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Month: June 2016
Hiroshima-born designer Issey Miyake has spent his career creating garments that challenge sizing conventions and are both practical and beautiful. A French reporter ponders his influence.
SPOTLIGHT: SOCCER & THE STATE OF FRANCE “Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to soccer,” French philosopher Albert Camus once said. And there’s definitely more than sports at play in the Euro 2016 soccer championship that kicks off tonight in France: There are heightened security fears around the […]
-OpEd- Turkey has never been a stranger to terror attacks. But it seems that the spiral of violence we have entered since the June 7, 2015, general election is so severe that it cannot be compared to anything that came before. Worse: There’s no resolution in sight, no sign of an end to this violent […]
Le Parisien, June 10 “It’s time to party!” reads the front page of French daily Le Parisien Friday, which features a photograph of supporters celebrating the opening ceremony of the 2016 UEFA European soccer championship at the Eiffel Tower. The tournament kicks off on Friday with Romania facing France. The latter could do with a […]
BOGOTÁ — For Latin America, the U.S. presidential elections have become a big-screen spectacle that affects the tone and register of local politics, in a region that combines democratic aspirations with an enduring admiration for its northern neighbor. The televised debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy generations ago began a process that has […]
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At The Crossroads Of Continents
The Þingvellir rift valley, in southwestern Iceland, marks the the separation between the Eurasian and North American Plates, clearly visible in the canyon-like Almannagjá fault.
The psychology of global warming helps explain why we can’t solve it. “It triggers nothing in our brain,” says one psychologist. “It lets us sleep calmly in a burning bed.”
FRIBOURG — The decision came like a bolt from the blue: In July 2007, the canton of Fribourg’s local government decided to hand over the management of asylum claimants to ORS, a private company from Zurich that was active in Germany. And just like that, the Fribourg Red Cross was out, despite its years of […]
China’s National Higher Education Entrance Examination (commonly known as Gaokao) is a two-day, nine-hour, monumentally stressful examination that the country’s 9.4 million graduating high school students took earlier this week. The grade on this test is the only qualification many Chinese universities consider for admittance, so for the many ambitious Chinese students and their families, […]
SPOTLIGHT: MIGRANT RISKS Whether fleeing war or poverty, migrants from Africa and the Middle East continue to risk their lives to reach Europe for what’s been advertised as just one dangerous leap away from a much better life. The latest grim report comes this morning from Morocco where one migrant died attempting to reach the […]
SÃO PAULO — Daniel Okamoto has bad memories of the 2014 World Cup, but not because of Brazil’s historical and humiliating 7-1 defeat to Germany. “My company went virtually bankrupt because of the World Cup,” the businessman says. The firm, Dahouse Events, won a modest bid for a 300,000-real contract ($83,000) to make costumes for […]
El Nacional, June 9, 2016 Venezuelan daily El Nacional on Thursday features front-page clashes linked to the country’s ongoing food shortages. “Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) will control 70% of food staples,” reads the lead headline of the Caracas daily that is close to the opposition. The headline refers to the policy touted by […]
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Haute Couture
It must be tricky for the Bigouden women to wear their traditional lace bonnets — some of them 35 centimeters in height — in windy Brittany.
Married under Sharia law in their native country, underage refugees pose hard questions for Germany’s legal and child welfare systems. German courts are divided.
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Some 6,000 people gathered in Bogota for artist Spencer Tunik’s latest outdoor photo shoot. The clothes-free event was a stunning splash of hope for a country torn for so long.
