From The Amazon to The Alps, French photographer and street artist Philippe Echaroux has made a name for himself with his extraordinary light projections that aim to raise awareness about social and environmental issues.
Month: August 2024
France has accused Telegram CEO Pavel Durov of complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group. But should businesses be left responsible for making decisions about the costs of risks?
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has assured Xi Jinping that, if elected, Kamala Harris would handle ties between their countries “responsibly.” U.S.-China relations are the major issue of this century, as tensions rise over Taiwan, technology and the South China Sea. A Trump victory would make that prospect scary.
Ongoing since 2021, the Polish-Belarusian border crisis has escalated in recent months. As some want to push all migrants away and others say let them all in, Poland must have a system for allowing people to apply for entry — both for humanitarian and economic reasons.
The president of Turkmenistan announced plans to extinguish the country’s famous “Gates of Hell” gas crater sometime in 2024. But it’s by no means the only one of its kind. We rounded up the eternal flames still burning in all corners of the globe.
The golf industry claims it generates 225 million euros each year in Murcia, or 0.8% of the southeastern Spanish region’s GDP, which is also the driest in Spain.
Updated August 30, 2024 at 11:20 a.m. American business magnate Warren Buffet was born on this day in 1930. Who is Warren Buffet? Warren Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a multinational conglomerate holding company. Buffett is often regarded as one of the […]
September 2 – September 8, 2024
With record-breaking ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s concert tour — mobilizing fans from all over the world to secure tickets — has it all been worth it?
By pushing out French troops and welcoming Russians, countries in the west African region of Sahel had hoped for autonomy and stability. They’ve gotten death and chaos instead.
Hezbollah’s Imad 4 underground missile facility, which was revealed on Aug. 16, is just another layer of the Lebanese tragedy. For Hazem El-Amin, the footage brings back memories of his experience during the Lebanese Civil War.
As a child in Albania, Luan learned it was dangerous to owe money to the wrong people. Now an adult in Italy, he is struggling with a gambling addiction and is trying to get back on his feet.
At least 91 Indians have been forced to fight alongside the Russian army on the frontlines, and so far, eight Indian nationals have been killed. Many families have been waiting agonizingly long for their loved ones to return home.
In France, the ratio of around 1.5 contributors to one pensioner is threatening the balance of the pension system. As in Anglo-Saxon countries, the possibility of pension underfunding is looming. But the creation of a National Pensions Fund could change all that.
Updated July 23, 2024 at 11:50 a.m. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. on this day in 2005. What was Hurricane Katrina? Hurricane Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane at the time of its landfall, with sustained winds of around 125 miles per hour (200 kilometers per hour). It was […]
The Philadelphi Corridor has again become a sticking point in the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel. It’s all premeditated as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pursues his undeclared goal: keep fighting in order to occupy Gaza.
Since 2021, engineers at the aerospace group Airbus have been working with the French National Sports Agency to build better equipment for disabled athletes. Their high-lying expertise will be in full display at the Paralympics Games Paris 2024.
We live in a political, social, economic and fundamentally cultural environment that viscerally rejects all pain and suffering as irrelevant. For the modern individual, it is not so much a case of being free to do this or that, as to be free from whatever limits us.
The author’s mother shares a name with the Democratic nominee for U.S. president. How our names are spoken in different countries and cultures has some surprising twists, even if Donald Trump’s weaponizing Kamala Harris’ name is pure bigotry and bullying.
Israel’s far-right security minister is multiplying his provocations to change the status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Saudi Arabia denounced the move, and ultra-Orthodox Jews have distanced themselves. But the holy city may explode sooner rather than later.
Once crypto-cautious Russia has started experimenting with the digital financial market, prompting new regulations, formal exchange markets, and, as President Vladimir Putin hopes, new means of skirting Western sanctions.
Updated July 28, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on this day in 1963. Who was Martin Luther King Jr.? Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and leader in the civil rights movement. He led peaceful protests and advocated for nonviolent resistance […]
Following the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov near Paris on Aug. 24, independent Russian-language media Important Stories looks into the claims Western authorities have made against Durov since the messaging application was launched in 2013, always keep its door open to the internet’s darkest corners.
