A town in southwestern Colombia is trying to clamp down on catcalling — “piropos’ (compliments) as they’re known locally — that is all too common in a country long plagued by machismo. In a rare public move against sexist behavior, the mayor’s office in Timbío, in the department of Cauca, recently issued a “non-binding” decree […]
Month: November 2016
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Spotlight: The Stakes Of Aleppo
The numbers are impressive, terrifying, bone-chilling. At least 20,000 people have fled their homes in Aleppo this week alone, according to the International Red Cross, as the Syrian army and its allies make significant, and perhaps crucial, gains in the eastern part of the city, controlled mostly by jihadist fighters. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for […]
ALEPPO — In his smoke-filled office in western Aleppo, Tarif Attoura holds a copy of the draft agreement to let the rebels leave the eastern part of the city, under siege for three months. “It was the Russians who drew up the document in their Center for Reconciliation at the Khmeimim air base, near Latakia,” […]
BEIJING — If you’ve ever had trouble ordering at Starbucks, just know you probably have plenty of company: millions of Chinese coffee lovers. When one customer recently posted an open letter online to the chief executive of Starbucks in China to complain about the way the American coffee chain calls its different size cups, the […]
Just before this week’s attack by a Muslim student at Ohio State University, which authorities believe was inspired by ISIS, a young peace-loving Muslim-American described his faith in this essay.
The death of Cuba’s Fidel Castro offers an early glimpse at how U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will need to balance his pro-growth economic plans and allegiance to business with the hard-line campaign pledges that helped him win the election. Trump has promised to reverse the improved U.S. relations with Cuba forged by President Barack Obama over the past two years unless the Caribbean nation met his demands for more political and religious freedoms. Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, reiterated that message on Sunday in an interview on Fox News. Priebus said the U.S. needed “a better deal” from […]
It was the worst nuclear plant accident in history, measured in both casualties and cost. And though the death count paled in comparison to the more than 100,000 killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the amount of radioactive material released in Chernobyl was 400 times higher. Six months after the 1986 disaster, the Soviet […]
-OpEd- ISTANBUL — Over the years, as Turkey’s European Union membership process stalled, I have seen plenty of blame on both sides. Ultimately, I never believed Turkey would become a full EU member, as the process was full of insincerity from both Ankara and Brussels. Now, it is over. In all these years, I never criticized the EU membership process out of some nationalistic impulse. But I do believe that the goals of democracy, rights and freedom cannot be achieved by way of foreign pressure. I also believe that the EU is not merely a union of political principles, and […]
Not unlike a zealous Christian, Castro learned from Catholicism a dogmatism and opposition to pluralism that he imposed on his island nation for decades.
-Analysis- Populists sometimes have good ideas. Taking advantage of historically low interest rates to launch a stimulus plan, for example, is a good idea. Standing up to China, which is massively subsidizing its steel exports and restricting freedom to invest in the country through law and might, is another good idea. So too is rethinking […]
The promise of eternal life gets a boost from the latest technologies, but there are troubling questions that go beyond science.
He was the candidate she feared the most. Not only could he unify his own party, but he could siphon crucial votes from her conservative Catholic base. And now that François Fillon won yesterday’s “right and center” primary ahead of next year’s presidential election, the far-right French leader Marine Le Pen must shift her strategy. […]
In the wake of the U.S. election, central bankers unite to stabilize the world economy in the face of populist calls to scrap regulations.
Mohamad Katoub, a former doctor who escaped from eastern Ghouta, always felt that Syria’s daily toll of deaths and casualties are more than just numbers – until he saw the power those statistics had. Here, he explains why he changed his mind.
HAVANA — Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba’s Communist revolution who ruled over the island nation in defiance of the United States for a half-century, died late Friday at the age of 90. Havana announced that the remains of the retired Líder Máximo would be cremated Saturday. This was a tweet from the Cuban embassy in […]
KISH — The island of Kish is a far cry from the rest of Iran. Although it’s just 19 kilometers from the mainland, this Persian Gulf outpost features the kind of open hedonism that would be shocking in other parts of the country. As hard-line politicians and religious figures target so-called Western imports such as […]
Right-wing populists are advancing in every corner of the world, but let’s not forget the Israeli prime minister who has been in power for years. Here’s his formula.
Neither Thanksgiving nor the Friday after is a day off for British workers-shoppers. But there are even more reasons that the imported retail ritual is pointless.
Babies cry, that’s normal. But what if your baby does not stop crying and drives you up the wall? For more than 25 years, a Munich-based medical department has helped parents cope with crying babies.
Experts do know a lot. But they have a tendency to consider the object of their expertise as immovable.
Looking eastward from Western Europe, Turkey used to be seen as both a model of secular democracy in the Muslim world and a huge business opportunity. But longstanding hopes for Turkish entry into the European Union appear grimmer every day. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, apparently seeking to revive a form of “Ottoman glory,” has led […]
Animal rights activists in Argentina are testing the limits of democratic rights on behalf of elephants they say are being mistreated at the Buenos Aires Zoo.
