When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
InterNations
Geopolitics

Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei Barred From Court, Must Stay In China

Worldcrunch

LE FIGARO ( France), AFP

BEIJING - Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei said Thursday that he'd been barred from attending a hearing on a tax evasion case that the Chinese government has ordered against a firm he founded. Chinese police authorities also warned Weiwei that he was not authorized to leave the country, Le Figaro reports.

A $2.1 million alleged bill looms over Weiwei in the tax evasion case, which Weiwei says is a repressive government measure designed to crush him. He told the AFP that he was able to raise enough money to appeal the decision thanks to 30,000 online contributors, but was barred from attending a hearing on Wednesday. The hearing was indefinitely postponed, and his lawyer and friend Liu Xiaoyuan was forced to leave Beijing.

The artist was released a year ago after three months of detention, and his movements will no longer be restricted within China. But he declared that "they are continuing to restrict my freedom of movement and to fabricate crimes." For instance, Weiwei could be accused of "pornography" by the Chinese authorities after a self-portrait he made with four naked women was published online, according to Figaro.

Here's his interview Thursday with the AFP:

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

NYC Postcard: My Arab-American Friends And The Shame Of India's Foreign Policy

The author's native country, India, is both a burgeoning world power and part of the Global South. And yet, its ambitious Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn't dared to say a single word against Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank, even when countries in South America and Africa have severed their diplomatic relationships with Israel.

Photo of pro-Palestinian protesters marching in New York on Oct. 8

Pro-Palestinian protest in New York on Oct. 8

Shikhar Goel

-Essay-

NEW YORK — The three years since coming to New York as a graduate student have been the most demanding and stimulating period of my academic life. One of the most exciting and joyous accidents of this journey has been my close friendship with Arab students in this city.

I have shared a house with a Syrian and a Palestinian here in Brooklyn, which I have grown to call home. I now make makloubeh with lal mirch and garam masala. Pita bread with zaatar and olive oil has become my go-to midnight snack. I have gotten drunk on arak and unsuccessfully danced dabke at parties. The Delhi boy in me has also now learned to cuss in Arabic.

These friendships have made me realize how similar we are to each other as people. My best friend in the city happens to be a Palestinian Christian whose family was displaced from Jerusalem in 1948 and has lived in exile ever since.

My roommate is from the West Bank, where she and her family have to face the everyday humiliation of crossing Israeli checkpoints to travel in their own country.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest