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Iranians are running out of water and choking on some of the world's worst air pollution, environmental crises that critics say exemplify the failures fueling anger at the country's theocratic regime. "If I want to use one word, it's mismanagement," Hamid Pouran, an environmental technology researcher who studied in Iran and is now based in

In a classroom in Chennai, India, around 20 nurses are learning German at breakneck speed. They have six months to become fluent enough to work in Germany. Ramalakshi, one of the nurses, says her family struggled financially, but still managed to pay the equivalent of several thousand euros for her nursing college. Ever since completing

A dictator wearing reflective sunglasses, medals arrayed across his chest; a parliament in disarray; a people silenced by impunity. These are images we may envision when we hear the phrase "banana republic." The term was coined by US writer O. Henry (real name: William Sydney Porter), who'd fled to Honduras in 1896 to escape embezzlement charges

Germany has no equivalent of the specialized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the United States, though that would change if the Bavarian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had its way. Apparently directly inspired by the actions of ICE under US President Donald Trump's administration, an internal paper from the anti-immigration party

FIFA's previous president, Sepp Blatter, weighed in on discussions about attending the upcoming World Cup in North America this week, saying he thought it was "right to question" this World Cup.  Blatter made the comments in reference to an interview by Swiss lawyer and anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth, who urged fans to stay away from

Green Party co-chair Franziska Brantner seemed very uncomfortable when she held a press conference in Berlin this week. She had intended to speak about the flashpoints in international politics, Greenland and Ukraine, and US President Donald Trump, but the journalists present kept returning to the issue of the European Union's recent trade agreement with Mercosur — and how

In the face of thousands of killings, leading figures in Iranian sport have been vocal about the need for help and action. Former Iran and Bayern Munich star Ali Karimi signed an open letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, calling on him to "publicly condemn the mass killing of civilians in Iran, including members of the

Plastic is everywhere. Inside the human body, in the depths of the ocean and the far reaches of the Arctic. Now a new study warns that, unless the world changes course, plastic could more than double its damage to human health within the next two decades. The culprit is not plastic litter in the environment

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected a request from the United States, which called for Katie Uhlaender, the skeleton athlete at the center of an Olympic qualifying controversy, to be given a discretionary place at February's Winter Games at Milano Cortina, to "preserve" her Olympic dream. Uhlaender, a two-time world champion, says she was unfairly denied

The German Football Association (DFB) has broken its silence on the matter of a potential boycott of the World Cup, to be hosted by the United States this summer, with a few games also to be played in Mexico and Canada. Speaking at a German Football League (DFL) meeting on Monday, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said: "I