Le Monde diplomatique - English Edition

1 month ago | mondediplo.com | Gilbert Achcar

The period since 7 October 2023 marks the worst chapter yet in the Palestinian people’s long ordeal. Worse even than the Nakba – ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic – of 1948, referring to events which have subsequently been called ‘ethnic cleansing’. The current catastrophe is characterised, among other things, by genocide. Thus, a stronger Arabic term is necessary to describe the misery being visited upon Palestine: karitha.

1 month ago | mondediplo.com | Benoît Bréville

On 3 May a gleaming Tecnomar for Lamborghini sports yacht – with an official capacity of 16 passengers – sank near Miami Beach. On board at the time were 32 influencers enjoying the Florida sunshine. As the boat went down, the revellers in swimsuits and neon lifejackets kept filming themselves on their phones, grins fixed till the end. Their afternoon may have been ruined, but the footage was soon doing the rounds on social media.

1 month ago | mondediplo.com | Clara Menais

Since the 1950s, each March, the White House has been decked out in the colours of Ireland. Under Bill Clinton it even began hosting the Irish prime minister for St Patrick’s Day. But when Joe Biden, his breast pocket full of shamrocks, welcomed Leo Varadkar in 2024, the taoiseach brought up the heavy subject of the Gaza war. ‘The Irish people are deeply troubled about the catastrophe that’s unfolding before our eyes in Gaza,’ he said.

1 month ago | mondediplo.com | Eric Alterman

With Donald Trump’s second term, the United States has entered a new era of censorship; on the pretext of fighting antisemitism, federal agents can arrest even legal residents and detain them incommunicado for an article in a student newspaper.

1 month ago | mondediplo.com | Benoît Bréville

Seattle was chosen as the venue for the World Trade Organisation’s 1999 ministerial conference: modern, dynamic and open to the world, and symbolised by its huge port facing towards Asia. The city is the birthplace of Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks, but perhaps the conference organisers overlooked the fact that it also has strong trade union tradition: it was the scene of one of the largest general strikes in US history, in 1919.