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Hillary History, Zoo Lessons, Fake Victim
SPOTLIGHT: HILLARY HISTORY Hillary Clinton has held a long list of impressive titles: U.S. first lady, senator, secretary of state. And now she’s added another one to the list — Democratic Party nominee for the Oval Office. By virtually every count now, Clinton is set to be the first female candidate of a major party […]
PARIS — Should Palmyra be rebuilt? And under what conditions? No sooner had Syrian forces and the Russian Army freed the “pearl of the desert,” a spectacular Greco-Roman city with traces of Eastern influence, from the yoke of the Islamic State (ISIS), then the debate over how to restore it to its former glory was […]
French daily Le Figaro reports Wednesday that a 24-year-old woman will be prosecuted for posing as a victim of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in order to get a 20,000-euro compensation (about $23,000). The police started having doubts after the woman presented forged medical certificates, saying her arm had been wounded from an explosion […]
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Sitting In History
My wife was sitting in the opulent mansion of the Madewood plantation, near New Orleans — its antebellum elegance in stark contrast with its troubled history of slavery.
A millennial explains why her peers aren’t excited about the likely first female major-party nominee for U.S. president
MUNICH — Traffic collisions. Heart attacks. Even terrorist attacks. Tragedies strike every day, tearing people away from their loved ones forever. But events like this have a collateral impact beyond the victim’s next of kin. They also affect the messengers, the proverbial bearers of bad news. People with certain chosen specific vocations — police officers, […]
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Where Are The Men Of Damascus?
Forced conscription for what many describe as “someone else’s war,” has led to widespread exodus and shuttered up draft-dodging for much of Syria’s adult male population.
The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo after a toddler fell in his enclosure is just the latest example of the twisted concept of the zoo industry. What lessons for your kids?
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Inside A Church — Video Quote Of The Day
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Istanbul Attack, Clinton Close, El Bronx
SPOTLIGHT: EURO 2016 ON EDGE The Euro 2016 soccer tournament starts Friday in France. By some accounts, it is the world’s third biggest sporting event, after the World Cup and Summer Olympics. This year’s contest will last for a month around the country’s biggest stadiums and is expecting to bring 2.5 millions fans to attend […]
In the small Sicilian town Of Mineo is a sprawling facility where asylum seekers, many of whom have survived perilous journeys, live in limbo and face exploitation.
Renmin Ribao, June 7, 2016 Tuesday’s front page of the Chinese state-run daily Renmin Ribao features President Xi Jinping in front of American and Chinese flags as he spoke at China-U.S. bilateral talks in Beijing. The 8th round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Development and the 7th round of China-U.S. Cultural Exchanges and High Level […]
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Dental Work
The Mayan site of Copán was hard to reach. But when we did get there, we were rewarded with remarkable examples of Mayan sculpture — some with very peculiar dentition.
Friends are the new family! Friendships are the greatest love affairs you’ll ever know! Nonsense. Take a journey to the dark side of your so-called friends.
A brutal gang rape in Sumatra has sparked street demonstrations, candlelight vigils and calls for stricter punishment for sexual predators. Grassroots groups, in the meantime, are focusing on survivors, helping them live with the trauma, not just ingore i
SPOTLIGHT: THE MEANING OF MUHAMMAD ALI Today marks the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Later this week, the man who for decades was the world’s most famous Muslim, and arguably its most famous person of any religion or race, will be laid to rest in an Islamic ceremony in the heartland of […]
MOSCOW — He is described as the Russian equivalent of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After launching VKontakte, Russia’s biggest social network, a decade ago, Pavel Durov has more recently become one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest, if ever discreet, opponents. Forced into exile after quarrels with the Kremlin, he is never where you’d expect him […]
El Comercio, June 6, 2016 “Vote by vote” reads the front page of Peruvian daily El Comercio Monday, as ballots are still being counted after Sunday’s presidential election, the second-round vote being too close to call last night. The front page features a painting of the two main candidates, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from the center-right […]
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Helping The Spanish Miracle
In our own modest way, we contributed to Spain’s economic boom in the 1960s, back when the country, then led by Gen. Francisco Franco, opened up to tourism. This is Toledo’s wonderful Alcázar, with the Tagus River in the foreground.
A recent drug raid in a south-central Bogotá neighborhood that shares its name with the New York borough uncovers a veritable den of vice, violence and unfettered gang rule.