In a recent press briefing, US President Donald Trump was asked why he hadn’t ordered the federal government to do more to respond to the pleas of state governors for more help in fighting the coronavirus pandemic now ravaging some of their states and exhausting their limited resources. His reply was stunning. The federal government, he said, […] More
Transnational exchanges and movements distinctive of the modern international community slowly came to a halt due to the unprecedented rate of transmission of COVID-19. Many sovereign states closed their borders to all sorts of non-essential travel. These unprecedented actions revived questions over the viability of open border policies, especially in the context that the tightening […] More
The arrival of Podemos and VOX on the Spanish political scene not only meant that voters had new electoral options. It also led to a new, groundbreaking style that was a change from the stereotypical, uncreative and overused rhetoric displayed by other parties for years. With Podemos, a left-wing party, Spaniards have become accustomed to […] More
Since December 2019, India has witnessed a series of protests against the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the government’s decision to create a National Register of Citizens (NRC). The CAA proposes to give fast-track citizenship to religious minorities of three neighboring countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. However, it blatantly excludes Muslims while failing to […] More
The countries in Central America’s Northern Triangle — Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — do not have the public health infrastructure necessary to overcome the challenges of a pandemic. That is why these countries, which are used to seeing significant migratory transit, quickly shut their borders as the COVID-19 contagion gained steam in Latin America. […] More
Like many of the leaders of developed nations, Boris Johnson has been struggling to assert his leadership role in the thankless combat against the current scourge of humanity: a particularly aggressive infectious disease that has now landed even the prime minister himself in hospital. Boris has welcomed on the scene a knight of the realm, […] More
Among the various thinkers, pundits, armchair philosophers and public commentators on what the world and our civilization will look life when our quarantined domestic life and social distancing are no longer required by law, the financial press and some of the popular media routinely turn for guidance to Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the […] More
As I reread Anne Frank’s diary — living just a 10-minute walk from her hiding place in Amsterdam and having first read it in an American middle school, only imagining Europe — I immediately recognize many things that were not familiar the first time around. In recounting her life before going into hiding, she describes her […] More
