The president thinks it’s time to ‘revolutionize’ Islam. But to do so, he needs help from the country’s oldest, most prestigious Sunni university.
Month: March 2018
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Mexico, A Republic Of Corruption
Mexicans have become as used to politicians’ promises to end corruption as they are used to knowing it won’t happen.
The White House national security team presented Trump with three options, leading to an unprecedented purge of 60 Russian spies, which caught Moscow off-guard.
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Raft Of The Seals
There’s something almost Géricault-esque in the pyramidal structure of this shot, and the way these seals meld with the rocks of Ballestas Islands, off the coast of Peru.
Scientists are investigating why 68 dolphins — most of which were dead —washed ashore this week in the central province of Chubut.
Like the the UK and U.S. election surprises before, Italy’s recent populist triumphs marked a revolt by voters outside the major urban centers.
The targeted murder by a Muslim of an elderly Parisian Jewish woman connects hatred of Jews today to that of Europe’s past. And it’s not just in France.
Set for a second term, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has evolved in tone and substance over the past four years: from soft-spoken insider to all-powerful leader.
Owners of diesel cars are trying to unload them in wake of a landmark ruling that could lead to urban bans on the vehicles.
-Essay- WASHINGTON — On Nov. 8, 2016, Erik Hagerman was struck by a bolt. Donald Trump was victorious, the last thing he wanted to hear. So on that very day, the 53-year-old former Nike corporate executive swore that he would avoid everything that happened in, and to, America after election day. He did not want […]
A quirky hostel in Colombia offers guests bucolic surroundings, Indian tents to sleep in and a generously stocked bar.
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Safari On 5th Avenue
I guess for some, it’s a jungle out there in Manhattan.
French authorities agreed to help the U.S. crack down on tax evaders. But in doing so, people who just happened to be born on American soil face massive penalties and reams of red tape.
Indigenous groups say the Nicaraguan government should do more to protect the massive but quickly disappearing Bosawás Biosphere Reserve.
‘Other bombmakers who bought products like these…’
ROSARNO — A shantytown of tents and shacks stretches out across an abandoned industrial district halfway between the towns of Rosarno and San Ferdinando, deep in the southern Italian region of Calabria. Some 2,500 farm workers from at least 16 different countries live in deplorable conditions surrounded by waste, with no access to running water […]
In Argentina, one of the world’s biggest citrus producers is recycling its farming waste as fuel and fertilizers.
CAIRO — Over the course of the past two months, since Ghad Party head Moussa Mostafa Moussa decided to run for president, the party and its relatively unknown candidate have found themselves suddenly wading into uncharted waters. Before he submitted his papers to the National Elections Authority on January 29, only minutes ahead of the […]
In a time of Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping, Europe represents a democratic ideal alone—respectful of both humanity and the planet. And Europe needs a revival of the Berlin-Paris alliance to make it possible.
PARIS — As we prepare to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the author of The Gulag Archipelago, his widow and intellectual accomplice, granted a rare and exclusive interview to Le Figaro. Natalia Solzhenitsyn evokes her husband’s gigantic literary and historical work in identifying the causes of the Russian tragedy. She recalls that […]
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Peeking At The Pearl
From afar, the northern Sahara town of Ghardaïa, Algeria looks very quiet — and very dry. But once you get to the shade of its main square, you can relax, sit back and watch the camels grunt about.
