Worldcrunch
OSLO — It’s still too early to predict how Norway’s Prime Minister-elect Erna Solberg, who was elected earlier this month, will tweak the oil policy developed by outgoing Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. During his eight-year tenure — even as Norway was in the process of building its wealth — the government adopted standards for managing […]
BERLIN — The all-conquering hero is traditionally a masculine figure, but in Angela Merkel it finds its feminine embodiment. Her election result is more than a victory; it is a triumph. Moreover, it is her triumph, and not her party’s. It is Merkel as an individual, as the chancellor with unprecedented approval ratings, who has […]
U.S. AND ALLIES STRIKE ISIS IN SYRIAThe United States has begun striking ISIS and a new al-Qaeda group named Khorosan in Syria, “unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea,” according to The New York Times. The military said its first direct intervention in the country had been backed […]
JIANGNAN – It’s that time of a year again for Chinese crab lovers. Connoisseurs of mitten crabs, this expensive seasonal delicacy, know that the crustacean is concentrated in Jiangnan, in the southern part of the Yangtze Delta, The autumn harvesting is carried out mostly very early in the morning before sunrise. Using the crab’s phototropism, […]
Germany Spain Italy United Kingdom Greece France Belgium Turkey Portugal United States
LIMA — Why are more and more Mashco-Piro native Indians who have always lived in deep isolation in the Amazon jungle being spotted around inhabited areas? This question is worrying Peru as never-before-seen photographs of the tribe emerged in August. “We usually get a glimpse of them once a year, but their appearances have been […]
SYRIAN KURDS FLEE ISISTurkish authorities have closed some of the country’s border crossings with Syria after ISIS’ advance has caused some 130,000 Syrian Kurds to flee to Turkey over the past two days, the BBC reports. But after clashes with the refugees on the border, with Turkish troops using water canons and tear gas, British […]
LODZ — If 50 years ago somebody had told our Polish grandparents that they would be able to have a video call with someone from anywhere in the world, they probably would have sent that person to the nearest chapel to beg forgiveness for heresy. Today, we are confronted with futuristic visions like scanning people […]
It’s a weekend morning. Y, a lesbian woman, changes out of her usual masculine attire and puts on an elaborate woman’s outfit to go and visit the parents of A, a homosexual man. The visit is to inform the parents that Y and A are getting married, and hope that they will approve of their […]
Animals are adorable. Usually. In a recent competition on YouTube, the blobfish was voted the ugliest animal in the world and is now the face of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. But is it truly the least fairest of them all? We took a look and found some creatures that only a mother that ugly […]
-Analysis- VATICAN CITY — The pope who came from “almost the ends of the earth” continues to spread his message of hope, secure in the knowledge that the proclamation of the Gospel has much to offer men and women of our times. By no means should we believe that modernity will bring the end of […]
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch’s pick of the week is a live performance of Nirvana playing “Scentless Apprentice,” which features on the band’s third and final studio album, In Utero. The footage, originally recorded in 1993, is being released amongst other never-before-seen performances […]
BERLIN — It is becoming chic in Germany not to vote — and to make sure that everyone knows that you didn’t. It used to be just the poor and unemployed who failed to show at the polls, and, ashamed, they hid that fact. Now abstainers come from educated, well-off circles, and opinion polls warn […]
MUNICH – A single electoral poster sums up Angela Merkel’s campaign: a collage of 2,100 photos, all taken by anonymous “Angie” fans, displayed on a 2,400 square meter billboard outside Berlin’s central station. Germany’s Future Is In Good Hands, it says. Of Angela Merkel, we only see the two hands, shaped in a triangle, a […]
GENEVA — No need to read Plato’s complete works or learn by heart the words of the Dalai Lama to understand the meaning of happiness. Science may have the answers. At the University Hospital of Geneva (UHG), neurologist Fabienne Picard has been studying for years a very rare phenomenon that scientific literature barely talks about […]
LONDON – Double-parked cars causing a traffic jam, mothers in a rush, a supervisor watching the gate: the usual end of a school day in South London. Except that the school is Iqra VA, a Muslim primary, and all the mothers are wearing the veil. Five of them even wear a niqab, the full veil […]
The Catalan Igualada Hockey Club has long been one of the best ice hockey clubs in Spain, both the men’s and women’s teams. But due to a recent lack of sponsorship and a cut in subsidies caused by the ongoing Spanish economic crisis, the company decided it could only keep the men’s squad. The women’s […]
BOGOTA — The LGBTI community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual/Transgender and Intersexual) in Colombia has suffered disappearances, forced migrations, mutilations, humiliation and abuse. The phrase “damaged bodies, silent crimes’ has come to be used by this community to describe their suffering often made even worse by the civil war that has torn Colombia apart over the […]
SCOTLAND SAYS “NO” TO INDEPENDENCEScotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom with 55.3% of voters rejecting independence. The results from all 32 council areas show the “No” side won with 2,001,926 votes to the 1,617,989 “Yes” votes. The independence campaign did score four big successes, though, winning 53% in the largest city of Glasgow, […]
-Editorial- BEIJING – At the recent International Investment Forum, Justin Lin Yifu, the former World Bank chief economist, was asked how he personally invested his money. “All my money is in the bank, in fixed deposits,” he said, before adding with a smile, “When I sleep at night, they are still earning interest for me, […]
PHOENIX – Eight years ago, as brain researchers Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik were driving down the Las Vegas Strip, the billboards they passed suddenly got them to rethink about the brain’s capacity to process visual information. Until then, the two professors at the prestigious Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona had addressed this question by […]
-Analysis- MOSCOW — So Russian diplomats finally prevailed on the Syria question. Since the beginning of the clashes in 2011 between the Syrian army, which is loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and the armed opposition, Russia has used all of its power to prevent an international intervention, including blocking a UN Security Council resolution condemning […]
GAIBANDHA DISTRICT — In remote areas of Bangladesh, the Internet can arrive in unpredictable ways. Take for example, Shathi, who rolls into a small village, ringing the bell on her bike – and soon the kids are running to tell their parents, screaming “Hello! Hello!” And so the women of the village come out of […]
SCOTLAND’S MOMENT OF TRUTHThe time has come for Scottish voters to decide whether they want to live in an independent Scotland or remain part of the United Kingdom. Polling stations will be open until 10 p.m. local time ,and the results are expected by tomorrow morning, though the counting could take longer than usual, as […]
This past week has seen a philosophy-related shooting, a Justin Bieber impostor, and more.
