Unchecked urbanization is destroying what’s left of the Mexican capital’s pre-Aztec chinampas.
Month: May 2015
-Analysis- BEIJING — There is a popular Chinese television series called “Tiger Mom: My Sweat, Your Success” that has prompted no shortage of debate in China. Indeed, discussion has even extended to Chinese people living in America, where the concept of Tiger Moms made waves after the publication of a book in by a hard-driving […]
TURIN — Italian politicians from very different backgrounds have been trying to capitalize on last week’s victory of Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos in regional elections: from centrist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the populist Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, to the banker-turned-cabinet minister Corrado Passera and leftist LGBT activist and governor of the Puglia region […]
Katrin Dölz is one of 385 officials in Germany handling cases of asylum seekers. Her days are filled with tragic immigrant stories and the power to change lives.
The holes in Swiss cheese have stumped scientists for nearly a century. Now a team in Switzerland says they’ve found the holy grail.
JERUSALEM — Three patients are sitting in the spacious waiting room at the offices of the Israeli medical tourism agency iMer. Through the large glass windows of its offices inside the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, they can see the scenic Ein Karem valley with the surrounding mountains and green forests. Despite the breathtaking biblical landscape, […]
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JAIPUR — Saveera Khan’s three daughters are helping her to make bangles, which requires working in front of a hot furnace that melts the powder used for making natural lac bangles. The children handle many poisonous chemicals such as crystalline silica dust, and inhale noxious fumes of toxic dust. At just 7 years old, Mantasha is the youngest and she goes to school only when there isn’t too much work to be done at home. “Our only brother always goes to school, but mostly we girls in the family work at home,” she says. “The furnace is very very hot […]
FIFA TO VOTE DESPITE SCANDAL The FIFA congress opened this morning as expected, and the 209 members will decide later today whether to give a record fifth term to embattled President Sepp Blatter amid the media storm resulting from a massive corruption scandal that also threatens to entangle Nike. According to The Guardian, the 79-year-old […]
Stern, May 28, 2015 The relationship between Germany and Google continues to deteriorate, the German weekly Stern says in this week’s edition, with the cover headline: “The Secret World of Google.” According to a survey the magazine commissioned, only 26% of Germans deem the U.S. search engine “trustworthy,” while 78% consider it “omnipresent” and 38% […]
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Future In A Golf Ball
Twenty-eight years ago, my wife and I entered the future: Not only did we travel by plane for the first time, but we got to visit Spaceship Earth, in Disney World“s EPCOT Center. The time machine-themed narration played during the ride, penned by science fiction author Ray Bradbury, was narrated by the news broadcaster Walter […]
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The Big Trend Of Living Small
From New York to Buenos Aires, more and more single people choose to live in tiny spaces. It’s the marriage of economic forces and modern lifestyle.
While the average Dane generates more than 10 tons of CO2 each year, a resident on the island of Samso actually spares the planet three. The island changed its fate by invest
The widening corruption probe into FIFA looks like a devastating earthquake for the “beautiful game,” with the epicenter in Zurich, where police arrested seven senior officials of the world soccer body just two days before the controversial FIFA chief was set to be chosen for a record fifth term. But the reverberations of the U.S. […]
BOGOTA — It is no easy task trying to talk about the errors of Pope Francis. The achievements of Argentina’s Jorge Bergoglio, both in words and deeds, have been frankly quite startling. Acts of humility by the Supreme Pontiff have had a tremendous public impact, like kneeling to wash and kiss the feet of prisoners, […]
WILL BLATTER SURVIVE AS FIFA PRESIDENT? The world of sports continued to reel today after the arrests of seven top FIFA officials on corruption charges, with the fate of the international soccer body’s longtime chief Sepp Blatter hanging in the balance. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and others are calling for the postponement […]
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Through The Lion Gate
Walking under Mycenae’s Lion Gate and its monumental lintel, you understand why they call its construction the work of “Cyclopean masonry.” How else but with the strength of giants could such imposing blocks of stone be lifted 3,300 years ago?
BEIJING — China’s Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, completed a tour last week of four South American countries — Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile — that marks a turning point between the Asian power and the Latin American region. With his arrival in Brazil on the second day, May 19, Li unveiled a major achievement: a […]
GAZA — Of the clamors of the world around her, she sees nothing. Neither the walls and watchtowers that enclose the Gaza Strip, nor the destruction brought by the bombs. She doesn’t even see the months-old rubble of the neighboring building. Her only window, barely wider than an arrow slit, looks onto an empty back […]
After Swiss banking scandals shook global finance, arrests at the Zurich-based world soccer body shine a light on what’s wrong with business as usual in Switzerland.
