Worldcrunch
TERROR BLASTS HIT BRUSSELS AIRPORT, METRO Photo: Ye Pingfan/Xinhua/ZUMA Several blasts hit the Brussels airport and a Metro station this morning in what are being investigated as terror attacks that claimed at least 28 lives (13 at the Zaventem airport and 15 at the Maelbeek Metro station). The death toll is likely to rise, and […]
OBAMA-CASTRO MEETING IN CUBA President Barack Obama’s second day itinerary of his historic visit to Cuba will include face-to-face negotiations with Cuban President Raul Castro, as well as a state dinner this evening at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana. The two leaders, who have met three times since the December 2014 surprise announcement […]
–Analysis – MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin’s decision to withdraw the lion’s share of Russia“s troops from Syria might have come as a surprise, but insiders in Moscow say the timing makes perfect sense. Many factors can explain why now. “Putin promised this operation would be limited in time and wouldn’t lead to an Afghanistan-like stalemate,” […]
TRUMP WINS NEVADA CAUCUS Donald Trump has won the Nevada caucus with a comfortable margin (45.9% of the votes) over his nearest Republican rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, according to results reported this morning by The Washington Post. This third consecutive win by the American billionaire, after victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, […]
U.S. AIRSTRIKES TARGET ISIS IN LIBYA A predawn U.S. airstrike targeted an ISIS camp in Libya, killing at least 30 members of the terrorist outfit, The New York Times reports. The operation, about 50 miles west of Tripoli, targeted senior Tunisian operative Noureddine Chouchane who is linked to two major terrorist attacks in Tunisia last […]
TRUMP, SANDERS ROLL IN NEW HAMPSHIRE Republican billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Democratic Senator and self-described socialist Bernie Sanders notched impressive wins in yesterday’s New Hampshire presidential primary. GERMANY TRAIN CRASH BLACK BOXES RECOVERED Two of three black boxes from the two trains that collided head-on in yesterday’s deadly crash in southern Germany have been […]
NORTH KOREA CLAIMS FIRST H-BOMB TEST Photo: Yonhap News/ImageCollect/Newscom/ZUMA North Korea claimed Wednesday it had successfully conducted its first hydrogen-bomb test, with the regime’s official television network hailing the move as “a world-startling event to be specially recorded in the national history.” VERBATIM “We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of […]
The National Rifle Association has worked itself up into such a bilious froth over modest gun control proposals that it has issued what looks like a death threat against New York lawmakers who support them. And New York’s Daily News called out the gun lobby on Tuesday’s cover, calling the threat an “Act of Terror.” […]
FRENCH FAR RIGHT SWEEP REGIONAL VOTE France’s National Front became the country’s “first party” Sunday, winning nearly 30% of the vote in the first round of regional elections held just three weeks after the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks. The nationalist party finished first in six of France’s 13 regions, with party leader Marine Le Pen […]
La Croix, Nov. 30, 2015 “Climate, hope of a deal,” writes French daily La Croix on the front page on its Monday edition, with a picture of the top of the Eiffel Tower piercing a ceiling of clouds and pollution, as the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) kicks off in Paris. French […]
COP21 SUMMIT BEGINS Photo: 1heart1tree via Instagram French President François Hollande arrived this morning at Le Bourget airport to welcome nearly 150 world leaders, who have traveled to Paris for the much-anticipated global climate conference dubbed COP21. No summit in history has brought together this many heads of state in the interest of reaching meaningful […]
TURKEY SHOOTS DOWN RUSSIAN JET Two Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane this morning near the Syrian border after the Turkish military repeated warnings about airspace violations. This is the first time the armed forces of a NATO member shot down a Russian or Soviet aircraft since the 1950s, Reuters reports. The Turkish military […]
LOCKDOWN, MANHUNT CONTINUE IN BRUSSELS The terror threat In the Belgian capital of Brussels remains at its maximum level, with the city entering its third consecutive day under lockdown, Le Soir reports. Schools, universities and most public transportation are closed, as the police continue to hunt suspect Salah Abdeslam, believed to have participated in the […]
NEW YORK — French President Francois Hollande pledged a “pitiless” war on ISIS after Friday’s Paris massacre. Russian President Vladimir Putin says his nation is focused on “finding and punishing the perpetrators” who downed a Russian passenger jet over Egypt. U.S. President Barack Obama says the goal is to “degrade and ultimately destroy this barbaric terrorist organization.” How? That’s the question none of these men seems willing to answer. Here’s one idea that, while not optimal militarily, might hedge the political risk: Form a broad alliance, akin to the one that pushed Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait in 1991, […]
-OpEd- ANTALYA — Opportunism may be one of the accepted facts of life in foreign policy, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. The Turkish government is busy right now trying to make the most of two pieces of the Syrian crisis that have come to the fore: The recent flood of refugees to […]
-OpEd- PARIS — A majority of historians describe the Spanish Civil War, fought from 1936 to 1939, as a dress rehearsal for what came next, World War II. Will historians of the future be saying the same about the Syrian civil war? All you need to do is replace Nazi Germany and the Italian fascists […]
Faced with enormous challenges both at home and abroad, China reveals itself as a land of double standards and growing uncertainty.
