The arrest of Aydin Engin, Turkish journalist, playwright, writer, politician, in the raid of 12 leading staff of Cumhuriyet. November 1, 2016.“Is Brussels asleep, or just ignorant?, asked the former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt in an op-ed in Politico, lambasting European leaders’ “tepid response” to the failed July 15 coup…

Every season, critics slap the well-worn “No Fun League” moniker on the NFL for their suppression of on-field celebrations. In an effort to prove there’s still some fun left in football, the NFL loosened post-touchdown celebration rules for the upcoming season, allowing players to be a bit more emotive after a big play.  Nonetheless, declaring a…

This interview is part of a series done in Johannesburg at the World Summit of Community Philanthropy (1-2 December 2016). Francesc Badia: Thank you for having Open Democracy here in Johannesburg, on the occasion of the Global Summit on Community Philanthropy. ‘Shifting the power’ is the driving idea of the conference. The world is upside…

Red Crescent workers inspect a body washed ashore east of Tripoli,Libya, October,2015. IOM said more than 2,600 migrants had died on central Mediterranean route by then that year.Mohamed Ben Khalifa /Press Association. All rights reserved.Recent survey findings from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reinforce what numerous studies and media reports suggested over the past…

Masrour Barzani, son of Kurdish President Masoud Barzani,repeats call for referendum on seeking Kurdish indpendence from Iraq, February 2016. Alice Martins / Press Association. All rights reserved.KRG’s President Barzani has recently intensified his efforts for independence. There might be many reasons for this. First and foremost, the state of Iraq is often regarded uncontroversially as…

There has been no shortage of breaking news today as former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the U.S. Senate. On Wednesday, The Senate shared Comey’s seven pages of prepared remarks and the collective response was largely a giant shrug. Sure, Trump sounded like the bullying narcissist we’ve come to expect, but none of his…

Amr Nabil/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.In many parts of the Arab world, especially amongst the urban middle class, moderate Islamists have fallen out of favor. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt witnessed a spectacular fall from grace; moving from the presidency to prison cells. In Tunisia, El-Nahda was able to avoid a similar fate, prompted…

The promise of free college education helped propel Bernie Sanders’ 2016 bid for the Democratic nomination to national prominence. It reverberated during the confirmation hearings for Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education and Sanders continues to push the issue. The average graduate in 2016 left college with more than $37,000 in student loan debt. In…

Accompanied by leave campaigner Chris Grayling (background). Home Secretary Theresa May launches her Conservative leadership campaign. Stefan Rousseau / Press Association. All rights reserved.Theresa May says today in her statement announcing a leadership bid that there should be no triggering of the article 50 process until a negotiating strategy has been resolved. That must be…

This year, 39,506 applicants vied to be one the 2,056 students in Harvard’s class of 2021. With a 5.2 percent acceptance rate, the competition was certainly fierce. Those who made the cut would’ve needed to rack up a number of academic and extracurricular achievements, and likely even followed the now-ubiquitous advice to clean up their social media presence, lest a college admissions…