Two years on, (some) Yellow Jacket supporters no longer hate Macron
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — Two years ago, in November 2018, the anti-establishment...
View ArticleCoronavirus pushes Bulgaria’s Roma further into the shadows
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Krasimira Alexandrova was struggling to make ends meet for her family, who live in Fakulteta, a Roma neighborhood on the outskirts of Sofia, well before the pandemic hit. Her...
View ArticleItaly’s doctors face new threat: Conspiracy theories
MILAN — From “heroes” to “terrorists.” In Italy, the doctors and nurses lauded for their exhausting, dangerous work in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic are facing a new challenge: conspiracy...
View ArticleWhat Macron forgot about ‘Islamist separatism’
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. Emmanuel Macron got it right the first time. In a speech last month, the French...
View ArticleWhat Macron could learn from Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — The death of Jacques Chirac was the occasion for a great...
View ArticleLessons from Giscard d’Estaing for the EU’s future
Tim King writes POLITICO‘s Brussels Sketch. Even in death, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing can still exert influence over the European Union. The former French president has died at just the moment when...
View ArticleItaly worries about high death toll among coronavirus patients
MILAN — As Italians gear up for a COVID-era Christmas, a nagging worry is clouding celebrations: Why, despite the lockdowns and personal sacrifices made, is COVID-19 more lethal in Italy than...
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4 women protest leaders who shaped 2020
A global pandemic would have been disruptive enough. But 2020 was not just the year the world ground to a halt and went to battle against the coronavirus. It was also a year of mass protests and major...
View ArticleNever mind Brexit. Britain and France are condemned to work together.
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — It didn’t have to be this way. Just before the Treaty of Rome...
View ArticleFrance on the verge of a nervous breakdown
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. PARIS — In two decades covering France, I’ve never witnessed such political...
View ArticleDoubts rise over Australia’s offshore handling of refugees
Keely Sullivan is a freelance journalist. European conservatives’ go-to model for ending illegal immigration doesn’t look so solid anymore. For the first time in decades, a court in Australia has...
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Water wars in east Ukraine
AVDIIVKA, Ukraine — After seven years of war, life in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region has been divided in every way — socially, politically, economically, militarily. The one exception to the rule:...
View ArticleCentral Europe’s future is in its cities
Luka Ivan Jukić is a freelance journalist based in Croatia. ZAGREB — A land of receding democracy, reactionary populism and popular strongman rule — recent national election results have done little...
View ArticleThe dark, dangerous side of Dutch tolerance
Ben Coates is the author of the books “Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2015) and “The Rhine: Following Europe’s Greatest...
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Adrift in uncertain waters: Migrant pushbacks in the Aegean
THE AEGEAN SEA, on board a Turkish Coast Guard Command patrol boat — It’s impossible to distinguish the water from the sky in the black depth of night. With a storm approaching, two little black boats...
View Article‘Locked up like animals’— immigrant detention centers in the time of the...
The reporting for this article was carried out by Monty Aal, Mohammad Abu Hawash, Kanan Azimov, Sophia Fehrenbach, Grace Linczer, Nina Melkonyan, Oisín Nolan, Laura Palencikova and Vanda Pozner,...
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How to fall in love with Belgium — a convert’s guide
After 28 years I think I’ve finally fallen in love with Belgium. These are not easy words to write because Belgium is not an easy country to love. It doesn’t have majestic mountains, stunning...
View ArticleA dance with death to escape Afghanistan
Fariba Nawa is an Afghan-American journalist based in Istanbul and host of the On Spec podcast. She’s also the author of “Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman’s Journey through...
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In pictures: All the trappings of an Election Day, even without a clear winner
Germans took to the polls en masse on Sunday, charged with, among other things, finding a new chancellor. But as the clock ticked over from Sunday night into the wee hours of Monday morning, this much...
View ArticleHave we reached peak stupidity?
Otto English is the pen name used by Andrew Scott, a writer and playwright based in London. Stupidity is obviously not new. History is chock-full of idiotic people doing ridiculous things. I’m...
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