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The Arab Spring is far from over
My friend Ahmed Maher was released from prison on January 5. Ahmed was the leader of the April 6 Youth Movement that organized the Egyptian revolution against the then President Hosni Mubarak, six...
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America, you look like an Arab country right now
Dear America, We have been watching the drama of your presidential elections with much interest and curiosity for some time now. Itâs hard not to notice the many similarities between our own...
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Marine Le Pen’s surprise supporters
AUBERVILLIERS, France â A man clutches a bag filled with cigarettes, hawking his illicit merchandise outside a kebab shop on a nondescript street in the center of Aubervilliers, a town on the...
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Britain as a tax haven? It already is
LONDON â As Britain readies itself to trigger Article 50, it appears to have given up on seeking EU allies for the negotiations to come, threatening instead to turn itself into a full-blown tax...
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Sigmar Gabriel exits stage left
BERLIN â They called him âSiggi Pop.â When Sigmar Gabriel lost his bid for reelection as prime minister of Lower Saxony in 2003, his Social Democratic Party gave him a consolation prize....
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The Roma people’s Hungarian hell
âIt was like hell. Bottles and stones were falling on us like a hailstorm,â Alfréd Király recalls. âAll the children were terrified. We asked the police to protect us but they wouldnât.â...
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Martin Schulz, the outsider insider
BERLIN â Social Democrat leader Sigmar Gabriel’s decision to bow out of the race for the chancellorship in favor of Martin Schulz is the perfect antidote to German votersâ frustrations. It will...
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In the Baltics, waiting for history to start up again
VILNIUS, Lithuania â A large plaque located in a central square in Lithuaniaâs capital city enshrines a phrase uttered by U.S. President George W. Bush during a visit in 2002: âAnyone who would...
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Theresa May’s rhetorical punch
LONDON â As someone who spends days churning out words for columns and foreign dispatches, I like to liven up copy with a few flamboyant flourishes, splashes of color and perhaps a little...
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Why Catalonia’s call for independence is unfounded
BARCELONA â Last week, the president of Catalonia delivered an apocalyptic speech in Brussels. Carles Puigdemont defended Catalonia’s right to self-determination on the basis that Catalans have...
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As US turns its back on refugees, Europe should step up
The U.S. government’s decision to suspend the United Statesâ refugee resettlement programme for 120 days and to ban indefinitely the arrival of Syrian refugees is an abandonment of Americaâs role...
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Hungary is not ‘hell’ for Roma
In its recent opinion piece, âThe Roma peopleâs Hungarian hellâ (January 25 2017), Amnesty International misled readers and exploited Hungaryâs most vulnerable ethnic group to advance its own...
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Poland’s refugee challenge: Play ball or sit on the sidelines
WARSAW â If Poland wants to play a major role on the European stage, it will have to make a U-turn on its approach to migration policy. Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski...
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Make North America great again
Dear President Trump, Mexico and the United States share more than a border or a geographic location in the North American continent. We have shared many challenges, and both nations have taken a walk...
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Europe, this time we’re counting on you to save us
Dear Europe, Youâve heard us tell our lame joke over and over: If it werenât for us, youâd all be speaking German now. When tyranny and despotism marched over democracy in World War II, we swept...
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Ukraine, first casualty of Trump-Putin alliance
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine â On the day that U.S. President Donald Trump got on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, heavy blasts could be heard in the rebel-held city of Donetsk. I had...
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How Commonwealth business can save the UK economy
LONDON â If U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is to make the country a leader in global trade, she will have to avoid bowing to the worst of British prejudice. Specifically, her stance on immigration...
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Meeting Trump on common ground
PRAGUE â Since his election in November, U.S. President Donald Trump has cast doubt on his commitment to NATO and downplayed the importance of a united Europe. These remarks have caused anxiety in...
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Meet Denmark’s new anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-tax party
COPENHAGEN â For more than two decades, the Danish Peopleâs Party ran on an unapologetically anti-immigration, populist platform, pushing Danish politics to the right by rejecting multiculturalism...
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How Trump will save Europe
In his first weeks in office, U.S. President Donald Trump has demonstrated that the threat he presents to European interests has not been overstated. There is good news, however. His antipathy toward...
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