Worldcrunch
Hours before he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, 23-year-old journalist Hossam Shabat filed an article with Drop Site News describing Israel’s scorched-earth campaign in his hometown of Beit Hanoun. His editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous shares his thoughts, and we share Shabat’s final piece.
Putting authors and artists in categories may help pinpoint their work in socio-cultural and stylistic terms, but is inevitably restrictive of literature’s essential universality. In South America, there is one, tiresome if profitable label literature seemingly cannot shake off, namely Magic Realism.
The sun, the food, lazy days and pastel colors… but is that the real Italy? The particular fascination that Germans have for the Bel Paese says plenty about both countries.
In more than a year since the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalated, news of bombing has become a habit in Lebanon. In an essay for the Beirut-based independent media Daraj, Lebanese journalist Pascale Sawma discusses how war has become “normal” — and what that means for her and her work.
Lebanese writer Tarek Ismail, who fled his village in southern Lebanon in September, reflects on his new life as a displaced person: “I am now facing a fate that is not in my hands.”
The Lebanese coastal metropolis has long been a source of inspiration and freedom for Baghdad native poet Aya Mansour. As Israel sends ground troops into Lebanon, she asks how the world can watch as fire and smoke covers the beauty of Beirut without saying a word.
Packed full of Russian culture, the children’s cartoon Masha and the Bear is a very popular cultural export. But does that make the little girl and her furry friend pro-Putin propaganda? Reflections from a conflicted parent in Germany.
It was the exceptional time that changed the equation, and revived the Palestinian dream. It also awakened the hidden Israeli plans: the extermination of the Palestinian people, the liquidation of their cause, and the evacuation of their land.
We live in a political, social, economic and fundamentally cultural environment that viscerally rejects all pain and suffering as irrelevant. For the modern individual, it is not so much a case of being free to do this or that, as to be free from whatever limits us.
The author’s mother shares a name with the Democratic nominee for U.S. president. How our names are spoken in different countries and cultures has some surprising twists, even if Donald Trump’s weaponizing Kamala Harris’ name is pure bigotry and bullying.
Italian authorities have uncovered another story of caporalato gangmastering in Piedmont’s Langhe vineyards. Matteo Borgetto, the author of this article, comes from a family of wine producers — the product that made the area famous worldwide. He warns against associating the incident with a place that has always valued human dignity and respect for others.
The Argentine comic strip, who is now about to get its own Netflix series, was created at a time when Latin America was going through political censorship. A testament to Mafalda’s innocent-but-serious attitude toward world problems, an excellent example of how young people often see more clearly than the rest of us.
Egyptian author Alaa Khaled observes crowds of Sudanese refugees walking to and from the nearby UNHCR office, prompting him to imagine the story of each individual and to try to understand the root causes of the current civil war and of the eternal Darfur crisis.
The author was from one of the rare families in Damascus who were not direct victims of Syria’s long civil war. But she hardly emerged unscathed.
In 19 years in Gaza, she always felt lost in her mind, body and even time. She was desperate to escape abroad, and made one attempt after another to find a way out. Eventually she did, for better or worse.
Not for the first time in history, simplistic dualism is taking hold of people’s minds, often rooted in religious beliefs. Is this a prelude to even more violent intolerance and — in the worst scenario — another big war? asks Argentine poet and writer Miguel Espejo.
Taking an international trip with small children can be a source of stress, but that shouldn’t overshadow the larger life lessons of such an adventure.
Wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, famines … The news gives us every right to despair – but as the author puts it: “Anyone can be cynical, the challenge is to be an optimist.”
A year after Russia’s invasion of her homeland, Ukrainian writer Anna Akage looks back at recent history, but, above all, forward to a future where her nation must not only win the war, but not lose the victory.
After Turkey’s devastating earthquakes, rescue workers continue to work in increasingly hopeless circumstances. Turkish news outlet Diken reports from the scene as survivors wait anxiously for news of loved ones. It’s rarely good news.
My fear for China’s future has never been greater…
September 10-11 ️ STARTER More Than An Icon: How Elizabeth II Carved A Permanent Place In Posterity High on the list of words young people overuse — to the point of gutting its true meaning — is “iconic.” It’s not just second-rate actors and reality TV stars, but apparently your high school pal qualifies for […]
September 3-4 ️ STARTER On Cover Boys, Obituaries And Putin Getting The Last Word There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the choice of who or what was on the cover of a weekly print magazine could be worth the equivalent of seven days of today’s internet #trending topics. And so it was […]
There is perhaps nothing more foreign about America than its “gun culture,” and of course its plague of mass shootings. For a French-American who has lived her life in Paris, there is a search for understanding with her family in Louisiana.
It’s a grim reality from Soviet times that Vladimir Putin continues to embody: Individual horrors and monumental changes of history happen without fanfare.
Why must I feel like a washed-up nobody just because I have no need for a new “data plan”? All I want to do is make (and pay for) a simple phone call.
Anesthesia, or a temporary state of “nothingness,” may be our closest experience of death without dying, and a reminder of the fragility of our lives.
Using pure economic power to reorder the world of soccer was clearly a bad idea, though not necessarily a new idea. Some reflections from a conflicted fan of one particular Italian super squad.
PRAGUE — As I walked down Avenue René Coty on a sunny day in late May, everything was like a Paris postcard — except that my glasses were fogging up over my facemask. But I knew the scenery by heart by then, as I had never left a one-kilometer radius around my student residence during […]
Family and friends waited for incarcerated Egyptian blogger Shady Abu Zeid to be able to arrive at his father’s funeral.
-Essay- PARIS — Growing crops without the herbicide glyphosate is probably a good thing. Or maybe not. I admit that I have no idea. I’m no doctor, no farmer, nor do I possess any technical competence that would enable me to have an informed opinion on the matter. On the other hand, I do have […]
-Essay- Until last year I lived in Istanbul with my husband. We’re both from Australia and we taught English at local universities. We had a great life, with wonderful Turkish friends like Hasan and Nurhan (not their real names.) On Friday nights in the summer, we went out to dinner with them. On one such […]
What has Germany done to make people feel safer after the events of last New Year’s Eve, when hundreds of women were sexually abused in Cologne and other cities? Not much, writes author Birgit Kelle.
PARIS — I first heard the news with a text message from my son late last Friday night: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen had spoken by telephone with Donald Trump. I cannot describe the joy I felt. This was the best piece of news for Taiwan in more than 30 years, even eclipsing for me the […]
Women usually get custody of the kids. But not always. One woman tells the story of losing her children, and how she’s begun to piece her life and relationships back together.
This is the third and final installment of a three-part series “Couchsurfing In Palestine.” Read Part 1: Keeping Secrets and Part 2: Where Are You From? -Essay- I meet Saber in a cafeteria in central Jenin, just after noon. He welcomes me with a vigorous hug, the kind that people give to friends they haven’t […]
The second of a three-part series of oral histories from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, so close and yet so far away from the Olympic spotlight.
The first of a three-part series of oral histories from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, so close and yet so far away from the Olympic spotlight.
This is the second installment of a three-part series “Couchsurfing (And Keeping Secrets) In Palestine.” Read Part 1 here. -Essay- We wake up at 9 a.m. “I need to go to work,” Ehab tells us, implying that Samuel (the American who was sharing the room with us) and I also need to go. Quickly, we […]
-Essay- There must be an infinity of good stories to tell about the bus from Jerusalem to Ramallah. At its starting point, the streets are well kept, like in a first-world country, and the white stone buildings standardized. At sunset, they give the Israeli city a golden yellow hue. When you reach Ramallah, the dusty […]