The leading Brazilian artist defies our expectations with photographed installations, challenging a society too apt to consume images rather than examine them.
SENIOR FIFA OFFICIALS ARRESTED IN CORRUPTION PROBE Swiss police have arrested at least 14 senior FIFA officials on charges that include “racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy,” the AFP reports. The charges follow an FBI investigation and allege “widespread corruption in FIFA over the past two decades, involving bids for World Cups as well […]
COLOGNE — Germany’s leading car insurance company, HUK Coburg, may be set to join the automobile coverage revolution. Beginning next year, the company will offer its customers so-called “telematics tariffs,” which feature lower premiums for those who agree to have their driving behavior remotely monitored via a special high-tech black box in their cars. The […]
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Extra! Texas On ‘Weather Steroids’
At least four people have been killed in Texas over the past three days as the state has been hit by a series of storms. The Houston Chronicle described Wednesday what it called a region “on weather steroids.” In Mexico, at least 13 people were also killed as a tornado struck the border town of […]
A not-so-veiled effort to limit the population of this Muslim ethnic minority is the systematic denial of marriage licenses. Children born out of wedlock are rendered stateless, without citizenship or education.
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Land Of Little Trees
I’ve already shared a first glimpse of the lush gardens of Suzhou, the “Venice of China” on the country’s east coast. Here’s another shot of the city’s “Lingering Garden,” which boasts more than 500 valuable penjing specimens, the miniature trees comparable to the Japanese bonsai.
MOSCOW — Compared to last century’s Cosmonaut glory, Russia’s space program is looking more like a dud these days. On May 16, a Proton-M rocket crashed in Siberia with its commercial load, a Mexican telecommunications satellite. A week earlier, a Progress spacecraft, a Russian cargo craft that was supposed to deliver more than three tons […]
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Why I Married An ISIS Fighter
An Eastern European woman who wanted to be the wife of an ISIS fighter in Raqqa speaks to Syria Deeply about her motivations and experience.
Many international cities have adopted broad, bicycle-sharing systems that have become hugely popular. Early adopting French cities are now studying the bill.
IRAQ BEGINS ANBAR LIBERATION OPERATION Iraq announced the start of a military operation today aimed at liberating the western Anbar province from ISIS terrorists, Reuters reports. The first city expected to be targeted is Ramadi, the capital city of the province that fell to the terrorist organization on May 17, Al Jazeera reports. Iraqi forces […]
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Sri Lanka Show
The Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka is one of the oldest zoos in Asia. It used to be a sanctuary for orphaned baby elephants, but when we visited it, the huge nursery — actually the largest herd of captive elephants in the world — had moved to nearby Pinnawala . There were only a couple […]
Rich families from Guangzhou or Beijing are flocking to the new Asian “villages” of the famous French vacation brand. Activities include mahjong and karaoke but the beloved GOs (Genteel Organizers) are still here.
The return to office of Chile’s first woman President has been a veritable disaster. It is only partly her own making.
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FIRST QUARTER MOON – May 25-31
This week is backed by good energy and great enthusiasm — which doesn’t always correspond to an adequate ability to plan. Until next month, it’s necessary to proceed with baby steps at work. Mercury’s retrograde can be confusing and can compromise your capacity to make yourself understood. Couples should pay attention to dialogue — especially […]
CAIRO — When the Egyptian regime carried out the hanging of six defendants last week in the Arab Sharkas case, it was sending a clear message to former President Mohamed Morsi a day after a Cairo court sentenced the former leader and another 106 people to death. Such is the interpretation of events in the […]
Invisible to the naked eye, the attitudes and regulations of local officials are blocking an expansion of private hospitals that most agree is much needed in China.
ISIS KILLS CIVILIANS IN PALMYRA ISIS has killed about 400 civilians in Palmyra since overtaking the Syrian city last Wednesday, Syrian state TV reports. Activists also say that as many as 300 Syrian soldiers and people loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been hunted down and killed, Al Jazeera reports. $7 BILLION Today marks the […]
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Extra! Spain’s New Instability
La Razon, May 25, 2015 “Instability,” reads the Monday headline of conservative Madrid daily La Razon, after the strong showing of two upstart parties in Spain’s local and regional elections threatened the longstanding two-party duel between the Popular and Socialist parties. The conservative Popular party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy suffered its worst local results […]
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Treacherous Trail
Driving on the “good side” of the fence, in a then-divided Germany, I was able to take a look at the infamous Iron Curtain. The sand below the fence wasn’t there to make landings easier for those fleeing from East to West Germany. No, it made it easier for border patrols to track them down.