Worldcrunch
-Analysis- The recapture of Mosul by the Iraqi armed forces, with the support of the international coalition led by the United States, is a real achievement. ISIS has seen its biggest military conquest reversed, and its dream of an Islamic caliphate destroyed. But none of this means that the biggest terror organization the world has […]
-Analysis- SAO PAULO — The G20, the club gathering the world’s biggest economies, is the offspring of two crises. First, the 1997 Asian financial crisis led to the creation of the group in 1999, as an annual summit for finance ministers and central bank governors. Their objective back then was to coordinate policies to stabilize […]
MUMBAI — Afreen Rehman, 28, is one of five Muslim women who recently took her case to India’s Supreme Court demanding a ban on a controversial practice known as “Triple Talaq,” or instant divorce. Afreen says she had been married just two months when her in-laws started harassing her about her dowry. “My husband and other in-laws started mentally harassing me, saying that he has a law degree and that any other girl would have brought a large cash dowry and a big car while I brought nothing,” she says. Afreen’s in-laws sent her back to her parents’ home. And […]
AIX-EN-PROVENCE — Here, the vineyard traces the pathways of art. It usually is the other way around, whereby a well-known vineyard expands its activities (rooms for rent, a restaurant, exhibitions) to attract more wine buyers. But at Château La Coste, 15 kilometers from Aix-en-Provence in southeastern France, the cultural offer is so rich that people […]
As President Trump prepares for his first face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his plans for a reset with Russia are undermined by his own actions.
Finally some serious competition for Tesla. Just days after Elon Musk said his American multi-billion dollar electric automobile startup would start producing its Model 3, the brand’s first mass-market electric car, a heavyweight automaker from the past declared “the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car.” By 2019, all new Volvo models will come with […]
ALEY — Mohammad left his home on the outskirts of Damascus in 2013, gripped with a mix of guilt and anxiety. Though he was fleeing violence that is still ongoing in his hometown of Jobar, the 39-year-old father of four worried about how he would provide for his family. He had lived his whole life in the historic neighborhood that hems the walls of old Damascus, where he owned a thriving business — a workshop that pressed aluminum. But when the conflict broke out in 2011, he watched his enterprise shutter and his community unravel. Two years into the war, […]
With Britain missing its turn for the European Union presidency in light of Brexit, the rotating six-month duty has fallen into Estonia’s lap earlier than planned. Until the end of the year, the northernmost Baltic country will lead the EU through a complicated period: On top of difficult divorce negotiations between Britain and the 27-nation […]
-OpEd- PARIS — It’s taken years for acts of violence carried out against French Jews to be recognized not as ordinary crime, but as the violent expression of a new form of anti-Semitism. By describing perpetrators as standard criminals, lone wolves or psychiatric patients, every possible effort was made to avoid acknowledging that in France, […]
SPONSORED CONTENT The IT ecosystem in Africa is thriving. Microsoft alone now has offices in more than 14 African countries, and has announced that it will open its first data centers on the continent in 2018. Another sign of spreading tech is Kenya’s M-PESA online monetary transaction system, which has become a part of everyday […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Will the digital revolution get the better of physical currencies, a cornerstone of trade since 700 B.C. and a key fixture of modern society and government? Whether using cards, transfers, or cellphones, paying for things is increasingly done without coins or bills. This evolution raises the prospect of a cashless society. But […]
-OpEd- Can you be a Christian and a politician? I’m not talking about a fundamentalist who would seek to apply Biblical precepts across all of society. I’m talking about a “moderate” Christian, one who knows how to distinguish between the moral principles that rule his life and the secular values that rule the life of […]
Analyzing letters and testimony of ISIS terrorists shows how eye-for-an-eye arguments in defense of Muslim victims meld with monotheistic guilt and a mystic sense of destiny to become offensive weapons in the jihadist strategy.
