Category: Geopolitics

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Geopolitics Trump And The World

Hillary Clinton’s Unexpected Obstacle: The Women’s Vote

Hillary Clinton in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Feb. 2
Hillary Clinton in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Feb. 2 Ryan Mcbride/ZUMA

CONCORD — On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Hillary Clinton’s quest to become the country’s first female president has encountered an unexpected problem: She is having trouble persuading women, young and old, to rally behind her cause. The latest sign came Sunday, when a new CNN-WMUR survey here showed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders beating Clinton among women by eight percentage points — which represents a big shift from the results last week in the Iowa caucuses, where Clinton won women by 11 points. The survey followed unintentionally problematic comments over the weekend by Madeleine Albright and Gloria Steinem, […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

Zika Outbreak Exposes Brazilian Incompetence

Baby suffering from microcephaly in Recife, Brazil, on Feb. 2
Baby suffering from microcephaly in Recife, Brazil, on Feb. 2 Diego Herculano/Xinhua/ZUMA

What the World Health Organization has declared a global public health emergency is being met with inept government reaction. The enemy is a mosquito whose existence was once under control.

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Geopolitics

As Zika Spreads, A Colombian Region Asks “Why Here?”

Anti-Zika fumigation campaign in Caracas, Venezuela
Anti-Zika fumigation campaign in Caracas, Venezuela [E]Avn/Xinhua/ZUMA

Health authorities in Cúcuta, northeastern Colombia, are struggling to stop the spread of mosquito-borne infections like zika. And the blame game has begun.

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Geopolitics Syria Crisis

The Temptation Of Radical Islam In Kosovo

A mosque in the eastern Kosovo city of Gjilan. The vast majority of Muslim worshipers in Kosovo have no extremist links.
A mosque in the eastern Kosovo city of Gjilan. The vast majority of Muslim worshipers in Kosovo have no extremist links. Jonathan Landay/TNS/ZUMA

The Muslim majority Balkan nation, liberated from Serbia with the help of Western forces in 1999, is no longer immune to the worldwide nexus of radical Islamic forces.

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Geopolitics Ideas

The Perfect Storm That Could Lead To A Le Pen Presidency

National Front leader Marine Le Pen in Paris in May 2015
National Front leader Marine Le Pen in Paris in May 2015 Nicolas Kovarik/Pacific Press/ZUMA

-Analysis- PARIS — Defeated, the government doesn’t know what it wants! Defeated, the Socialist Party is again incapable of defining a clear line! Defeated, members of the center-right Republicans party are tearing each other apart as they seek to avoid the “trap” the Socialists are said to have laid for them. The staggering debate ongoing […]

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Economy Geopolitics Ideas

Brazilian Lessons For Argentina, Cut Deficits Or Face Doom

Brazilian colors in Buenos Aires
Brazilian colors in Buenos Aires Hernan Pinera

Fiscal deficits cannot be ignored or maintained through creative financing mechanisms, given their potential to turn into long-term debt able to sink entire economic programs.

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Geopolitics

A Stranger In Egypt: Missed Revolutions And A Spring On Ice

A demonstration this week in Cairo to mark the 5th anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising
A demonstration this week in Cairo to mark the 5th anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising Ahmed Gomaa/Xinhua/ZUMA

-Essay- CAIRO — Every year, on Jan. 25, I have the same thought: I don’t have any memories to share. Every time I’m with friends who nostalgically remember moments of happiness and triumph, I stay silent, because I have no memories to share. During the 18 days of the revolution, I was in Gambia, watching […]

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Geopolitics

“Things Have Changed” — Rouhani Interview After Landmark European Trip

Rouhani in Rome
Rouhani in Rome Riccardo De Luca/Pacific Press via ZUMA

Following the first trip to Italy and France in 16 years by an Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani talks about terrorism, trade, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

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Geopolitics Society

Turkmens, A Scapegoat In Russia-Turkey Feud Over Syria

Refugee children on the Turkey-Syria border.
Refugee children on the Turkey-Syria border. Barbaros Kayan/Depo Photos/ZUMA

The Turkmen minority of Syria have been forced from their homes after Moscow airstrikes. With ethnic links to Turkey, Ankara wants to help, though the border remains sealed shut.

