Some 88% of fossils from the Araripe Basin northeastern Brazil, one of the world’s richest paleontological sites, are housed in foreign museums — a historical and cultural heritage Brazilian authorities and researchers are working to repatriate.
Month: July 2024
Tehran claims the visiting Hamas leader was struck down in the capital with a “high-tech” missile or drone, so his killing could not be attributed to another security lapse on the ground against the chief suspect, Israel.
Hamas reported that its leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iran, most likely by Israel, drawing fears of wider escalation in this region already shaken by the war in Gaza and on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Updated July 31, 20244 at 11:20 a.m. Fidel Castro officially handed over power to his brother Raúl Castro on this day in 2006. Why did Fidel Castro decide to transfer power to his brother? Fidel Castro’s decision to transfer power to his brother Raúl Castro was prompted by his declining health. Fidel underwent intestinal surgery […]
For years, France has been searching for what makes it truly stand out in the modern world, beyond its eternal critical sense and Gallic quarrels. The creativity of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was the beginning of the answer.
The crushing weight of Chinese loans to socialist Venezuela may yet become the biggest, if less publicized, obstacle to the restoration of liberal democracy there, if its power-drunk president were ever to abandon power as he once again appears unwilling to do after a highly contested election.
Thanks to athletes like Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Teddy Riner, who have opened the conversation, psychological counseling is no longer a taboo in the world of high-level sports. The Paris Olympics will be a showcase of champions who are doing the hard work.
Updated July 30, 2024 at 10:55 a.m. Caitlyn Jenner, then known as Bruce Jenner, won the Men’s decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics on this day. How did Bruce Jenner perform in the men’s decathlon at the Montreal Olympics? Bruce Jenner delivered an outstanding performance, winning the gold medal in the Men’s decathlon at the […]
The mining industry is a vital part of Mongolia’s economy. But people living near one of the country’s largest copper mines say their health is suffering, and scientists and doctors are sounding the alarm.
Scenes of violence against Syrian refugees are no longer unusual in Turkey, a country marked by rising nationalism amid a deepening economic crisis.
Corruption, human rights violations, and alliances with totalitarian regimes are all good reasons why the West should be paying attention to Venezuela ahead of the country’s presidential elections on July 28, writes Venezuelan journalist Miguel Henrique Otero in Nicaragua’s Confidencial newspaper.
Alexey Sokolov is being tried for showing the logo of Facebook, which Russia has classified as an extremist organization. But his human rights activism and opposition to the regime show how the social media is used by the regime to persecute opponents.
Venezuela’s Bolivarian regime has been trampling on democracy, by degree, for 25 years while deftly managing international opinion to avoid too much backlash. Now, with Maduro defying fair elections, there may be no turning back.
Updated July 29, 2024 at 10:35 a.m. Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married on this day in 1981 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England. How did Prince Charles and Princess Diana meet? Prince Charles and Lady Diana met in 1977 when Charles was dating Diana’s older sister, Sarah. Their paths crossed again […]
Several transgender athletes will compete at the Paris’ Olympics. But overall participation of transgender women in female sports is under threat in the U.S. where some states and sports organizations get to draw the boundaries between “real” and “unreal” women.
The former U.S. president and Republican nominee Donald Trump is threatening to revive his choice policies of curbing immigration and trade, and nobody would suffer as a result quite as much as the hundreds of millions of Latin Americans who may be forced to turn toward China and the Global South.
In Egypt, some 90% of cyber blackmail victims are women; yet only 10% of victims report these incidents for fear of social stigma or what they call “scandals” for their families. Expecting a lack of support from their families, they also turn to community initiatives.
The Olympic Games in Paris will be the first in history with a video surveillance system linked to massive databases, algorithms developed by artificial intelligence and facial recognition. With bonafide security fears, as shown by Friday’s attack on rail lines, this new form of individual and collective control also raises real civil liberty concerns.
July 29 – August 4, 2024
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have starkly different communication styles, starting with laughter v scowls. Would a Harris victory in November usher in a new era of more feminine form of political communication? asks Italian writer Nicoletta Verna.
