Worldcrunch
Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s goodwill toward the Venezuela’s President Maduro, in spite of the signs Maduro might hijack the 2024 general elections, suggests Lula has a problem with Western-style liberal democracy, even after he has criticized his predecessor for the same thing.
With the Ukrainian war, rising energy prices and the scarcity of personnel, airplane prices are up by 30-50%. But there is something more structural that could bring a definitive end to low-cost options like RyanAir and EasyJet, but also putting the entire industry’s market model into doubt.
As Brazil’s President Lula da Silva wields limited power over parliament and his multi-party cabinet, he may be unable to fulfil many of this campaign promises, including protecting the environment.
The government of Chile’s young new president, Gabriel Boric, has begun to develop the National Plan for the Search for Victims of the Dictatorship, half a century after the coup.
Colombia’s reformist president has promised to tackle endemic violence, economic exclusion, pollution and corruption in the country. So what’s new with a politician’s promises?
The Indian authorities’ decision to hide factual reports on the land subsidence in Joshimath only furthers a sense of paranoia.
Calling it quits after just 44 days in office, Liz Truss now has the dubious honor of being Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister.
It’s passed down by bloodline, and Charles has publicly vowed to a life of service. But is a rather un-beloved old white man with a complicated past the right royal for this moment? Even if a monarchy is undemocratic by design, popular opinion matters today more than ever. Just look at the Spanish monarchy.
Blackouts were common across Cuba during the 1990s. Today, the country is once again in the midst of an energy crisis as power shortages push Cubans’ patience to the limits, and remind many of the decades of government failings.
Trained practitioners warn that unregulated yoga can be detrimental to people’s health. The government in India, where the ancient practice was invented, knows this very well — yet continues to postpone regulation.
Rising tensions in wheat productions, explosion of oil prices, fear of the unknown, could the Ukraine war lead to a popular Arab uprising similar to the one in 2011?
In an area the size of Singapore, Egypt is building its new capital. Constructed under the close control of the military and the head of state, the city embodies the grand ambitions of an increasingly autocratic president. But will it turn out to be a ghost city?
A first-hand experience of how illegal bots are making it impossible for many immigrants in France to live here legally.
Joined in their respective confrontations with the West, both the Chinese and Russian leaders are boasting about their burgeoning partnership. Yet there are fundamental reasons the love affair is unlikely to last.
The Tunisian president is cultivating his ambiguities and pushing his constitutional reform, without proposing a roadmap to get the country out of the crisis. Refusing to speak to the media, he has an increasingly populist tone with messianic accents.
The jail sentence against the opposition leader is a clear sign that strongman Lukashenko is not looking back.
The Ukraine government’s official Twitter account is using memes and GIFs to poke Moscow and draw attention to the risk of a Russian invasion. It is one of just a few institutional accounts that has decided not to be careful
Ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was the face of the “stolen revolution”. The fact that he accepted, out of the blue, to return at the same position, albeit on different footing, opens the door to the final legitimization of the coup.
The year-long national movement of farmers challenged the government of Narendra Modi against all odds, and ultimately prevailed by focusing on unity across India’s diverse ethnic, religious and geographic landscape.
Once meant to protect the royal family, the century-old law has become a tool for the military-led government in Bangkok to stamp out all dissent. A new report outlines the abuses.
Latin American businesses and governments are seeing the marketing and export potentials of an incipient liberalization of marijuana laws in the region. But to really cash in, it must be an investment in more than simple commodity crops.
Sympathizers of the Cuban communist regime tend to justify Cuba’s violence on protesters and present it as a victim of Western imperialism.
Nine months after the military installed a new interim leader, a young colonel has again taken over the country in what looks like pure power play. But it may not be so simple, and Malians and international allies alike worry about what happens next.
Fears of an economic slump under another leftist government led by an ‘unrepentant’ Lula da Silva may prompt Brazilians to reelect authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro for a second term next year.
More than 20 people have been killed since demonstrations erupted against a government plan to raise taxes. Dozens more are missing, and yet some insist still on blaming the protestors.
This dearth of urban planning in the Egyptian capital dates back half a century. But it reached a new peak starting in 2019, when one of its last livable districts saw its old ways demolished.
Authoritarianism allows for swift, decisive action, and when it comes to controlling a viral outbreak, that may be an advantage. But that’s only part of the equation.
Faced with an unprecedented health crisis, the López-Obrador administration has proven itself to be incompetent, overpoliticized and self-involved.
Of Italy’s 58 prime ministers since World War II, you probably don’t remember the name Lamberto Dini. He took office on Jan. 13, 1995, several months after uncertain general election results, as the country grappled with an ongoing corruption scandal and billionaire businessman Silvio Berlusconi“s recent entry into politics. The Italian establishment had turned to […]
PARIS — A threshold has been crossed this week as the first vaccinations have been administered, in the UK and Russia, with announcements of others to follow in additional countries in the coming days and weeks. It all sets the stage for the biggest vaccination campaign in world history. But even if the obvious logistical […]
A self-described American aesthete has no good answers for her French friends aghast at the reality show in the White House.
After the Aug. 18 coup d’état in Mali, a growing popular protest movement that emerged in June may be quickly forgotten.
Charles de Gaulle was the first world leader to truly understand the power of television, using regular presidential broadcasts as a way to circumvent French legislators, labor unions and other levers of democratic influence.
It may seem like a pipe dream. And it would certainly cost a lot, especially in a large capital city like Bogotá. But providing fare-free public transport could also be transformative.
A sudden rash of constitutional changes, and the government’s subsequent resignation, looks to be a maneuver for Putin to hold on to power indefinitely.
New tech may soon be able to predict future political problems and independently develop solutions before issues even arise. But what does that mean for democracy?
France is virtually shut down now by national strikes over pension reform. But from Denmark to UK to Germany, social change and the popular movements resisting have their own histories.
Many people have had to tighten their purse strings in recent years. But that’s only part of what’s fueling frustrations in the region.
A traditional party and a populist movement may join forces to get Italy out of its political crisis and avoid yet another election.
In putting into use fast-moving ways of startups, the state looks to improve quality of public services. A hundred or so state-sponsored startups have already been launched with the hope of contributing to the modernization of the administration.