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Geopolitics

Auschwitz Survivor Hails Germany’s “Heroic” Stand On Migrants

Auschwitz survivor Ruth Klüger
Auschwitz survivor Ruth Klüger Blaues Sofa

Auschwitz survivor and University of California professor Ruth Klüger’s address to the German parliament to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was stirringly relevant to today’s great challenges.

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Geopolitics Society

Talking “El Chapo” With Trafficker-Turned-Novelist Andrés López

Joaquín
Joaquín Servicio Universal Noticias/Newscom/ZUMA

The Colombian writer who once was part of the Norte del Valle cartel had a chance to interview the Mexican drug lord, but unlike Sean Penn, “refused to be a mouthpiece.”

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Geopolitics Ideas Society

Covering Up Roman Nudes For Rouhani, A Question Of Respect

Rome's Capitoline Venus and an Iranian woman in a burqa
Rome's Capitoline Venus and an Iranian woman in a burqa Capitoline museums/Roshan Norouzi-ZUMA/Worldcrunch collage

Italian museum officials covered up prized ancient statues for the visit of Iranian President Rouhani. But what do we lose with such overly eager attention to Muslim sensibilities? And what about our own?

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

A Syrian Refugee Family Struggles To Start Anew In Austria

Hane, his wife Baraah and two of their children in Unterwaltersdorf
Hane, his wife Baraah and two of their children in Unterwaltersdorf Myrto Papadopoulos

Six month later, a reporter is reconnected to a family who’d fled war in Deir ez-Zor, Syria. They wound up in a small village, where they are building a new life. Integration is not easy.

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Economy Geopolitics Terror in Europe

The Multi-Billion-Euro Pricetag Of Shutting Down Schengen

The Multi-Billion-Euro Pricetag Of Shutting Down Schengen
Will Bakker

With six European Union countries instituting new border controls, the end of three decades of free movement comes with a heavy price.

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Geopolitics

How Egypt Is Trying To Quash January 25 Anniversary

Pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters last week in Cairo
Pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters last week in Cairo Amr Sayed/APA/ZUMA

Five years after the revolution that overthrew the Mubarak regime, Egypt’s security forces raided apartments and closed public space to send a very clear message

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Geopolitics Ideas

Germany: First Whispers Of Possible Merkel Government Crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Dec. 14,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Dec. 14, Luo Huanhuan/Xinhua/ZUMA

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been immune to crisis, so far. But now that the government coalition is divided about the country’s open-door policy, things are about to change.

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Geopolitics Green Or Gone

In Madagascar, Where Climate Change Comes In Cyclones

Fishermen in Mahajanga, Madagascar
Fishermen in Mahajanga, Madagascar Nekenasoa

TOLIARA — The heat and the years have taken a heavy toll on Rebokane Mahatsanga’s frail, scaly-skinned body. Squatting, almost prone, among a few bad-looking ears of corn on his patch of land, he doesn’t quite know his age anymore. “I think I’ll be 100 soon,” he says, his eyes half-closed. People don’t really celebrate […]

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Geopolitics Society

“Jihad,” The Belgian Play Leaving Audiences In Stitches

"Jihad," The Belgian Play Leaving Audiences In Stitches
Ismael Saidi's Facebook page

Even as Belgium has emerged as a hub of Islamic terror networks, a Belgian Muslim is the theatrical toast of the town as he tackles jihad, racism and culture wars with humor.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Syria Today As 1990s Yugoslavia — Or 1970s Italy?

Damascus in December.
Damascus in December. Zhang Naijie/Xinhua via ZUMA

-Essay- NEW YORK — In searching for an image that could help to illustrate the dreadful, complex and totally out-of-control situation in Syria, I stumbled upon an article in the Marginal Revolution that compares the events in Syria to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Since Yugoslavia and Syria were both multinational countries, and […]

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Geopolitics Terror in Europe

Psychology Of Suicide Bombers — Inside The Kamikaze Mind

A Japanese WWII kamikaze and an al-Qaeda suicide bomber
A Japanese WWII kamikaze and an al-Qaeda suicide bomber Wikimedia Commons/al-Qaida propaganda video

Researchers across the globe are trying to understand what drives the sense of martyrdom to which terrorists aspire. Complicating the explanations is the fact that these killers have a wide range of psychological profiles.