German journalist Laura Ewert found out that her grandfather had led a massacre of Italian civilians in 1944 during the Nazi era. Eighty years later, Ewert met descendants of the victims in San Polo and experienced reactions that she would not have expected.
More than 200 Russian missiles and drones rained down on Ukraine in one of the heaviest bombardments since the start of the Russian invasion. A response to the Ukrainian incursion into Russia, and a desire to break Ukrainian morale before possible negotiations.
Increasingly extreme temperatures are forcing summertime cultural events and festivals, from concerts to Spain’s traditional castell human towers, to adapt to a new climate reality.
Updated Aug. 27, 2024 at 12:20 pm Twenty years ago, Argentina beat the star-studded U.S. basketball team at the Athens Olympics in a major upset. Who were the key players for Argentina in the game against the United States? Several key players contributed to Argentina’s victory against the United States, including Manu Ginóbili, Andrés Nocioni, […]
Modern times and capitalism have given the words failure and success an emotive charge and excessively personal connotations, turning mechanical, humdrum notions into engines of angst.
The arrest in Paris of Telegram founder Pavel Durov raises a lingering question about who actually controls the Russian messaging and social platform. Some say it’s Vladimir Putin’s most powerful (not-so) secret weapon in the global hybrid war aimed at spreading backward ideology and destabilizing the world.
Imane Khelif not only won a boxing gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she also triumphed over brutal stereotyping and ignorance about women that is part of a broader story of sports and politics that traces back to Hitler and Jesse Owens..
Ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Ivan Timofeev of the Russian International Affairs Council, considers which candidate would be better for Russia. While it’s often thought that Moscow should hope for Donald Trump to win, his first term as president shows his “transactional” nature and otherwise minor impact on foreign policy.
Between Hezbollah and Israel, the Sunday morning exchange of attacks looked to be the beginning of the long dreaded regional war. But the sound and fury of Israeli jets and Hezbollah weapons amounted to another round of warfare, but not (yet) total war as major power sponsors in Washington and Tehran try to wind them back.
Updated Aug. 26, 2024 at 11:20 am Mother Teresa was born on this day in 1910. Who was Mother Theresa? Mother Teresa, born as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje (now North Macedonia), was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation that provided care and assistance to […]
A new group theater in Lisbon — made up by a majority of Brazilian migrants — has set out to explore the idea of migration through plays. They started with putting in scene a story about the concept of nationhood — because every migration story looks different, but it also has some universal basis, the artists tell independent media Mensagem.
Updated Aug. 25, 2024 at 11:45 am Happy 55 to German supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who was born on this day in 1970. Who is Claudia Schiffer? Claudia Schiffer is a supermodel who was born in Rheinberg, Germany. She rose to fame in the 1990s when she was discovered by a modeling agent in a nightclub […]
Many of life’s biggest questions can’t be answered by an algorithm. We must learn to embrace uncertainty instead.
Updated Aug. 24, 2024 at 2:45 pm An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude hit Italy on this day in 2016. Where did the earthquake strike in Italy? The earthquake struck central Italy — in particular the regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria, and Abruzzo. The epicenter was near the town of Accumoli in the province of Rieti. […]
Being aware of our own vulnerabilities is not a sign of weakness — it’s what makes us human. But as Ignacio Pereyra writes, reflecting on his own experience as a man and a father, there’s still a fairly long way to go before the “club of men” understands the value of opening up about their fears.
The global fight against climate change is essential, but the solutions are not universal. Measures must account for the local realities of the Global South, where economic development is equally important and where the imposition of strict environmental standards by the North has devastating social and economic consequences.
Armenia, under pressure from its aggressive neighbor Azerbaijan, is seeking security in closer ties with the European Union. Just next door, Iran may welcome this Western alignment if it means winning a shorter land route for exports to the Black Sea and EU markets.