OPPOSITION LOOKS TO WIN BIG IN MYANMAR Photo: Jack Kurtz/ZUMA The National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi is on the verge of a sweeping victory in Myanmar, where party officials say they expect to win at least 70% of parliamentary seats, The Myanmar Times reports. Yesterday’s historic election […]
EGYPT RESTRICTS UK RESCUE FLIGHTS Egyptian authorities are restricting flights sent to rescue British tourists, who were stranded at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport after Saturday’s crash of a Russian plane, the BBC reports. Some 20 flights were planned to take British tourists back home today, but it appears that only about eight will depart. According […]
SYRIA SUMMIT BEGINS IN VIENNA Envoys from 17 countries are gathered in Vienna for the broadest peace talks since the beginning of the Syrian war, a summit nevertheless marked by the notable absence of both the Syrian government and its opposition, The Guardian writes. The U.S., France, Turkey, Russia and China are among the participants, […]
NEW YORK — A U.S. intelligence official has leaked a cache of secret slides that reveal details of the American military’s use of drones to assassinate suspected terrorists. The documents include suspicion that innocent people are regularly killed in the operations and that sometimes vague criteria are used to decide whom to target. The so-called […]
ISTANBUL — The program to train and equip the “moderate opposition” in Syria, as long planned by the United States alongside Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, ended in utter failure. What led to this global diplomatic fiasco that has left the future of Syria looking so grim? The chain of problems began with the most […]
OBAMA AND PUTIN TALK SYRIA Photo: Klimentyev Mikhail/TASS/ZUMA Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met Monday evening on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the Syrian conflict and efforts to end it. “WATER ON MARS” FRONT PAGES Take a look at our collection of front pages from planet Earth […]
Depending on his audience, the pontiff’s messages vary. On a historic visit to the U.S., President Obama and the whole world will be listening carefully.
After last month’s border attack, some hard Syrian lessons for Ankara, which has finally opened a key air base for attacks against ISIS positions.
Photo: Hani Ali/Xinhua/ZUMA TURKEY “CHANGING REGIONAL GAME” Recent Turkish strikes against both ISIS in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party militants in northern Iraq have “changed the regional game,” Hürriyet quotes Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying. But he insisted Turkey wouldn’t use ground troops in the fight against ISIS. According to The New York Times, […]
As the U.S. President visits his father’s homeland, an exclusive encounter with the now 94-year-old woman who raised Barack Obama Sr.
PARIS — With celebrations from the streets to social media, Iranians have broadly welcomed Tuesday’s deal between their country and the six major world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of international economic sanctions. Still, there are differing views about how the accord will actually affect the lives of the […]
Photo: Ahmad Halabisaz/ZUMA IMF URGES MORE GREEK DEBT RELIEF The Eurozone must “go well beyond what has been under consideration to date” to relieve Greek debt, and it could even eventually forgive a part of it, IMF officials wrote in a report obtained by Reuters.
Since ascending to the papacy two years ago, Pope Francis has been quietly and not-so-quietly leaving his mark on the world, pursuing a number of ambitious foreign policy goals. His nine-day trip to Latin America that begins Sunday will be mostly focused on pastoral issues. But from Cuba to Vietnam, the Middle East and environmental […]
The number of Brazilians living and working in the United States is growing fast, yet neither government has taken the steps necessary to mobilize this community.
Few are shocked by revelations that U.S. intelligence spied on French presidents. But if Washington wants to be a good ally, it should start with a loud and clear apology to all its snooped-on friends.
Italian PM Matteo Renzi has obtained Washington’s blessing to pursue its own dialogue with the Kremlin. Could Rome be the bridge to resolving the Ukraine crisis?
It is politically reasonable for President Obama to want to focus on problems at home. But his fainthearted foreign policy approach has contributed to global volatility.
O “COMPLETE STRATEGY” YET FOR ISIS “We don’t yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well, about how recruitment takes place, how training takes place,” President Barack Obama told the G7 summit yesterday, speaking of U.S. efforts to combat the ISIS terror organization. His comments come […]
 Die Welt, June 9, 2015 “G7 agrees to ambitious climate goals,” reads the front page of German daily Die Welt“s Tuesday edition. The Group of Seven talks have ended in the German mountain resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen with a photo op worthy of the Sound of Music (which was filmed in the nearby Austrian Alps). […]
ISIS TAKES FULL CONTROL OF SYRIA-IRAQ BORDER CROSSINGS Terrorist group ISIS continues to gain territory, and its latest victory against the Syrian army on the Syria-Iraq border puts its militants in complete control of the border crossings between the two countries, and more than half of Syrian territory, The Independent reports, citing The Syrian Observatory […]
MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA TO RESCUE MIGRANTS Malaysia and Indonesia have pledged to provide temporary shelter to the estimated 7,000 migrants believed to be stranded at sea, a move that AP characterizes as “a potential breakthrough in the humanitarian crisis confronting Southeast Asia.” Most of the migrants are members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority in […]
25,500 FLEE ISIS-OCCUPIED RAMADI At least 25,000 people have fled Ramadi, Iraq, after ISIS fighters captured it from government forces after fierce clashes Sunday that killed at least 500 people, the UN reports. EXTRA! “I won’t be Charlie Hebdo anymore, but I will still be Charlie,” the cover headline in today’s Libération reads, quoting Charlie […]
ARMENIA REMEMBERS Ceremonies are being held in the Armenian capital of Yerevan in remembrance of the Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks, which began 100 years ago today. “I am grateful to all those who are here to once again confirm your commitment to human values, to say that nothing is forgotten, that after 100 years […]