A massive flood originating in China struck northern Nepal this Wednesday, leaving at least 17 dead and hundreds missing on both sides of the Himalayas. Many of the latter are tourists and pilgrims, particularly Hindus heading to Mount Kailash in Tibet. The most affected area is said to be the border itself, in the Nepali district of Rasuwa, where the customs post has been swept away, along with its 14 employees.

The victory of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has highlighted the weight of the legacy of the former GDR among the citizens of East Germany, their conversion into second-class Germans, and the strength of that nostalgia when it comes to capturing votes. For more than forty years, more than half…

The diplomatic effort led by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to seek a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine seems to be getting back on track after a six-month pause due to Washington’s involvement in the conflict with Iran. According to reports that the Kremlin has avoided confirming, White House emissaries will travel this weekend first to Moscow, and then to Kyiv.

The capital of Saxony-Anhalt, an eastern German state that is holding regional elections this Sunday which literally have the whole country on edge, has until now been mostly known for a famous scientific experiment: the Magdeburg hemispheres. In 1656, its mayor, the physicist Otto von Guericke, demonstrated the tremendous force of atmospheric pressure by joining two metal hemispheres and extracting the air from inside them using a vacuum pump he invented himself. He then hitched two teams of sixteen horses, eight on each side, to try to pull them apart, but they could not. After opening a valve and allowing air to enter, both hemispheres separated without much effort.