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Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during an event to announce his pre-candidacy for the October presidential elections with running mate Geraldo Alckmin at Expo Center Norte in São Paulo on May 7.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during an event to announce his pre-candidacy for the October presidential elections with running mate Geraldo Alckmin at Expo Center Norte in São Paulo on May 7.

Lula’s Tricky Comeback

The Brazilian leftist has crafted an unusual alliance with the center. Will it sully or save him?

Former residents evicted from a crowded Lagos shantytown stand on a flotilla of boats.
Former residents evicted from a crowded Lagos shantytown stand on a flotilla of boats.

It’s Africa’s Century—for Better or Worse

Asia gets the attention, but the real economic revolution is the inevitable growth of an overlooked continent.

Demonstrators wave Western Sahara flags during a protest against the Spanish government support for Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, in Madrid, on March 26.
Demonstrators wave Western Sahara flags during a protest against the Spanish government support for Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, in Madrid, on March 26.

Why Is Madrid Pandering to Morocco?

Spain has traded five decades of neutrality on Western Sahara while getting nothing but a spyware scandal in return.

Asia

Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces take position.
Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces take position.

The Afghan Resistance Is Still Fighting

China

U.S. President Bill Clinton (right) meets with Chinese President Jiang Zemin
U.S. President Bill Clinton (right) meets with Chinese President Jiang Zemin

Engagement With China Was Always a Long Shot

Middle East & Africa

A person with curly hair stands with their back turned toward the camera, draped in a red and white flag with a green tree in the middle. They're standing in the middle of a road and tan buildings are in the background.
A person with curly hair stands with their back turned toward the camera, draped in a red and white flag with a green tree in the middle. They're standing in the middle of a road and tan buildings are in the background.

Can Lebanon’s Elections Pull the Country Out of an Abyss?

Europe

A fire rages at the Central Research Institute of the Aerospace Defense Forces in Tver, Russia
A fire rages at the Central Research Institute of the Aerospace Defense Forces in Tver, Russia

Could Sabotage Stop Putin From Using the Nuclear Option?

china-us-foreign-policy-eleanor-shakespeare-illustration-hP
china-us-foreign-policy-eleanor-shakespeare-illustration-hP

What Exactly Is America’s China Policy?

The United States needs to right-size the China threat to know how to counter it.

how-beijing-sees-biden-nicolas-ortega-illustration-hp
how-beijing-sees-biden-nicolas-ortega-illustration-hp

How Beijing Sees Biden

For decades, Chinese leaders thought they knew the man who would become America’s 46th president. But he was changing all along.

Ukraine Crisis: What to Read

Illustration United States Ukraine
Illustration United States Ukraine
A black and white image shows men and women seated around a U-shaped conference table.
A black and white image shows men and women seated around a U-shaped conference table.

Why the World Isn’t Really United Against Russia

Global institutions have long relegated much of the world to second-class status.

Putin and Guterres sit facing each other across an exceptionally long table.
Putin and Guterres sit facing each other across an exceptionally long table.

The West vs. the Rest

Welcome to the 21st-century Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin

The Intellectual Catastrophe of Vladimir Putin

The meaning of Russia’s war in Ukraine is its own national weakness.

Long Reads

A bulldozer demolishes an illegal structure during a joint anti-encroachment drive conducted by North Delhi Municipal Corporation
A bulldozer demolishes an illegal structure during a joint anti-encroachment drive conducted by North Delhi Municipal Corporation

The World Ignored Russia’s Delusions. It Shouldn’t Make the Same Mistake With India.

Hindu nationalist ideologues in New Delhi are flirting with a dangerous revisionist history of South Asia.

A tunnel under London is built to accommodate those sheltering from air raids.
A tunnel under London is built to accommodate those sheltering from air raids.

What Happened to Europe’s Public Bunkers?

As bombs fall on Ukraine, many European governments are waking up to the sorry state of their own civil defenses.

The sun sets behind London.
The sun sets behind London.

How to Get Recent History All Wrong 

A new book identifies—and misunderstands—the structural forces behind today’s geopolitical chaos.

Ukrainian refugees at a relative's house in Moldova.
Ukrainian refugees at a relative's house in Moldova.

Moldova Welcomes Ukrainian Refugees but Fears for Its Own Future

The country has offered solidarity to neighbors fleeing Russia’s war. Will it get more support from the EU?

Abortion Restrictions Around the World

Students from the University of Texas hold signs during a rally in favor of abortion rights November 24,2003 in Austin, Texas.
Students from the University of Texas hold signs during a rally in favor of abortion rights November 24,2003 in Austin, Texas.

What Happens When Women Can’t Get Legal Abortions

Examples from around the world show that restrictions can actually lead to more, not fewer, abortions.

An anti-abortion poster showing a painting of the Virgin Mary on the Manila building of the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic organisation, on May 19, 2014.
An anti-abortion poster showing a painting of the Virgin Mary on the Manila building of the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic organisation, on May 19, 2014.

Manila’s Abortion Ban Is Killing Women

Roughly 1,000 women in the Philippines die every year from lack of safe terminations. Others go to jail.

People gather outside the National Maternity Hospital in El Salvador on May 30, 2013. (Jose Cabezas/AFP/Getty Images)
People gather outside the National Maternity Hospital in El Salvador on May 30, 2013. (Jose Cabezas/AFP/Getty Images)

On the Front Lines of El Salvador’s Underground Abortion Economy

Amid an indifferent state and an activist Church, a defiant network of health workers struggle to offer a reprieve from the world’s most restrictive abortion laws.

A woman holds a banner and shouts slogans during a march on International Women’s Day in Krakow, Poland.
A woman holds a banner and shouts slogans during a march on International Women’s Day in Krakow, Poland.

Poland’s Abortion Ban Protests Changed the Country Forever

Restrictions are still in place, but the Catholic consensus that dominated Polish politics is over.

visual stories

Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg and Polish President Andrzej Duda hold hands as they walk in front of the “Death Wall” during the annual International March of the Living through the grounds of the former Auschwitz death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, on April 28. Kacper Pempel/Reuters
Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg and Polish President Andrzej Duda hold hands as they walk in front of the “Death Wall” during the annual International March of the Living through the grounds of the former Auschwitz death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, on April 28. Kacper Pempel/Reuters

The Month in World Photos

Shocking civilian casualties in Ukraine, a Holocaust survivor’s march in Poland, and a swan’s unusual nest in Serbia. This was April 2022.

Kharkiv residents sleep on the ground in the Kharkiv metro station on March 10.
Kharkiv residents sleep on the ground in the Kharkiv metro station on March 10.

Life Underground in Bomb-Shattered Kharkiv

Two weeks into the war, residents of Ukraine’s second-largest city are still surviving in squalid shelters.

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