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For a time on Dec. 13, the four-year brutal and bloody battle for Aleppo came to a grinding halt. It looked like the violence that displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes, leaving traces of death and destruction everywhere and destroying Syria’s largest metropolis, a UNESCO heritage site, and one of the world’s oldest continuously […]

There are men and women alive today who have never felt the cold touch of the bond vigilantes. These semi-mythical figures threatened to arise during the Obama administration, but never did. They haunted the first Clinton administration to the point of paranoia. They are, simply speaking, bond investors who turn from buyers to sellers when […]

While the world seems divided about president-elect Donald Trump’s unexpected win, it agrees he’s a source of comedic inspiration. This montage of Trump satires gives a sense of why different countries find Trump funny, and how their answers might differ. Read full story

It should come as no surprise that US airports aren’t among the most loved in the world. Yet a poll of more than 36,000 travelers by J.D. Power and Associates resulted in the highest marks for North American airports—almost all of them in the US—in more than a decade. Even Newark Liberty International Airport improved, […]Read More

2016 hasn’t felt very normal. A man who boasts about sexual assault has been elected United States president. The European Union is in total disarray over how to implement Britain’s self-inflicted exile. And populist far-right movements are rising around the world. So it’s hard to keep track of what “normal” even means. The question of […]Read More

Earlier this week, Facebook said that it would be partnering with fact-checking sites like Snopes to help weed out the fake news that has been plaguing the site in recent years. But it seems that Germany is not confident that self-regulation will be enough. The chairman of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, Thomas Oppermann, has suggested […]

A new kind of winged creature is making its way to US politics: The golden cherub, which looks poised to usurp the place of the traditional bald eagle. Compared to the staid eagle, a symbol of political power in many national emblems, the cherub evokes wealth and whimsy. Originating in ancient Greco-Roman art, the baby […]

Come December, the storefronts of Paris fill up with a familiar-looking log. Thick and brown, with a sugary sheen, the bûche de Noël, or Yule log cake, is a holiday spectacle in France. Patisseries roll out their chocolate sponge cakes with a thick layer of cream in classic and inventive forms, an act of cultural […]

India has appointed new heads for its army and the air force. Lt Gen Bipin Rawat will succeed Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag as the chief of army staff, the Indian government tweeted late on the evening of Dec. 17. Singh retires at the end of this month. Meanwhile, Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa will be the […]

On Monday, Dec. 19, the members of the Electoral College, the group of voters from each state that elect the US president and vice-president, will meet in their respective state capitals to cast their votes. By the current tally, Donald Trump should beat Hillary Clinton 306 – 232 to become the 45th president of the […]

Could the news from Venezuela possibly get any worse? The economic crisis, sparked by the deadly combination of dropping oil prices and an immensely mismanaged economy, has led to food riots and starvation. Practically the entire nation is too broke to eat, and several zoo animals have starved to death. Now Reuters reports that some […]

The White House holiday card is a traditionally neutral greeting, that usually showcases the White House in winter. Think the South Lawn covered in snow, or a roaring fireplace in the East Wing residency. But this year, as a final goodbye from the Obama family, the annual holiday card took a different turn, with an […]