LISBON, Portugal — Portugal’s newly-elected Parliament on Wednesday voted in a new house speaker, following a potentially important deal between the country’s two main centrist parties. The chamber elected José Aguiar Branco of the Social Democrats by 160 votes in favor, well above the 116 needed. The vote came after the Social Democrats reached a … Read more
HAVANA — Like millions of other Cubans, María de los Ángeles Pozo thinks back fondly to when a government ration book fed her family everything from hamburgers, fish and milk to chocolate and beer. People would even get cakes for birthdays and weddings. The “libreta,” as Cubans know it, was launched in July 1963 and … Read more
MADRID — Catalan separatist lawmakers dealt Spain’s government a blow Tuesday by voting against a hugely divisive amnesty law that was aimed at helping hundreds of their supporters who were involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 independence bid. The most radical separatists, who want to ensure that their leader Carles Puigdemont, a fugitive in Belgium, can … Read more
Not long after the 1924 death of the founder of the Soviet Union, a popular poet soothed and thrilled the grieving country with these words: “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live.” A century later, the once-omnipresent image of Vladimir Lenin is largely an afterthought in modern Russia, despite those famous lines by revolutionary writer … Read more
Argentina’s President Javier Milei delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos on January 17, 2024. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images) Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, on Wednesday called on business and political leaders to reject socialism … Read more
BEIJING — China says it is banning a United States research company and two analysts who have reported extensively on claims of human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups native to the country’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted as announcing late Tuesday night that … Read more
BEIJING — China on Friday defended controversial bounties offered for the capture of Hong Kong dissidents who have fled abroad that have been heavily criticized by foreign governments and human rights groups. Rewards of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) have been offered for information leading to the capture of 13 opposition figures accused of … Read more
TIRANA, Albania — For months, Albanian opposition parties have used flares and noise to disrupt Parliament, in protest at what they describe as the authoritarian rule of the governing Socialist Party. On Thursday, lawmakers passed the annual budget and other draft laws, despite opposition claims that the left-wing Socialists have blocked the establishment of commissions … Read more
SANTIAGO, Chile — In Chile, leftists were tortured, tossed from helicopters and forced to watch relatives be raped. In Argentina, many were “disappeared” by members of the brutal military dictatorship that held detainees in concentration camps. It all happened with the endorsement of Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state who died Wednesday at … Read more
BEIJING — Official China called Henry Kissinger “an old friend.” A commentator likened him to a giant panda, a goodwill ambassador between two countries that have been at odds more often than not over the decades. Kissinger, who died Wednesday, developed a special relationship with China in the second half of his 100-year-long life. It … Read more