WASHINGTON — For Donald Trump, little is more intoxicating and affirming of his own power than creating tornadoes and watching them tear across the landscape. In the space of just 24 hours this week, the president-elect set off cyclones near and far that preview the drama he seems likely to bring to the White House. Trump summoned two dozen television executives and news anchors to his offices Monday to berate them as dishonest and disobedient. He sought to strong-arm the British government into appointing his Brexit ally, Nigel Farage, as ambassador to the United States. He dropped his threat to […]
BUENOS AIRES — City living often means getting to know your neighbors well, though not necessarily by choice. Whether its late-night partying or that leak from their floor through your ceiling, apartment dwellers often find themselves face-to-face with very tangible conflicts with their fellow citizens. Buenos Aires, a city where people increasingly live in tight […]
-Analysis- I want to avoid all possible misunderstandings so I’ll go straight to the point: I believe Donald Trump’s victory was the effect of an irreversible decline of representative democracy as a viable system of government. What leads me to this conclusion is not my antipathy towards the campaign that led him to victory, nor […]
JERUSALEM — The pounding of the hammer resonates in Jerusalem. “They are in the process of constructing a synagogue,” said the Israeli tour guide in front of the tunnel, which attracts hundreds of tourists even though they have difficulty navigating it. “One might say that there are plenty of places of worship like this,” said […]
NEW DELHI — I am outside the Reserve Bank of India building in New Delhi. It’s 8 a.m. The bank opens at 9 a.m. but more than 300 people have already queued up here. Among them is 60-year-old Mohammad Mustaqeem. He runs a garment shop but hasn’t been able to open it for the last three days. “There’s no business in the market. The only thing for us to do now is to stand in these queues for money because without it we can’t even get food.” “The grocer is now refusing credit so we can’t get milk, we can’t […]
When we pet an iguana, we are taking advantage of a communication channel that already exists between iguanas. Evolution can work across species too.
SEEMAPURI — In this neighborhood on the outskirts of Delhi, electronic scrap keeps growing. Piles and piles of electronic waste or “e-waste” litter the narrow alleys here from old computer circuit boards and cables to discarded keyboards and phone handsets. Mohammad Salman, 25, deals with such e-waste. “We collect it from all over the country, from waste pickers and other scrap dealers and then look for items that can be fixed,” he says. Salman says he sells the precious metals that can be found in e-waste. “We give it to bigger dealers and what they do with it is their […]
–OpEd- BERLIN — It’s been said that house guests are like dead fish: After three days they start to smell. When it comes to government officials, it usually takes a little longer. Americans make a president clear out of the White House after eight years, at the latest. That’s smart. Heads of government in Germany […]
SAO PAULO — Anywhere you look, they’re there. You could be attacked, even inside your own home. For the 800 indigenous Guarani people living in the four villages of the northern Sao Paulo district of Jaragua, the threat of getting hurt by stray dogs is growing. Locals estimate that there are as many dogs as […]
A stressful Japanese work culture is deeply ingrained in the country’s mindset, with historical roots and very modern health risks.
With Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House, America will enter the fifth phase in its relationship with the rest of the world. Despots have reason to cheer.
When French astronaut Thomas Pesquet took off last week for a six-month mission on the International Space Station, he brought a tantalizing taste of home with him. Breton lobster. Beef bourguignon. Chicken breast in a white wine mushroom sauce pressed with gingerbread. These are some of the meals that Pesquet, the first Frenchman in space […]
We first had “Merkozy,” a marriage of convenience between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy made to counter the European debt crisis. Then the pair was forced to part ways when Sarkozy lost to current French President Francois Hollande. Merkel and Hollande’s relationship was always awkward, with one newspaper saying “there […]
When I told the guy at my neighborhood grocery store in the Turkish city of Istanbul that I was traveling abroad, he said, “Don’t come back. Not if you can.” I told him I have a life here. “They will arrest us all, one day,” he responded. I’d never previously discussed politics with my grocer. […]
ST LOUIS — I’m the guy who never answered the phone when caller ID said “Number Unavailable.” I don’t want every opinion, every perspective, and every trend to be visible to those who would mold public opinion. I am suspicious that had the power brokers in Washington known what was coming, they’d have found a way to get Hillary Clinton into office. I didn’t want that. I’m fed up. Enough is enough. I want my country back. This is supposed to be a government of the people — not of the banks, lobbyists and foreign donors. I am one of […]
After German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed her run for a fourth time, Berlin-based daily Die Tageszeitung opted for a notably creepy photo montage.
Trump, Orbán, Le Pen: today’s nationalists share certain things, like an antipathy for supranational institutions. But Trump’s real danger is something completely different.
As officials plan a cleanup of the foul Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin, in Buenos Aires scientists are awed by the handful of creatures that manage to survive there.