Subterms
Luis Miguel Barbosa, the governor of the Mexican state of Puebla has claimed that poorer people are immune to Covid-19, while the president has told citizens to carry on as normal. Mr Barbosa made the comments in reaction to Mexican officials revealing that around 75 per ent of Mexico‘s 475 confirmed cases are related to people travelling internationally, […] More
US President Donald Trump will go down in history as the ultimate master of hyperreal politics. No matter how far he deviates from reality, the American public consistently expresses its approval. The further he wanders from rationality, even when the consequences are measurable in the number of deaths, the more he is rewarded. In the […] More
On January 28, US President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he hailed as the “deal of the century.” This is the latest attempt by the US to mediate between the Israelis and Palestinians and end the seven-decade-old dispute. The deal sparked outrage by the Palestinians but was praised by the […] More
The triumph of Nazism in the years following the election of 1933 that brought Adolf Hitler to power represents arguably the greatest human catastrophe of the 20th century — a century rich in human catastrophes. Until today, historians, social scientists and writers, from Primo Levy to Jonathan Littell, the author of “Les Bienveillantes,” and filmmakers, from […] More
The president of the European Commission has criticised EU member states for throwing up border controls to each other during the coronavirus pandemic. Ursula von der Leyen warned of “crucial equipment stuck in bottlenecks at borders for days” following the decisions to impose movement restrictions and export controls on vital medical equipment. Her call comes […] More
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, a scandal emerged at the end of last week when the media reported that four US senators may have engaged in insider trading by selling off their shares in hotel stocks after learning in confidential hearings of the likely effect that the virus would have on the stock […] More
The European Union’s passportless Schengen area is spending its 35th anniversary effectively suspended and locked down, with temporary restrictions and border controls erected between its member countries because of the coronavirus pandemic. The border-free zone, named after the eponymous Luxembourg village where the agreement was signed, first came into effect on 26 March 1995 including just five countries: […] More
A crisis, according to self-help and leadership books, reveals much about a person’s character. The same can be said of a nation’s character. Since the latest pandemic began to spread out of China in 2020, countries responded in very different ways to the challenge. There was ingenuity, inflexibility, incomprehension and sheer incompetence. Diversity can be […] More