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Geopolitics

German Far-Right Pegida Movement Spreads Across Europe

At last week's Pegida rally in Antwerp
At last week's Pegida rally in Antwerp Pegida Vlaanderen Facebook

As nationalist groups around the continent take on the Pegida brand name, a mass European-wide rally is planned in at least seven cities for Feb. 6.

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Geopolitics

Welcome To Yanbian, China’s Flourishing “Third Korea”

Farming rice in Yanbian
Farming rice in Yanbian Wang Haofei/Xinhua/ZUMA

Despite China’s geographic and political proximity with North Korea, it’s South Korea for whom the country’s autonomous Yanbian area has rolled out the red carpet.

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Geopolitics

A Violent Turn, Conversion Of An Egyptian Radical

Protest in Giza, Greater Cairo, Egypt
Protest in Giza, Greater Cairo, Egypt Amr Sayed/APA Images/ZUMA

CAIRO — “I wanted to live through the military coup. Now, after all I’ve seen, I think I must have been mad.” Thus Youssef — not his real name — began our interview. For him, everything changed on the dawn of Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2013, the day the Rabea al-Adaweyya sit-in was dispersed when several […]

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Geopolitics Society

A Filipino Trump? “Duterte Harry” Eyes Presidency

Duterte soon after he announced his candidacy in November
Duterte soon after he announced his candidacy in November J Gerard Seguia/ZUMA

A tough-talking mayor leads the polls in the Philippines, which will elect a new president in May. Rodrigo Duterte’s message is simple: stop crime and corruption. But some question his methods.

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

Algerian Limbo: Black, Undocumented, Dreaming Of Europe

In Oran, looking toward Europe?
In Oran, looking toward Europe? Florit0

The North African country is increasingly a destination for sub-Saharian Africans looking to move on to Europe, even if many get stuck in Algeria with few rights or hopes for work.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Letter From A Turkish Prison, When A Journalist Writes About Erdogan

People under a giant Turkish flag in Istanbul

Just days after Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar accepted the 2015 Press Freedom Prize in France, he was arrested along with a colleague. He wrote this letter from the Istanbul jail where he faces life in prison for publishing articles about

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Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Fleeing Ghouta, Tunnels Are Only Way Out Of Syrian City Under Siege

Syrian fighters in Eastern Ghouta
Syrian fighters in Eastern Ghouta Bassem Tellawi/Xinhua/ZUMA

While residents in Madaya may have no way out, other besieged areas under government control are finding creative ways to carry on. In Eastern Ghouta, a well-known rebel-held area in rural Damascus, residents can access a network of tunnels to escape or t

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Geopolitics Ideas

The Crucial American Role In Calming Saudi-Iran Turmoil

U.S. President Barack Obama with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef at the White House in May 2015
U.S. President Barack Obama with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef at the White House in May 2015 Olivier Douliery/CNP/ZUMA

-Op-Ed- PARIS — In the 1970s, in the aftermath of Richard Nixon’s visit to China, commentators talked about the Washington-Moscow-Beijing triangle. These days, in the Middle East, there is another triangle: between Riyadh, Tehran and Washington. The problem for the region’s stability is that this triangle is absolutely dysfunctional. Indeed, the only way to understand […]

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Geopolitics Syria Crisis

Tackling The Next Crisis In Syria: Winter

At a UNHCR refugee camp in Homs, Syria
At a UNHCR refugee camp in Homs, Syria SARC Homs branch

Local organizations have been working day and night over the past two months to prepare Syrians for the winter cold. Nearly a dozen people died there last January due to a fatal combination of inadequate shelter and freezing weather.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Why Cologne Attacks Have Killed Taboo On Muslim Immigration

Cologne's cathedral, where violence happened on NYE
Cologne's cathedral, where violence happened on NYE giantkuu via Instagram

It has been considered not politically correct to talk about challenges of integrating Muslim immigrants in German society. That has changed forever after the New Year’s attacks on women in Cologne.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Terrorist “Rebranding”? FARC Needs A New Look — And New Name!

FARC leader Timochenko
FARC leader Timochenko Worldcrunch montage

No doubt the rebels cherish their history of armed struggle against the Colombian state, but if they’re serious about entering politics, an image makeover is very much in order.

