PARIS — Our fair-minded but ever subjective staff of journalists, translators and editors have chosen what we believe to be the year's most engaging and provocative stories.


Why The Chinese Are So Good, But Rarely Great

CHINA / Caixin, Jan .5


That Slippery Euphemism We Call "Cultural Differences"

FRANCE / Worldcrunch, Jan. 15


Artificial Intelligence Will Kill Capitalism

U.S. / Le Monde, Jan. 26


Why Greek Debt Is Also An Environmental Time Bomb

GREECE / Worldcrunch, Feb. 15


No Goat Year Babies! China Wrestles With Its Zodiac Passions

CHINA / Economic Observer, March 22


How TV Series Can Help Us Understand Geopolitics

FRANCE / Les Echos, March 26


Don't Ask If I'm A Feminist, Ask Why Women Earn 22% Less

GERMANY / Die Welt, April 20


Mediterranean Graveyard, The Nameless Dead Of Malta

MALTA / La Stampa, April 21


Lost In Translation, A Strange State Of Grace

JAPAN / Le Temps, May 15


Surrogate Mother Industry Carries On After Nepal Quake

NEPAL / L'Obs, June 9


Russia Can't Afford To Choose Between East And West

RUSSIA / Kommersant, June 23


El Chapo Escape, When Income Inequality Breeds Corruption

MEXICO / El Espectador, July 17


Modern Islam And The Disease Within

TURKEY / Die Welt, July 28


Rony Abovitz: Unraveling Magic Leap's Enigmatic Founder

ISRAEL / Calcalist, July 30


Kos, When Tourists And Migrants Land On The Same Greek Island

GREECE / L'Obs, Aug. 12


In Syria, Life In Harmony With War

SYRIA / Radikal, Aug. 12


From Armenian Genocide To Kurdish Rebels, Turkey Is A Nation In Denial

TURKEY / Radikal, Sept. 10


Germany's Refugee Crisis And The Remaking Of Angela Merkel

GERMANY / Süddeutsche Zeitung, Oct. 13


Waste In Brazil, Where Environmental Failure Meets Dire Poverty

BRAZIL / Folha de S. Paulo, Oct. 16


The Nocebo Effect, Placebo's Evil Twin

SWITZERLAND / Le Temps, Nov. 8


Parking In New York Has A Grammar Of Its Own

U.S. / Yonder, Nov. 10


Refugees And City Planning, An Unlikely Urbanist Opportunity

ARGENTINA / Clarin, Nov. 26


Jihadism As Nihilism, An X-Ray Of Homegrown Terror In France

FRANCE / Le Monde, Dec. 3


FRANCE / Le Monde, Dec. 11