After nearly 14 years of civil war, Syria is a devastated country, with a ruined economy and a destroyed labour market. Those who have found good jobs or founded successful businesses will be slow to return. In this image, a Syrian employee displaced by the war puts a pizza in the oven at the Tayba restaurant in the Fatih neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey. 25 March 2025. “I often have to choose between buying fuel or food for my family,” says Wael, from the Atma refugee camp in northern (…)

De lourdes peines de prison : de 13 à 66 ans ! L'un des moments les plus sombres de l'histoire judiciaire tunisienne récente. 4h55 du matin, une heure où les consciences sommeillent et où les regards sont ailleurs, l'agence officielle Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) publie une dépêche sobre, presque banale, pour annoncer ce qui restera sans doute comme l'un des moments les plus sombres de l'histoire judiciaire tunisienne récente. Une série de condamnations lourdes, frappant une quarantaine (…)

Alors que le Sri Lanka se trouve à la croisée des chemins dans son parcours vers les droits LGBTQ+, des militants de toutes générations poursuivent leur lutte, vieille de plusieurs décennies, contre les lois discriminatoires qui criminalisent les relations entre personnes de même sexe. Le mouvement fait face à de nouveaux défis suite aux changements politiques tant au niveau national qu'international, mais reste résilient dans sa lutte pour les droits humains fondamentaux. Remontant à 1995 (…)

In a troubling development that highlights the growing influence of conservative ideology in corporate decision-making, BigBoard—the Czech Republic's largest outdoor advertising provider—has rejected a campaign about abortion access from reproductive justice organisation A.S.A.P. (Abortion Support Alliance Prague). The company claims that providing factual information about abortion constitutes “behaviour damaging health or threatening safety” of foetuses, despite abortion being legal in the (…)

As of 2023, same-sex marriage is not legal in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia, although Thailand was taking initial legislative steps toward approving same-sex unions while our survey team was in the field. A majority of Thai adults strongly or somewhat favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally (60%). Neighboring Cambodia is the only other surveyed country where a majority takes this stance (57%). By contrast, large majorities of the public in (…)

In a landmark victory for environmental activism, Portugal has become the first European nation to legally enforce a moratorium on deep-sea mining until 2050. This groundbreaking decision represents a crucial step in safeguarding one of Earth's most vulnerable and least understood ecosystems. The moratorium emerged from a powerful coalition of scientific expertise, grassroots organizing, and local economic concerns, particularly in the Azores islands, where fishing and tourism communities (…)

Le printemps arabe a ouvert une page nouvelle dans l'histoire politique du monde arabe. Alors que plusieurs pays ont sombré dans le chaos ou sont retournés à l'autoritarisme, la Tunisie a souvent été présentée comme l'exception réussie. Mais qu'en est-il réellement du point de vue des femmes et des mouvements féministes ? L'entretien avec Ahlem Belhadj, figure emblématique du féminisme tunisien et ancienne présidente de l'Association tunisienne des femmes démocrates, offre une analyse (…)

L'énergie solaire est à l'avant-garde du mouvement mondial vers les énergies renouvelables. Mais quelle est l'importance de ce changement dans des pays comme le Pakistan ? Pour les militants écologistes de gauche, l'expansion rapide de l'énergie solaire présente à la fois une opportunité et un défi. Ces dernières années, le Pakistan a connu une augmentation stupéfiante des installations de panneaux solaires, tant connectées au réseau qu'hors réseau. Les chiffres officiels montrent que la (…)

In Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities (1930), set in Vienna on the eve of the First World War, the army general Stumm von Bordwehr asks, ‘How can those directly involved in what's happening know beforehand whether it will turn out to be a great event?' His answer is that ‘all they can do is pretend to themselves that it is! If I may indulge in a paradox, I'd say that the history of the world is written before it happens; it always starts off as a kind of gossip.' Last week, with Donald (…)

Jewish Scholars intentionally violate the controversial and discredited IHRA definition of antisemitism which has been a tool for the Trump administration to imprison activists and dismantle higher education WASHINGTON - Over 32 prominent Jewish scholars of antisemitism, Holocaust Studies, and Jewish History today challenged the Trump administration's authoritarian crackdown on free speech by demonstrating the danger and falsehood of its false claims to care about Jewish safety. The Trump (…)

China has approved the construction of what will be the world's largest hydropower dam, stoking concerns about displacement of communities in Tibet and environmental impacts downstream in India and Bangladesh. Getty Images An aerial view of a section of the Yarlung Tsangpo River on May 13, 2023Getty Images The dam, which will be located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river, could generate three times more energy than the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world's largest (…)

China recently approved the construction of the world's largest hydropower dam, across the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet. When fully up and running, it will be the world's largest power plant – by some distance. Yet many are worried the dam will displace local people and cause huge environmental disruption. This is particularly the case in the downstream nations of India and Bangladesh, where that same river is known as the Brahmaputra. China recently approved the construction of the (…)

Une étude récente a cherché à déterminer la diversité et l'évolution de la pensée des primates et à relier cette diversité à la complexité de leur environnement. Nous sommes nombreux à nous demander comment pensent les animaux, par exemple comment ils planifient leurs déplacements, comment ils se souviennent de la localisation de certains arbres fruitiers, comment ils choisissent leurs partenaires sociaux ou sexuels. Pour comprendre comment pensent les autres animaux, notamment les (…)

At the beginning of last week the far-right politician Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzling European Parliament funds and immediately banned from running for public office for five years, ruling her out of the 2027 presidential contest. Her party, Rassemblement National, yesterday held a public protest against the court's ruling. In between there have been all kinds of wild claims that this judicial decision was somehow undermining democracy. In this op-ed article, Mediapart's Antton (…)