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Geopolitics Ideas

The “Gray ISIS” — What Drives Saudi Obsession With Shia Expansion

Demonstration against Saudi Arabia's execution of Nimr in Tehran on Jan. 4
Demonstration against Saudi Arabia's execution of Nimr in Tehran on Jan. 4 Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua/ZUMA

-Analysis- ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia silenced Ayatollah al-Nimr by executing him. He was an open critic of the Saudi royal dynasty and the cruelty against the Shia, while a longtime advocate for democratic elections. The Saudis lumped Nimr in with 46 al-Qaeda members who were charged with terrorism in order to ruin his reputation. You […]

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics Ideas Society Trump And The World

Donald Trump Is A Big Jerk — And Good For Democracy

Donald Trump Is A Big Jerk — And Good For Democracy
Gage Skidmore

Czech President Milos Zeman, Donald Trump and other over-the-top personalities may not offer any practical solutions to society’s problems, but they do have a function in an increasingly uniform political arena.

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Geopolitics Society

French Youth And The Far Right, A Budding Love Affair?

Supporters of the National Front in Paris on May 1
Supporters of the National Front in Paris on May 1 Nicolas Kovarik/Pacific Press/ZUMA

Long relied upon to rally against the far-right National Front party, young French people are increasingly seduced by the ideas of Marine Le Pen. Terrorism isn’t the only reason.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Signs That Iran Wants To Ease Tensions With Saudi Arabia

At a Jan.4 demonstration against Saudi Arabia in Tehran
At a Jan.4 demonstration against Saudi Arabia in Tehran Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua/ZUMA

The news continues to be troubling for Tehran: Several more Arab states have followed Saudi Arabia to cut or curb ties with Iran in the wake of a showdown over Riyadh’s execution of a Shia leader. And yet, Iran’s reformist leaders and most of the country’s media are remaining notably calm. In the immediate aftermath […]

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Geopolitics Society

Can Work Make Us Happy?

Working the smile
Working the smile extranoise

The pursuit of happiness has been the endeavor of all people since the dawn of time. But can work, the central value of modern civilization, be the answer?

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Geopolitics Society

Verbatim: 2015’s Most Notable Quotes

Verbatim: 2015's Most Notable Quotes
Yin Bogu/Xinhua/ZUMA

From politicians to entertainers and ordinary citizens, we take a quick look at some of the words that made news in 2015. “Je suis Charlie” is both a slogan and logo created by French art director Joachim Roncin in the wake of the Jan. 7 shooting at the Paris offices of the French satirical weekly […]

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Economy Eyes on the U.S. Food / Travel Future Geopolitics Green Or Gone Ideas Migrant Lives Society Syria Crisis Terror in Europe

10 Most Popular Worldcrunch Articles Of 2015

10 Most Popular Worldcrunch Articles Of 2015
Bill Ingalls/NASA/ZUMA

Hey Donald Trump, Hugo Chavez Would Be So Proud CHILE / America Economia, Aug. 25 Jihadism As Nihilism, An X-Ray Of Homegrown Terror In France FRANCE / Le Monde, Dec. 3 The Siberian Fasting Cleanse For Body And Mind RUSSIA / Le Temps, Aug. 17 El Chapo Escape, When Income Inequality Breeds Corruption MEXICO / […]

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Future Geopolitics Ideas Society

A Legal Age For Facebook? Parenting And The Rise Of Social Media

How long can you hold him?
How long can you hold him? Loren Kerns

TURIN — In Brussels, it doesn’t matter if your 8-year-olds have a smartphone in their pockets with more computing power than the Rosetta space probe. The European Union passed a regulation this month that raised the legal age for the use of social media to 16, requiring parental consent before teenagers can open Facebook, Instagram, […]

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

Pakistan To Australia, Along The Hazara Refugee Trail

Hazara men at Kabul's Pashtun Bazaar.
Hazara men at Kabul's Pashtun Bazaar. Philip Poupin/ZUMA

QUETTA/JAKARTA/MELBOURNE — Five-year-old Mohammad Raza is holding a photograph of his uncle Sadiq Ali. He believes his uncle is in Australia and that he will soon send a toy airplane. But his grandmother knows that Sadiq Ali is detained abroad. Sadiq left, she says, because he didn’t see any hope for his future in Pakistan. “It was a tough time for him here,” she says, “He ran his own shop but got tired of having no work because the area was unsafe. So he left the country.” Sadiq, 22, is part of the Shia Hazara community in Quetta, a town […]

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