Worldcrunch
With his recent “state of emergency” declaration and decision to put the army on high alert against the threat of hostile “interventions,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro continues to show that he has no intention of being either pushed or voted out of power. Since opposition parties won a parliamentary majority in December, Maduro and his […]
La Croix, May 17, 2016 VATICAN CITY — In a rare interview, Pope Francis told French Catholic daily La Croix that there is no “fear of Islam” in Europe, and that the freedom to practice religion must be protected “not outside, but inside society.” The wide-ranging interview, published Tuesday, covered the Pope’s views on the […]
SPOTLIGHT: TRUMP AND THE ‘SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP’ It was 1946 when Winston Churchill coined the term “special relationship” to describe the uniquely close ties between the U.S. and UK: diplomatic, military, cultural, linguistic, economic… and yes, historic. The transatlantic amity dates back to the mid-19th century, when the two countries — one the world’s dominant empire, […]
A Sao Paulo cleaning lady turned to a group of architects in hopes of sprucing up her ramshackle home. The result was a prize-winning revamp that challenges conventional ideas about cost and aesthetics.
Are there clues to Donald Trump’s rise in the celluloid figure of Citizen Kane? It may be that the Orson Welles classic also points to the limits of the billionaire candidate.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S SILENT ANNIVERSARY It was 50 years ago today that the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Mao Zedong released a circular that was bound to unleash a decade of violence that would kill more than 1.5 million people. It would come to be known as the Cultural Revolution, and the history books consider […]
MISRATA — The weather is fair as the moon hangs over a family home in Misrata. The al-Rufai’s tiled courtyard, with its table and plastic chairs, and a vine shoot wrapped around the arbor, feels strangely peaceful this evening. Inside a dismantled Libya, the enclosure is an unexpected oasis, a welcome safe-haven against the chaos. […]
NEW DELHI — The journalists gathered for an editorial meeting at their newspaper in the Indian capital. Their work includes hard-hitting reportage and investigative scoops that other publications in the country followed up on. The group of journalists are unlike most others. They live on the streets. And they are all under the age of 18. Their paper, a New Dehlhi monthly called Balaknama or ‘Voice of Children,’ publishes stories of children living and working on the streets. Exploring topics such as child sexual abuse, child labor and police brutality, the newspaper has doubled in size from its original four […]
PARIS — Imagine securing a loan in just minutes — without having to visit a bank, fill out complicated paperwork, sit down with a loan officer. What if it could all be done with a few clicks on a smartphone? For some consumers and small businesses in the United States, China, the Philippines, Mexico and […]
What has become of the generation of people born in 1946? Le Temps‘ Joëlle Kuntz ponders the past seven decades and the findings of a watershed study of her age group.
An exhibition currently underway at Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau museum showcases 300 artifacts from the ancient Mayan civilization.
-OpEd- PARIS — A sex scandal is again shaking up politics and media in France. Denis Baupin, a a Green Party member and vice president of the National Assembly, who also happens to be husband to the current housing minister, is being investigated after accusations that he harassed many women, including colleagues and elected officials, […]
SPOTLIGHT: FACEBOOK, POWER + HEAT By virtually any measure, Facebook appears to be an unstoppable force of both business and culture dominance. Not only has quarterly income nearly tripled to $1.5 billion, but Mark Zuckerberg’s company can now boast that its record 1.65 billion users spend an average of 50 minutes a day on the […]
Borrowing techniques developed by U.S. architect Michael Reynolds, a group of Uruguayan amateurs turned piles of trash into an innovative and one-of-a-kind education center.
-Analysis- BEIJING — An in-depth report recently published by this newspaper, titled Robot Industry Development, Great Leap Forward-Style depicted the sector’s troubling situation in China. The article, needless to say, triggered plenty of discussion. According to Caixin’s investigative data, China currently has as many as 800 robot enterprises, although this statistic already excludes those which […]
-Analysis- MUNICH — Where is Muammar Gaddafi’s money? Rebels pulled the Libyan dictator from a sewage pipe in his hometown of Sirte on October 20, 2011. He was bleeding from his head, and rebels and bystanders joined in beating him and clubbing his groin with a bayonet. Shortly thereafter, this bird of paradise among African […]
SPOTLIGHT: DEATH IN IRAQ As the attacks in Paris and Brussels have shown, ISIS is a very real threat to daily life in the West. But as unacceptable as the toll paid by innocent European victims may be, it’s always worth remembering who bears the brunt of Islamic terrorism: innocent Muslims. The latest case is […]
From the poor to the pretty rich, women are still stuck with the lion’s share of housework and child-rearing. By one estimate, if each hour of domestic work were paid at minimum wage, it would total 33% of France’s GDP.