-Analysis- PARIS — There are always worse things in life than money troubles. The record $2.7-billion fine that the European Commission slapped on Google for breaching competition rules is a major financial blow for the company. But for a firm making billions of dollars like Google, the mega-penalty isn’t the main problem. It’s never enjoyable […]
SPONSORED CONTENT In this technology driven world, Africa is still recording low iGDP compared to its neighbouring continents. Funding, infrastructure, electricity and IT literacy are among the key challenges hampering ICT development in Africa. Currently, only one percent of African children leave schools with basic coding skills yet Africa’s population has been increasing at an […]
Watching from abroad as Brazil’s anti-corruption probe rumbles into its fourth year, you can’t help but think: “Well, I guess they’re all corrupt…” “How could it get any worse?” No doubt, many Brazilians are thinking the same. The latest episode in this seemingly unending series of accusations and counter-accusations, rising and falling political fortunes, is […]
PARIS — Donald Tusk had a dream: The United Kingdom was staying in the European Union — For him, this vision isn’t just a pure imaginary digression. The European Council president even appealed to the words of one of Britain’s most famous voices, quoting John Lennon’s “Imagine“: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m […]
The latest big news out of the Middle East is that Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has ousted the crown prince and installed his 31-year-old son, Mohammed bin Salman, in that position. While the world waits to see more of the reaction from Saudis and others in the region, a few quick thoughts come to my mind. First, the news feels stunning because of its significance; if MbS (as the new crown prince is known) becomes king, he will be the first monarch who is not a son of King Abdulaziz al Saud, the founder of Saudi […]
PARIS – Notre-Dame Cathedral continues to draw millions in the center of Paris. But how long before it starts to collapse? For now, at least, France’s most famous cathedral still stands tall and proud. But it’s not in great shape. Far from it. Pollution is eating away its stones. Detail work on the outside is […]
Abu al Fadl devoted the final months of his life to clearing al-Bab of improvised explosives left behind by ISIS in everything from washing machines to cooking pots. The 60-year-old disabled several thousand mines before one took his life.
Image is valuable currency in our modern world. It can make or break a brand, or a career. Entire nations, meanwhile, also have to consider how they are seen — at home and abroad. We also know that for both companies and countries, image so often starts at the top. Take the now former Uber […]
KABUL — When a series of terrorist attacks rocked the Afghan capital late last month, killing more than 150, less than a kilometer away from worst blast, a group of women were busy preparing a morning show for the country’s only TV station run by women. Zan TV, or Women’s TV, was launched this month, dedicated to women’s voices and women’s issues. Since the end of Taliban rule in 2001, Afghanistan has gone from having just one state-owned TV station to 76 stations broadcasting across the country. But despite the proliferation of channels, women are often neglected by the Afghan […]
Russia, Iran and U.S. are all looking beyond the defeat of ISIS in Syria. But the little game the great powers are playing is becoming increasingly risky.
What does Donald Trump see when he looks out toward Cuba? Havana, after all, is just a few hundred miles south of the U.S. President’s own coastal getaway at Mar a Lago, Florida. In Trump’s eyes, is the island nation still fundamentally a Communist enemy, even though the Cold War ended nearly three decades ago? […]
The online media star, who sits on the board of the ride-sharing app company, says Uber doesn’t just suffer from a culture of sexism. It’s also burnout — and bad sleep.
“A Masterstroke,” “A Tsunami,” “The Takeover.” Newspapers in France summoned their best metaphors this morning to describe what already looks like a landslide — yes, another favorite electoral metaphor — in favor of Emmanuel Macron’s party in yesterday’s first round of legislative voting. Ahead of next Sunday’s second and final round, the new president’s party […]
A new study found that dozens of São Paulo women infected with Zika gave birth to babies without Microcephaly. Researchers are trying to trace the difference in the effects of the disease in different regions.
