The explosion of digital technologies and other techonological advances will continue to draw casualties from a surprisingly wide array of employment sectors.
Month: October 2013
IDLIB – On my trip to northern Syria a week ago, I asked my hosts lots of questions. Will the Syrian regime be able to recapture the liberated areas inside Syria? Are you better off with the regime returning to your area, or with the rule of the others, including those run by civilians, the Free Syrian Army or the al-Qaida-backed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)? After all, many changes had taken place since my last visit in early July. The elected president of Egypt, a patron of Syrian refugees in that country, was removed from power by […]
Friday, October 24, 2014 MORE ALLEGATIONS OF ISIS CHEMICAL ATTACK There is a new accusation that ISIS fighters launched a chemical attack, this time against Iraqi security forces north of Baghdad, The Washington Post reports just hours after unconfirmed details emerged of a similar attack against Kurdish fighters in Syria. U.S. officials are investigating. A […]
BEIJING — When recently visiting four Central Asian countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the starting point of the ancient Silk Road by which China exported its silk, china and jade to Europe was his own hometown of Xi’an. He suggested that China and the Central Asia countries, with a total population of 3 […]
In Russia, bribes taste good; In Itay, undertakers are on the take; French panty thief and endangered turtle smuggling … and other global crimes that made headlines this week.
FLORENCE — “This taxi is a revolution of love: I’m rediscovering life thanks to death …” Caterina Bellandi’s words are nearly as colorful as her coat. For the past 12 years, this exuberant Florentine taxi driver has turned off the meter to give joy rides around Florence to child cancer patients, or simply accompany them […]
How many slaves are there around the world? What’s the (government-set) price of marijuana in Uruguay? Can an online video game star be a millionaire? Take a tour of the news by the numbers…
MBANDAKA — Don’t tell Mfutu Etawale Ratis he’s a magician or a witch doctor. The self-proclaimed traditional practitioner says he can cure mental illness. And in this northwestern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where modern treatments are often missing, Ratis is one of the only people trying to help patients with mental disorders. […]
Since the discovery, Csanad Szegedi, one of the founders of Hungary’s far-right party, has lost his old friends and found a new way to spend his Saturdays.
ACAPULCO — Before coming to Acapulco, I had heard many disturbing things about the city. For example, that six Spanish girls were brutally raped on the top floor of a beautiful beachfront villa last February as their boyfriends, handcuffed, were made to watch. That Acapulco had suddenly become the most violent city in Mexico — […]
Thursday, October 23, 2014 CANADA “NOT INTIMIDATED” Details of the suspected Ottawa gunman who killed Canadian soldier Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa yesterday are starting to emerge. The Globe And Mail describes 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as “a man who had had a religious awakening and seemed to have become mentally unstable.” The Toronto Star portrays him […]
After being arrested by French police during a school field trip, then deported with her family to Kosovo, 15-year-old Leonarda has become a symbol of Roma everywhere.
WAINGAPU — In a remote western village on the Indonesian island of Sumba, 37-year-old Rambu Cinta sits on the porch of her thatched roof house chewing beetle nut. For most of her life she has lived without electricity. “Before at night we didn’t have anything to do. So after we had eaten dinner we just went to sleep,” she says with a laugh. Now her family is one of 100 households that are getting electricity from a nearby micro-hydro power plant. Umbu Hanggar says it has changed the home economics for his family, and extended family. “With electricity, the women […]
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11 Smart Cities Around The World
There is a long and healthy tradition of “sister cities,” where municipal leaders from different countries build ongoing relationships and exchange ideas. The same spirit drives this Smarter Cities series, the second installment of our Worldcrunch Impact solutions journalism initiative. For experts in the field, a “smart city” may refer to those using the latest […]
Our Worldcrunch Impact special editor has lived in half a dozen different cities around the world, always with an eye out for the local features that improve modern life.