With wars around the world arousing political strife and affecting the personal lives of many athletes, it seems the Paris 2024 Games could be overrun by geopolitics. Polish journalist Radoslaw Leniarski, an 11-time Olympic Games correspondent, explains what is, and isn’t, different this time.
Updated July 26, 2024 at 11:20 a.m. The Solar Impulse 2 completed its historic circumnavigation of the Earth on this day in 2016, after a journey that spanned approximately 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers) and took over a year to complete. It demonstrated the feasibility of long-duration, solar-powered flights, encouraging further research and innovation in renewable […]
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro joins a long line of dictators whose fall from grace is marked by a period of incessant corruption, isolation, and a disconnection from reality.
Harmless insects are named after nasty dictators, which doesn’t seem to bother zoologists. Botanists, on the other hand, want to banish the offensive word “caffra” from the realm of flora. There is an understandable reason why South Africa has managed to do so, writes correspondent Christian Putsch.
Some Palestinians believe the Israel-Hamas in Gaza war has turned into a war of attrition. But it is, in reality, one of extermination. And the people of Gaza are no longer hiding their criticism with the international community that for nine months has failed to stop the war.
In Kazakhstan, prison sentences are regularly handed down for separatist activity. Yet the defendants in such cases are overwhelmingly “online separatists” — people far removed from politics and activism. Who are they and why does the state consider them such a threat?
Updated July 25, 2024 at 12:15 p.m. Louise Brown, known at the time as the world’s first “test tube” baby was born on this day in 1978 in Oldham, England. Her birth marked a significant milestone in reproductive medicine and assisted reproductive technology. What does it mean to be a “test tube baby”? The term […]
Laws in the late 1990s ended bans on women from wearing pants in Brazil’s courts and legislature, a practice that de facto has continued in many place. Female judges and legislators discuss how dress codes hinder women’s access to power, and the battle to change habits.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo made waves last week for swimming in the Seine following a historic effort to clean up the Parisian river. But her biggest environmental footprint is in trying to reshape Paris for a more pedestrian future.
Tourists have been flocking to Krakow for cheap alcohol and bachelor parties, a trend that residents say is making the historic Polish city unlivable.
In the Arab world, it is a regional sport to blast the biases and prejudice of Western media. But voices criticizing the performance of Arab media are rare. That is a serious problem, for multiple reasons.
Updated July 24, 2024 at 11:15 a.m. Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France for the 7th consecutive time on this day in 2005 and announced his retirement from professional cycling. He initially returned to the sport in 2009 but failed to replicate his previous success. In 2011, he retired for the second time, marking […]
Worldwide, PCOS is often missed in teenage girls as they go through puberty. Jane Dipika Garrett draws on her own struggles with the disorder to boost awareness — and self-acceptance.
Hadeer Abdel Razik says her guilt is that she does not feel “shame” about her body and wants to live her normal life as a woman. Hadeer Abdel Razik made TikTok videos as a fashionista; or not ashamed of having sex with her husband.
Antonio, Ibrain, Victoria, Lizeth, Xiomara and Zaira. All six have etched in their memory the people they were able to help and those they couldn’t while crossing the Darién Gap, one of the most dangerous points on the Central American migration route to the United States.
As the vice president is now virtually assured to face Donald Trump on November 5, questions arise on what her election to U.S. president would mean for the rest of the world.
The Muslim Brotherhood called for anti-government protests on July 12, yet again failing to understand what is really on Egyptians’ minds and overestimating their readiness of taking to the street against the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Updated July 23, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. On this day in 2011, Amy Winehouse was found dead in her home in the Camden neighborhood of London. The cause of her death was determined to be accidental alcohol poisoning. How old was Amy Winehouse when she died? Amy Winehouse was 27 years old at the time […]
The current unprecedented political crises in France and the United States — two very different systems and political cultures — have points in common, notably that partisan issues are still taking precedence over the need to rethink the democratic system and its practices.
Rodents in the trenches are making life difficult for both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers on both sides, and leading authorities and activists send house cats to the front lines.