WASHINGTON — As former FBI Director James Comey held the political world in thrall Thursday from inside a packed Senate hearing room, House Speaker Paul Ryan walked into an unusually empty press briefing across the Capitol. Before Comey’s testimony about his private interactions with President Donald Trump had even concluded, Ryan joined an effort already underway among GOP lawmakers to place it in the best possible light for Trump. “Of course there needs to be a degree of independence” between federal law enforcement and the White House, Ryan said. But, he added, “The president’s new at this. He’s new to […]
NEW DELHI — Wearing orange dresses with matching turbans, a group of folk musicians play tunes on their pungi, also known as been, a traditional flute made from gourd fruit. The audience at Surajkund Craft Fair on the outskirts of the Indian capital is enthralled. Many break into dance. But the musicians themselves don’t look very enthusiastic. “This is not what we want to do; it’s been thrust upon us,” says Badri Nath, 75, who heads the troupe. “But since our original work has been banned, this is all we can do. Whether we are happy or not doesn’t matter.” […]
Exploitation of so much data by artificial intelligence could lead to the automatic evaluation of individual employee performance.
Forget the Strait of Hormuz. The real place to watch the simmering diplomatic battle between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is 5,500 kilometers to the southeast, in the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia. That’s because the petroleum market’s center of gravity, along with that of the global economy, is in Asia these days. As recently as the 2003 Iraq War, the U.S. and Europe accounted for more than half of the world’s oil imports. The share has now fallen to barely more than one-third, as imports by the north Atlantic countries have stood still while those by China, India, […]
CAIRO — “It’s a hobby, but it’s also more than that,” Ahmed Shaloufa says, as we climb the final ladder to his pigeon coop in the working-class district of Sayeda Zeinab. “It’s a passion.” Once inside the coop, the labyrinthine streets and megalith apartment blocks of the old city disappear from view. If you jump […]
“Enough is enough.” Theresa May’s remarks after Islamists killed seven and wounded dozens Saturday evening in London — the UK’s third major terror attack in three months — amounted to both a new message and a new tone. The British Prime Minister took aim at the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism” and boldly took a […]
BEIRUT – Few women have ever gained access to Block B of Beirut’s notorious Roumieh prison. This is where Lebanon holds radicalized criminals. It is also a place where suicide bombings have allegedly been planned, and has been called an “operations room” for the so-called Islamic State by Lebanon’s interior minister. So when Maya and Nancy Yamout first began interviewing convicted jihadists in the prison, the Lebanese sisters aroused both confusion and suspicion among guards and prisoners alike. The Yamouts’ interest began with a university project, but it took the support of the former minister of justice to get them […]
Yesterday, as he announced the United States’ withdrawal from the historic Paris climate agreement, President Donald Trump appeared particularly eager to deride the perceived exploitation of America in past international negotiations. “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be.” No, Mr. President, no one is laughing today. […]
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has made a colossal mistake in deciding to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. There is simply no case for withdrawal, other than a desire to double down on an ill-informed campaign promise, while the case for staying in is overwhelming. But damaging as it is, this decision is not the beginning of the end for efforts to contain climate change. The world decided in Paris to confront the climate threat, and it is not turning back. Around the world, climate change is a metastasizing danger, for some countries even an existential threat. It was […]
PARIS — Monsanto, the multinational producer of pesticides and genetically-engineered crops, has sought to discredit virtually anything that stands in the way of its business, reports leading French daily Le Monde in a multi-part investigative series that began Thursday. Among the targets of the U.S.-based agro-chemical giant are scientists, regulators and even the World Health […]
WASHINGTON — In 1965, not long after his assertion that adopting Medicare would mark the death of freedom, Ronald Reagan, that great sunny-side optimist of the American right, explained the apocalyptic, anti-democratic impulse that animated the far right of his day, and which now permeates the Republican Party. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority … always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the treasury with the result that democracy […]
They say it’s never too late to learn. A special school in the Indian state of Maharashtra is proving that in a new way.
The ruins left behind by President Donald Trump’s first foreign trip don’t look anything like the archeological wonders in Taormina, Sicily, site of this past weekend’s G7 summit. The rubble left in Trump’s path can be reassembled in brutal words of German, French, Italian, English and other languages spoken and written in different European and […]