Worldcrunch
The elk-antler sculpture that arches across Highway 89 in Afton, Wyoming is the largest in the world. Are there others? An impressive 15-ton agglomeration of more than 3,000 antlers, it looked quite solid to me. My wife, however, decided it was safer to stand under the little arch next to it.
“Saving the Planet” isn’t enough. Activists must begin to think about other ways to push people towards an ecological approach to life.
PARIS — With 20 to 25 burials a day on average, the iconic Père Lachaise Cemetery is used to a steady pace of funerals — but these ceremonies are different. On Monday, the largest cemetery in Paris was partially closed for two hours to allow 19 employees to meet with a psychologist about the trauma […]
As boundaries between work and private life fall away, telecommuting has been a rising trend in recent years. But some now have begun to opt for living at work.
TURIN — Like in a comedy that suddenly turns into tragedy, a caricature of Silvio Berlusconi may become the next president of the United States. It’s not really shocking that Donald Trump would propose closing the Internet and the borders to Muslims, as Americans have grown sick and tired of President Obama’s babblings and potential […]
Which is the greater number: $105 or $100 plus 3%? You might think this a trivial question, but about 60% of adults can’t answer it correctly — and many of them still use financial services. It’s an alarming situation. After all, smokers understand they’re taking a risk, if only because they’ve seen the health warning on cigarette packs; but bank clients, especially in poorer countries, are often clueless about money matters. Standard & Poor’s Global Financial Literacy Survey goes further than any of the previous research in examining the phenomenon throughout the world. It’s based on 150,000 interviews in more […]
FINAL BATACLAN ATTACKER IDENTIFIED The last of the three suicide attackers at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, where 90 people were killed on Nov. 13, has been identified as Foued Mohamed-Aggad, a 23-year-old man from Strasbourg, in eastern France, Le Parisien quotes French authorities as revealing Wednesday. TALIBAN KILL 22 IN AFGHAN AIRPORT, HOLD […]
The mural on the northern wall of Mexico City’s Central Library, on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico — the largest university in Latin America — is a sight to behold. The central section depicts the mythical founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the former capital of the Mexican Empire, with an eagle eating a […]
La Tercera, Dec. 9, 2015 “Environmentalist entrepreneur Douglas Tompkins dies,” writes Santiago-based daily La Tercera on its front page Wednesday, after U.S. conservationist and North Face Inc. founder Douglas Tompkins died in a kayaking accident, in his adopted country of Chile. Tompkins, 72, was kayaking with five others on General Carrera Lake in far southern […]
The very essence of intelligence is that it’s human, and can never be recreated by something artificial.
Iranian foreign policy is still a major question mark, even as Western delegations stream through Tehran in the wake of a nuclear deal that promises an end to sanctions and international isolation. But there is no denying that Iran is a major regional power, which holds the real potential of becoming a working partner with […]
A study recently released in Germany demonstrates that right-wing parties win on average 30% more votes after a financial crisis. The success of France’s Marine Le Pen is just the latest example.
BANYULS-SUR-MER — Up on these hillsides, vineyards descend steeply, almost falling into the blue waves of the Mediterranean. The soil is hard, and plowing is done by hand. But local winegrowers in Banyuls-sur-Mer and the neighboring towns of Port-Vendres, Collioure and Cerbère, just north of the border with Spain, wouldn’t have it any other way. […]
SYRIA’S OPPOSITION GROUPS MEET IN RIYADH Syrian armed and political opposition groups are set to meet in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh today as part of a three-day conference aimed at finding a common position ahead of potential peace talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s government, Al Jazeera reports. VERBATIM “I am hereby barring Donald Trump […]
Tuesday’s cover of U.S. daily the Philadelphia Daily News shows a file photograph of Republican front-runner Donald Trump gesticulating with his hand in what happens to look that moment like a Nazi-like salute, together with the headline “The New Furor” — a pun with Führer, the German word for “leader” and Adolf Hitler’s infamous title. […]
In the fairy tale, the evil queen disguises herself as an old woman and tries to kill Snow White with a poisoned apple. What the story left out is that she then moved to Cyprus to sell jars of marmalade.
