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Staff Picks, Our 15 Best Stories Of 2019

Staff Picks, Our 15 Best Stories Of 2019

LES ECHOS

France's Yellow Vests And The Problem With Post-Truth Economics

Opinion shapers have a habit these days of disregarding facts, be they scientific or economic. Opinions matter, of course, but shouldn't supersede well-founded knowledge.


SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

RoboJudge: When Laws Are Transformed Into Computer Code

Laws take time to catch up with reality. Could we program them into binary systems? It is tempting, but it is also dangerous.


DIE WELT

Lagos Postcard: When EU Pushes Migrants To Go Back Home

Nigerian painter Isaac sold everything and left Lagos, in the hope to make it to Germany. After barely surviving in Libya, he gave it all up and went back.


LE MONDE

J'Accuse, Me Too: France And The Polanski Morality Play

New sexual assault accusations surfaced in France before the release of Roman Polanski's new film (titled "J'Accuse" in French) about the Dreyfus affair of a false accusation against a French-Jewish army officer. Who is accusing who here?


RUE AMELOT

My 17th-Century Aunt And Killing The "Witch Hunt" Metaphor


DIE WELT

Short-Term Thinking, The Ruin Of Today's Politics

Democratic systems offer little incentive for long-term thinking. But unless we can implement true, forward-looking policies, problems like climate change will only multiply.


EL ESPECTADOR

In Colombia, When Your 7-Year-Old Is Transgender

In Bogotá, a transgender girl and her family are, with their openness, helping similar people take their rightful place in society.


LES ECHOS

Thou Shalt Never Be Polite To Robots

Google and Amazon are trying to force us to speak politely to their AI-driven personal assistants. But giving souls to our technology is a dangerous return to the past.


CLARIN

Christchurch To Sao Paulo: Our Age Of Nihilistic Terrorism

The white supremacist who killed 50 at New Zealand mosques is like other mass killers attached to myths of ideological identity that lack any real political horizon.


THE INITIUM

In A Beijing Park, The Cold Calculations Of Senior Dating

Loneliness, sex and economics rule among aging singles in the Chinese capital.


CUMHURIYET

Istanbul's Opposition Mayor And Hopes For Turkish Democracy


LIVY BEREG

Just The Two Of Us: Why Belarus' Lukashenko Is Betting On Putin


ONESHOT

Watch: Cinq — Lorenzo Tugnoli, Yemen Humanitarian Crisis


LE MONDE

End Times And Ecology: Finding Meaning With Our Planet In Peril

Can the possibility of the end of the world give meaning to life? A French philosopher (and mother of young children) fears the worst but tries to live the best she can.


RUE AMELOT

Racism And Soccer In The Time Of Salvini, A Napoli Homecoming

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

Palestinian Olive Trees Are Also Under Israeli Occupation — And That's Not A Joke

In the West Bank, a quieter form of oppression has been plaguing Palestinians for a long time. Their olive groves are surrounded by soldiers, and it's forbidden to harvest the olives – this economic and social violence has gotten far worse since Oct. 7.

A Palestinian woman holds olives in her hands

In a file photo, Um Ahmed, 74, collects olives in the village of Sarra on the southwest of the West Bank city of Nablus.

Mohammed Turabi/ZUMA
Francesca Mannocchi

HEBRON – It was after Friday prayers on October 13th of last year, and Zakaria al-Arda was walking along the road that crosses his property's hillside to return home – but he never made it.

A settler from Havat Ma'on — an outpost bordering Al-Tuwani that the United Nations International Law and Israeli law considers illegal — descended from the hill with his rifle in hand.

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After kicking al-Arda, who tried to defend himself, the settler shot him in the abdomen. The bullet pierced through his stomach, a few centimeters below the lungs. Since then, al-Arda has been in the hospital in intensive care. A video of those moments clearly shows that neither al-Arda nor the other worshippers leaving the mosque were carrying any weapons.

The victim's cousin, Hafez Hureini, still lives in the town of Al-Tuwani. He is a farmer, and their house on the slope of the town is surrounded by olive trees — and Israeli soldiers. On the pine tree at the edge of his property, settlers have planted an Israeli flag. Today, Hafez lives, like everyone else, as an occupied individual.

He cannot work in his greenhouse, cannot sow his fields, and cannot harvest the olives from his precious olive trees.

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