Arkiv-Global View

In her 1963 book The American Way of Death, Decca Mitford – always the most interesting of the Mitford sisters – wrote that the way a society marks death reflects its often confused attitudes towards mortality, and unscrupulous merchants abuse this confusion. Mitford, alas, died in 1996 so we cannot know what she would make of how the deaths of celebrities are marked in today's modern media, but it is likely that she would, at the very least, cock a withering eyebrow.

Why has America forgotten the three most important economic lessons we learned in the thirty years following World War II?

Before I answer that question, let me remind you what those lessons were:

First, America's real job creators are consumers, whose rising wages generate jobs and growth. If average people don't have decent wages there can be no real recovery and no sustained growth.

IT WAS not a typical government press conference. A journalist had asked a mayor some pointed questions about the safety of a paraxylene chemical factory planned for her city—the same type of plant that has prompted environmental protests around China. The mayor dodged the question in standard government-speak when the reporter, a portly man in a checked shirt and blue jeans, rudely interrupted her: “Please answer my question directly.” The room erupted with laughter.

I’ve written a series of columns from Israel in the past two weeks because I believe that if Secretary of State John Kerry brings his peace mission to a head and presents the parties with a clear framework for an agreement, Israel and the Jewish people will face one of the most critical choices in their history. And when they do, all hell could break loose in Israel. It is important to understand why.

Boys have been raped. Priests have lied. Bishops have been complicit in cover-ups. Evidence has been shredded, whistle-blowers undermined, silence has been bought and victims given false promises. And yet for all that, the blistering critique of the United Nations report on sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church may end up doing more harm than good.

Le posizioni formali dei due Paesi sono immutate, ma si intravedono segnali di cambiamento. Diversi gli analisti che ne parlano, come l’israeliano Ben Capit: “Si discute la necessità di una rivalutazione della minaccia iraniana, sulla base di suoni e immagini che arrivano da Teheran”maurizio molinari

La Svizzera ha detto sì a un forte giro di vite sull'immigrazione, compresa quella regolare degli italiani (fenomeno assai diffuso, sotto il nome di frontalierato, lungo tutta la fascia di confine).

Il risultato del referendum che si è svolto ieri ha sovvertito le previsioni: il 50,5 per cento dei cittadini elvetici ha risposto sì alla proposta di legge che introduce norme più severe per avere diritto a soggiornare o anche solo lavorare nel territorio della Confederazione.

Molti referendum svizzeri sono strettamente locali e, al di là delle frontiere della Confederazione, pressoché incomprensibili. Ma quello di ieri è un referendum «europeo», vale a dire destinato a provocare discussioni e ripercussioni in tutti i Paesi dell’Unione. Quando decidono, sia pure con un piccolo margine, che l’immigrazione deve essere soggetta a limiti quantitativi, gli svizzeri affrontano un problema comune ai loro vicini. Non sarebbe giusto sostenere che il loro «sì» abbia necessariamente una nota razzista e xenofoba.

It seems so long since we hung out in Tahrir Square, where my Egyptian colleagues had concocted an archaic studio out of spotlights, stools and a few cameras, overlooking history in the making. They captured the highs and lows of the revolution from the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and the election of President Mohamed Morsi, followed by their ouster by the military.

The defenestration of Woody Allen started Feb. 2 with a column in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof. He began by saying all the right things: that allegations against Allen of sexually molesting Dylan Farrow, the 7-year-old daughter of his onetime companion Mia Farrow, had never been proved and that Allen “should be presumed innocent.” Then Kristof threw Allen out the window.