Worldcrunch
Sunday’s second round of the Polish presidential election feels like a clash between democratic values and nationalist conservatism, with high geopolitical stakes. With Poland’s international profile growing, Trump, Putin, Zelensky, and all the big European players are watching closely.
Voters used to reward good governance, but not anymore. From Brazil to the United States to the UK, a new political reality is unfolding, where incumbents struggle for reelection regardless of their performance. Our addiction to digital platforms may help explain this shift?
Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun as president on Thursday, following extensive behind-the-scenes negotiations. This marks a beginning, not an end, for a nation left drained by Hezbollah’s war with Israel amid a region in turmoil.
Joe Rogan is considered America’s king of podcasters and the voice of hyper-masculinity in the United States. His support for Donald Trump is considered by some to have been decisive in the presidential election. But what’s behind this world of hyper-masculine podcast bros? For Die Zeit, Berlin-based author Norman Ohler writes about his experience as a guest on Rogan’s show.
November 18 – November 24, 2024
November 11 – November 17, 2024
The outcome of the U.S. presidential election hinges on just a few percentage points—and lately, pollsters have often missed the mark. Here’s how they’ve tweaked their models, and why it’s probably not enough.
While the Western establishment is hoping for a Kamala Harris victory, either way fundamental changes are coming to the Transatlantic relationship that Europe can no longer evade.
November 4 – November 10, 2024
Never since it became the “great protector” of the Jewish state has the United States shown so much weakness towards Israel, as the Israeli prime minister stays one step ahead of his adversaries in a cunning maneuver to help Trump return to the White House.
Edmundo Gonzales, the opposition candidate who should have been declared the winner of the July election in Venezuela, has gone into exile in Spain. For the time being, President Maduro has won the day, even if he is denounced by the Latin American democratic left, notably Lula in Brazil.
Foreign condemnations and sanctions will not force Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro to abandon power after losing the recent presidential elections. The army could, but with a security system designed by Cuban advisers, it is firmly under regime control.
Tehran seems to be paving the way for a moderate to become the country’s next president. But the regime’s goal is not to make life better for Iranians, but to leave him with the daunting task of handling a second Trump administration.
Jordan Bardella may become the first far-right prime minister in France since World War II. Is this good news for Vladimir Putin?
Updated June 13, 2024 at 12:30 p.m. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the Iranian presidential election on this day in 2009. What were the circumstances surrounding the 2009 Iranian presidential election? The 2009 Iranian presidential election was marked by controversy and widespread protests. Many Iranians believed that the election results were fraudulent and […]
The headlines on front pages from New York to around the world dedicated to Donald Trump becoming the first American President to have been a felon. Here is a selection of newspaper front pages from 15 countries.
For decades, feminists have accused Marxism of not addressing women’s specific struggles. With presidential elections in Mexico approaching in June, an interesting experiment may happen, as two female candidates are in the race. A vision for how Marxism and feminism, together, can help change Mexican society — with a woman at the helm.
In a quarter of a century under the regime of the former KGB agent, members of the Russian security forces have imposed their growing stronghold on politics and the economy. But the Russian presidential election is also an admission of their weakness with their president failing to build a state strong enough to carry on without them.
While three “challengers” are on the ballot in Russia’s presidential election which ends Sunday, none of the bonafide members of the opposition were approved for the vote. The only organized protest movement was launched from prison by Alexei Navalny, several weeks before he died, with crowds of opponents lining up to demonstrate against President Vladimir Putin
Prabowo Subianto’s campaign team has heavily promoted him as a baby-faced cute grandpa on the internet, overshadowing the former army general’s dark authoritarian past and potential intent to dismantle Indonesia’s fragile democratic system.
Vladimir Putin is not campaigning for the March 17 presidential election, but his message is on display at the vast “Rossia” exhibition in Moscow, which aims “to show Russians their modern Russia, a country they can be proud of.”
U.S. President Biden has quietly turned his Republican predecessor’s anti-foreign posturing into economic policies that strongly favor domestic manufacturing. Does Mexico, which depends on massive exports to the U.S., have anything to look forward to in the upcoming presidential elections?
The incumbent has achieved enormous popularity with his state of emergency ironclad rule, which has largely curbed gang violence
As Mexico’s president seeks to consolidate his power ahead of the 2024 general elections in the fall, will voters and institutions react to safeguard the country’s democracy or fall deeper into outgoing President López Obrador’s authoritarian impulses?
Updated Dec. 28 2023 at 12:00 p.m. After serving in World War II as a Korean-contingent major in the Soviet Army, Kim Il-Sung became the first premier of the newly formed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Years later, he would become the nation’s supreme ruler. How did Kim Il-Sung become the first president of North […]
Egypt’s presidential vote ended with a certain outcome. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi secured another term that will keep him in power until 2030. It was a landslide victory for el-Sisi who has been in power since 2014. He received 89.6% of what officials said was the highest turnout in Egypt’s election history amid a state-sponsored campaign of mobilization for voters.
From Orban to Zelensky to Bolsonaro, the list of those who did and didn’t travel to Argentina says much about the new president, and the current state of the world.
Founder of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s, Hugo Chavez went on to be elected president of Venezuela in late 1998, serving until his death in 2013. How did Hugo Chavez rise to power? Chávez led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup against the Democratic Action Government of then President Carlos Andrés […]
The radical libertarian Javier Milei confounded the polls to decisively win the second round of Argentina’s presidential elections; now he must win over a nation that has voiced its disgust with the country’s brand of politics as usual.
Nearly 200 people are running to be the president of Senegal in the 2024 elections. What does this say about the state of Senegalese democracy? Financial Afrik takes a closer look.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has just pleaded “not guilty” criminal charges linked to his push to overturn 2020 election results. Indicted for the third time in four months, he is still somehow able to use the situation to fuel his campaign for re-election in 2024. The future election, American-Canadian scholar and cultural critic Henry Giroux writes, is a choice between democracy and the further criminalization of U.S. politics.
The third indictment against Donald Trump raises the legal dispute between the United States and its former president to a new level. While Trump cries foul play, drawing shameful comparisons with Nazi persecution 1930s Germany, the consequences of the trial can’t be predicted.
Even after being indicted on federal charges, a “persecuted” Donald Trump could win again.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cemented his already tight grip on power in Turkey, winning an unprecedented third term as president. The West had hoped for a slightly less unpredictable leader, but they will have to make peace with an emboldened Erdogan, who may become even more autonomous.
Western leaders hope the end is coming for the reign of Turkey’s longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but saying it too loudly is just too risky in geopolitical terms.
A tale of Turkey’s second president accepting defeat begs the question of whether Recep Tayyip Erdogan would accept election defeat on May 14, and return to life as a private citizen.
It is a mistake to attribute the construction of authoritarianism in modern Russia to Putin alone. Serhiy Gromenko, an expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, explains the evolution for how Russia wound up an authoritarian state, and why Putin isn’t the only one to blame.
Emulating the Trump-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, the assault of a right-wing mob on government buildings in Brasilia took its cue from former president Bolsonaro’s longstanding contempt for democratic institutions.
In Brazil, the leftist Lula da Silva’s narrow victory margin in the presidential elections must be seen for what it is: a measured rejection, in hard times, of the outgoing Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing excesses, in favor of competent moderation. But it bodes for very uncertain times ahead
Despite the leftist candidate’s first-place finish, the voter mood in Brazil’s presidential campaign is clearly conservative. So Lula will have to move clearly to the political center to vanquish the divisive but still popular Jair Bolsonaro. He also needs to send a message of contrition to skeptical voters about past mistakes.