Day 1- Flight and landing in London When I get anxious about travel, I like to make sure I simply leave very early. This is the main reason as to why me and my friend Maggie arrived at Newark Airport five hours early for our flight to London. Those hours flew by, however, and soon […]
Poland By Hal Conte A Middle East-oriented diplomatic conference was thrown into turmoil when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made comments that were translated into English by his Twitter team as reading “the common interest of war with Iran.” The event was seen by many as an attempt to rally support for isolating Iran among […]
Afghanistan By Alice Hakvaag United Stages envoy Zalmay Khalilzad made a series of tweets on Saturday saying that talks between the United States and the Afghan Taliban had been “more productive than they have been in the past.” The Taliban had refused to speak to the Afghan government to negotiate a ceasefire until the US […]
Graphic: Sana Kewalramani My mom doesn’t know how to book flights correctly. She tried to figure out how much it would cost our family of four to fly to Oslo to visit extended family, and she had the gall to suggest it would cost $2,000 each way for all of us. When I found out […]
I’ll admit that I haven’t properly sat down and watched Doctor Who in years, but there’s something new and exciting in this season: this is the first time a woman has been cast as The Doctor. Jodie Whittaker kicked off the most recent season, leading the cult classic in the title role. The show premiered […]
China In Xinjiang, an autonomous region within Western China, officials have legalized “vocational training centers” for Uighur Muslims in the area. Uighur Muslims, with a language and culture similar to Turkey, make up 45% of the population, but more Chinese have been immigrating to the area. Human rights groups around the globe have criticized the […]
France Last June, French police arrested two Iranians for attempting to set off explosives at a National Council of Resistance of Iran meeting in Paris, France. On October 2nd, French officials accused two senior members of Iran’s ministry of intelligence of being linked to the attempt, and has since frozen assets of the officials and […]
At any given night at my host family’s house, I am probably hearing at least three different languages. These days, when we’re all at the dinner table, I can hear English, Chinese, Japanese, and French. Currently, there are five guests staying with the Oikawas: Sshan from Taiwan, Onee from China, Dina and Nora from Belgium, […]
The Oscars had a big job to do at the 2018 awards ceremony. It was plagued for two years by the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, pointing out how all of the actors and actresses nominated were white, plus an awards season rocked by sexual harassment allegations and the #MeToo and #NoMore movements. To top it all off, […]
Call me crazy, but I actually really like my morning commute. Japan is known for its bullet trains, and the Tokyo Subway holds up to the same standard. It’s an hour and ten minutes longer than my previous commute, which involved walking down Diamond Street and turning onto campus, but at the risk of sounding […]
When you think of Korean music, you probably don’t think of jazzy synthpop, but that’s what OOHYO delivers in her album Girl Sense. OOHYO herself is a singer songwriter who lives in Seoul, South Korea, though she has spent many years living in the United States. After getting good reactions from indie developers while she […]
GERMANY At the beginning of last week, it looked like Germany was only days away from creating a coalition that would allow its government to continue running. The coalition was to consist of the center-left Social Democrats, the conservative Christian Social Union, and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. The Christian Social Union, which is […]
United States U.S. President Donald Trump faced harsh criticism last week after allegedly referring to Haiti, El Salvador and a number of African countries as “shithole” countries in a meeting with Democrats and Republicans about DACA, a U.S. program that grants temporary, renewable residency to the children of undocumented immigrants. President Trump then went on […]
CHINA By: Alex Voisine The waters were calm in the East China Sea off the coast of Shanghai on Saturday, until about 8pm, when a Panama-registered oil tanker collided with a Hong Kong-registered ship carrying food from the United States. The Panama-registered oil tanker, known as SANCHI, was over 900 feet in length and was […]
Dear This Week In The World Readers, We are back from winter break and are ready and excited to bring you a new year of international current events coverage! We launched this column last year because we at Freely believe that being attuned to all that is happening around the world is of the utmost […]
Ah, winter break – we all worked hard this last cold month, and it’s finally time to sleep in and stay cozy. But faced with all this free time, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed trying to figure out how to spend it. Check out some tried and true activities, foods, movies, and places to visit […]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE By: Rachel Elliott Last week, President Trump issued a statement declaring that the US would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would also move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient city. In his statement, the president cited the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act that outlines the move that no president […]
