Protests with similar roots continue in Brazil and Chile, two nations that might seem from the outside to be primed to enjoy their respective economic and democratic expansions.
Month: July 2013
BRUSSELS – You know, those spy movies of some bespectacled hero photographing secret files, looking up every few seconds to make sure there’s not a burly KGB agent around. One executive from the Degussa chemistry group found himself in such a scene in 2002, entering a fancy Zurich building with a camera in his hand, […]
Tuesday, July 8, 2014 ISRAEL PREPARES FOR GROUND OFFENSIVE IN GAZA Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to prepare for a possible ground offensive in Gaza, Haaretz quotes a senior official as saying. This comes after the Israeli military launched “Operation Protective Edge” hitting more than 50 targets in air strikes. Palestinian militants […]
China’s amended “PRC Elderly Protection Law” has come into effect this month. The new law stipulates that family members cannot neglect the elderly, and are required to care for their spiritual needs. Family members who live separately from their aging parents must visit them regularly. Employers, likewise, must guarantee their workers the right to have […]
-Essay- GENEVA – Have you ever heard of Dan Rollman? If so, you are spending way too much time on your computer – just like me. Dan is a Canadian native who now lives in New York and works in media. On May 28, he caught the attention of Internet addicts when he went viral […]
Monday, July 7, 2014 THREE SUSPECTS CONFESS MURDER OF PALESTINIAN TEEN Israeli news sources report that three of the six suspected Jewish extremists arrested by the Israeli police yesterday have since confessed to murdering Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the 16 year-old Palestinian abducted and believed to have been burned alive last week. Israel’s daily Haaretz also […]
Like other countries, France faces a rising number of young people who arrive illegally into the country, without their parents or other family members. It poses unique questions.
A view from Italy, where the Protestant revival-style musical festival never had a chance…
BERLIN – After the fall of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, the West is still trying to figure out what words to use to describe what is happening. In Berlin, no one wants to use the P-word, so instead of referring to a military putsch, Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle spoke of a “stay in democratic […]
This week’s selection of magazine covers from around the world.
Here are the songs topping the charts from some music hot spots around world. First, warm up with the Worldcrunch pick of the week:
SOUTHERN URBAN DAILY, CNTV (China) Worldcrunch SHENZHEN – Magical elixir for those suffering? Status symbol for China’s super rich? Or just plain…CREEPY!? The Southern Urban Daily was the first to report on the growing popularity among wealthy Chinese for drinking human milk. “Human milk is the best of tonics, it’s even better than bird’s nest […]
With the latest incarnation of Superman on the silver screen in “Man of Steel,” we see the most evolved form of the complicated and conflicted superhero.
ISTANBUL – On the eve of the traditional Kirkpinar oil wrestling competition, to be held in its 652nd year in the Edirne province in western Turkey, attention was turning to the “pehlivans,” as the wrestlers are called. The pehlivans hailing from Istanbul have arrived in Edirne for the July 5-7 competition, but the contingent from […]
President Santos’ decision to try to negotiate an end to a decades-long civil war is the only path for a nation that has suffered too much already.
Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…
PARIS – The revelations of the controversial U.S. domestic surveillance program PRISM have provoked massive indignation through much of Europe, but France has been rather quiet. There are two simple explanations: Paris was already aware — and does exactly the same. Le Monde has confirmed that the “Direction Générale de la Securité Extérieure” (DGSE, the […]
Most Americans will spend Thursday marking the birth of their nation 237 years ago, with the founding fathers’ adoption of the Declaration of Independence. July 4th celebrates the American colonies’ independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the establishment of the United States as a nation self-evidently free to pursue happiness and hot dog-eating […]
Categories
Confessions Of A Modern Male Prostitute
Ralf Winkes has tried his hand at a number of different careers: waiter, taxi driver, stock broker. But the 44-year-old German may have finally found his calling…
The Egyptian Army Chief and Defense Minister had ordered the ultimatum to President Morsi, and then followed through. A portrait of Egypt’s strongest strong man.
