When there are fewer humans to fill certain jobs, businesses turn to different *creatures.*
Month: May 2013
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA – For days, Teresa Maldonado has only had bad news for waiting passengers. “No room on the plane today! We’ve got to fly the lobsters out!” Showing the lady a valid ticket issued by the plane company does not help. The lobsters have priority; they have to get to Santiago alive. Nobody […]
GIVAT ASSAF – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry passed right by this town’s entrance — just a few dozen meters away — while on his way to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last Thursday. We can only hope that his driver slowed down, and that one of his accompanying local diplomats showed him […]
An estimated two million people took to the streets in cities all around the world on May 25 for a worldwide day of protest against agro-biotech giant Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in general. The “March Against Monsanto” movement denounced GMOs as harmful to human health and the environment. Their claims, listed on their […]
After a wave of nostalgia for the Communist regime of East Germany, debate is opened in Germany about whether Communism was as bad as Nazism.
DOZENS DEAD IN DONETSK Dozens of separatist fighters and civilians were killed after violent fights against Ukraine’s armed forces around Donetsk airport. The exact number of victims is unclear because there is conflicting reporting between Western and Russian media. According to AFP, the mayor of Donetsk said that “two civilians and 38 participants” had died […]
LE MONDE (France), BBC NEWS (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch PARIS – French newspaper Le Monde revealed Monday that two of its reporters went undercover in Syria, where they witnessed the repeated use of chemical weapons by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. In a report issued on Le Monde’s website, a special correspondent and a photographer […]
LA CROIX (France), LE PARISIEN (France), AFP Worldcrunch PARIS – Some 350 people were arrested over the weekend in Paris, during protests against gay marriage. Meanwhile in the south of France, the Cannes Film Festival celebrated gay romance, awarding the top Palme d’Or prize to a love story about a lesbian couple. Despite the law […]
ABC, THE AGE, SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA, SYNDEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch MELBOURNE – Australia’s top Cardinal George Pell acknowledged Monday that senior members of the Australian Catholic Church had covered up cases of sexual abuse. “I am fully apologetic and absolutely sorry,” Pell said. “I’m certainly totally committed to improving the situation. I know the […]
-Op-Ed- LIMA – Last January, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that he and Venezuelan parliament president Diosdado Cabello were both the target of an assassination plan – without unveiling the conspirators’ identity. In March, he said the Pentagon and the CIA were hatching a plan to murder opposition leader Henrique Capriles and frame him for […]
By 2015, Hunan Province alone plans to build seven new airports, joining the existing five that are losing money each year. What’s driving the boom.
GENOA – How do you bring the Dolce Vita Italian lifestyle to the Chinese without actually landing in China? Well, the Costa Cruises company will be offering all the top Made-in-Italy food, fashion and style with a new around-the-world “Italian” cruise geared to a Chinese public. The Italian cruise line opened its doors to the […]
Monday, May 26, 2014 POROSHENKO WINS UKRAINE PRESIDENCYAs many observers expected, multibillionaire Petro Poroshenko will become Ukraine’s next president. The man dubbed “The Chocolate King” leads the race with 53.75% of the votes in the first round, with 70% of the votes counted, The Kyiv Post reports. He said during his victory speech that his […]
PARIS – Retake control of your personal data and get paid for it. This is the straightforward concept behind the recently launched French startup Yes Profile. On its platform, Yes Profile allows the user to create a profile with a certain amount of information – from email to age to interests and preferences such as […]
The sweet (and unhealthy) underbelly of the region’s economic growth.
SRINAGAR – An eagle boldly splits the air, to and fro, between disputed territories. On the ground, an electrified fence hurtles down the jagged flank of the mountain, bumps into the river, then resumes its straight race up heights. In the Uri district, in Silikot, the fence sharply cuts an odd borderline: dividing the Muslim […]
A French journalist upset by the shuttering of local book shops gets a temp job with Amazon, where only the “supermotivated” survive to work under conditions that violate labor codes.
Worldcrunch CANNES – Most of the pictures emerging from the film festival in the south of France are from press photographers and paparazzi, but some of the most candid photos are being snapped by the festival’s long-time president, Gilles Jacob. Jacob, who turns 83 in June, is a film critic, writer, director and producer. He […]
Categories
Egypt: From Tehran With Love
TEHRAN – As Iran loses ground in Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, expect Tehran to try to shore up its ability to influence the Middle East in the most unlikely of places: Egypt. Over the last few years there have been numerous signs that Cairo and Tehran were making tentative steps toward changing their […]
Editor’s note: Following Beijing, the municipality of Guangzhou introduced passenger car purchasing restrictions last June in order to ease the traffic pressure. Each month a free lottery system is used to decide the lucky ones who get to buy cars. Another parallel system allows people to pay more by bidding for a car license. Public […]
Categories
Magazines, Mapped! Week Of May 24-31
This week’s selection of magazine covers from around the world.