PARIS – Between 2004 and 2005, Zheyun Ye knocked on the door of almost every professional soccer club in Belgium. By introducing himself as a timely investor, this Chinese expat managed to convince the board of the penniless Lierse SK club to accept a check worth 370,000 euros ($500,000). Except that Zheyun Ye was not […]
PARIS – Everywhere skills transform lives, generate prosperity and promote social inclusion. And if there’s one lesson the global economy has taught us over the last few years, it’s that we cannot simply bail ourselves out of a crisis — stimulus plans and printing money can never be a lasting solution to our economic problems. […]
Some say that entrepreneurs are born out of necessity. Looking at Hernán Jaramillo and Roberto Cuartas, it becomes clear that only perseverance makes them come to life. The two young men from Colombia are trained industrial engineers and the creators of TareasPlus.com, an online learning portal for young people and adults that is revolutionizing online […]
ST. PETERSBURG — The physics lab is under the school’s cupola, literally in a holy place. This used to be a small home chapel, and now it’s a specialized classroom. The St. Petersburg physics and math school No. 30 moved back to this building, its historic home in the Vasilyevsky Island section of St. Petersburg, […]
While You Slept Wednesday, September 17, 2014 LAST DAY OF CAMPAIGNING IN SCOTLAND Pro-independence and pro-union militants are campaigning for the last day in Scotland, with the latest polls ahead of tomorrow’s referendum giving the “No” to independence a slight lead, although more than 8% are still undecided, according to The Daily Mail. Newspapers across […]
The United Nations just released its World Happiness Report, ranking China No. 93. Denmark is the winner, and the U.S. finishes at a respectable No. 17.
PARIS — Conflict, scandal, disrepair: the bad news must be reported, wrongdoing exposed. Still, journalism too often is obsessed solely with what is broken — the breaking news, in every sense of the word. Worldcrunch Impact takes a different starting point, with another question that journalists should ask: How might things get better? How can […]
What are the best ways to make our schools — and students — smarter? We don’t have the answer here. But it’s sure to include a healthy dose of looking beyond your own backyard for good ideas that may be working elsewhere. Good teachers and adequate funding are no doubt central. So too is equipping […]
-OpEd- PARIS — The Kerry-Lavrov agreement finally ends any illusion of a new “Cold War” that would have featured a showdown in Syria between friends of Washington and allies of Moscow. With the deal inked between American Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, it has become clear that the U.S. […]
NEW DELHI — The findings of India’s first linguistic census in a century were unveiled earlier this month. Of the 850 languages identified, 300 had never previously been documented, and nearly 200 are considered at risk of extinction because they have fewer than 10,000 speakers. The Sept. 5 ceremony took place at the Gandhi memorial […]
-OpEd- BEIJING — Apple released the iPhone 5c and 5s in Beijing last week, marking the first time ever that Apple has chosen the world’s biggest market for a launch. The company seems to hope that the two new smartphones will help the brand here, where it hovers alternately between fifth and sixth place in […]
U.S. STEPS UP ANTI-ISIS STRIKESWashington opened a new phase in its anti-ISIS campaign by launching airstrikes near Baghdad to help the Iraqi government regain territories it lost to the terrorist group, The New York Times reports. The newspaper also reported that ISIS is recruiting heavily in the poor neighborhoods of Turkey’s capital Ankara, from which […]
A father and son take shelter from the rain. Suddenly, a 76-year old man arrives, wedging himself in between the two of them. After a throwaway remark about the downpour, a question alters the course of the conversation. “During the war, you weren’t in Fonfría by any chance?” the man asks the father, referring to […]