Worldcrunch
The White House has showcased images of deported migrants in shackles. This deliberate display of humiliation is part of a broader strategy that combines cruelty with political messaging, undermining both personal dignity and democratic values, writes Caterina Soffici for Italian daily La Stampa.
Supporters of the Assad regime rallied around the slogan “Assad forever.” But we have now seen what happens the day after “forever.” Egyptian writer Ezzat el-Kamhawi considers what that means for Syria and the region.
In its first decade, Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution was radical yet legitimate, and enjoyed the people’s electoral support under leader Hugo Chávez. This changed when his successor, Nicolás Maduro, took over after Chávez’s death, and decided he wasn’t going to let votes thwart his insatiable love of power and money.
As Spain prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of dictator Francisco Franco’s death and the return of democracy, fascism is returning around the world. It’s proof, as philosopher Walter Benjamin said, that nothing that has once happened should be considered lost to history.
The emerging geopolitical paradigm is one of a kind of “armed peace” led by states equipped with nuclear weapons as the ultimate guarantee of security. The battlefield now spans the range of hybrid threats and technological breakthroughs, introducing the potential for “strategic surprises.”
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro plans to declare himself president on January 10, as he becomes the likely winner of the 2024 elections. Will there be a showdown or a revolt, or will a tired nation give in to tyranny?
Al-Sharaa has surprised many with his openness to dialogue after a past linked to al-Qaeda. He represents a complex model that embodies the transformation of Syria since the beginning of the revolution in 2011.
Looking back, 2024 was a year of momentous elections around the world. The results, from country to country, show overall that the global health of democracy remains precarious when some of those who win elections do not seem to believe in the political system which brought them to power.
Romania’s out-of-nowhere far right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu has become the latest case study showing just how much sway social media platforms can have over elections, going even farther than Donald Trump on Elon Musk’s X.
German history teachers talk about teaching their subject during a resurgence of the far-right AfD party and rising antisemitism in the country.
Many in the opposition to the Kremlin have renounced the “tricolor” flag. Yet the white-blue-red flag is a symbol of a free Russia, not of war. We need to stop beating ourselves up and embrace the soul of the nation as the ultimate path to take down Putin’s dictatorship.
Israel has been long hailed as an oasis of democratic rule in a region of would-be savage Arabs. But now, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has essentially ruled that it is a racist rogue state.
With a population of more than 200 million, Nigeria is facing a series of crises: an economy at its lowest, endemic corruption and insecurity throughout a large part of the country. Despite the challenges it faces and its history of military coups, the country is holding firm, but for how long?
Palestinians need to rationalize their anger and resentment for the sake of a humanitarian project that enjoys global support.
Donald Trump’s success is also a revelation of the weaknesses of the American left, which is plagued by self-righteousness and the belief that painting your opponent as a threat to democracy is a political agenda. But blackmail is not a strategy.
If the 2020 U.S. presidential election taught us one thing, it’s that it shouldn’t be about who’s the quickest to announce electoral results: it should be about being accuracy.
Mobbing, vote-buying, surveillance, and even violence at polling stations can now be correlated with the strong results of the pro-Russia party Georgian Dream in districts where turnout was high. Die Zeit crosschecked the data with reports of voter intimidation.
Following the contested parliamentary election in Georgia on Saturday, the West must not be quick to pass judgment and must seek to understand Georgians’ fears — which the Kremlin’s propaganda is playing into.
Any other nation would cultivate the myth of a figure like former Polish President Lech Wałęsa, marginalizing his flaws, errors, and weaknesses. But in Poland, we have marginalized the greatness of a legend, whose modern thinking is relevant in present-day politics, writes Gazeta Wyborcza columnist Magdalena Środa.
She is no longer President of Taiwan, which allows her to travel to countries that recognize Beijing, not Taipei. France Inter met Tsai Ing-wen in Paris , where she defended Taiwan’s democracy, in the face of China’s appetite for power and territory.
