Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) was one of the giants of American journalism. The owner and publisher of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The New York World, he was an exemplar of the rags-to-riches saga so beloved by Americans. Arriving in the United States as a penniless Jewish immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he finagled his way to […]
Steve Bannon, the fire-breathing American conservative ideologue, is bent on creating a global right-wing populist movement. In Alison Klayman’s absorbing documentary, The Brink, which opens in Canada on April 12, she accompanies Donald Trump’s former chief strategist on trips across the United States and Europe to lay the groundwork for this ambitious objective. A fierce […]
Reconstruction, one of the most complex, turbulent and divisive eras in American history, left a legacy of hope and terror that still haunts the United States. Extending from approximately 1865 to 1877, it raised a mountain of contentious racial, social, political and economic issues as Northerners and Southerners grappled with the outcome of the 1861-1865 Civil War. […]
Two political parties, the first old and established and the second absolutely brand new, are striving for victory as Israel’s general election draws closer. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud Party, faces a stiff challenge from Benny Gantz, the head of the newly-formed centrist Blue and White Party and the former chief […]
Facebook, the social network hegemon, has finally come to its senses. Within the next few days, Facebook and the company it owns, Instagram, are expected to ban or delete existing white nationalist posts. Facebook, with 2.3 billion monthly active users, made this known on March 27: “Today we’re announcing a ban on praise, support and representation […]
Islamic State, the fanatical organization that set the Middle East ablaze and ignited tremors in Europe, has been militarily defeated but not snuffed out of existence. Last week, Islamic State’s last pocket of territory in Syria was liberated after weeks of battle. Its imminent demise was forecast in January by U.S. President Donald Trump, who […]
The passing of Joseph Stalin in Moscow in 1953 precipitated a power struggle among his grasping associates and potential successors. Armando Iannucci imagines what transpired in his satirical film, The Death of Stalin, which is now available on the Netflix streaming service. Iannucci approaches the topic with an irreverent sense of humor. Nothing is sacred […]
He “did it again,” Benjamin Netanyahu gushed a few days ago. Israel’s prime minister was talking about another glittering prize U.S. President Donald Trump had presented to Israel on a silver platter. Netanyahu was referring to Trump’s historic tweet on March 21 recognizing Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 […]
Forty years ago, on March 26, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty, the first between the Jewish state and an Arab nation. It has endured despite an array of challenges — the assassination of an Egyptian president, Israel’s invasion of a neighboring country, the eruption of the first and second Palestinian uprisings, and a […]
Until quite recently, Jacinda Ardern’s chief claim to fame was being New Zealand’s youngest and first prime minister to give birth to a child while in office. Her baby girl was delivered in 2018, a year after she assumed power at the age of 36. But since New Zealand was plunged into shock and grief […]