Dispatch
The view from the ground.
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People pass a poster depicting French presidential election candidate for the far-right Front National (FN) Marine Le Pen with the face of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017. Locked Down at Home, Much of France Is Quietly Rooting for Biden
Trump’s insults and ideological closeness to Marine Le Pen have left a bitter taste.
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People wave Bulgarian flags during an anti-government protest near the parliament building in Sofia on Oct. 16. If Trump Wins, America Could Look a Lot Like Bulgaria
Corruption, oligarchs, and media concentration have weakened Bulgarian democracy.
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A demonstrator holds a placard to protest against abuses by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) at the Lekki toll Plaza in Lagos, Nigeria on Oct. 12. Is This Nigeria’s Arab Spring Moment?
The protests that began as a movement against police brutality have much bigger goals—including regime change.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar Changing Tides in Divided Cyprus
The victory of an Erdogan ally in Northern Cyprus spells danger for the island’s reunification prospects—and sets Turkey up for regional hegemony.
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An aerial view shows graves in the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, on July 20. Brazil’s First Wave Isn’t Over Yet
Coronavirus cases are spiking again in the country’s north, threatening to increase strain on public hospitals. This time, local governments face even more political pressure to lift restrictions.
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A protester poses with a banner reading “End SARS” at the Lekki Toll Plaza in Lagos, Nigeria, on Oct. 18. Nigeria’s Next-Generation Protest Movement
Demonstrations against police brutality—organized on social media and powered by artists and musicians—have shown Nigeria’s youth that they have the power to change society.
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A fisherman mends his nets on a fishing boat in Trapani harbor in Sicily on Sept. 7, 2017. The Mediterranean Red Prawn War Signals Italy’s Lost Leverage in Libya
Italian fishermen are being kidnapped off the coast of Libya—and Rome is too caught up in EU migration politics to help.
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A Turkana woman carries firewood near Lokitaung in northern Kenya, where a drought ravaged the livestock population, on March 21, 2017. In Northern Kenya, the Climate Crisis Shifts Gender Roles
Drought has disrupted the traditional way of life for pastoralists, pushing many women into business for the first time.
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People with Chilean flags take part in a rally ahead of Sunday's referendum, in Santiago, on Oct. 22. Chileans will be asked two questions: if they want a new constitution and who should draft it. A Year After Protests Began, Chile’s Constitutional Referendum Goes Ahead
On Sunday, after months of protests, voters can choose to keep or begin a process of replacing the current constitution.
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Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (left) sits with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu How a Biden Presidency Could Hurt Netanyahu—and Help Him
Sudan’s decision to forge ties with Israel is one more gift from the Trump administration.
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A coal trader lifts bags at a coal distribution workshop in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, on Sept. 26. The Taliban’s Highway Robbery
After the peace deal with the United States, the militant group has doubled down on collecting “taxes” from Afghanistan’s coal miners.
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Internally displaced people with their belongings flee from Nadali district to Lashkar Gah during the ongoing clashes between Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces in Helmand province on October 14, 2020. The U.S. Once Surged into Helmand Province. Now the Taliban Is, Too.
As Afghanistan peace talks drag on, with Washington sending mixed signals on troop withdrawals, the Taliban make a violent bid for a key province.
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Then-Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 31, 2018. The Canadian Women Who Changed Trump’s Mind on Tariffs
Chrystia Freeland, Mary Ng, and Kirsten Hillman got the White House to do something rare: back down.
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A protester gives the three-finger salute at a rally outside Nonthaburi police station in Bangkok on Oct. 19. Thai Protesters Claim a Temporary Victory
Both the government and demonstrators are borrowing tactics from Hong Kong.
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Christina Kampmann, then-family minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, speaks with two children from Syria in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on Oct. 26, 2015. Inside Germany’s Successful and Broken Integration Experiment
Five years after the arrival of more than a million refugees, one city in western Germany is emblematic of all that’s gone right—and wrong.