Worldcrunch
SÃO PAULO — When it comes to freshwater, Brazil, home to somewhere between 12% and 16% of the world’s total supply, is a very wealthy country. Inhabitants only use 0.7% of the 43,000 cubic meters of water per year that could, theoretically, be available to each and every one of them. In this regard, Brazil […]
When the Black Keys decide to cover other people’s songs, the result is usually pretty good. And when they decide to cover a masterpiece, such as Edwyn Collins’ 1994 “A Girl Like You,” it is truly a special occasion. Indeed, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, the band’s bluegrass rockers, saved the song for a gig […]
In Tartus, on Syria’s western coast, residents in relative calm. But even here, a new sectarian melting pot and a flagging war economy are beginning to take their toll.
Two writers explore the evolution of the Jewish and Chinese experiences, at home and abroad, finding lessons from what the two cultures share in common, and what they don’t.
DUSSELDORF — Something happened on a Friday night in the atrium of Düsseldorf’s most beautiful hotel that caused DJ Antoine“s normally enviably good mood to sour. He was talking about a few of the items he’d bought now that he earned the kind of money to buy beautiful things. Then, somewhere between the very expensive […]
The dispute over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is unique. But Argentinians can still draw lessons from the way Britain averted the prospect of Scottish independence.
This is just a brief note to say that our journey is taking a momentary hiatus, but for a very good reason: My collaborator in this project, le petit-fils (the grandson), Bertrand, and his beautiful new bride Amandine have set off on their honeymoon — in Brazil! Wishing them much happiness together, and of course, […]
Outrage in China over high salaries and low performance of top executives of state-owned enterprises exposes an entire system that responds to neither markets or the public interest.
One effect of Russia’s embargo on Western food products is the disappearance of imported Polish mushrooms. Microcosm of economic warfare around a Russian culinary tradition.
Scottish voters have handily rejected the independence referendum. Still, Scotland is destined to gain more autonomy and drift ever farther away from London, with consequences across the UK.
Who knew these were the reasons to visit the scenic Black Forest.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new biometric system aims to prevent locals from pilfering supplies meant for victims of civil conflict. The aid often ends up at local markets.
Some gay men have so many sexual partners that straight people find the numbers hard to believe. But it’s less about being gay and more about the nature of male sexual desire.
In 1996, DJ Shadow released his debut album Endtroducing….., made up almost entirely of samples from various discs the American artist bought in record shops. This flagship and critically acclaimed piece of work soon became a cornerstone of the sampling culture. More than a decade later, in 2009, an Israeli musician known as Kutiman led […]
There might be a reason why everyday radio tunes tend to sound the same: most humans prefer repetition over variation in their music. According to an online TED lesson by Elizabeth Hellmuth Marguli, the director of the Music Cognition Lab at the University of Arkansas, hearing the same loops and songs over and over again […]
Greece native Ioannis Ikonomou learned English at age five, German at seven and Italian at barely 10. He hasn’t stopped since, and is currently mastering Albanian.
Boasting of the good life, safe from the chronic problems of the Egyptian capital, the “New Cairo” developments blamed for wasting precious water for all, now face shortages of their own.
While criticism of medical care in China grows, public hospitals offer a solution that is laughably shallow.
The driving force of multiple and competing jihadist groups here is the dream of returning to the three original Arab states, and overthrowing the King and his Palestinian wife.
TEL AVIV — In recent days we have been witnessing growing discontent among Hamas public employees in Gaza who have not been paid their salaries. The situation endangers the coalition government between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and it is without exaggeration to say that the non-payment by the government in Ramallah could restart the […]
PARIS — After changing the way we listen to music with the iPod and kickstarting the smartphone era with the iPhone, is Apple Pay going to revolutionize how we pay? The least we can say is that the Cupertino giant has done everything to maximize its chances of succeeding in its objective: to relegate wallets […]
It’s become a corporate truism that making the boss look good makes employees look good. Some pro advice on how to actually make this most important business relationship work.
After militants serve time in Guantanamo or Saudi prisons, the kingdom tries to ease them back into society with a mix of carrot, stick and religion.
MANILA — Sometimes to get around Manila, you need to take a trike, otherwise known as a motorcycle with a sidecar. The drivers weave around the traffic and up onto sidewalks. Trikes are noisy and emit a lot of exhaust too. But not the one Alfredo Forelo drives. A few months ago, the 38-year-old traded in his old one for a new, battery-powered e-trike. It holds up to eight passengers and is so quiet that it can hardly be heard. On the old tricycles, he used to get sick a lot, he says — colds, flu, asthma. But not anymore. […]
BUENOS AIRES — The problem of overweight cops in Argentina is apparently, well, rather big. While almost 58% of the Argentine population is considered overweight — blame their love of barbecue, steak sandwiches and choripán sausage sandwiches — a staggering 80% of police officers are of “abnormal weight,” thanks to junk food, stress and sedentary […]
Young do-gooders flock to Cambodian orphanages to volunteer, sometimes paying for the privilege. But child advocates worry if these visitors are more harmful than helpful.
BEIJING — China’s Internet heavyweights all seem to be joining a kind of film industry gold rush. Sohu, one of China’s largest Internet portal operators, has acquired a 6.4% stake in KeyEast, a South Korean entertainment company, and Sohu CEO Charles Zhang has announced that it will consider producing films once the company’s downloading platform […]
Many of Google’s services have been created in Switzerland, and the Zurich site has grown from just two employees in 2004 to 1,300 today. It’s like a snow-capped Mountain View.
CUCUTA — It’s 2 p.m., and the borderland between Colombia and Venezuela is sizzling in the afternoon heat. Sweat is the permanent companion of all those crossing the Simón Bolívar bridge linking Venezuela with the Colombian border city of Cúcuta. Mariela* has been sitting for two hours in an endless line of cars, returning from […]
Would people stop working if the government gave them a basic income? One Berliner wants to prove the opposite, raising money for an experiment to showcase the idea.
Malls, not walls, in Germany’s capital, but can it compete with the Internet?
As Europe continues to be divvied up into smaller, ethnically homogenous nations, the burdern falls on larger countries, compromising the leverage and a united West.
OXFORD — The walls in this Oxford, Mississippi, bookstore are covered with pictures of authors. One by one, Richard Howorth comments on them, as if this place were an open book narrating a multitude of unfinished stories. With his wife, this keen-eyed slender man with a dry humor has owned and managed Square Books, housed […]
Tired of being denied basic rights, Egypt’s political prisoners are increasingly trying to break the cycle of helplessness with the one bit of control they still have over their lives.
The neoliberal global system shows remarkable staying power. A German critic of the system explains how the so-called ‘sharing economy’ is the ultimate trick and triumph of capitalism.
For the Argentine daily Clarin, the proposal backed by President Kirchner to move the capital to a much smaller city is not just wrong for practical reasons, but a sign of something more sinister.
In Afrikaans, the name of this South African mountain range means “the dragon’s mountain.” The closest thing we saw to dragons were wooden hippos. In Drakensberg, much like everywhere else, peddlers made their way to even the most remote places.
What do a Pretty Woman, Charlie’s Angel And Smurfette have in common? They all have the voice of actress Celine Monsarrat, who finally drops the mask on a 30-year career of finding the perfect pitch for incarnating other people’s roles. PARIS — I started in this field a bit by accident thanks to an aunt […]
MONROVIA— “Welcome to hell.“ There is no cynicism and no irony in the voice of the young French volunteer from Médecins sans frontières (Doctors without Borders). The deep rings of fatigue under his eyes tell the same tale. This “hell” is Elwa in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Elwa is the largest treatment center ever […]