TOULOUSE — After a year of work and five million euros in investments, Sigfox, a start-up from Labège, near Toulouse, southern France, has just finished deploying a new communications network — an Internet of Things — in 95% of the cities in France. Sensors spread out across cities and their suburbs will be able to […]
SHANGHAI — The annual rush in Apple stores all over the world started Sept. 20 when the Cupertino, Calif.-based company released its new iPhones 5S and 5C. Outside Fifth Avenue in New York, the queue was the longest in store history. Similarly, in China, people went en masse to buy the latest smartphone, but for […]
MEXICO CITY — Dr. Emmett Brown takes banana peels, leftover beer, and some other pieces of garbage from the trash to charge his car — a DeLorean equipped with the Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor. Although in this scene from the movie Back To The Future (1985), the technology was invented in 2015, energy generated […]
Wednesday, October 22, 2014 ISIS SHOWS OFF CAPTURED U.S. WEAPONS ISIS fighters released a video in which they appear to be in possession of at least one cache of weapons dropped two days ago by U.S. military aircraft and intended to supply Kurdish fighters battling against the terrorist group in the Syrian border town of […]
ISTANBUL — The Republican era of Turkey began with the rejection of the Ottoman past by those destined to fill the ranks of the civilian and military cadres under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This new establishment was keen on modernization and Westernization, with the ultimate goal of creating a modern nation-state from the […]
PARIS — Will the yuan dethrone the dollar one day? The Chinese currency may have just moved a step further in that direction with the October 10 signature between the European Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China (the country’s central bank) for the establishment of a “currency swap” mechanism. The terms of the […]
Tuesday, October 21, 2014 NEW ISIS OFFENSIVE IN KOBANI ISIS fighters have launched an assault “on all fronts” in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. The offensive came hours after U.S. airplanes dropped ammunition and medical aid to besieged Kurdish fighters. It also came […]
BEIJING — The “Hierarchy of Needs,” an influential psychological theory put forth by American psychologist Abraham Maslow, tells us that humans have different levels of needs. From the most basic physiological necessities such as water, food and sex, to love, belonging and self-actualization. It is notable that security comes in second on the hierarchy after […]
TUNIS – At a recent Ghana vs. Egypt World Cup qualifying match, Ghanaian soccer fans wore yellow t-shirts and held signs featuring a dark black hand holding up four fingers. The clear attempt to taunt the Egyptian fans is the latest appearance of what has become an increasingly important symbol of the sharp divisions in […]
The Brazilian indigenous Guarani nation has had their land taken away and way of life threatened – now a new study shows the suicide rate is 34 times higher than the national average.
A quick trip around the world in six photographs, from London and Paris to Tokyo and Kabul…
Monday, October 20, 2014 TURKEY TO LET IRAQI KURDS FIGHT IN KOBANI Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the country would let Iraqi Kurds cross its border and join Syrian Kurds fighting against ISIS in the city of Kobani, the BBC reports. The announcement came after U.S. aircraft dropped ammunition, small arms and medical supplies […]
GENEVA — Imagine yourself in the office of a senior executive of a big company, such as Nestlé or UBS. But instead of typing on his computer’s keyboard, the man just sits still, chin resting on his fist and gazing as if lost in thought. Like a modern thinker, he invokes Aristotle and reflects on […]
-OpEd- At the moment when the Titanic struck the iceberg, the ship’s captain was not on the bridge. Edward Smith had gone below deck to bed. Both before and after the collision, the captain proved himself to be worse than useless, issuing confused orders and failing to take control of the evacuation. He let the […]
The news of the week reviewed by the words that stuck: from Iran to Russia, French party leader Marine Le Pen to U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham, see what was said around the world and why it matters.
LAMPEDUSA — Yesterday, they buried those remaining of the 385 victims from the Oct. 3 shipwreck off Lampedusa. There were no flowers. No gravestones. None of the ceremony that so many had promised. That first day, as the death toll mounted, various political leaders, including Prime Minister Enrico Letta, had called for some kind of […]
MOSCOW — The timing of the Geneva 2 conference about the future of Syria’s chemical weapons has changed once again. According to our sources, it is probably not going to be mid-November — as Russia and the U.S. had first indicated — but rather at the end of that month, or maybe even in December. […]
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch Pick: This October, the New York-based record label Luaka Bop re-released some of William Onyeabor’s best works. The album is conveniently called “Who is William Onyeabor?” The Nigerian funk musician, who came to prominence in the late 1970s, […]
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Is China’s Urban Boom A House Of Cards?
BEIJING — “Better city, better life …” This was the theme of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, a nod to the ancient Greek scholar Aristotle who understood what people expect from urban life: to make their living a better living. But what is the reality in people’s lives right now? During China’s golden week — […]
From Greece to France to Austria, political parties espousing anti-immigrant, anti-euro policies are making gains across Europe.
In the northern city of Raqqa, the condemned — some civilians, some soldiers, shabiha or alleged Assad collaborators — are brought blindfolded and handcuffed to the city square to be shot in the head in public. Once celebrated as one of Syria’s first fully liberated cities, Raqqa, now under the control of the al-Qaida backed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has become infamous for brutal public executions and other fear tactics carried out by extremists. The executions are carried out swiftly and without legal counsel. Asyad al-Mousa, a 34-year-old lawyer, is dedicated to documenting the mounting number […]
MOSCOW — In the wake of last weekend’s anti-immigrant riots in Moscow and the burning of a produce warehouse, the Russian government still seems to be holding on stubbornly to the idea that the problem is simply uncontrolled migration from the post-Soviet states. The government has made frequent tweaks to the immigration laws in the […]
Bad-mouthing your colleagues can actually have unexpected benefits, both for the gossiper and the company itself, says the French author of a controversial new book.