Publico — Oct. 6, 2016 “We all win” reads the front-page headline of Lisbon-based daily Publico on Thursday, after Portugal’s former Prime Minister António Guterres was chosen to become the next UN secretary general. After what was largely considered an unremarkable tenure by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, commentators are hoping for better results […]
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Forbidden Fun
I was lucky enough to see some of the world’s greatest treasures at a time when there were few fences and rarely entrance fees. But even when there were limits, like here in Hadrian’s Villa near Rome, they were of little concern for my daughter Cécile.
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Demon Door
Meet Thotsakan, a demon from the Hindu epic Ramakien guarding one of the entrances to Bangkok’s Wat Arun Buddhist temple.
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On This Day – October 4
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That Darker Paris Reality
SPOTLIGHT: A DARKER REALITY IN THE CITY OF LIGHTS Paris has always had a dark side. Uprisings, demonstrations, even revolution…the streets of Paris have been awash in blood time and again over the centuries. In far more recent months, terror attacks, floods and strikes have stamped the City of Light as the standing capital of […]
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On This Day – October 2
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On This Day – October 1
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Orban’s Law, National Identity As Fear
That disturbingly flexible phrase “fear of the other” appears to be driving electoral politics around the world right now. Perhaps the intellectual center can be found in central Europe, specifically Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Since taking office in 2010, the smooth-talking right-wing prime minister has been a singular voice for those who see the West as […]
Churches are besieged by a specific type of thief — those hired by art collectors to steal specific pieces. The intrinsic loss caused by these actions is often irreparable, but church communities in Germany are starting to fight back.
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Four Hundred Pleats
There are 400 pleats in the kilt-like fustanella worn by the Evzones guards who patrol Athens’ Syntagma Square. That’s one pleat per year of Ottoman occupation. Now I wonder what the pompoms on the clogs stand for …
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On This Day – September 30
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From Obama To Duterte, Breaking The Mold
In many ways, Barack Obama’s election eight years ago as America’s first black president broke the mold. But in other ways it has not. Both at home and abroad, there are certain codes and behaviors and best practices that the preternaturally moderate Obama has abided by for the past eight years to ensure a kind […]
New signs from Poland that racism and xenophobia are on the rise. A Polish lecturer at the University of Warsaw, Jerzy Kochanowski, was beat up on a tram in Warsaw for speaking German to a professor from another university, Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reports. An inebriated man near Kochanowski reportedly told him not to speak […]
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Basket Surprise
You’re never quite sure of what’s in the wicker baskets of the street peddlers in Jaipur. It could be some fresh fruit or vegetables — or a cobra!
Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 27, 2016 Most pundits agreed that Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton scored a solid victory over Republican Donald Trump in the highly anticipated first debate of the 2016 U.S. general election. Here is a quick video recap of Monday night’s debate that includes questions about Trump’s tax returns, Clinton’s flip-flop on trade deals, […]
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Sturdy Sentinel
For centuries, the thick walls of the Saksaywaman citadel have been looking over the valley of Cuzco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire.
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U.S. Debate Day, The World Is Watching
The United States, and much of the rest of the world, will turn its collective attention tonight to the campus of Hofstra University, where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will hold their first presidential debate. A quick look at the American and international press today shows just how much anticipation there is ahead of what’s […]
El Tiempo — Sept. 26, 2016 “Peace after 267,162 dead,” declares the stark headline on the front page of newspaper El Tiempo on Monday as Colombia gets ready for a historic accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Latin American country has seen war for 52 years in a […]
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Southeastern Smile
There’s something striking about Southeast Asian countries: More than any of the countless other places where I’ve pulled out my camera, people like this rickshaw driver on the Indonesian island of Java, would naturally just smile back at me.
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On This Day – September 26
Before this week, few outside of France knew his face. But no doubt, millions have been busy Google-Image-searching the name “Guillaume Canet.” Yup, bel homme. He is also an accomplished actor and director, and happens to be the husband of the already internationally known French actress, Marion Cotillard. And that, as you are disturbingly likely […]
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RIP Valley Of Tombs
Next to the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra lay several funerary towers known as the Valley of the Tombs. You can see them in the background of this photograph, as my wife Claudine walks among local ethnic Druze. Sadly, we know that the first-century necropolis was destroyed by ISIS terrorists last year. Some Druze villages, […]
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Superbugs Crawl Onto Agenda
In our globalized world, climate change, economic collapse and all sorts of warfare (nuclear, biological, cyber, etc.) are viewed as the most terrible and frightening danger threatening our planet. But scientists recently pointed to an imminent threat that could wipe out the human race — the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria or, simply, “superbugs.” Today, the […]
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Self-Driving Reality
Driverless cars used to seem like the stuff of sci-fi. But as the U.S. unveils a list of guidelines about self-driving vehicles today, it’s safe to say that these cars have zipped from the realm of a distant future to the regulatory thicket that’s an all too clear reminder that this is very much a […]
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The Philosopher’s Stone
The famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant spent most of his life in Königsberg, in what was then known as Prussia. HIs mausoleum has seen borders and names change: The city is now a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania called Kaliningrad.
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On This Day – September 20
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Transatlantic Terror Lessons
New York is again testing the limits of its status as “the city that never sleeps.” A week after marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks at Ground Zero, an explosion a bit farther uptown Saturday injured 29 people. And now, even as the investigation continues into that attack in the Chelsea […]
Die Tageszeitung, Sept. 19 Another election, another humbling defeat for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a Berlin state vote, Merkel’s CDU party polled 17.6% — its lowest showing since 1990, figures from public broadcaster ARD showed on Monday. It’s the second poll drubbing as CDU got crushed just two weeks before in an eastern German […]
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Fountain Of Youth
Can you spot the little red riding hood playing in L’Aquila’s Fontana delle 99 cannelle (“The Fountain of the 99 Spouts”)? Luckily, the landmark fountain suffered only minor damage during the deadly 2009 earthquake.
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On This Day – September 19
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On This Day – September 17
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American Empire On The Stump
Beyond the Middle America stump speeches and coast-to-coast pancake breakfast stops, a U.S. presidential elections is also very much a global event. All the talk of the decline of the economic, political and cultural might of the American empire starts sounding a bit premature every four years, as November approaches. So this morning, it’s no […]
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Rembrandt In Ecuador
It was rather quiet when we got to the indigenous town of Otavalo, in northern Ecuador, and I was able to take my time photographing a woman using a big spinning wheel. The image ended up looking something like a Flemish painting.
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On This Day – September 16
LIMA — Sometimes it seems the popular smartphone gaming app Pokémon Go knows no bounds. But Lima-based daily El Comercio reports that the capital’s seafront district of La Punta recently banned the game in most areas, restricting players to a limited zone. The district council moved ahead with the ban this week after receiving numerous […]
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Signs Of A Serious Startup Boom In Indonesia
JAKARTA — A deal between Indonesia’s leading lender and an Uber-like moto-taxi application is the latest in a string of partnerhips that are making Indonesia a veritable hotspot for startup ventures in Asia. The initiative, between Bank Mandiri and the Jakarta-based company Go-Jek, will allow customers to store credit on the app by handling payments […]
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Hacking The Whole Wide World
Russian daily Kommersant reports today that more athletes’ medical files from the World Anti-Doping Agency have been leaked, including three-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. With tensions rising between Russia and the West, such an information security breach — whether about alleged banned substances in sports or gossipy […]
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A Tombstone Maker’s Death
Among the tombstones at Petersfriedhof cemetery in the Austrian city of Salzburg are those that are not stones at all, but intricate works of wrought iron.
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