At 1,000 rooms and a $350 million pricetag, the vast new palace the Turkish president has had built for himself is both illegal and a bold expression of his own power and that of the “new Turkey.”
Category: Geopolitics
MECCA – Muslims from around the world are heading towards this Saudi Arabian city for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the fifth pillar of Islam, which began this week. The five-day journey is the opportunity of a lifetime for many, and a most sacred moment of faith. Our digitally connected world also means it’s a moment […]
The October 2013 shipwreck that killed 366 off the Italian coast moved the world to the plight of Africa’s desperate migrants. A survivor from Eritrea tries to start a new life in Sweden.
Unlike al-Qaeda, which was always meant to operate on a global level, ISIS has been much more linked to its territory in Syria and Iraq. But that’s now starting to change.
While newspapers have been heavily censored, real discussion is taking place on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, and other online forums. But even there, someone is keeping watch.
Turkey’s fraught relationship with Europe and the U.S. should be bolstered by its impressive response to the refugee crisis in neighboring Syria. But now will the West step up?
Omar Abdel Maqsoud and his brothers were arrested for no apparent reason five months ago. Though a court ordered their release, they’ve simply vanished. Their case is hardly unique.
The quotes making news, and the news making quotes…
Could the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong spread to the mainland? The choices taken by the Chinese Communist Party could have long-term implications.
SURAT — It’s no longer a question of time. The city of Surat, on the western coast of India, will soon face flooding that could trigger outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, and rising temperatures that could force companies to relocate their factories. Its 4.5 million residents are already preparing for the disasters triggered by […]
HONG KONG — Pro-democracy protesters took to the streets over the weekend in Hong Kong, flooding downtown around Admiralty, the government complex. Occupy Central activits rallied against the government’s plan to limit electoral changes. The city’s authorities had promised Hong Kong residents they would be allowed to choose their own leader by 2017, but the […]
It is nearly too little, nearly too late, but there is still a way for the U.S. President to be the leader the world needs in the face of ISIS extremism.
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to India this month was the perfect opportunity to watch the “dance of the dragon with the elephant.” This visit was extremely important to both nations. China, in the face of its difficult diplomatic predicament in the South China Sea and the East China Sea as well […]
With the arrest of former Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the Pope is showing that he will crack down on child sex abuse in his Church by ending any protection of criminals.
The sense of unraveling across the globe is the result of a power vacuum. After the post-Cold War end of U.S. hegemony, no one is ready to impose order. And, no, economics can’t fix it.
The author of a new book on the U.S. drone program reveals an early attempt to pilot drones out of Germany, without the German government’s knowledge.
This week’s UN General Assembly highlighted the need for cooperation in the fight against ISIS and other Islamic terror networks. And that could extend to sworn enemies.
As white supremacists proliferate in Sweden, a reformed neo-Nazi has been dissuading youths from following his own former path. Now he’s trying to stem growing Islamic radicalism.
Teams of volunteers were combing the country to try to stem the spread of the virus during a recent three-day quarantine.
As world leaders gather in New York this week for the UN’s climate summit, one expert warns not only about the dangers of delayed action, but also the costs.
-Analysis- One year since taking office, Iran President Hassan Rouhani and his government are confronted with an extremely unstable geopolitical situation across the Middle East. Tehran had long been seen as the main beneficiary of the 2003 U.S. intervention in Iraq, but it must now face unexpected difficulties in its neighboring country and former sworn […]
SÃO PAULO — When it comes to freshwater, Brazil, home to somewhere between 12% and 16% of the world’s total supply, is a very wealthy country. Inhabitants only use 0.7% of the 43,000 cubic meters of water per year that could, theoretically, be available to each and every one of them. In this regard, Brazil […]
In Tartus, on Syria’s western coast, residents in relative calm. But even here, a new sectarian melting pot and a flagging war economy are beginning to take their toll.
Categories
Scottish Lessons For The Falklands
The dispute over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is unique. But Argentinians can still draw lessons from the way Britain averted the prospect of Scottish independence.
Scottish voters have handily rejected the independence referendum. Still, Scotland is destined to gain more autonomy and drift ever farther away from London, with consequences across the UK.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new biometric system aims to prevent locals from pilfering supplies meant for victims of civil conflict. The aid often ends up at local markets.
The driving force of multiple and competing jihadist groups here is the dream of returning to the three original Arab states, and overthrowing the King and his Palestinian wife.
TEL AVIV — In recent days we have been witnessing growing discontent among Hamas public employees in Gaza who have not been paid their salaries. The situation endangers the coalition government between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and it is without exaggeration to say that the non-payment by the government in Ramallah could restart the […]
After militants serve time in Guantanamo or Saudi prisons, the kingdom tries to ease them back into society with a mix of carrot, stick and religion.
CUCUTA — It’s 2 p.m., and the borderland between Colombia and Venezuela is sizzling in the afternoon heat. Sweat is the permanent companion of all those crossing the Simón Bolívar bridge linking Venezuela with the Colombian border city of Cúcuta. Mariela* has been sitting for two hours in an endless line of cars, returning from […]
As Europe continues to be divvied up into smaller, ethnically homogenous nations, the burdern falls on larger countries, compromising the leverage and a united West.
Tired of being denied basic rights, Egypt’s political prisoners are increasingly trying to break the cycle of helplessness with the one bit of control they still have over their lives.
For the Argentine daily Clarin, the proposal backed by President Kirchner to move the capital to a much smaller city is not just wrong for practical reasons, but a sign of something more sinister.
MONROVIA— “Welcome to hell.“ There is no cynicism and no irony in the voice of the young French volunteer from Médecins sans frontières (Doctors without Borders). The deep rings of fatigue under his eyes tell the same tale. This “hell” is Elwa in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Elwa is the largest treatment center ever […]
Troops fighting around the world are often chasing enemies from somewhere else. A global tour of how the shards of ‘broken nations’ are fed into the conflicts of others.
PALAWAN — Chito Villarin starts up the engine of his small fishing boat. The 36-year old makes his living by sailing into the waters of the South China Sea, off Palawan’s west coast, in the hopes of bringing back a good catch. “I catch different types of fish and octopus,” he says, adding that he travels about 20 kilometers into the water. But Filipino fishermen like Villarin aren’t the only ones casting off into these waters. Foreign poachers are frequently found off the coast of Palawan, and the authorities here are trying to stop them. “Narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, […]
Images that captured the news around the world…
Sweden has long been a haven for Christians from the Middle East. Will it show the same humanitarian spirit for Muslims fleeing Iraq? The debate heats up before national elections.
From Golda Meir to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli leaders have too often put off decisions on key questions for the country’s future. The cost of “conflict management” is no longer sustainable.