Putin's 'Rabble of Thin-Necked Henchmen'
Anna Nemtsova
Not even the most passionate supporters of Vladimir Putin are pretending that the results of this weekend's election are in doubt: Putin, Russia's longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin, is about to embark on his sixth term. And so, with no electoral politics to debate, both pro-Putin and liberal Kremlinologists in the Russian-language mediasphere have been focusing instead on changes at the very top of Russia's power pyramid: the new elite that is coming to replace the old Putin cronies, the...
The Earthquake That Could Shatter Netanyahu's Coalition
Yair Rosenberg
The most controversial Israeli comedy sketch of the current war is just 88 seconds long. Aired in February on Eretz Nehederet, Israel's equivalent of Saturday Night Live, it opens with two ashen-faced officers knocking on the door of a nondescript apartment, ready to deliver devastating news to the inhabitants. The officers are greeted by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who is similarly stricken when he sees them."I've been terrified of this knock," he says. "Ever since the war began, I knew it woul...
Photos of the Week: Bridal Carry, Ostrich Hug, Godzilla Oscar
Alan Taylor
Marvin Recinos / AFP / Getty
X-ray analysis of an 18th-century violin in France, scenes from the Academy Awards in Hollywood, a march for International Women's Day in Mexico, the launch of a SpaceX rocket in Texas, white-water canoeing in New Zealand, Ramadan prayers in Indonesia, the Crufts dog show in England, and much...
Winners of the British Wildlife Photography Awards 2024
Alan Taylor
(c) Max Wood / British Wildlife Photography Awards
Organizers of the 2024 British Wildlife Photography Awards just announced their collection of winners and runners-up. More than 14,000 images were submitted in 11 different categories, celebrating the wildlife and wild spaces found across the United Kingdom. Competition or...
What's Happening in Russia Is Not an Election
Brian Klaas
If you read global news, you'll be told that Russia is holding an election this weekend. That's not true. Millions of Russians will be voting, but not in an election: Call it an "election-style event."Terminology matters. Many people wrongly see elections as synonymous with democracy because the same word is used to refer to wildly different events. A genuine election, when it takes place, is one of the fundamental pillars that uphold democracy. But a rigged contest marks the death of democracy a...
Gaza on the Brink of Famine
Alan Taylor
Mohammed Salem / Reuters
The United Nations is warning that famine in Gaza is "almost inevitable." Palestinians living in Gaza are struggling with extreme shortages of food, clean water, and medicine. Several countries, including Jordan, France, Egypt, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates, and now Germany, are coordinating...
Winners of the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards Open Competition
Alan Taylor
(c) Ian Ford, 2024 Sony World Photography Awards
The top entries in the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards Open Competition have been announced, and competition organizers were once more kind enough to share some of the winning and shortlisted photos from their 10 categories: Architecture, Creative, Landscape, Lifestyle, M...