ALGIERS – Since the first subway line opened in the end of 2011, it is much appreciated. “It is a lot easier to get to court,” explains Lydia, a young lawyer. She adds that the ticket fare (around 50 cents) is reasonable for the middle class, and the service beats collective taxis or having to […]
HAVANA – Black-and-white images of Che Guevara and a clumsy Fidel Castro, dressed in military attire, leaning on his golf club a few feet away from the hole, gave way to many years of ostracism towards golf in Cuba. Cubans still don’t know why golf courses were suddenly converted into public institutions. Was it because […]
BBC (UK), CNN, WASHINGTON POST (USA) Worldcrunch NEW YORK – A key United Nations lawyer leading a probe on the use of drones has praised President Barack Obama’s speech on changes to the United States’ anti-terrorism policy, which included new more restrictive guidelines for using unmanned aircrafts to strike targets on the ground. UN attorney […]
AFP, AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch MOSCOW– Russia announced Friday that the Syrian government has agreed in principle to attend an international peace conference. The summit was proposed by Russia and the U.S. and could take place in Geneva, reports the AFP. “We note with satisfaction that we have received an agreement in […]
Worldcrunch OSAKA – Tired of getting the same cup o” Joe every morning? Think your Starbucks barista should be more of a bartista? Meet Kazuki Yamamoto, a 26-year-old Japanese “cappuccino painter” based in Osaka, who took latte art (drawing on espresso with milk) to the next level. No doubt Yamamoto’s unbelievable 2D and 3D moch’art […]
A Muslim-American writer recounts the days after the Boston Marathon attack. No doubt, parents in the UK are having similar conversations right now.
A look at what the world has been saying this week…
BEIJING – “So,” says Ai Weiwei: “Now they get to listen to this.” By “they” he means his jailers. “My voice may not be perfect, and may not even sound good. I admit I was a little inhibited at first. But it’s a voice and now it’s out there.” As of this week, Beijing avant-garde […]
On the 30th anniversary of her landmark discovery, French Nobel Laureate Françoise Barré-Sinoussi calls for a new approach for definitively defeating AIDS.
Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – Last week, a study was released that showed Argentinians drink 100 liters of mate per capita annually, double their consumption of beer or wine. It’s even more popular than tea and coffee which, for most of the rest of the world, are the go-to hot drinks. Food and drink traditions are […]
LA VOIX DU NORD (France) Worldcrunch SECLIN –A mini flock of three crows have been terrorizing a neighborhood in this northern French town, attacking children on their way to school and people walking their dogs. Three black birds, obvious fans of Alfred Hitchcock movies, have launched a series of attacks on the inhabitants of the […]
A dark history is reopened after Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit won a Prize for “exemplary democratic disposition.” Digging into his and others’ past finds shocking acceptance of pedophilia.
BBC, THE GUARDIAN, ITV, THE TELEGRAPH, SKY NEWS, PRESS ASSOCIATION (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON– One of the two injured suspects has been named after Wednesday afternoon’s terrorist machete murder of a soldier outside a military barracks in southeast London. Both alleged attackers were wounded and arrested by armed police in the aftermath of the spectacular murder […]
DAGENS NYHETER (Sweden), SVENSKA DAGBLADET (Sweden), THE LOCAL (Sweden), THE FINANCIAL TIMES (US) Worldcrunch STOCKHOLM – The Swedish capital suffered through a fourth night of violence, with firefighters reporting at least 90 different incidents around the city by early Thursday. The Financial Times’ correspondent in Stockholm reports that cars were set on fire in 15 […]
And why I won’t be coming back…
Friday, May 23, 2014 MORE CLASHES IN DONETSK At least five people died in fresh fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian groups near Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk, with an AFP photographer saying that four of the dead appeared to be rebels and the fifth a member of a “volunteer force attached to the military.” […]
-Essay- GENEVA – May is the month of Europe, celebrating the anniversary of the creation of the Council of Europe on May 5, and of the European Union on May 9. It is the opportunity to commemorate a man who played a determining role in Switzerland’s prosperity. This man was Robert Schumann, the French foreign […]
BUENOS AIRES – Eating is no longer just the primitive act of satiating hunger. It is a process that includes production, consumption, and evaluation for preparation of the next gastronomical experience. It’s a hedonistic experience with a concern for nutritional value, especially as the ”o” word – obesity – keeps cropping up. For most people, […]
Crossing two taboo topics: prostitution and the sexuality of the physically and mentally handicapped.