WASHINGTON — How many times have we heard that this is the year of the woman? Let’s just say, several. Each decade for the past century or so seems to have presented a fresh feature to justify yet another proclamation of historic import. From suffrage (1920) to the pill (1960) and legalized abortion(1973) to Gloria Steinem and Ms magazine (1972) to “Reviving Ophelia” (1994) — fast-forwarding to the recent pink-capped Women’s March (2017) and the #MeToo movement (2017) — women have been pushing their way forward to reach parity with men. Many of the original goals have been reached. Women […]
-OpEd- MUNICH — We are making the world a better place: That has been a central promise that helped Silicon Valley’s Internet giants seduce the public, on their way to gaining unprecedented power over our lives. That vow remains at the heart of the message of Mark Zuckerberg and his company Facebook. The goal, as […]
NEW DELHI — A recent photo posted on Facebook by the Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, Ashutosh Sharma, featured 41 heads of Indian educational and research institutions. It didn’t take long for Shobana Narasimhan, a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, to point out that not a single one was a woman. Only 20% of tenured faculty positions in Indian educational and research institutions are held by women. Other numbers are even more skewed: only 12 women are Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences (there are 197 men); only 3 women […]
TOKYO — Chinese boys and girls are often referred to as “Little emperor” or “Little princess.” They grow up in surroundings with financial means where six adults are catering to their demands: they are the luckiest generation since the founding of modern China. Yet few of them realize that there is an even luckier bunch […]
There’s simply no way for Mark Zuckerberg to fix the fake news and data abuse problems without destroying his social network’s business model.
PARIS — At the Ritz palace overlooking the Place Vendôme, the “Ritz Burger” beaufort cheese, fries and a green salad is sold for 42 euros. At the Crillon bar, the chef’s mini burgers are sampled until 6 pm, for a cool 28 euros. A longstanding symbol of junk food, the burger seems to have found […]
ALGIERS — Medical residents at the University of Algiers have been on strike since mid-November, taking to the streets surrounding the medical campus in the western suburb of Ben Aknoun. The Algerian students are demanding changes to a system that forces them to work in far-flung corners of the country after they gain their medical […]
-OpEd- BERLIN — It’s a strange state of affairs. Two madmen are leading two of the three greatest world powers: Donald Trump, who has turned his former TV show The Apprentice into a governing method in the White House, and Vladimir Putin, who lets himself be photographed hunting bare-chested, showing off his muscles, who eliminates […]
-OpEd- In the Syrian conflict, loss means means different things to different people. For many, it means the loss of loved ones. For those displaced or forced to flee the country, it also means the loss of their homes, properties, jobs and communities. For most, it means the loss of predictability, welfare and security. And yet, Syrians remain active and resilient —even after seven years of horrific violence. Despite being deprived of their basic human rights, many are fighting to protect their dignity, their voices and their memories. Amid these devastating conditions, Syrian activists have relentlessly documented the suffering and […]
The U.S. president will cast a long shadow over the upcoming Summit of the Americas gathering in Lima, Peru — even if he decides not to show up.
Inside an elite unit of the Carabinieri military police using old and new tactics to track down fugitive leaders of the powerful ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate.
PARIS — Its destruction, nearly three decades ago, sent waves of joy across the globe. And yet, tourists of all nationalities still come to photograph its remains. The object of this paradox is none other than the Berlin Wall, the historic Cold War symbol that became an artistic symbol, even after its fall on Nov. […]
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Foie Gras Farm
I once visited a foie gras farm in southwestern France, years before goose liver became one of the world’s most controversial delicacies. Désolé, but foie gras still is a péché mignon of mine.
-Analysis- The term “techlash” has been around for awhile, but get ready to see and hear it more and more. The company that stands at the center of this “technology backlash” is no doubt Facebook, with the world’s largest social network experiencing its worst week in memory amid snowballing revelations around its relationship with Cambridge […]
–OpEd- PARIS — The year is 2050. Cash has disappeared. People now pay for their purchases with their smartphones. And as in so many other sectors, Apple and Google are the big winners — along with Microsoft, who makes a small chip, which people implant under their skin to use as an electronic wallet. For […]
The power of love, or the celebration of a future society that values spiritual oneness rather than patriarchal divisions, is the ultimate source of resistance.
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Mother Russia And Us, What Now?
The result came as no surprise: Vladimir Putin won yesterday’s Russian presidential election and will serve a fourth term. More importantly for the Kremlin leader, he obtained the comfortable result he was seeking, with 76.6% of the vote, up from 63.3% in the last election six years ago. Yes, nearly two decades after emerging from […]
Prospects of a rising dollar in 2018 could push developing countries like Argentina to take conservative measures like raising interest rates and curbing deficits.
Young, poor Moroccans, desperate for a fleeting sense of power and control are turning to a nasty chemical cocktail called ‘karkoubi.’