Worldcrunch
-Analysis- “It’s almost like Shakespeare: Brexit or no Brexit? That was the question.” German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle resorted to a passing twist on Hamlet after the British Parliament delivered what may be the final defeat Tuesday night in Prime Minister Theresa May’s attempt to lead the UK to an orderly divorce from the European […]
The growing alarm after UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal suffered a defeat in Parliament isn’t just unsettling for British politics. Global businesses are on edge as well. Asian companies, whose operations and investments stretch far into Britain and the European continent, have a lot at stake as they face higher tariffs and costs. Tuesday’s setback will do little to cure the anxiety. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has sought to assure business leaders that their no-deal nightmare scenario could still be avoided, but with only 10 weeks left before the UK is due to leave the European […]
-OpEd- BERLIN — Theresa May can only lose. The British Prime Minister is fighting alone against a grand alliance of conspirators, poisoners, and wire-pullers, supported by opportunists, weather-vanes and underlings from her own Tory party — ready to tear each other apart wherever they feel they can gain power: on the one hand, ambivalent personalities […]
MOSCOW — Fifty years ago, in May 1968, France was swarmed with such powerful mass protests that the government feared a full-fledged civil war or revolution. This popular unrest became a turning point in the history of modern France, and eventually brought about serious changes in the French state. Vladislav Inozemtsev, a scholar writing for […]
PARIS — Political conflict and social movements around the world in 1968 made it a year for the history books. The 50th anniversary of several signature episodes are being marked throughout this year, from the Prague Spring and monthlong French student uprising of May “68, to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy […]
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the May “68 uprising in France, a political and cultural touchstone in the West and one of the most memorable confrontations of the Sixties. OneShot has produced a series of videos with the French public audiovisual institute INA from their photographic archives of the “May “68” events. This episode shows some of the 3,000 riot police officers called in to tackle the student riots in the Latin Quarter on May 6, 1968. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/LZ-NpdTUlbE expand=1] May 68, Paris – The police (©INA/OneShot) OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of […]
This month marks the 50th anniversary of May “68 uprising in France, a political and cultural touchstone in the West and one of the most memorable confrontations of the Sixties. OneShot has produced a series of videos with the French public audiovisual institute INA from their photographic archives of the “May “68” events. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/nVTelopE8_k expand=1] May 68, Paris – Banks (©INA/OneShot) OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video. Follow OneShot: [rebelmouse-image 27068863 original_size=”320×320″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068864 original_size=”174×174″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068865 original_size=”128×128″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068866 original_size=”227×227″ expand=1][rebelmouse-image 27068867 original_size=”256×256″ expand=1]
The violent protests that struck Paris last week weren’t the start of a new, 1968-style uprising. But people are angry and disillusioned. And that’s a problem.
France will be marking 50 years since the month-long student uprising that challenged the establishment on so many fronts. But some historians now question whether it was really the birth of sexual liberation.
-OpEd- Tensions are reaching a bursting point over Syria! Just as Saddam Hussein’s (hypothetical) possession of weapons of mass destruction led U.S. President George W. Bush to invade Iraq, the (alleged) use of lethal gases on Douma, a district in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta controlled by Islamists, now allows Donald Trump to announce harsh reprisals. Once […]
-OpEd- PARIS — While leafing through the newspapers in an English pub last weekend, I was surprised to see The Sunday Times, hardly a tabloid, portraying the three fiercest Brexiters as “musketeers.” A rather flattering image assuming Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg — the three men in question — are not offended by […]
The negotiations and the complex, chaotic debates around Brexit are revealing of a major dilemma facing democracies: What do you do when a country is profoundly divided?
After half a century of failed endeavors by the United States to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, maybe it’s time to send that geopolitical hot potato back to the British. It has been 100 years since Britain first declared its support for the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people.” The Nov. 2, 1917 Balfour Declaration was part of a British plan at the time to gain a mandate over Ottoman-controlled Palestine. Then, less than 10% of the territory’s population was Jewish; today there is a Jewish majority in Israel and the Palestinians are still seeking […]
Democracy has never been an easy thing. That most British of statesmen Winston Churchill famously called it “the worst form of government, except for all the others.” In its ideal form — with regularly scheduled elections, peaceful transfers of powers, constitutions that are upheld, checks and balances respected — democracy can work quite well. Certainly there are examples still in today’s world. But as shown by events taking place right now in Venezuela, Turkey and even on Churchill’s turf, it can also be a deeply messy affair. In Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro is clinging to power against a groundswell […]
-OpEd- LONDON — Who can blame UK Prime Minister Theresa May for calling an election now, as her own Conservative party mandarins have been urging? Her party enjoys a 21-percentage-point lead in the polls. The opposition Labour Party is weak and divided, and the economy has yet to register the expected wobbles in the wake of last year’s vote to leave the European Union. What better time to crush the opposition and beef up the Conservatives’ 17-seat majority? Yet her decision is as strategically flawed as it is tactically clever. First, she risks losing credibility. Having promised not to get […]
When Big Ben struck midnight, its bells didn’t just signal the start of a new day. They also marked a sea change in geopolitics. That was the moment Prime Minister Theresa May chose to sign a letter of intent that officially begins the UK’s departure from the EU. The date had been marked on everyone’s […]
British Prime Minister Theresa May signed a letter giving official notice of the UK’s intention to leave the EU. The letter, which will be delivered later today to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, marks the official start of the two-year leaving process. Here’s how Europe and the UK reacted: UNITED KINGDOM The Herald […]