WorldcrunchFrance’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his bid to become the Republican party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election. He did so despite his previous claim that he wouldn’t run again. (See our Extra! feature for more) Sarkozy will focus on tax and budget cuts, stopping economic migrants and “organizing Islam,” according to French newspaper […]
Since its creation, the Hebrew state has adapted to a permanent terrorist threat, thanks to a dynamic model of which the central elements are intelligence and the involvement of the civil society.
MUNICH — Shortly after the 1985 hijacking of a TWA plane by a splinter group of the Shiite Hezbollah militia, Britain’s then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, blasted the media for its handling of the affair and called for a new code of conduct. If the press would simply stop covering terrorist attacks, she argued before […]
Spread between Syria and Iraq, the Saudi-financed tribal army engages the Islamic State head-on.
Terrorists and mass murderers are often seen as maniacs. But that may hide an uncomfortable truth: You don’t have to be insane to commit atrocities.
Among all the big numbers we’ll hear broadcast at the lavish ceremony for the opening of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, whether it’s the 5,000 people volunteering at the event or the 10,500 athletes competing in it, the number 10 will perhaps resonate most deeply with the world. That’s the number of members who comprise […]
SPOTLIGHT: VENEZUELAN POLITICAL CRISIS INTENSIFIES Stories about Venezuela’s toilet paper shortage are no laughing matter, especially when people are also struggling to access basic food supplies and medicine, and face soaring crime rates and rolling blackouts. But rather than work together to help alleviate the crisis, President Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition, which controls […]
SPOTLIGHT: THE POWER OF NOT INFORMING With the increasing number of terror attacks in France comes an intensifying debate on the role of media coverage of the events. French news outlets have begun to ask whether spreading the identity of terrorists, who often are seeking some twisted sense of glory, feeds the problem. Reporting on […]
SPOTLIGHT: HOW TO AVOID A RELIGIOUS WAR A spate of terror attacks across western Europe continued yesterday as two assailants took hostages in a church in the northern French town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, killing an 86-year-old priest and injuring three others. The two men, who declared allegiance to the Islamic State, were shot and killed by […]
Dziennik Polski, July 27th Wednesday’s edition of Polish daily Dziennik Polski features extensive coverage on the World Youth Day celebrations in Kraków. Pope Francis arrives Wednesday, slated to lead an estimated two million Catholics in prayer during his five-day trip to Poland. It is Francis’ first visit to the homeland of his late predecessor Pope […]
BERLIN — Four attacks in 11 days have us worried that Germany is at the beginning of a campaign of attacks by individuals that will not be easy to stop. Like the July 14 attack in Nice, France, the perpetrators in recent days in the German cities of Würzburg and Ansbach most likely did not […]
SPOTLIGHT: TERROR REACHES GERMANY Though Germany has been at the center of Europe’s debate over refugees, it had largely been spared the kind of terrorist attacks that have struck neighboring France. But now, in the span of just a few days, Germany suddenly finds itself struggling to make sense of a string of violent attacks […]
Die Tageszeitung, July 25 The Monday edition of Berlin-based daily Die Tageszeitung shows how, in the span of just a few days, Germans are suddenly faced with terrorism and attempted mass killings. With a photograph of survivors exiting from Friday’s deadly attack in a Munich shopping center, the newspaper asks how to react to any […]
How should we react in the face of the threat of Islamist terrorism? It’s a fine line to walk between the double threat of jihadism and our own worst instincts.
O Globo, July 22 Two weeks before the Summer Olympics begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is on high alert for risk of terrorist attacks aimed at the games. Friday’s edition of Brazilian daily O Globo is dominated by the articles and photographs of the dismantling of a group allegedly linked to the terror group […]
SPOTLIGHT: WORLD, MEET MR. TRUMP (AGAIN) Every four years, people around the world get a glance at those odd political spectacles, typically hosted in some mid-sized American city they’ll never visit. The U.S. national party conventions tend to get slightly bemused coverage abroad: candidates’ family values on full display, gray-haired delegates dancing to Dixie bands […]
Die Tageszeitung, July 20th Monday’s gruesome axe attack on a commuter train in southern Germany left many unanswered questions on the Wednesday front page of German daily Die Tageszeitung, as evidenced by its enigmatic headline made of just four question marks. On Monday evening, a 17-year-old man armed with a knife and an axe wounded […]
France is not only a target for ISIS. The country must also admit that terrorism profits from its internal fractures.
NICE — There are still more questions than answers three days after Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a 20-ton truck through hundreds gathered to see the Bastille Day fireworks on the city’s waterfront, killing 84 people and injuring more than 200, before being shot dead by police. Still, a portrait of the 31-year-old divorced father of […]
PARIS — Arnaud Danjean, member of the European Parliament for the French opposition party Les Républicains, spoke to Les Échos about the aftermath of the Nice attack and France’s ongoing fight against terrorism. Les Échos: Every attack evokes a feeling of powerlessness, especially in the wake of one as “low-cost” as the one in Nice, […]
Following attacks in Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, and now Nice, Europe must unite to combat the Islamist terror campaign.
