We’re drawn to it, tempted to wade in its bittersweet waters. And yet, for the most part, nostalgia just makes us miserable. Some wisdom from Latin America.
Category: In The News
Last month, on the same day that President Vladimir Putin declared victory over the so-called Islamic State, the militant group launched a surprise offensive against government forces in Deir ez-Zor province, killing up to 31 pro-government fighters in a three-day span. “In just over two years, Russia’s armed forces and the Syrian army have defeated the most battle-hardened group of international terrorists,” Putin told Russian forces on Dec. 11 during a visit to Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria. Just hours later, ISIS began to attack government positions north of the town of Boukamal, a former key stronghold for the […]
A young designer from Paris is applying his knowledge about natural light to the narrow streets of the Argentine capital.
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Nobel Ballroom Shine
I took a step away (and back) from our guided tour, to better immortalize the size of Gyllene Salen, the Golden Hall in Stockholm“s City Hall. This is where the Nobel Prize ball is hosted, under the glow of millions of glass and gold mosaic pieces.
CHENNAI — In Murugavel Janakiraman’s office, his daughter’s drawings are pinned up next to family photographs. He proudly points out his children, Arjun and Anisha, his mother, who lives with them, and his wife, Deepa. They met on India’s most popular matrimonial website, Matrimony.com. And as the old saying goes, if you want something done, […]
Colorado was among the first states in the U.S. to decriminalize marijuana. Our European correspondent has a closer look.
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New tools rely on the influence of experts in behavioral economics, risk psychology and neuroscience to limit errors humans make to raise risk of online attacks.
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QUITO — Stashes of cocaine kept in boats and dinghies in the remote Galápagos Islands. Dozens of operatives transporting narcotics on rivers across the border into Colombia. Over the past three years, powerful Mexican drug cartels have systematically moved supplies and operations into Ecuador. According to Quito-based daily El Comercio, at least four Mexican cartels […]
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Categories
The Way To The Oasis
Our various road trips through North Africa almost always included encounters with caravans of Berber nomads and their camels, making their way to bigger cities to resupply.
An experimental television show on France’s Canal+ relies more on sounds than images to scare the daylights out of people
Strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis are spreading across Ukraine, where armed conflict and market misgivings are making a bad situation even worse.
In villages in Minya, Christians and Muslims are confined to separate districts, a condition that feeds into sectarian dynamics.
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After Fascism and Communism, the 21st century features two new forms of evil ideology: Islamism and … Dataism.
Sept. 30, 1965, is a night that changed Indonesia forever. The events of that night led to Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, being ousted from office, as military General Suharto assumed control of government — Suharto went on to rule the country for 32 years, until 1998. In Central Java, Indonesia, KBR journalist Muhamad Ridlo spoke with a man who was at the heart of the action that night, and who says a fake version of events has been remembered in Indonesia. JAVA — The man in front of me is tall and thin. He’s 77 years old, with a vivid […]
What can the White House do, beyond public declarations? Loud statements not backed by action is not the answer.
Delving into the meaning of the decline of Aracataca, the birthplace of Colombian master and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, and setting for One Hundred Years Of Solitude.
OneShot — Young lesbian couple, 2015
For the entire time that I was in the Caribbean on vacation, I was convinced I had lymphoma.
GENEVA — “What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?” A simple question that comes up in December, but is enough to make some people break into a cold sweat. “For years, New Year’s Eve has given me a headache,” says Sonia, a 26-year-old communications student at the University of Geneva. “You ask yourself whom […]
MARTINSBURG — Lory, Maggie and the rest of their gang of septuagenarians weren’t all that interested in politics, at least not to the point of openly campaigning for someone. But that was before Donald Trump and his wild run for the presidency in 2016. Ardent supporters of the Republican candidate, these grandmothers in Martinsburg, West […]
In a new book, French futurologist Laurent Alexandre argues that as artificial intelligence advances, our education systems need to adapt, and quickly.
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Steppe Into The Spotlight
In the puszta grassland valley of eastern Hungary, this csikós wrangler was just warming up before performing an incredible stunt show on galloping horses.
The legalistic formula the Bolivian leader has found to perpetuate his presidency is despotic and shameful.
Youth performers revive pansori, the folkloric art of musical storytelling, a South Korean cultural heritage.
He’s laughing and blushing, but he’s not having any of this Christmas singing stuff. No way!
The online retail giant now has its eyes set on Argentina, putting it on a collision course with regional market leader MercadoLibre.
Ciudad Juárez, once torn by drug wars, experienced a 34% spike in femicides this year.
An estimated 2.3 billion people worldwide live without toilets. Nearly two-thirds of them are in India. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, a sociologist and NGO founder, is determined to do something about it.
KRASNOHORIVKA — The sound of canon fire has become more distant of late in Krasnohorivka. But the war continues to haunt Lioudmila Sidonnka. The young mother’s stories are those of soldiers running in all directions, of smoking tanks, never-ending detonations, nights spent in her building’s basement, houses on fire. Little wonder that so many residents […]
This week’s overhaul of the U.S. tax code is a betrayal of a century of progressive reforms, and a return to the morally corrupt dominance of the robber barons.
The so-called Islamic State has been driven from most of its territory in Syria, but the fate of the thousands of civilians captured by extremists remains largely unknown, writes Chatham House fellow Haid Haid, whose cousin was kidnapped by ISIS.
DJUPAVIK — About a century ago, farmers from the remote region of Arneshreppur didn’t know the value of money. In general, bartering was still the only source of survival in this northwestern region, largely cut off from the rest of the island nation. Then, in 1934, a herring factory was opened in the small village […]
The negotiations and the complex, chaotic debates around Brexit are revealing of a major dilemma facing democracies: What do you do when a country is profoundly divided?
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is breaking with recent U.S. convention by portraying China as a rival that wants to undermine American prosperity. But it may take more than an aggressive tone to change the complex relationship between two economies that are joined at the hip. In a new national-security strategy released Monday, the White House lumped China with Russia as powers seeking to “challenge American power, influence, and interests,” and attempting to erode the country’s security and prosperity. “We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries, but in a manner that always protects our […]
Categories
Psychedelic King Arthur
Glastonbury Abbey, in southern England, is held by some as King Arthur’s final resting place — the mythical Avalon. When I photographed his fabled tomb, I was experimenting with a different brand of film that, as the decades went by, turned the green grass a strange tinge of blue and the red sign pink.