Friday, July 4, 2014 ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASEFIRE EXPECTED A truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be on the cards this morning, after Egypt intelligence officials held negotiations with both sides, The Times of Israel reports. Despite the imminence of a possible ceasefire, more rockets were fired at Israel and IDF continued to fire artillery in […]
The United States is increasingly a Latino nation, which means the time is ripe to make sweeping immigration reform a reality. A view from Bogota, Colombia.
BUENOS AIRES – Last month, at the magnificent Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (“Palace of Flowing Waters“) in Buenos Aires, representatives from 12 Latin American countries came together to discuss something so basic, and so vital. How can we work together in our region to make best use of that priceless resource: water? I had the […]
BEIJING – These are good days for China. Not so much for the United States — or Sino-American relations. After Edward Snowden left Hong Kong unhindered last week, the angered Americans at first threatened this would have “negative consequences” on relations between the two superpowers. Snowden’s departure had delivered a blow to “mutual confidence,” the […]
BEERSHEBA – “If we need to be violent to be heard, we will be violent. We will lay down under the bulldozers…” A few kilometers south of Beersheba, the largest city in the Negev desert, Fahdi, his brothers and dozens of other relatives of his large family are gathered in a corrugated sheet metal hut […]
Thursday, July 3, 2014 ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN STRIKES CONTINUE Israel’s air force and Palestinian militants exchanged fire for another night, with 15 air strikes in Gaza leaving at least 10 Palestinians injured. The New York Times reported that multiple rockets were also fired from across the border, with two Israeli houses hit in the border town of […]
BEIJING – An article last month in the Beijing Evening News declared that: “one-third of news going viral on microblogs are rumors.” Referring to a survey called China New Media Development Report, 2013, the article cited the “chaos” of China’s microblogging platforms. Since then, this form of media has received a wave of mainstream attention […]
Forty years after government killings here sparked the militant anti-Apartheid movement, the ailing grandfather of modern South Africa is a reminder not to return to the past.
Categories
That Imperfect Aspiration We Call Democracy
From Rio to Cairo, from Snowden to Erdogan, the excess and limits of the popular will.
Some like to travel for the breathtaking sights, some want to discover exotic new cultures. But the real adventure often comes delivered on your plate. We know our classics, here at Worldcrunch: the French eat frogs and the Cambodians eat bugs. We went a bit further than that. Way further. Now, fasten your eatbelts as […]
CAIRO – Several million demonstrators add up to a considerable force that no elected leader can ignore. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have a lot more people demonstrating against them than ever took the streets against former president Hosni Mubarak. And still, given the off-with-their-heads rhetoric on both sides, the latest protests […]
BUENOS AIRES – B.M. is a year and a half old. The cups and paper napkins on the coffee table interest her far more than the rubber ducky her parents offer. The coffee table commotion ends with a baby bottle, a pacifier, and a small nap in the arms of mamá. The three of them […]
In the province of the Bas-Congo, southwest of Kinshasa, “prophecies” blame innocents for the misfortune of their loved ones.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 CLASHES IN JERUSALEM AFTER DEATH OF PALESTINIAN TEEN A 16 year-old Palestinian who was allegedly kidnapped yesterday by Israelis, in an apparent retaliation for the death of the three abducted Israeli students, was found dead early this morning in a forest west of Jerusalem, AFP reports. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said […]
On the Moroccan beaches, near Tangier or Casablanca, the dunes have disappeared – leaving a lunar landscape. They were not destroyed by storms, but stolen night after night by squads of trucks – to build vacation homes for the tourists who come for the coast’s warm waters and soft sands. For many years now the […]
The World Bank has recently published a report entitled “Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience.” Rising sea levels, heat extremes, aridity, impacts on ecosystems… Unsurprisingly, the news is not so good on the climate front, and the experts are raising the alarm. In the first Turn Down the […]
MADRID – Spain is in danger of extinction. There are fewer and fewer children and more and more elders. This stark prognosis has been known for some years now: in 2050 Spain will be the oldest country in the world. People over 80 years old will represent the biggest segment of its population. There will […]