Worldcrunch
Monday, December 22, 2014 SOUTH KOREA NUCLEAR PLANTS THREATENEDSouth Korea’s nuclear plant operator has launched a two-day drill to check the safety of the country’s four power plants after a hacker leaked non-critical data and threatened further leaks yesterday, news agency Yonhap reports. It’s unclear whether it was connected to North Korea and the Sony […]
What would Niccolo Machiavelli, the author of “The Prince” (published exactly 500 years ago), have thought about modern China? What would he have done with the Internet?
Monday, November 17, 2014 ISIS EXECUTES U.S. AID WORKER U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed yesterday the killing of American aid worker Peter Kassig, who was executed by ISIS, and described it as an act of “pure evil,” The New York Times reports. A video released by the terrorist organization shows Kassig’s beheaded body as well […]
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 CHINA-U.S. AGREE ON GAS EMISSIONS Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama signed a landmark deal to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, The Washington Post reports. China, for the first time, agreed to cap its output by 2030 or even earlier if possible, and pledged to increase the share of non-fossil fuels […]
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was smart to reject a pact that offered no long-term guarantees for Iran to dismantle its nuclear program. A Le Monde editorial.
Monday, November 10, 2014 APEC SUMMIT Asia-Pacific leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, are in Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit, where China’s Xi Jinping and Japan’s Shinzo Abe met for formal talks for the first time after more than two years of deep tensions over disputed islands. South Korea and China announced this […]
Friday, November 7, 2014 OBAMA PENS LETTER TO IRAN’S KHAMENEI U.S. President Barack Obama secretly wrote a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei last month, which The Wall Street Journal reports “appeared aimed both at buttressing” the anti-ISIS campaign and “nudging Iran’s religious leader closer to a nuclear deal.” Obama reportedly stressed that the […]
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 REPUBLICANS TAKE CONTROL OF U.S. SENATE The Republican Party won control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2006, gaining at least 7 seats, 1 more than they needed to have a majority after scoring important victories in Tuesday’s midterm election in North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, West Virginia, Arkansas, […]
-OpEd- At the moment when the Titanic struck the iceberg, the ship’s captain was not on the bridge. Edward Smith had gone below deck to bed. Both before and after the collision, the captain proved himself to be worse than useless, issuing confused orders and failing to take control of the evacuation. He let the […]
Friday, October 17, 2014 EBOLA: A CZAR, LOW DONATIONS, MORE TROOPSUnited Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched an urgent donations appeal in the fight against the Ebola virus. This came after it emerged that despite receiving pledges of about $20 million from various governments, the UN Trust fund had received only $100,000 from Colombia, The […]
Washington’s government shutdown forced President Barack Obama to miss the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. But even if this was cited as yet another harmful consequence of the sorry state of U.S. domestic politics, it may paradoxically wind up helping America exert its influence in the long run in Asia-Pacific regional affairs. At an […]
DHARAMSALA — After the Dalai Lama relinquished political power in 2011, increasing attention has turned to the head of Tibet’s government-in-exile Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay, in the hope of breaking a decades-long standoff with Beijing. And yet the situation remains grim, with some 120 Tibetans having set themselves ablaze over the past four years to […]
-Editorial- PARIS – Once upon a time, there was a Republic that knew how to overcome ideological differences. It was largely governed from a certain middle ground, a magical place and the matrix of what political art can produce in its most intelligent and, often, noble form: reform by compromise. This Republic of yore could […]
-Analysis- MOSCOW — So Russian diplomats finally prevailed on the Syria question. Since the beginning of the clashes in 2011 between the Syrian army, which is loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and the armed opposition, Russia has used all of its power to prevent an international intervention, including blocking a UN Security Council resolution condemning […]
-OpEd- PARIS — The Kerry-Lavrov agreement finally ends any illusion of a new “Cold War” that would have featured a showdown in Syria between friends of Washington and allies of Moscow. With the deal inked between American Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, it has become clear that the U.S. […]
Sept. 11, 2014 OBAMA OUTLINES ANTI-ISIS STRATEGYOn the eve of today’s 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks, President Barack Obama vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Mideast’s ISIS terror group, also known as ISIL. Saying he had authorized air strikes against the jihadist group in Syria and the deployment […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama has said he will hold off on plans for a military strike in Syria if the country agrees to surrender its chemical weapons to international gatekeepers, as Russia suggested Monday. But Obama has doubts that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Western countries are convinced was responsible for gassing his […]
A strange thing has happened on the way to the war in Syria: U.S. public opinion, like in Turkey, has lined up this time alongside Europe’s perennial reflex against intervention.
