Worldcrunch
WARSAW — Of the nearly 4,000 foreigners who have applied for international refugee protection in Poland since the start of the year, just 38 have received refugee status. Though the majority of those granted the refugee protection (21) were from Syria, the largest number of applicants were from Russia, and other former Soviet countries, which […]
From London to Latin America, the extremism featured on the news and political speeches in vogue belie the rise of pragmatism as the new dominant shaper of policy.
JALALABAD — It’s early morning in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan. Haroon Sarwari, 17, and Manzoor Ali, 18, are wearing their backpacks and walking quickly to get a taxi to reach Kabul on time. These close friends have laid out plans to travel to Europe illegally with the help of a smuggling agent. Haroon’s cousins managed to get to Germany three months before, so his father, Sarwar Khan, supports the plan. “My father sold a few of his cows and borrowed some money from his friends to send me to Europe,” the teenager explains. “He has already agreed with the agent on […]
TEHRAN — Talk about a life in crime. Iranian police recently busted — or re-busted — a thieving gang consisting mostly of middle-aged and older men who have been in and out of prison since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The gang’s head is believed to be around 63 years old, and is known to law […]
SPOTLIGHT: GREECE REDUX It’s that time of year again: Greek anger and economic strife are making headlines: general strikes, bailout reviews, anti-austerity reforms. But a recent study looking to the recent past, published in Handelsblatt, a business newspaper from Germany (of all places), shows the Greeks have every right to be angry. Berlin-based economists found […]
Ta Nea, May 9, 2016 As a three-day general strike that paralyzed large parts of Greece ended Sunday, the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras won a Parliamentary vote to bring about tough austerity measures. “Hostages of Syriza’s austerity,” headlines Athens-based daily Ta Nea in its Monday edition. Over the weekend, outside the Parliament in Athens, […]
Airline passenger traffic is not slowing down, registering worldwide growth of 6.8% in 2015. The growing demand means more opportunity but also more competition, and airports need to be innovative to attract both business and pleasure air travelers. Long layovers can be tiresome, but not necessarily in Changi, Singapore. With free video games, film screenings, […]
Like me before him, my grandson (who’s been translating my comments into English for this here blog) is taking his spring break in the Greek Cyclades archipelago. Wishing him well on his journey — who knows, he may also stumble upon a Crete-shape cloud? During this two-week hiatus, take a look back at all the […]
A generation ago we saw the Berlin Wall come down and Nelson Mandela go from prison to the presidency. Today, we have Orban, Erdogan, Trump. What happens next?
The Turkish editor and a lonely press critic of President Erdogan was the target of a gunman who screamed “traitor” before firing outside an Istanbul courthouse. Dundar tells of his wife’s courage and his own determination to speak truth
Gay marriage separates the two major Christian communities that dominate Germany. But what does the Bible really say about homosexuality?
Violence, poverty and displacement have affected millions of Syrian children. In the besieged Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, many are foregoing their education and turning to selling wares in the streets to help support their families.
-Essay- On Mothers’ Day, mothers are recognized and receive praise from their families and society at large. It’s a special day that nobody should forget to celebrate, right? My homage will consist of a few requests and some words of gratitude. Cultivating patience is the first thing I would ask mothers to do. They would […]
Saving rainwater and increasing green spaces are two small steps shown to help fight the ravages of climate change in cities.
SPOTLIGHT: ANKARA INTRIGUE, GLOBAL IMPACT Turkish politics comes with no shortage of intrigue. Before Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced his resignation yesterday, the first word of the depths of his rift with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came via an anonymous blog post succulently entitled The Pelican File. Meanwhile main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu described Davutoglu’s […]
A brash yellow-haired billionaire with no political experience and a willingness to spew racism and sexism is now virtually guaranteed to be the Republican party nominee for president. Donald Trump, mes amis, is huuuge front-page news around the world: Le Monde, France The Times, UK Dagens Nyheter, Denmark Trump’s victory in the Indiana primary on […]
Some things never change. If you stay at the Posada de Don Rodrigo in Antigua, Guatemala, it looks like you will still be treated to the sound of a traditional marimba band, as I was 27 years ago.
Already swamped by refugees from across the Syrian border, Kilis is now also having to contend with constant rocket attacks.
CONSTANTINE — Algeria’s third-largest city has been shaken after May 1 worker demonstrations, included one man setting himself on fire in front of the Constantine governor’s office to protest rampant unemployment. The Algiers-based daily El Watan reports that the man, indentified as Hamza, was participating in a demonstration organized by the National Committee for the […]
Each night I return home to one of the greatest luxuries available to human beings: an empty room. There is no one to speak to if I do not wish to make conversation, and no one to make demands of me as I sit idly in front of my window. I only became conscious of […]
WHAT A MUSLIM MAYOR COULD MEAN FOR LONDON It’s Super Thursday in the UK, with voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland choosing their next parliaments. But it’s the British capital, which is set to replace maverick Boris Johnson as mayor, that has eyeballs from around the world. Frontrunner Sadiq Khan, if elected, would be […]
Why do we refuse to admit that discrimination and poverty help the spread of Islamic fanaticism? Understanding is not justifying, explaining is not forgiving.
Milliyet, May 5, 2016 Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu looks set to be replaced, after months of growing tension with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Davutoglu, who is head of the governing AKP, met Erdogan on Wednesday night, in a move that fueled reports that the power struggle between the two men had reached its apex. […]
In Tunisia’s capital, colorful Bardo guards kept a watchful eye on the Lion Staircase, one of the entrances leading to the parliament building inside the Bardo Palace.
Venezuela’s economic woes are depriving the socialist regime of its remaining popularity, even as the government uses every constitutional and political trick up its sleeve to block the opposition’s ascent to power.
A temporary ban on the Facebook-owned messaging service sent countless Brazilians into a momentary panic, revealing how rapidly communication habits have evolved.
TRUMP TRIUMPHS, CRUZ QUITS The improbable and, in the view of some prominent Republicans, unacceptable, has come to pass: It will be Trump. The Washington Post reports that short of some unforeseen twist, the controversial real estate tycoon Donald Trump will become the GOP’s presidential nominee after a landslide victory in Indiana yesterday pushed his […]
The entire population of the western Canadian city of Fort McMurray has been ordered to leave because of massive wildfires sparked by record high heat. Abnormally warm and dry weather — with temperatures hitting 90.6 °F (32 °C) Tuesday — in Fort McMurray is fuelling the fire, whose origin is as of yet unknown. About […]
Sergei Magnitsky died on Nov. 16, 2009 in a solitary confinement cell of the infamous Matrosskaya Tishina Prison in Moscow. He was 37. His death rocked U.S.-Russia relations and sanctions were put in place by Washington, followed by countermeasures from Moscow. Magnitsky had been a lawyer and auditor and, while working for the investment company Hermitage Capital, had uncovered an alleged case of fraud amounting to several million U.S. dollars. According to his research, Russian civil servants had, in conjunction with criminals, managed to steal $230 million from the treasury and transfer it abroad through a very complex web of […]
The Georgi Dimitrov mausoleum in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, was built in 1949 to contain the embalmed body of the country’s first communist leader. After the fall of the USSR, some members of the government started thinking the monument was an embarrassing nod to Bulgaria’s totalitarian past, and in 1999, they decided to blow […]
Autonomous vacuum cleaners are just the beginning. As time goes by, artificially intelligent machines will play ever greater roles in our lives. Which is why now is the time to start asking some important questions.