SPOTLIGHT: TOLL RISES IN NICE ATTACK, AS TERROR HITS FRANCE AGAIN Terror struck the French Riviera last night, as revellers and tourists gathered on Nice’s famous Promenade des Anglais to watch the fireworks display on Bastille Day. Around an hour before midnight, a truck drove through frantic crowds for almost two kilometers, killing more than […]
SPOTLIGHT: A PUTIN THINK TANK IN BERLIN Far from both the Transatlantic chattering about Brexit, and the simmering war in Ukraine, a new “Research Institute” was quietly christened in the capital of Germany last week. The “Dialogue of Civilizations” think tank moved its headquarters from Vienna to central Berlin, which German historian Karl Schlögel writes […]
ISTANBUL — Since Turkey made conciliatory moves towards Russia and Israel last week, critics have pointed to the inconsistencies between what has been said before and what is being said now. But that is not the real issue here: The real issue is about the roots, the true nature and the costs of these changes […]
SPOTLIGHT: A DEADLY END TO A DEADLY RAMADAN The latest terror news bulletin flashed from one of Islam’s holiest sites, the Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in the city of Medina. Two days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the mosque was struck yesterday by a suicide bomber, killing four security guards and wounding […]
-Analysis- The “caliphate” of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will not last. His self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS), announced two years ago, is on the defensive. It will vanish as quickly as the morning mist on the Euphrates River. But what about jihadism, Islamist terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Syria — all factors that feed this Middle […]
Exclusive details on how three terrorists launched their bloody attack that killed more than 40 people — and how two police officers helped avert an even higher death toll.
SPOTLIGHT: WHAT DOES ISTANBUL ATTACK SAY ABOUT ISIS? After Tuesday night’s gruesome attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, where the toll now stands at 42 people dead and 239 wounded, Turkish police launched a vast operation that led to the arrest of 13 suspects, AFP reports. Perhaps surprisingly, no organization has so far claimed responsibility for […]
Inflammatory speech, whether you’re the Republican candidate for the White House or a Turkish professor of theology, should be held directly responsible for ensuing violence.
SPOTLIGHT: BREXIT, VIOLENCE AND EUROPE’S PAST Tributes are pouring in for slain British lawmaker Jo Cox, 41, who was fatally stabbed and shot during a meeting yesterday with constituents in northern England. The mother of two young children, Cox was praised as a big-hearted defender of human rights and refugees and was most recently an […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Little is known about the financing of terror. Where does it come from? What part did it play in the Paris shootings and Brussels bombings? Are we able to fight it effectively? We are, on all counts, poorly equipped to deal with this challenge. In France and our neighboring countries, there is […]
A day after an attack at a popular gay club in Orlando, Florida killed 50 people and wounded 53, international front pages Monday are mourning the victims of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. Here’s how newspapers from 10 different countries covered the attack: UNITED STATES New York Times Chicago Tribune NY […]
SPOTLIGHT: EURO 2016 ON EDGE The Euro 2016 soccer tournament starts Friday in France. By some accounts, it is the world’s third biggest sporting event, after the World Cup and Summer Olympics. This year’s contest will last for a month around the country’s biggest stadiums and is expecting to bring 2.5 millions fans to attend […]
As battlefield losses pile up for the Islamic State terror group, al-Qaeda eyes both the Sinai and Cairo for new attacks — and new recruits.
SPOTLIGHT: GOOD AND BAD NEWS FOR THE PLANET Breathe in … Last year, an estimated 147 gigawatts was added to the world’s renewable power capacity — the largest such global rise ever recorded, making it an “extraordinary” year for renewable energies. According to the Renewables 2016 Global Status Report, investment in green energies around the […]
SPOTLIGHT: IRAN TO BOYCOTT HAJJ PILGRIMAGE Tensions between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are once again threatening to escalate. The two archenemies are already entangled in proxy wars against each other, in Syria and Yemen, and diplomatic ties between the two have been cut since Saudi Arabia executed a Shia cleric at the beginning […]
How a former fighter lost both his brothers: one to Bashar Al-Assad’s forces and the other to the Islamic State
TURIN — Refugees have come to Italy from all across war-torn Iraq and Syria, from the monasteries of Mosul to the Assyrian villages of the Khabur valley and the Christian churches of the Nineveh plains. Among the millions now languishing in refugee camps are people from all walks of life, including government bureaucrats, university professors, […]
SPOTLIGHT: OBAMA VIETNAM PIVOT Following last year’s diplomatic breakthrough on Cuba and ahead of an unprecedented trip to Hiroshima, Japan, U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement this morning of an end to the longstanding weapons embargo on Vietnam can be quickly dropped into the “historic” file of his presidency. The presence of U.S. Secretary of State […]