RIA NOVOSTI (Russia), REUTERS, RUSSIA TODAY, AFP, BBC Worldcrunch ST. PETERSBURG — The leaders of the world’s 20 most powerful economies arrived Thursday in Russia for the annual G20 summit. The two-day meeting was initially supposed to focus on the economic slowdown in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as well […]
Thursday, September 4, 2014 UKRAINE TOPS NATO SUMMIT AGENDA Western and NATO leaders are meeting in Newport, Wales, for what the military alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described as “one of the most important summits in the history of our alliance” because of Russia’s incursion in Ukraine. Calling on Moscow to “stop the flow […]
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 SECOND ISIS BEHEADING VIDEO CONFIRMED The U.S. Intelligence Community has authenticated the video published yesterday by ISIS which purported to show the beheading of another journalist, Steven Sotloff of dual American-Israeli citizenship, two weeks after similar footage of James Foley was released, The New York Times reports. Speaking from Estonia where […]
LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch DAMASCUS — Bashar al-Assad warned France not to launch a military strike, which the Syrian president said would support terrorism against the interests of the Syrian people. In an exclusive interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Assad said that should Paris take part in a military intervention, “there will be repercussions, […]
WASHINGTON POST Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – The U.S. commando raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden was guided from space by a fleet of satellites, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence documents revealed Friday by the Washington Post. As the May 2011 mission unfolded, the satellites aimed dozens of receivers over Pakistan to collect electronic […]
After the chemical attacks, military intervention is a question of humanity, but also of realpolitik. That does not, however, mean it will resolve the situation in Syria.
Thursday, August 28, 2014 UKRAINE DENOUNCES “RUSSIAN TROOP DEPLOYMENT” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cancelled a trip to Turkey over what he described as “Russian troop deployments” in eastern Ukraine. His decision comes amid reports of a Russian “invasion” and the gathering of special OSCE meeting in Vienna. Writing on Twitter, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey […]
USA TODAY, HUFFINGTON POST Worldcrunch WASHINGTON — Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. President Barack Obama will speak on the same steps of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial during the “Let Freedom Ring and Call to Action” commemoration. Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton will also speak after […]
U.S. APPROVES SYRIA SURVEILLANCE FLIGHTS President Barack Obama approved manned and unmanned surveillance flights over Syria in a bid to hit ISIS positions without reinforcing President Bashar al-Assad, The New York Times reports, describing the decision as “a precursor to potential airstrikes there.” According to officials, Washington has no intention of notifying or asking the […]
TEL AVIV — Israeli officials are under the impression that the United States soon will conduct a Syrian military operation even without a decision from the U.N. Security Council. This comes after a Friday phone call between U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey and Israeli Army chief of staff Benny Gantz. A […]
LE FIGARO (France), BBC Worldcrunch PARIS – Specially-trained Syrian rebel fighters, alongside US, Israeli and Jordanian forces, have crossed the border into Syria as an unprecedented assault begins against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, French daily Le Figaro reports Friday. The newspaper cites military sources saying the operation began last week in the southern Syrian region of […]
The legacy of the 44th president of the United States is in peril, as he is seen as weak-willed with an unfocused foreign policy. Is it 1979 all over again?
Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 ANOTHER GAZA SCHOOL HIT, MORE CIVILIAN DEATHS A second Gaza school was hit by Israeli Defense Forces, killing at least 19 people. Today’s assault was on the United Nations-run Abu Hussein School in Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp where displaced Gazans have sought shelter, CNN reports (video included). In total, at least […]
The revelations of the NSA surveillance program came on the heels of the Boston Marathon attack. America weighs the links between an alleged terrorist and self-avowed whistleblower.
BBC (UK), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON– In a statement released on the White House’s website, US President Barack Obama has called for calm as protests continue following a Florida jury’s not guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case, reports the BBC. In his statement, Obama called Martin’s death a tragedy, but said that America […]
BUENOS AIRES – Washington’s blatent public pressure to keep Edward Snowden from obtaining political asylum has fed a new wave of anti-Americanism worldwide. It also represents a test for the United States’ bilateral relations with several countries, including Russia and those in its own “backyard.” What explains the willingness of Barack Obama’s government to pay […]
BERLIN – After the fall of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, the West is still trying to figure out what words to use to describe what is happening. In Berlin, no one wants to use the P-word, so instead of referring to a military putsch, Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle spoke of a “stay in democratic […]
Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…
Friday, June 27, 2014 UKRAINE SIGNS EU PACT Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko penned this morning an association agreement that includes free-trade and political cooperation with the European Union, the same that former president Viktor Yanukovych had refused to sign months ago, triggering massive protests in Kiev that eventually brought his presidency to an end. “I […]
This week’s selection of magazine covers from around the world.