Worldcrunch
In the last hours before the Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel, a negotiation between powerful Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Luis Tagle, a favorite of the Church’s progressive wing from the Philippines could unblock the election for the next Pope.
Israel is brutally asserting its plans to reoccupy Gaza and the “voluntary” expulsion of its inhabitants. France is attempting to make a modest counterpoint, in part by receiving Ahmed al-Sharaa the president of the Syrian transition.
Friedrich Merz’s own coalition partners attempted to sabotage his path to the chancellorship. And although he was ultimately elected, just hours after a first-round debacle, he may never shake off the damage.
Latin American voters are turning to leaders seen as efficient and able to tackle endemic problems like crime and corruption. Does it mean they have also turned their back on party politics for good, and even their own rights or liberties?
The citizens of Gaza have borne the consequences of not only the Israeli occupation but the authoritarian rule of Hamas for nearly 20 years. Is it finally reaching a breaking point?
Each cardinal brings strengths and weaknesses, but a Vatican insider tells La Stampa that it is now clear: more time is needed.
When in doubt, outsource to the soldiers. The Kashmir debacle shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi retreating behind India’s armed forces, leaving it up to them to mop up the mess, calm the rage, and maybe even help the politician save face.
Just weeks after the massacres targeting the Alawite community, Druze populations are now being attacked by armed groups — threatening the fragile stability of Syria’s post-Assad transition.
In the wake of the recent Kashmir attack, the Modi government has responded by demolishing homes allegedly linked to suspects, a move seen by some as more spectacle than justice. These retaliatory demolitions reflect a pattern of collective punishment that raises serious concerns about due process and human rights in conflict regions.
In a stunning turnaround, interim Prime Minister Mark Carney has led Liberals to their fourth consecutive win since 2015 following an election dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of annexion.
Faced with the threat of global economic chaos brought on by Trump’s tariffs, and accelerated by the war in Ukraine, the Russian economy should be in shambles. However, as noted by Russian economist Władysław Inoziemcew, the situation is far more complicated than it may seem.
Mexico failed to use the legal stability provided by the NAFTA treaties to consolidate lawful governance at home. Now, as U.S. President Trump shakes up all his country’s ties, millions of Mexicans are up against the consequences of their country’s endemic and unresolved problems.
In only a few days, Tuesday’s murder of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir has driven India and Pakistan to the edge of war. For obvious and not-so-obvious reasons, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
The link between political developments in the Middle East and the theological and cultural exchange between Judaism and Christianity has always remained tight. Since Oct. 7, old ghosts have appeared — and ugly insinuations against the late Pope.
The massacre in northern Kashmir has reignited calls for retribution and nationalist bravado — but behind the noise lies a deeper challenge: can India’s leaders hold the line against communal rupture and resist falling into Pakistan’s strategic trap?
It took China a full day to finally issue a polite statement on the Pope’s death. It was one more sign of the utter failure of the Vatican to normalize relations with the Chinese as Francis had hoped.
He’s France’s most powerful and most criticized business leader. Le Figaro sits down with the man who has headed the oil and gas giant for the past 10 years.
With photographs from Singapore, Turin and Tehran, among other places.
For a dual-national soccer player, choosing a national team goes beyond the sporting sphere: It involves family, identity and geopolitical issues, pitting major European nations against Maghreb countries.
Giorgia Meloni’s visit to the White House is another delicate diplomatic mission, as she tries to keep relations between Europe and Donald Trump from vanishing altogether. Ultimately though she can’t have it both ways.
Europe is holding on to qualities that are gradually disappearing elsewhere. How can these be preserved? How can we avoid a return to power struggles of imperial times, to the brutality toward which we all suddenly appear to be heading?
Two wars in two different countries, at different times, have left indelible marks and scars on Yaser Abdelgabar Carballar and his family: the Spanish Civil War on his mother’s side, and the ongoing war in Sudan on his father’s side. In this essay, Carballar reflects on the damage and uselessness of violence, and how economic and political interests destroy the lives of millions of people.
A new exhibit, “Eastern Europeans From a Polish Perspective,” in Brussels aims to shed new light on Poland, which has long been seen as an outlier to European affairs.
With photographs from Rotterdam, Milan and Moscow, among other places.
The United Arab Emirates has been funding and supplying weapons to the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accused of atrocities in Sudan. With the ICJ now hearing a case brought by the East African nation accusing the UAE of being “complicit in the genocide” during the current civil war, it’s up to the international community to put pressure on Abu Dhabi.
The United States will enter negotiations with Iran on Friday, yet Donald Trump warned that all options remain on the table to prevent Iran from acquiring the bomb.
Donald Trump has threatened to slap an additional 50% in tariffs on China if Beijing doesn’t roll back its retaliatory measures by Tuesday. But with so much at stake, it’s unlikely China will yield to the U.S. president’s ultimatum — risking a steep and dangerous escalation that can bring the global economy down with it.
The edict was both covert and surprising: On Jan. 3 1941, Nazi official Martin Bormann announced that Hitler no longer wanted to see Gothic typefaces, a.k.a. Fraktur typefaces, used in print. But the stated reason for this decision was pure invention.
Journalists Daham Al-Assad and Guillaume Perrier visited French jihadist Omar Diaby, also known as “Omsen,” in Harem, Syria, where he resides with a small community of foreign-born jihadists (muhajireen), and condemns the action of Syria’s current leader who broke with his radical roots.
The Israeli account of the deaths of 15 Palestinian aid workers is contradicted by a video. But that won’t change anything in this war that follows no rules. In this context, Emmanuel Macron is in Egypt, but this rare diplomatic initiative is unlikely to carry much weight for now.
After decades of admiration, trust, and borrowed identity, Germans are waking up from their long love affair with the United States, and reckoning with what’s left.
The U.S. president has unveiled a new round of tariffs against his trading partners. But Europeans have leverage against this policy, French essayist Édouard Tétreau writes.
Donald Trump calls the white Boer minority in South Africa “disadvantaged” and offers them asylum in the U.S. But they want no part of it, as quickly becomes clear on a visit to Orania, the most controversial white settlement in the country.
Elon Musk, an unelected US official leading budget cuts, claims funding to contain Uganda’s Ebola outbreak “accidentally” ended temporarily. Ugandan officials say the US still offers support, but health workers argue that US help is gone.
Trump’s tariffs are putting China’s shaky growth at serious risk. The standoff threatens to escalate across the globe, and the worst-case scenario would find the world’s two superpowers turning to other means.
With photographs from Washington, Port-au-Prince, Gaza and Agra, among other places.
France is just the latest in what appears lately to be a non-stop showdown on this fundamental tension of any democratic society: On the one hand, an independent judiciary that treats even the most popular political leaders like every other citizen; on the other, the risk of judicial system usurping the will of voters to choose the leaders they want.
More good news this week from Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has avoided new tariffs from the U.S. What’s the secret to her success? It has to do with her pragmatic interpretation of from the same socialist National Regeneration Movement as her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
A decade ago, Saudi Arabia plunged directly into the Yemeni quagmire, launching a military intervention alongside several coalition countries. Everyone expected the battle to be settled in weeks. But it soon became clear, this flash intervention would turn into an endless war, making Yemen a testing ground for broader regional policies and interests.
China has conducted military exercises around Taiwan, simulating a blockade of the island that Beijing seeks to take over — a test of the Trump administration’s resolve to defend the self-governing territory. So far, the U.S. president has kept his cards close to the chest in East Asia.