Why was President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supposed ally forced out of the Prime Minister post? The answer lies in the particular ambitions of this Turkish leader.
SPOTLIGHT: D-DAY FOR DILMA’S IMPEACHMENT After weeks, months even, of political chaos, the Brazilian Senate will vote to impeach President Dilma Rousseff later today. That is the scenario Brazil’s top media outlets are predicting, barring any last-minute twists. Of course in the mess that has become the impeachment process and criss-crossing corruption probes that have […]
The annual Kyotographie Festival creates a unique alchemy as world-class modern art occupies a timeless sanctuary.
Tempo, May 11, 2016 In the first public act after his apparent victory in this week’s presidential election in the Philippines, populist candidate Rodrigo Duterte paid a visit his parents’ tomb in his hometown of Davao. Images of the 71-year-old long-serving mayor sobbing at the tomb were on many front pages of many national newspapers […]
For the first time in 70 years, Americans have a chance to vote for an outspoken protectionist from a major party. How did we get here?
Zurich researchers have developed a questionnaire to help schoolteachers, social workers and police officers recognize signs of student radicalization.
BERLIN — During the last school year, some 18,000 young Germans began year-long adventures abroad, thrust into complete independence: suddenly, they were on their own, in a new environment, surrounded by strangers who spoke a language the students had only experienced from inside the safety of a classroom. Psychologists from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena […]
WARSAW — Of the nearly 4,000 foreigners who have applied for international refugee protection in Poland since the start of the year, just 38 have received refugee status. Though the majority of those granted the refugee protection (21) were from Syria, the largest number of applicants were from Russia, and other former Soviet countries, which […]
From London to Latin America, the extremism featured on the news and political speeches in vogue belie the rise of pragmatism as the new dominant shaper of policy.
JALALABAD — It’s early morning in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan. Haroon Sarwari, 17, and Manzoor Ali, 18, are wearing their backpacks and walking quickly to get a taxi to reach Kabul on time. These close friends have laid out plans to travel to Europe illegally with the help of a smuggling agent. Haroon’s cousins managed to get to Germany three months before, so his father, Sarwar Khan, supports the plan. “My father sold a few of his cows and borrowed some money from his friends to send me to Europe,” the teenager explains. “He has already agreed with the agent on […]
TEHRAN — Talk about a life in crime. Iranian police recently busted — or re-busted — a thieving gang consisting mostly of middle-aged and older men who have been in and out of prison since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The gang’s head is believed to be around 63 years old, and is known to law […]
Airline passenger traffic is not slowing down, registering worldwide growth of 6.8% in 2015. The growing demand means more opportunity but also more competition, and airports need to be innovative to attract both business and pleasure air travelers. Long layovers can be tiresome, but not necessarily in Changi, Singapore. With free video games, film screenings, […]
Like me before him, my grandson (who’s been translating my comments into English for this here blog) is taking his spring break in the Greek Cyclades archipelago. Wishing him well on his journey — who knows, he may also stumble upon a Crete-shape cloud? During this two-week hiatus, take a look back at all the […]
The Turkish editor and a lonely press critic of President Erdogan was the target of a gunman who screamed “traitor” before firing outside an Istanbul courthouse. Dundar tells of his wife’s courage and his own determination to speak truth
Gay marriage separates the two major Christian communities that dominate Germany. But what does the Bible really say about homosexuality?
Violence, poverty and displacement have affected millions of Syrian children. In the besieged Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, many are foregoing their education and turning to selling wares in the streets to help support their families.
-Essay- On Mothers’ Day, mothers are recognized and receive praise from their families and society at large. It’s a special day that nobody should forget to celebrate, right? My homage will consist of a few requests and some words of gratitude. Cultivating patience is the first thing I would ask mothers to do. They would […]
Saving rainwater and increasing green spaces are two small steps shown to help fight the ravages of climate change in cities.