It is time to start asking harder questions about the world’s largest company, both how it runs its business and how it conditions our lives.
Month: May 2015
The Daily Mail, May 5, 2015 Two days after finding out that “It’s a girl,” the world now knows what to call the second child of Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge: the baby Princess of Cambridge is named Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. The British tabloids had plenty of fodder interpreting the choice, with […]
A view from France of Thursday’s high-stakes election across the Channel.
Despite serious financial difficulties, Argentina is negotiating major arms purchases from Russia. Relations with the U.S., in the meantime, have gone from bad to worse.
Spaghetti produced from the wheat of local farms is served in the restaurants of Ethiopia, which discovered pasta during Italian colonial rule but only now are developing an entire economy around it.
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Eurovision Contestants 2015: Malta
Malta is one of the few Eurovision participants that have not missed a single contest since 1991. But despite such dedication, the country has always preferred finishing in the top 10 without winning — probably a way to make the most of the glory without the burden of organizing the party the following year. Classic. […]
GUNMEN WHO ATTACK ANTI-MUSLIM EVENT KILLED Police shot and killed two gunmen after they opened fire outside a building in Garland, Texas, where a contest for cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was being held, The Dallas Morning News reports. The attackers’ identities haven’t been released. 101 Funchu Tamang, a 101-year-old man, was pulled from the […]
BAGUIO — In South Korea, learning English is a national obsession. Families pay billions of dollars a year on extra curricular education so their children can enroll in top universities and later land high-paying jobs that require good English skills. But it’s not always affordable at home, which is why the Philippines, where English is one of the two official languages, has become one of Korea’s top destinations for overseas language education. Like almost every other South Korean high school student, 17-year-old Kang Tae-won spends every weekday evening at a private academy learning English. He believes his future depends on […]
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Extra! ‘Fight Of The Century’ Disappoints
Dubbed the “Fight of the Century,” Saturday’s welterweight title boxing match between American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Filipino Manny Pacquiao failed to live up to the hype. In what some instead consider the most boring fight of the century, Mayweather won by unanimous decision after an uneventful 12 rounds lasting 40 minutes. Pacquiao is […]
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View From The Bottom
There are several ways to look at the statue of Pan and a Nymph, near Dubrovnik’s Gate of Pile.
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The Downsizing Of Deutsche Bank
Major changes are afoot at Deutsche Bank, which weathered the 2008 economic storm but has been slow since then to adapt to changes in global financial markets.
MINQIN — Here, where the sand threatens to encroach, China is waging a long-term war against desert expansion. Just a few steps beyond the cultivated fields, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see. Minqin is menaced by the Tengger Desert to the west and by the Badain Jaran Desert to the east, […]
Doctors in Germany have noted an alarming rise in psychotic episodes linked to excessive marijuana use among young people, which follows other studies around the world raising alarms.
In countries that once invested in free public university systems, higher education is increasingly becoming an investment option turned over to the private sector. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
A filming accident left French equestrian stuntman Bernard Sachse paralyzed below his tenth vertebra. But his career is busier than ever.
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Eurovision Contestants 2015: Lithuania
Lithuania’s history in the Eurovision Song Contest is unfortunately pretty bad. Since its first run in 1994, the country has made 15 appearances, more or less interspersed by failed attempts to qualify, lack of funds and threats to boycott the show if Russia didn’t stop invading countries. This year, it will be represented by the […]
LONDON — At London’s Ladbroke Grove Tube station, a very steep set of stairs leads down to street level. If you turn right at the foot of the stairs it is only a short stroll to the famous Portobello Market and the even more famous Nottinghill, with its pubs and clubs, designer shops and cream […]
NEPAL DEATHS EXCEED 6,000 The death toll in and around Nepal, where a devastating earthquake struck Saturday, now exceeds 6,200 people, Reuters reports. More than 14,000 people were also injured, and at least 600,000 homes were destroyed in the disaster. SNAPSHOT Photo: Sajjad/Xinhua/ZUMA A laborer works at an iron factory on International Workers’ Day in […]
A growing number of Syrians have been trying to escape to Europe over the past year, some meeting their tragic ends after paying smugglers to cross the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats.
Economist, May 2-8, 2015 One week ahead of Britain’s national elections, polls are too close to call between the two leading candidates, the Tories’ incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband. The Economist divides its cover between the two, casting the election as a choice between risks: for the economy (Miliband) and […]
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We Call It La Valette
The Mediterranean island of Malta has a past marked by Frenchmen. The capital of Valletta was named after Knight Hospitaller Jean Parisot de Valette, whose order then surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte. But my visit there didn’t make it into history books.
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German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen is a fighter. The authors of two new books about the daughter of the very conservative Ernst Albrecht envision the unconventional leader as the next chancellor.