Subterms
A sudden controversy has exploded in the Netherlands. In March, the Dutch department store HEMA began selling a traditional Dutch pastry under the name chocoladebal (chocolate ball) instead of moorkop (referring to the head of a dark-skinned person). HEMA followed in the footsteps of a small baker who believed the racist connotation left the chocolate-glazed […] More
With the COVID-19 outbreak unfolding worldwide, with around 35,000 cases confirmed outside China to date, it is possible to attempt a preliminary analysis of the politics of coronavirus and the efficiency of policies adopted by national governments and international bodies. Unfortunately, the measures seen so far have not always displayed the degree of leadership, responsiveness […] More
Boris Johnson, the British prime minister who fancies himself a reincarnation of Winston Churchill, who talks of wars and battle plans and war rooms, and who has been pictured wearing something akin to a boiler suit, presides over studied inaction when it comes to the country’s coronavirus outbreak. Johnson and his chief medical officer, a […] More
“The trenchocracy is the aristocracy of the trenches,” declared Benito Mussolini on the pages of Il Popolo d’Italia in December 1917. Reflecting on the new type of man emerging from the war, he went on: “What an immense moral force is contained in the patriotic spirit of those who come back from the front … […] More
On February 28, Turkey opened its borders with the European Union in the wake of the death of 34 Turkish soldiers in Syria. In response, Greece and Bulgaria stepped their border protections, insisting that they would not admit any Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war. In the meantime, the EU called on Ankara to uphold […] More
Marshall Billingslea oversaw Guantánamo detainees’ treatment Trump wants to negotiate new deal with Russia and China The Trump administration has chosen a special envoy for nuclear talks, with the principal task of negotiating a new arms control agreement with Russia and China, according to congressional sources and former officials. Related: US nuclear weapons: first low-yield […] More
This week, the delegations of the European Union and the United Kingdom started the institutional meetings concerning the Brexit deal negotiations. The transition period during which the two sides may possibly find an agreement on a variety of issues — almost everything from trade to migration — and avoid a no-deal Brexit is set to the […] More
The bubonic plague pandemic — the Black Death — was arguably the greatest catastrophe to hit Western Europe in the Middle Ages, killing tens of millions of people or around a third of the continent’s population. The disease originated in the vast plains of central and eastern Asia, from where it was carried to the […] More
