Sikkim, nestled in the Himalayas and surrounded on three sides by Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, stands out in the teeming diversity of India’s states. It has the country’s tallest peak. It is the world’s largest producer of smoky black cardamom. It also has India’s smallest population, not even three-quarters of a million people, and its […]
Month: May 2023
Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey Is Re-elected
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan beat back the greatest political challenge of his career on Sunday, securing victory in a presidential runoff that granted five more years to a mercurial leader who has vexed his Western allies while tightening his grip on the Turkish state. His victory means Mr. Erdogan could remain in power for at […]
Turkey’s Erdogan Wins Re-Election After Presidential Runoff: Live Results
In December 2002 at the White House, President George W. Bush greeted an up-and-coming politician from Turkey whose newly formed party had just won a surprising majority in Parliament. “Welcome to the home of one of your country’s best friends and allies,” Mr. Bush told the politician, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “You are a strategic ally […]
Modi Opens India’s New Parliament Building as Opposition Stays Away
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated a sleek new Parliament complex, part of a more than $2 billion project to revamp India’s decrepit colonial-era center of government in New Delhi. But the inauguration ceremony, which reflected Mr. Modi’s usual penchant for Hindu religious and nationalist symbolism, was boycotted by his political opposition. And outside […]
A Wagner Fighter’s Escape to Norway Creates a Problem for His Host
Sipping a $12 beer in one of the world’s wealthiest capitals, Andrei Medvedev reflected on the question hanging over him since he left the battlefields of Ukraine: Is he a hero or a war criminal? He claims to have deserted from Russia’s notorious Wagner mercenary force during the monumental battle for the Ukrainian city of […]
For These Veterans of U.S. Military, ‘Free’ Health Care Is a 5-Hour Flight Away
Ovenny Jermeto was on a combat tour 7,000 miles away from his island home in the Pacific when a bomb blew up his vehicle in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. He survived and completed his deployment, but later lost feeling in his right foot and struggled with anxiety and depression. He returned to the […]
Some Canadian Indigenous See Hudson’s Bay Building as Hollow Gift
Near the old perfume counters on the ground floor of the Hudson’s Bay department store in Winnipeg, Canada, a trade dripping with symbolism took place. The 39th “governor” of Hudson’s Bay — North America’s oldest company and one of Canada’s most iconic — accepted from an Indigenous leader two beaver pelts and two elk hides […]
Ukraine’s Top Commander Signals Counteroffensive Could Be Imminent
Ukraine’s top military commander signaled on Saturday morning that the nation’s forces were ready to launch their long-anticipated counteroffensive following months of preparations, including recently stepped-up attacks on logistical targets as well as feints and disinformation intended to keep Russian forces on edge. “It’s time to get back what’s ours,” Ukraine’s supreme military commander, Gen. […]
Iran Frees Belgian Aid Worker in Prisoner Swap
Iran freed a Belgian aid worker imprisoned in Tehran for 455 days on charges of spying, in exchange for Belgium releasing a former Iranian diplomat who was convicted in 2021 of a thwarted bomb plot, officials from both countries said on Friday. The aid worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, was flown late Thursday from Tehran to Muscat, […]
Russian Missile Strike Hits Ukrainian Hospital
KYIV, Ukraine — Explosions far behind the front lines shook Ukraine on Friday, as a Russian missile demolished part of a hospital complex and apparent Ukrainian strikes hit Russian-occupied cities, in their escalating, long-range aerial war. The attack on a medical center in the central city of Dnipro killed at least two people, left three […]