While populists toughen their positions and beat their chests, the deep-seated weakness of their policies is driving everything.
Tag: politics
Political chaos in Kyrgyzstan, revolution in Belarus, war in Nagorno-Karabakh: three decades after the collapse of the USSR, Vladimir Putin’s “near abroad” is currently marred by instability.
*Other than Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping push for a second term, we will also see Maduro’s Venezuela and Myanmar (also) testing the limits of democracy in the coming weeks.
Every U.S. election carries consequences beyond America’s borders. But Nov. 3 stands out for multiple reasons: a lethal pandemic has killed more than one million people across the world, once thriving economies are in tatters, U.S. isolationism has created an international power vacuum that is allowing right-wing autocrats to thrive across continents. And then, there’s […]
The current U.S. president has made life decidedly difficult for the Islamic Republic. But would a Biden victory really do much to benefit Iran’s ailing regime?
“Amazon is ‘un-Swedish”…” Yes, in my country too, you’d probably hear something called osvenskt in one of those low-budget conference halls where “patriots’ gather to drink domestic beer and worry about the Moderland. So, you’ll be surprised that slap at the U.S. e-retailer was delivered by my old Swedish Econ101 professor, 10 years ago, as […]
In mid-September, fires destroyed Greece’s largest migrant camp, the vastly overcrowded Moria facility on the island of Lesbos. The disaster left some 13,000 already desperate people with no shelter at all, and raises new questions about Europe’s collective responsibilities toward migrants five years after German Chancellor Angela Merkel famously opened her nation’s doors to fleeing […]
Viewed from the proverbial (and literal) 30,000 feet, the most stunning consequence of the coronavirus pandemic may have been the sudden closing of national borders. In an increasingly open world, the past six months of severe international travel restrictions continues to disrupt lives and hobble the global economy. Last week, the six-months-long closure of the […]
Though it may undermine free speech, Ethiopians seem accepting of government-ordered Internet shutdowns to curb rioting fomented online.
The accord to normalize relations between two Arab countries and Israel is a major diplomatic victory for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made good on a pledge to bring a breakthrough to Middle East negotiations just before his bid for reelection in November. Still, the fast-moving events of the last month — culminating with […]
The halting of AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial is not only a reminder of the challenge of finding a cure, but will feed growing public mistrust of states and scientists.
-Essay- PARIS — I do my best not to get pulled into the rabbit hole of U.S. election coverage. It’s hard to imagine, at this point, how any poll or tweet or scandal could possibly affect the outcome. Can our global news site really find a new angle to help explain Donald Trump? Can anyone? […]
The bombastic president seems to have little regard for precedence or decorum. But is he just an anomaly? And if not, what happens if he loses?
Violent clashes continue to rock Belarus after opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was forced to flee the country, following President Lukashenko’s reelection.
A largely unknown figure until recently, candidate Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya is now challenging to end the 26-year presidency of Alexander Lukashenko.
Few outside his native Italy had heard of Matteo Salvini before he emerged in 2018 as the new global star of far-right populism. Catapulted by the election success of his League party, the scruffy and sardonic northerner had grown into Italy’s most talked-about and incendiary politician, solidifying power in his role as interior minister in […]
Slovenian-born writer Andrej Mrevlje tries once again to get a read on the fiercely reserved first lady, this time with the help of new book called The Art of Her Deal.
The coronavirus crisis could reshape how the country’s leadership goes about its business.
MILAN — In our pandemic times, face masks are politics. Last Thursday, the debate arrived with fury at the Culture Commission of the Italian parliament. “I won’t be gagged and I won’t wear it!” barked Vittorio Sgarbi, a Parliament member from the center-right Forza Italia party. The obligatory face mask policy inside the Parliament, he […]
Beijing is stepping in to fill the leadership void left by a United States distracted and hobbled by its deep, structural divisions.
The Brazilian president’s antics were cause for alarm even before the deadly pandemic. But with the illness running rampant, the story is taking an ever darker turn.
President López Obrador has failed spectacularly to manage the pandemic and its economic repercussions.
As governments now brace themselves to begin a tightrope walk between saving lives and saving their hemorrhaging economies, one thing is certain: No decision will lead to a perfect outcome. National leaders must quickly pivot from a posture of disaster relief to satisfying often contradictory demands from their populations as the pandemic’s rally-around-the-flag effect starts […]
When a virus sucks all the oxygen out of the public space — and then another arrives.
The insidious path of COVID-19 across the planet is a blunt reminder of how small the world has become. For the coming weeks, Worldcrunch will be delivering daily updates on this crisis from the best, most trusted international news sources — regardless of language or geography. To receive the daily brief in your inbox, sign […]
For the coming weeks, Worldcrunch will be delivering daily updates on the coronavirus global pandemic. Our network of multilingual journalists are busy finding out what’s being reported locally — everywhere — to deliver as clear a picture as possible of what it means for all of us at home, around the world. To receive the […]
In 2020, the world faces a pandemic without recognizable leadership from a state or multilateral bodies. Even diehard critics of U.S. interventionism may be missing the superpower of the old days.
The debate about Angela Merkel’s successor shows that her CDU party is lacking in powerful women to take the party forward. As strange as it seems, her party still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality.
Mexico’s socialist president is deluded if he thinks he can turn the clock back and restore his vision of the welfare state.
Mediation may well be what Venezuela needs to climb out of its deep political crisis, but it can’t come from Cuba.
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.
When reality transcends constitutional and legal provisions, you must be extra clever about social media use.
The island nation hasn’t had a free election for more than 70 years. And yet, as millions take to the streets across the region, the Cuban regime keeps getting a pass.
From Venezuela to Hungary, populist leaders are carving away at fundamental checks and balances in slow and often subtle ways.
Facebook, Google and other platforms are not doing enough to make political ads more transparent.
Even after 72 years, the echoes of India’s division into two independent states continue to reverberate.
With a now-leaderless Democratic Party and no charismatic successor to take over from Berlusconi, his one-time backers may migrate to more extremist parties.
On a recent trip to Sicily, Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua was reminded of the Mediterranean’s still powerful role as a meeting place of peoples and cultures.
The Argentine government has bent over backwards to please the UK while getting nothing in return.
The impeachment storm in Washington comes with high stakes in Ukraine as well, especially for the country’s own TV-star-turned-President.