Advances in the fight against direct and indirect censorship have forced the enemies of freedom of expression to seek other, more subtle methods to distort and weaken public debate.
Updated September 26, 2024 at 10:50 a.m. On this day in 1988, The National League for Democracy was founded in Yangon, Myanmar. How did the NLD come into existence? In 1988, Myanmar‘s pro-democracy uprising, known as the 8888 Uprising, began. Citizens took to the streets to protest against the authoritarian rule of the military junta. […]
The country’s Constitutional Court ruled on Sept. 20 in favor of maintaining the death penalty, in line with the position expressed by an overwhelming majority of the population. Yet, capital punishment remains controversial for a country that sees itself as East Asia’s model democracy.
Critics are right to denounce crooked politicians or elected leaders for undermining the democratic system of checks and balances. But defending those checks and balances is not the key to restoring democracy — because people’s pervasive distrust and discontent with politics is a much deeper problem to address.
The Left’s reluctance to denounce President Maduro’s fraudulent reelection in Venezuela may seem tactical or expedient to itself, but is nothing short of stabbing the very principle of democracy at a challenging juncture in modern history.
In both Algeria and Tunisia, societies were on the move to demand change. In two presidential elections scheduled so close together, on Saturday in Algeria and next month in Tunisia, the powers that be made sure that nothing would change.
The armed forces have been dragged into political and electoral spats across the Americas, from the United States to Brazil to Venezuela. Is this another sign of liberal democracy’s decline in the West?
Today, Venezuela is barely recognizable as the prosperous and liberal state of the late 20th century that gave refuge to regional dissidents, thanks to the resolve of the late Carlos Andrés Pérez — the “roguish” president whose commitment to democracy has put his socialist successors to shame.
The biggest firms and richest people in the world have the money states need to invest in services that can improve the lives of billions of people. That could help stop a collective slide into acute social and political tensions.
Updated August 14, 2024 at 11:50 a.m. Lech Wałęsa led strikes at the Gdańsk shipyards in Poland on this day in 1980. A Polish electrician and labor activist, he led the movement to protest against the oppressive Communist regime in Poland. What were the key demands of the strikes led by Lech Wałęsa? The strikes […]
For years Israeli activists have been helping securing water for Palestinians in the West Bank and recording abuses they suffered at the hands of radical Jewish settlers. The stakes, and risks, have never been higher.
Corruption, human rights violations, and alliances with totalitarian regimes are all good reasons why the West should be paying attention to Venezuela ahead of the country’s presidential elections on July 28, writes Venezuelan journalist Miguel Henrique Otero in Nicaragua’s Confidencial newspaper.
Venezuela’s Bolivarian regime has been trampling on democracy, by degree, for 25 years while deftly managing international opinion to avoid too much backlash. Now, with Maduro defying fair elections, there may be no turning back.
The current unprecedented political crises in France and the United States — two very different systems and political cultures — have points in common, notably that partisan issues are still taking precedence over the need to rethink the democratic system and its practices.
What we are witnessing is the struggle of a people against their oppressors. This electoral process, although flawed, could become a milestone for Venezuelans to regain their freedom — and it is one that should concern everyone who believes in democracy.
It is far too soon to tell whether Donald Trump’s attempted murder will have a decisive impact on the results of the U.S. presidential elections, but his backers will certainly milk the incident for all it’s worth.
A day after former U.S. President Donald Trump was shot in the ear at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Arie Perliger says the attempt, however unsurprising, exposes the depth of America’s political fault lines.
July 15 – July 21, 2024
What’s the difference between a nation before a voting booth and a nation before a soccer match? How can we reconcile electoral systems that don’t seem to match the popular will? How do we remember that democracy is about more than just casting your vote?
Updated July 3, 2024 at 11:30 a.m. On this day 10 years ago, a military coup led to the overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. The coup was orchestrated by the Egyptian military, led by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who later became the President of Egypt. Why was there a military coup against Morsi? The […]