise Meal
As I’ve already pointed out, eating in China is a singular experience. And though the stalls of the soup vendors in the streets of Xi’an, in central China, smelled delicious, you have to keep an open mind and expect something … well … exotic in your bowl.
Kurds, persecuted by the Turkish state, are only now beginning to face the role they played in the mass execution of Armenians a century ago.
In the deafening Egyptian capital, a small group of independent artists quietly present an art relying on everything the performer has to give … except their voices.
France lags behind the rest of the industrialized world in facing fundamental changes to the nature of work. The old model dominated by wage labor just can’t compete.
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Eurovision 2015 Contestants: Estonia
In 2001, Estonia became the first former Soviet country to win Eurovision. The annual song contest had become quite popular there after its first participation in 1994 and has always been since then. So much so that, in 2009, when Estonia said it would withdraw from the contest, set to be held in Moscow during […]
Even Somalis born and raised in Kenya are often rounded up and harassed after the Somali-based terror group al-Shabaab strikes, as it did in Garissa April 2.
SEPARATISTS BREACH UKRAINE CEASEFIRE The Ukrainian military accused pro-Russian separatists yesterday of using heavy weaponry that is supposed to have been withdrawn per a ceasefire both parties agreed to in February, Reuters reports. EXTRA! Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust joins the rest of the world today in marking the first anniversary of the terrorist organization Boko […]
Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust on Tuesday joins the rest of the world in marking the first anniversary of the terrorist organization Boko Haram’s abduction of 276 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok, There are 219 still missing. The mass kidnapping sparked the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, drawing international attention to the fate of the victims and […]
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Popular Desert
Although it is somewhat cast into the shadow by the world-famous temple of Petra nearby, the Wadi Rum region in southern Jordan is popular among travelers who want to discover the wonders of the desert and its Bedouin heritage.
Like with the 18th century Andean silver route for Spain, Argentina has become a short cut for sending Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine to Europe. It’s also a customer.
Located in the middle of the desert, DXB airport now surpasses London’s Heathrow in international travelers. Part museum, part high-end shopping gallery, it’s a global wonder.
MUMBAI — Thirty-five-year old Praveen Kumar worked as a deliveryman at a slaughter house, carrying meat to retail markets around Mumbai. But last month, he lost his job when the slaughterhouse was shut down following the state government’s new ban on beef. “Here I was earning about $7 a day, and life had become much easier. I was able to keep my wife and three children happy,” he said. “But with this ban now I can’t even afford two proper meals for my family and my children may also have to leave school because I can’t pay the fees.” Selling […]
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Eurovision 2015 Contestants: Denmark
Denmark and Eurovision are like a Viking ship on stormy northern waters: It goes up, it goes down, it goes back up etc. After winning the contest for the first time in 1963 with this song and hosting it the following year, Denmark decided to withdraw from the contest in 1966, as the new head […]
HILLARY’S IN, AND THE WORLD REACTS Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Sunday announcement that she’s running in the 2016 presidential race, her second bid to become the first female U.S. president, drew news coverage from around the world, with one German newspaper even using the English headline, “The Very First Lady.” Via a short video on her […]
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LAST QUARTER MOON IN CAPRICORN – April 13-19
You can have more courage, be more daring, give yourself a chance that until now you never even thought about. Your stubbornness is bound to encounter some resistance, but I’m sure you will find the right spark to start your engines. Days like Friday or Saturday favor employment initiatives and new projects. In love you […]
YOTVATA — There are mud huts to block out the heat, solar micro panels for cooking, bio-gas production from waste, and wet mattresses to grow vegetables and flowers in the desert. This is the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Yotvata, the most torrid and depopulated area in Israel’s Negev desert, where a community of […]
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Little Greek Eiffel
Las Vegas, Shenzhen, Mexico … Paris” Eiffel Tower has inspired countless duplicates. We came upon this one standing a mere 18-meters tall at the entrance of Filiatra, in Greece’s southern Peloponnese region.
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Sunday announcement that she’s running in the 2016 presidential race, her second bid to become the first female U.S. president, drew news coverage from around the world, with one German newspaper even using the English headline, “The Very First Lady.” Via a short video (watch below) on her campaign website, the former […]
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China, Stop Forcing Young Kids To Compete
The Chinese education system forces pre-school children to learn to read and write, rather than develop at a natural pace, and discover the joys of just growing up.