How the world sees Greece
These comments come a day after Tusk defended the use of barbed wire against migrants as he said that securing Europe's outer borders was a "pre-condition" to tackling the refugee crisis. Only 603 people were relocated from Greece, which is less than one ...
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Could it be that the 'Persian Spring,' manifested by the anti-hard-line vote this week in which over 60 percent of Iran's eligible electorate went to the polls, has a better chance to succeed than the Arab Spring? Unlike the brittle autocracies in most of the Arab world that shattered when challenged, Iran has a robust civil society combined with quasi-democratic institutions put in place after the revolution in 1979 that seemingly enable the country to evolve instead of explode. And Iranians are intent on making their own changes without the outside interventions that have roiled the broader Mideast region in recent years. As Reza Marashi writes, "These elections reflect Iranian society's continued desire to bring about change through gradual evolution rather than radical upheaval. They are demanding pragmatic and democratic reform within the existing system. No one is calling for a revolution, and a diverse socioeconomic swath of Iranian society rejects foreign interference in its politics." Former Iranian National Security Council member Hossein Mousavian hopes the West now grasps that his country has the capacity and institutions to make change on its own terms. "Iranians who went to the voting booths have a palpable sense of the indifference of the West to the existence of democracy and elections in Iran," he testily writes. While no one expects changes overnight, it is clear that, as Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo notes, "the results amounted to a popular endorsement of [President Hassan] Rouhani's policy of "constructive and dignified engagement with the world." Their real impact, he adds, "will be felt in the next few years when the battle for the next supreme leader starts." Negar Mortazavi explains the unique conjunction of foreign policy shifts, political coalitions and social media that determined the outcome of the elections. Muhammad Sahimi sees an inexorable outcome down the road: "The hard-liners that have isolated Iran and repressed its people are on the wane," he writes. Trita Parsi assesses the impact of the nuclear deal between Iran and the West on the vote. "The election results are also a vindication of the Obama administration's outreach and negotiations with Iran," he says. "For decades, moderates in Iran could not demonstrate the benefits of their moderate policies because of an unwillingness in Washington to play ball and negotiate directly with Tehran." Arms control expert Joe Cirincione argues that the tough new sanctions against North Korea imposed this week by the U.N. Security Council -- with unprecedented U.S. and Chinese cooperation -- should be the prelude to negotiations like those that produced the Iran deal. We also publish this week the final installment of a graphic novel that captures what it is like to be gay in Iran. Key primary season votes took place in the U.S. on Super Tuesday, vaulting Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump into solid front-runner status for their respective parties. Dan Gillmor explores how the "all fear, all the time" media in America has helped create a welcoming climate for the bigoted, fear-mongering of Trump's campaign. Martin Eiermann situates Trump and Bernie Sanders within the long history of American populism. World Reporter Nick Robins-Early reports on the support Trump is finding among Europe's most controversial far-right leaders. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox talks Trump on HuffPost Live. Roque Planas speaks to a Mexico City legislator about a unanimous proposal he said was passed by the region's local legislature on Wednesday to ban Trump from entering Mexico. Planas also explains how El Salvador became the world's most violent country in this week's "Forgotten Fact." Writing about the recent election in Ireland, Pavlos Tsimas observes the opposite consequence of populist pandering in Europe. "Ireland repeats a pattern that appeared in the Portuguese and Spanish elections," he writes. "The governments which implemented austerity programs in exchange for the market's trust cannot also earn the electoral body's trust. The prosperous macro-numbers are slow to translate to micro-prosperity in the poorer households. And that anger is recorded by the elections." The other major event in the U.S. this week was the presentation of the Oscars at the annual Academy Awards. Writing from Singapore, Chandran Nair scores Hollywood not only for the lack of black actors on the screen, but also for ignoring global voices even as its movies capture the world market. Actress Meryl Streep celebrates the contrasting diversity of global cinema at the just-concluded Berlin Film Festival where she headed the awards jury. As if to prove the exception to the rule, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Maheen Sadiq write from Hafizabad, Pakistan about their film on honor killings, "A Girl in the River," which was awarded the Oscar for best documentary short and which has stirred widespread public debate in Pakistan. Writing from New Delhi, Dileep Padgaonkar warns that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is inviting his undoing by not reining in Hindu nationalist zealots. Indian novelist Rana Dasgupta weighs in on the controversy surrounding the recent arrest of students leaders for "anti-national" rhetoric. "A nation cannot be reduced to a territory," he writes. This photo essay documents the faces of protest over the arrests. In a moving remembrance of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister assassinated on the streets of Stockholm 30 years ago this week, former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou recalls the formative years he spent living as a refugee in Sweden that taught him lessons about democracy and tolerance that he took back to his homeland. Speaking of today's refugees in Europe, he writes from Athens: "Europe can, and must, utilize this opportunity to prepare for the return of so many who will be called upon to rebuild destroyed societies. Crucially, they will become the architects and engineers of new societies that can withstand the authoritarianism of dictators, fundamentalists and populists." Writing from Copenhagen, Louise Stigsgaard Nissen chronicles the rise of voluntary civic organizations across Denmark that aim to help refugees in spite of harsh new anti-immigrant laws imposed by the current government. Willa Frej reports on how French authorities razed the famous "Jungle" refugee camp in Calais this week in an effort to ward off more arriving refugees seeking a route to Great Britain. This photo essay shows the inside of the "homes" of refugees inside the Calais camp before it was destroyed. Writing from Berlin, German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel calls for social programs, such as affordable housing and day care, that benefit all of society, not just the newly arrived migrants. Specialized programs, he argues, "can quickly lead to a belief that refugees are the ones responsible for the fact that other issues in Germany aren't being addressed." John Feffer looks inside the illiberal shift of Germany's neighbor, Poland. Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden examine yet another angle in the global conflict over migrants -- this one involving Chinese workers in Africa stranded by the slowdown in China's economy. WorldPost Middle East Correspondent Sophia Jones reports from Kabul about a group of women who plan to scale Afghanistan's highest peak, Mount Noshaq, as a challenge to their country's rigid gender norms. "They say it's dangerous -- that we can't climb mountains. But I can do anything," one young woman tells her. In the final part of our "Beyond 2050" series, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees boggles the imagination by pointing out that the future ahead will be longer than the past behind, and evolved intelligence in those times to come may not be organic. "The timescale for developing human-level artificial intelligence may be decades or it may be centuries," he writes. "Be that as it may, it's but an instant compared to the cosmic future stretching ahead, and indeed far shorter than the timescales of the Darwinian selection that led to humanity's emergence." Writing from Paris, Bernard-Henri Lévy offers a personal tribute to the vast erudition of his friend, the Italian scholar Umberto Eco, who passed away recently. Fusion this week looks at an app that can tell you how to ask your boss for a raise. Peter Diamandis reports on how drones are converging with other technologies. Finally, our Singularity series examines new drugs that could replace the need for physical exercise. > WHO WE ARE > > EDITORS: NATHAN GARDELS, Co-Founder and Executive Advisor to the > Berggruen Institute, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. > KATHLEEN MILES is the Executive Editor of The WorldPost. FARAH > MOHAMED is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. ALEX GARDELS and > PETER MELLGARD are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. KATIE > NELSON is the National Editor at the Huffington Post, overseeing The > WorldPost and HuffPost's editorial coverage. ELINE GORDTS is > HuffPost's Senior World Editor. 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… , long seen in Greece as a usurper of Greek sovereignty and a … reduce some of Greece’s debt in exchange for Greece bearing the … , the refugee crisis, and therefore Greece needs beyond all discussion additional …
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"I felt sad to not be able to admit why before was not the right time, and it's very simple," says Nia Vardalos. "My Big Fat GREEK Wedding" was the ...
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The Turkish government said it would start taking back all non-Syrian economic migrants who reach Europe’s shores after it agreed to shut down the route from Greece to rest of Europe.
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[Air Force]via U.S. Air Force The Air Force’s top general is warning Congress that one day soon the U.S. might not be able to keep pace with Russia and China when it comes to producing and fielding next-generation fighter jets. In two Capitol Hill appearances this week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh sounded the alarm about the advancements Beijing and Moscow have made with their military aircraft, progress that threatens to erase Washington’s vaunted technological edge. Today, the U.S. has “couple thousand more” warplanes than China, but “at the rate they’re building, the models they’re fielding, by 2030 they will have fielded—they will have made up that 2,000 aircraft gap and they will be at least as big—if not bigger—than our air forces,” Welsh told the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee on Wednesday. Besides the number of jets, China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) today boasts 325,000 personnel, slightly more than the U.S., Beijing is rolling out new fighter variants and other advanced weaponry regularly, the four-star warned. “We are not keeping up with that kind of technology development,” he told the panel. “We are still in a position of—we will have the best technology in the battlespace especially if we can continue with our current big three modernization programs,” including the new B-21 bomber and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, “but they will have a lot of technology that's better than the stuff we've had before.” Welsh raised the Russian specter on Thursday when he appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee. [f35]via U.S. Air Force“An Air Force that doesn't stay ahead of the technology curve will fail. Fifty-three countries today are flying Russian fighters around the world. They will export their new capabilities as they field them, and their new capabilities will be better than our old stuff,” he said. Together, the testimonies are reminiscent of the “missile gap,” a Cold War phrase used by defense hawks to decry the number of missiles the Soviet Union possessed