Worldcrunch
Federica Trivelli got her first pig as a birthday present in 2009. Today, there are about 20 in her land in Vigone, which has its own Facebook page called The Little Animal Farm. But, unlike the Orwellian nightmare, these pigs are anything but evil. “All the pigs have been abused, or have been saved from […]
The words making news around the world…
Clinics and industrialists are trying to make use of the unique fibers of spider webs. But producing the precious molecule that forms it in sufficient quantities isn’t easy.
It’s almost the weekend! Time to see what the world’s been listening to this week. Worldcrunch: Outsiders, “Summertime Blues” Austria: Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass” Dominican Republic: Mozart La Para, “Pa Gozar” Swaziland: M.anifest & HHP, “Jigah” Saudi Arabia: Ismaeel Mubarak, “Shoog” Macau: Jinny Ng, “Love Is Not Easy” Source: Hot Music Chart
New revelations point to collusion between authorities and a drug cartel that may have led to the killing of 40 Mexican teenagers. Like Colombia a generation ago, a nation faces its deepest evils.
On the Turkish border, at a refugee camp where Kurds from the Syrian town of Kobani are taking refuge, the displaced wonder why Turkey and the West aren’t arming them against ISIS.
Claire, who raised her daughter near Paris as an atheist, has seen the teen fall in love with a deeply conservative young man from Egypt. The dream is to escape to live under Sharia law.
Welcome to Moonshine, where it would all seem illegal if everyone didn’t look so cool.
The Polish Solidarity leader and Nobel Peace Prize Winner offers a combative vision for how Europe can stand up to Moscow. He speaks from experience.
Last month’s optimistic reports of declining poverty rates in Colombia are a world away from reality.
Kang Chun-hyok, a 29-year-old North Korean defector and hip hop artist now living in South Korea, wants to release his first album in December and become the first internationally recognized hip hop artist of his native country. Kang was born in North Korea’s Onsung County, North Hamkyung Province. In an interview with the Indonesian radio […]
BERLIN – Ebola has reached Europe. No, it is not just here via patients brought to isolation wards under strict security conditions to be saved from an otherwise relatively certain death by high-tech Western medicine. Now the virus has arrived in a Spanish hospital, having managed to pass from a priest infected in West Africa […]
Since the Egyptian government cut fuel subsidies earlier this year, the cost of fuel has hit working Egyptians where it hurts. Carpooling and even bus-pooling are gaining steam.
The news in images from around the world…
Haiti has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Americas. Where female sexuality is taboo and abortions illegal, it all happens clandestinely, and in the worst possible health conditions.
If you want milk or Berlin-made vodka, bring your own bottles. At Original Unpackaged, there’s no cardboard or shrink wrap, nothing jarred or canned. Is this the smart consumer of the future?
One slipped away, the other killed his way out of ISIS after witnessing too much brutality from the jihadist group. But as they tell their dramatic stories, sharp differences emerge.
Many local journalists fled Deir Ezzor when ISIS arrived – and the ones who stayed behind are forced to abide by the extremist group’s draconian list of 11 rules.
The German maker of water filters finds it crazy that we are still shipping bottled water all around the world. And both its message and its adaptation to different markets are paying off.
They want to expel “non-European” immigrants and expound ugly racial theories. A reporter sits in at the controversial international gathering even the Hungarian government tried to ban.
The proliferation of Latin American multinationals – multilatinas – is the surest sign that the region is freeing itself of its 20th century central vice: selling raw materials to a single patron power.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, people have come to rely on the ability to do basic financial transactions anywhere. The downside is when cellular connection crashes.
Zurich-based group Zürcher Tierschutz launched a campaign earlier this year to set a quota for the country’s cats, deeming them a threat to other wildlife, including small mammals, reptiles and birds. However, since the campaign began, cat lovers have been pawsitively up in arms about it. The group estimates there to be 1.4 million cats […]
Plans for a new, 80,000-seat stadium to host to 2020 Tokyo Games has been met with fierce criticism from prominent Japanese architects – on both aesthetic and ecological grounds.
Latin Americans who find the gym tedious are discovering that their own homegrown dances are a way to stay fit with a smile on your face.
With no electricity or gas, enterprising locals in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have begun extracting fuel products by melting plastic scavenged from destroyed buildings.
After monks went on a hunger strike to push for a citywide ban on animal slaughter, the local government declared Palitana a meat-free zone. But the city’s Muslims are not happy.
Coined a half-century ago by Marshall McLuhan, the ‘global village’ had come to express hope in a connected world. Now, such plagues as ISIS and Ebola, show how that can turn against us.
Though both parties deny it, there have been rumors and a number of signs pointing to a possible reconciliation between the Egyptian government and the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
What is at stake in Brazil’s Oct. 5 presidential election? If Dilma Rousseff winds up losing, we could see a return to clientelism and realignment with the U.S.
At 1,000 rooms and a $350 million pricetag, the vast new palace the Turkish president has had built for himself is both illegal and a bold expression of his own power and that of the “new Turkey.”
This week, people in Turkmenistan are dancing to Kiesza. In Uganda, they’re listening to Korede Bello. We’re looking forward to the weekend with this band from Birmigham: Worldcrunch: Black Sabbath, “War Pigs” Spain: Sia, “Chandelier” Panama: MAGIC!, “Rude” Uganda: Korede Bello, “Cold Outside” United Arab Emirates: John Legend, “All Of Me” Turkmenistan: Kiesza, “Hideaway” Source: […]
MECCA – Muslims from around the world are heading towards this Saudi Arabian city for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the fifth pillar of Islam, which began this week. The five-day journey is the opportunity of a lifetime for many, and a most sacred moment of faith. Our digitally connected world also means it’s a moment […]
In an article published on Immersive, a new website that enables easily produced and elegant storytelling, Paris-based writer and musician Ilan Moss delivers a fascinating account of Italy’s “Trallaleri” singers. This ancient form of European polyphonic singing can still be found in the quiet streets of the port city of Genoa. Trallalero is usually performed […]
-OpEd- MOSCOW — Patriotic hysterics between Ukraine and Russia have given birth to a host of scathing labels — terms such a “fifth column” and “friends of the junta” — that state-owned television channels and some newspapers are employing with increasing zeal to identify Russia’s many “internal enemies.” The number of people targeted with these […]
The October 2013 shipwreck that killed 366 off the Italian coast moved the world to the plight of Africa’s desperate migrants. A survivor from Eritrea tries to start a new life in Sweden.
At Munich’s Oktoberfest, an hour-by-hour account of the emergencies, medical and otherwise, when all the beer-drinking and dirndl-chasing go too far. (Note: Watch out for the Aussies.)
The automobile market in China is at full throttle, but customers are extremely fickle. What are automakers – foreign and domestic – supposed to do to build brand loyalty?
Unlike al-Qaeda, which was always meant to operate on a global level, ISIS has been much more linked to its territory in Syria and Iraq. But that’s now starting to change.