Demotix/Thorsten Strasas. All rights reserved.Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Turkey-Syria border on 24 November heralded talk in some circles of a new Cold War. Others mulled over the reawakening of the centuries-long jostling for supremacy between Russia and Turkey, former imperial powers in Eurasia. A renewed Cold War may not have been kick-started but a…
Debating The Virtues (Or Failings) Of German Style Beer
Beer is, without question, the most popular alcoholic drink in the world. Lager is, likewise, the most popular style of beer. But are popular things always good? Obviously not; or else Ed Sheeran would be “the best” in British music. Then again, some popular things are good: Get Out is the number one movie at the box…
Yemen is not Paris: western media’s cold shoulder
Demonstrating for the release of detainees in Yemen's youth revolution, 2013. Demotix/Luke Somers. All rights reserved. Yemen has never been a staple of the western media. It did pop up on the news when in a leadership shift à la Arab Spring, Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in February 2012 as president after thirty-three years…
Refugee and migrant arrivals in the EU in 2016: who are we talking about?
Greek coast guard officer tries to calm Syrians who are part of the the largest refugee flow the continent has seen since World War II.Thanassis Stavrakis / Press Association. All rights reserved. The refugee and migrant crisis is a highly sensitive political topic in the European Union. Commentators use different terminologies. Many European media outlets,…
While You Were Looking At Bombs, Trump Quietly Changed Obamacare
Over the last few weeks, the United States has fired more than 50 Tomahawk missiles into Syria in an attempt to send a message to its president, Bashar al-Assad, dropped the “mother of all bombs” on Afghanistan to smoke out an ISIS stronghold, and is now threatening a preemptive strike against North Korea if the small,…
Film review: a Syrian love story
The film opens with shots that could be of a holiday, in a Syria long destroyed. The filmmaker, Sean McAllister (The Liberace of Baghdad, The Reluctant Revolutionary), is in Syria in 2009, visiting as part of a state initiative to drum up tourism. But he is looking for “gritty” stories, the real struggles of real…
The Rate Of Child Marriages In America Is Alarming
Child marriage, most Westerners would assume, happens only in far-flung countries where women’s rights—let alone rights for children—are a foreign concept. Most Americans would be shocked to learn that legal marriages between adolescent girls as young as 12 and adult men happen on our own democratic turf—and they’re happening right now. It’s true that most…
Tunisia: the irresistible flow
Celebrating Revolution Day in Tunisia. Demotix/ Chedly Ben Ibrahim. All rights reserved.“Out of the revolution and counter-revolution…was born the dialectical movement and counter-movement of history which bears men on its irresistible flow, like a powerful undercurrent, to which they must surrender the very moment they attempt to establish freedom on earth.” Hannah Arendt, On Revolution…
5 Extraordinary Grammy Moments People Are Still Talking About
Sunday night’s celebration of the 59th Grammy Awards was filled with jaw-dropping moments. From solidarity with Senator Elizabeth Warren to a straight-up protest of President Donald Trump by A Tribe Called Quest, the myriad emotions spilled by our stars had people talking well after the performances were over. Sure, the Grammys didn’t shirk the political…
On centrism and independence in Spain
Colmenas» de la M-30 (Madrid, 1953). Flickr/Alvaro Ibáñez. Some rights reserved. After the regional elections I’m done with extremes. Extremes never reflect the complexity of reality. Reality is much more radical than the purity of ideals. Reality is always a mix. Even so, electoral politics – like sport – is still a space for the…