The Atlantic

Bucharest Protests and a Sinking City: The Week in Global-Affairs Writing

The highlights from seven days of reading about the world
Source: Stoyan Nenov / Reuters

Lizzie Presser | “When Filipino cruise workers arrive in U.S. ports with U.S. crew member visas, American laws almost never govern their conditions on board. Nearly all cruise ships are registered outside the United States, often in Panama or the Bahamas. This practice is known as flying a ‘flag of convenience,’ and it began in the 1920s when American ship owners reflagged their ships in Panama to skirt Prohibition. When others learned they could operate under foreign regulations, the trend caught on, and now the most common

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