culture / society

A Saudi Hand Guides Quiet Rise Of Islam In Cuba

Cuba's small but growing Muslim community is getting a boost from Havana's diplomatic ope...

Inside The Minds And Maneuverings Of A Cannes Festival Jury

Shrouded in secrecy, the process for picking the winners is a mix of glamour and intrigue.

A Young Palestinian's Literary Dream: The First English Library In Gaza

GAZA CITY — Escaping the besieged Gaza Strip, often described as "the world’s largest open-air prison,” is a nearly impossible dream for many of its two million residents. But 24-year-old Mosab ...

The Pope Is Wrong, "Islamic Terrorism" Does Indeed Exist

Just as terrorism in the name of other religions has existed throughout history. We must call evi...

Sounds Of The City: Why Urban Acoustics Matter

LGBT In China, Victims Of Brutal "Conversion Therapy" Industry

From shock therapy treatment to nausea pills to fake marriages, Chinese gays, lesbian and transge...

First 'Catcalling Case' Goes To Court In Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES — Lucía Cabrera was as frightened as she was annoyed. The 25-year-old physical education student had dealt with catcalling before. But in this case, the taxi driver hollering comments ...

Israel

The Humble Power Of Interfaith Soccer In Jerusalem's Old City

JERUSALEM — In front of Zion Gate in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, just a short walk from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, lies a soccer pitch. Standing on the field, nestled beside an ...

Chile

"Grandma" Cristina, Lone Surviving Voice Of Yaghan Language

VILLA UKIKA — Just outside of Puerto Williams, the world's southernmost city, lives an extraordinary woman. This far-flung outpost on Chile's Tierra del Fuego, across the Straight of Magellan, is ...

Colombian Ad Campaign With Gay Couple Sparks Uproar

France

Macron's Hardest Job: France's Dangerous Class Divide

Nationalism was defeated in Emmanuel Macron's victory. But the debate of the individual vs. c...

Spain

That Awful Timelessness Of Picasso's Guernica

Sadly, the wall-sized master work says as much about the world's current horrors as it did ab...

China

Free Fight Or Tai Chi? Ancient Dispute Settled In 20 Seconds

A decades-old argument might just have been settled: Modern "mixed martial arts" fighter vs. Tai Chi master — who wins?" In a recently filmed fight, Xu Xiaodong, a Beijing-based mixed martial ...

Malaysia

Hijabs, From Main Street To Malaysian Shampoo

The hijab still makes Western societies squirm. Passing someone wearing the Islamic headscarf is too often seen as proof that Muslim women are “docile, oppressed, silenced,” notes Hend Amry, a ...

Chinese Movie Industry Tries To Kick "Hollywood Dependency"

Brazil

Brazil's Gay Soccer Team Making The Game Beautiful For All

SÃO PAULO — In the nearly two years since it was formed, Unicorns FC, an amateur soccer team in São Paulo made up exclusively of LGBT players, only recorded one crisis: when a player, disappointed ...

Japan

Preserving Japanese Artifacts, One 3D-Printed Replica At A Time

CHIBA — Researchers are collecting 3D data of Buddhist statues and other cultural assets at a university here on the eastern outskirts of Tokyo in order to store the stereoscopic information in ...

United Arab Emirates

A Woman's Perspective On Divorce In The Arab World

More and more people in Muslim-majority countries are opting out of their marriages. And often it...

Pakistan

A Space Of Her Own: Pakistan’s Ladies Dhaba

In Pakistan, men dominate public life. There are very few occasions women can enjoy being out by ...

Greenland, Victim Of Denmark's Linguistic Colonialism

Morocco

Iconic French Street Art "Invaders" Land In North Africa

MARRAKESH — It is a 21st-century Parisian experience par excellence: You turn a cobblestone corner or exit some quaint square and come face-to-face with a small, tiled alien critter pasted on the ...

Colombia

New FARC Soccer Club Aims To Ease Colombian Guerrillas Into Society

A Colombian NGO is hoping football could turn former communist guerrillas into peaceful citizens ...

Colombia

When A Former Hitman For Pablo Escobar Gets VIP Treatment

When El Espectador's Aldo Cívico spots a former henchman of the Medellin drug cartel i...

India

Attacks On Africans Unmask India's Ugly Race Problem

DELHI — A disturbing video has gone viral in India. It shows a mob viciously attacking a Nigerian man at a suburban Delhi mall. The attackers kick, punch and hit him with steel trash cans, chairs, ...

All Dating Is Speed Dating In The Digital Age