Welcome to Friday, where China blocks the WHO on COVID origins, the Taliban capture Kandahar and a Russian politician makes a deadly bear error. We also have a Die Welt article on the tiny country that isn’t afraid to take on China.
Category: Geopolitics
While the rise of European right-wing populism is becoming a pan-continental phenomenon, we seem determined to miss its one common driver.
Putting New York Governor Cuomo’s delayed departure in light of the #MeToo movement.
Ukraine’s leaders face toxic land-use challenges 35 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident.
The pandemic has exacerbated tensions within the petroleum cartel, eroded Saudi Arabia’s hegemony, and led to shifting internal alliances. An era may be over.
The Taliban insurgents continue their deadly war to seize control of Afghanistan after the departure of United States and NATO forces. As they close in on major cities that were once government strongholds, like Badakhshan and Kandahar, many Afghans – and the world – fear a total takeover. Afghan women may have the most to fear from these Islamic militants. We are academics who interviewed 15 Afghan women activists, community leaders and politicians over the past year as part of an international effort to ensure that women’s human rights are defended and constitutionally protected in Afghanistan. For the safety of […]
Op-Ed INDIA — I don’t watch many Netflix programs, but a series recommended by my cousin has struck me like a bolt of lightning. Called How to Become a Tyrant, it presents what it calls “a playbook for absolute power.” Much of it is tongue-in-cheek, yet it’s based on the actual tactics and strategies used by Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Muammar Gaddafi, Kim Il-sung, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein. So if you take it seriously, it tells you what you must do if you aspire to be India’s tanashah. And the remarkable thing is it feels uncannily like […]
North Africa correspondent Frédéric Bobin analyzes Tunisian President Kais Saied’s recent decision to suspend parliament and sack Prime Minister Mechichi and what it means for the legacy of the Arab Spring — for Tunisia and for the region.
Mexico’s socialist president is determined to restore a ‘strong’ presidency he believes will put things right in Mexico. To many, he is starting to look like another tropical dictator of sort.
Germany and the U.S. have agreed on a compromise to complete the gas pipeline — or rather, the Americans have submitted to Angela Merkel, who in turn had a farewell gift for Russia.
From the viewpoint of an economist specializing in social protection issues, France’s move toward vaccination mandates comes with major risks.
The number of infections is decreasing in many places, even as restrictions are eased. Vaccines matter, say scientists, but it’s not the only factor.
BEIJING — “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to join the party…” Yanru, a 22-year-old university student studying at a well-known university in northern China, just became a CCP member last year. For her and her peers, joining the Chinese Communist Party is something that just seems natural: “It has led us […]
Though every day a new bit of bad COVID-related (and other) news arrives, the already once-delayed Summer Olympic Games must go on.
Sympathizers of the Cuban communist regime tend to justify Cuba’s violence on protesters and present it as a victim of Western imperialism.
Last year’s election of reformist president Maia Sandu was the first step. But now the anti-graft, pro-Europe forces are about to dominate the Parliament. But what will it look like on the ground?
The EU parliament has passed a resolution that condemns Hungary’s anti-LGBT law and could allow them to initiate legal action against the Hungarian government. The potentially life-threatening consequences of the law are already clear.
Aspects of discredited Israeli policies are being imitated in a country half a continent away.
Professors Christian Jakob and Michael Reeder explain how heatwaves form … and why they weather is a part of climate change we should pay closer attention to.
The prices of oil, copper and aluminum are all on the rise, and on paper at least, that’s great news for Russia. Leading economists, nevertheless, predict stagnation, and say Putin’s system is to blame.
Iran’s clerical Shiite regime has seemingly overturned its long-held hostility to the Taliban, and may be readying itself to welcome the ‘enemies of America’ as Kabul’s new masters.
ROME — The 70-something barista who served me an iced tea last July was proud of his historic cafe next to one of the city’s best-known theaters. It was soon after the end of Italy’s first lockdown, and the theater was still closed due to the pandemic. At the end of our short conversation, the […]
The four million Syrians living in Turkey were already facing great difficulties, and the pandemic only made their lives more uncertain. But there’s another truth they know must face.
The Russian president’s article on the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union can be read on multiple levels. But one thing is sure, his mind is fixed on the future.
The Hass avocado, fast becoming one of Colombia’s big export earners, is threatening local ecosystems and causing water shortages.
The arch-conservative Ibrahim Raisi’s election to the Iranian presidency is pushing its regime closer to Russia and farther from the West — and leaving a big question mark on relations with China.
NEW DELHI — I had never given thought to the provenance of funeral wood, until news reports revealed in late April that officials in Delhi had begun receiving requests to chop trees in city parks amidst the colossal surge in COVID deaths. It was a jolting statement to encounter, for it forced me to reframe a life-giver into a death-enabler in ominously stripped, urgent terms. Wood, of course, had been used for cremation since ancient times, but to think of it as coming from our very midst instead of some sequestered supply-area bore a sting of abrasiveness. Would our public […]
In Moscow daily Kommersant, a long and fiery response from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the U.S. and European tactics during and after this month’s Putin-Biden summit.
There’s a bitter irony when an exhibit titled ‘Non-Freedom of Expression’ itself faces censorship.
BERLIN — It was late May, as 10,000 spectators arrived at Barthélemy Boganda Stadium in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, for a special film premiere. There was a red carpet for the VIPs arriving for the film “Tourist” — a feature that glorifies the use of Russian mercenaries, who heroically defend the […]
Built by Ethiopia, the massive Dam project is fueling tensions with Sudan and Egypt. The second filling, set to take place next month, risks making the area even more explosive.
In the latest Palestinian uprising, the greatest accomplishment has been to demonstrate the actuality of liberation.
Heated debate over an ‘Islam Map’ is drawing new attention to the center-right government’s aggressive policy, which some in Germany now see as a model.
The Euro 2021 Football competition is a reminder that European integration can take many forms.
Think about what other *advice the government is giving people…
On the Internet, Russian trolls are attacking the top candidate of the German Greens in the worst possible way. Attacks on Annalena Baerbock and other Green politicians also come from Turkey. Behind this is the concern about a green foreign policy.
The CCP is not used to sharing the decision-making role with the public, but that may be exactly what all sides need to try to encourage more Chinese people to have babies.
With new targets, the United States is trying to impose more of the same binary thinking that set the Middle East on fire.
Giorgia Meloni, rising star of Italy’s far-right, was a member of neofascist organizations in her youth. She insists that she’s changed her way, and that fascism is not an Italian peculiarity. Not all agree.
Joe Biden’s Geneva meeting with Vladimir Putin cannot avoid the Nord Stream 2 pipeline standoff. Kyiv will be watching every step.