compared with the U.S. – a gap that later turned out to be bogus. Welsh, who is slated to retire this year after 40 years in the service, could be trying to get funding beyond the Air Force’s proposed $120 billion budget for fiscal year 2017 by breaking down complex strategic problems -- Russia’s vast military modernization push, China’s emergence as a global military power – into a one-for-one competition that the U.S. has no choice but to win. And he seems to have a receptive audience. [John Kerry John McCain]via U.S. Air ForceArmed Service Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicked off Thursday’s hearing by lamenting that “potential adversaries are developing and fielding fifth-generation fighters, advanced air defense systems and sophisticated space, cyber and electronic warfare capabilities that are rapidly shrinking America's military technological advance and holding our aircraft at greater risk over greater distances.” Welsh’s two-pronged argument, on production and technology, could prove a winning combo that sees the Air Force get some or all of the $2.85 billion “wish list” it recently submitted to Congress. That would allow the service to buy more F-35s and cargo aircraft, or win approval for its pricey procurement and modernization efforts. The four-star general certainly drove home the idea that Congress shouldn’t trifle with either country. “They're serious air forces, and they're serious about getting better…, General Welsh told House lawmakers. “Not modernizing our Air Force is not an answer that's acceptable.” NOW WATCH: IAN BREMMER: Greece is headed for a humanitarian disaster
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[Lockheed Martin]Liz Kaszynski/Lockheed Martin Ukraine has lost Crimea, and much of its eastern border region as well, to invading troops from Russia. But could this beleaguered country soon book a win in the airplane market? Several recent news items suggest that it could — and that it could do this at Lockheed Martin's expense. Last month, we relayed to you the shocking news that Ukraine had officially shut down its Antonov Aviation Concern (AAC), the holding company that owned the Antonov Company, which builds the world's largest transport aircraft. We also pointed out, though, that just because AAC is going out of business, this doesn't necessarily keep Antonov Company from continuing to build airplanes. In fact, they're doing just that. CALL IT "THE SLAVIC C-130" In particular, Antonov is continuing development of its vaunted An-178, a two-engine, short-range, medium-lift transport aircraft that first flew just last summer -- and is already winning admirers around the globe. Designed to replace aging An-26 "Curl" and An-32 "Cline" military transports, An-178 may also pose a threat to rival jets such as Alenia's C-27J Spartan, Embraer's KC-390, and even Lockheed Martin's own C-130. The An-178 boasts the ability to carry up to 99 soldiers or up to 10 tons of cargo as far as 4,000 km unrefueled -- or to carry greater masses on shorter hops. In particular, _Popular Science_ reports that the plane is capable of hauling an 18-ton armored personnel carrier such as a Stryker APC. Relative to Lockheed's C-130, that means An-178 can carry more troops, and only slightly less cargo. Like the C-130, Antonov's An-178 can both launch from and land on unimproved surfaces such as unpaved and gravel runways. Also like the C-130, the An-178 can be modified for missions including electronic warfare, aerial command, and airborne early warning. Like Lockheed's C-130, it offers designs tweaked for every mission from surveillance to airborne refueling to gunship to Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (ABCCC). The AN-178 is a plane that could challenge Lockheed in many markets. In short, the An-178 is more than just a transport. [ANTONOV_AN 178_PROTOTYPE_IN_FLIGHT.JPEG]LIZ KASZYNSKI/LOCKHEED MARTININSTANT POPULARITY As reported on airforce-technology.com, Antonov signed a deal with Abu Dhabi's Maximus Air Cargo to become the airplane's "launch customer." It's unclear how many Maximus will buy. But we know that Saudi Arabia has already signed on to buy 30 An-178s, and that Azerbaijan's Silk Way Airlines wants 10 more. China's Beijing A-Star Airspace and Technology Corporation is also interested -- in buying the plane, and getting a license to build it in China. Thus, even with only one An-178 built so far, and no deliveries, the plane appears to have instant popularity among civilian operators, even before addressing the military market. But this plane looks admirably suited for a military debut as well. At a reported cost of just $45 million per plane, An-178 appears to be one of the cheapest planes in its class -- roughly half the cost of Embraer's KC-390, and just two-thirds the price of Lockheed Martin's C-130J variant. An-178 appears to have just missed an appearance at Abu Dhabi's International Defense Exhibition and Conference last year. But we do know that Ukraine signed at least one significant defense equipment deal at IDEX last year. There's every possibility that, if Antonov brings the plane to IDEX next year, it could score its first military contract there. HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS THIS? With more than 400 units in service globally, the An-26 and An-32 -- two of the Antonov planes that An-178 could replace in world air fleets -- are already two of the top 10 most popular military transports. That fact alone suggests that Antonov's An-178 has a big "replacement" market ahead of it. The multiple missions that An-178 is being touted for, meanwhile, suggest that Antonov may have even bigger markets in mind. Historically, Lockheed Martin's C-130 has always been the plane to beat in this class. The most popular military transport on the planet, there are nearly 1,000 C-130s in use around the globe today, in various configurations. Antonov would almost certainly like to get its hands on some of that market share, too. Judging from the initial enthusiasm buyers are showing for its plane -- it just might succeed. NOW WATCH: IAN BREMMER: Greece is headed for a humanitarian disaster
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