Thousands of Syrian women face not just grief but also fear and poverty after losing their husbands to war. They often endure strict control from their remaining family and are forbidden to work. Some make the heartbreaking decision to remarry.
TAIPEI — The latest piece of ISIS propaganda is a four-minute Chinese-language song released over the weekend on the Islamic terror group’s official website Jihadology. Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) is reporting that the song, which first appeared Sunday, is entitled “We Are Mujahid” and features a vocal chorus in Chinese urging would-be jihadists to […]
KRUGERSDORP — A group of men are running away on a wasteland adjoining the residential district of Mindalore, in Krugersdorp (25 miles west of Johannesburg). They probably came out of the “Old Jerusalem” mine, opened in 1886, two years after the first nugget was discovered in Johannesburg, the city that gave the world one third […]
El Universal, Dec. 7, 2015 CARACAS — Venezuelans congratulated themselves for what several officials described as an “exemplary” election, without violence or widespread accusations of fraud. The ballot Sunday saw the liberal opposition to President Nicolas Maduro took 99 of 167 parliamentary seats in a provisional vote count, with the ruling, socialist PSUV party winning […]
BANGALORE — Here in the Indian capital of global call centers, the Dalai Lama was the feature guest at the Arab-Asian Chamber of Commerce” Peace for Economy conference. In an interview with La Stampa on the sidelines of the conference, the highest authority of Tibetan Buddhism extended an olive branch to the West’s current Enemy […]
Libération, Dec. 7, 2015 “It’s getting closer,” warns French leftist daily Libération on its front page Monday, alongside a blurry picture of France’s National Front leader Marine Le Pen, one day after her far-right party topped the vote in the first round of the country’s regional elections. France’s National Front became the country’s “first party,” […]
FRENCH FAR RIGHT SWEEP REGIONAL VOTE France’s National Front became the country’s “first party” Sunday, winning nearly 30% of the vote in the first round of regional elections held just three weeks after the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks. The nationalist party finished first in six of France’s 13 regions, with party leader Marine Le Pen […]
As President Obama makes a weighty Oval Office address to the nation, a closer analysis of recent U.S. military and diplomatic efforts to defeat the Islamist terrorist enemy.
We all know that the black-and-white coats of zebras act as camouflage. But it’s only after you’ve spent time on safari squinting to try and spot them that you really understand it.
Europe is increasingly turning to this approach of child rearing that sees kids and adults as equals. It may have unforeseen effects on children — but even more so on parents.
PECS — When they first took the plunge two years ago, farmers around Pécs may have only seen it as a way to improve profit margins. Certainly nothing wrong with that. But as time went by, their foray into alternative energy production turned out to be much for this group of 50 pioneers, who live […]
Decades of governmental policies and societal mores have created a staggering gender imbalance in China. Thirty million restless males with no romantic prospects is a recipe for disaster.
-Editorial- When the photo appeared Sept. 2 of Alan Kurdi, a lifeless 3-year-old boy facedown on a beach, the plight of refugees from Syria’s civil war shocked the world. In Canada’s election campaign, rivals responded with pledges to accelerate their resettlement. The election winner, Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party, outlined the most ambitious agenda, to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by year’s end. Trudeau has extended the deadline eight weeks, out of prudence over the logistical challenges. It is a small adjustment to a generous response that serves as a rebuke to the senseless xenophobia heard lately in the […]
After the Paris attacks last month, an emergency accord between Turkey and the European Union has sealed a border that was once so porous. It has real-life effects on desperate refugees, and entire towns.
Muslims are supposed to save water, Christians and Jews energy. In the past, we blamed those ideologies for ecological crises.
Watch Darth Vader’s heavy breathing in German, Yoda in Russian riffin’, and Princess Leia declare her love in French … in our 90-second video, to celebrate the release of the Star Wars franchise’s 7th installment.
A return to national borders, a fight against radical Islam, a rejection of the EU and its asylum policies. France’s Far-Right National Front leader Marine Le Pen answers questions in the wake of the Paris attacks, and ahead of Sunday’s re
In our increasingly digital world, people often feel the need to disconnect from the Internet for a dose of silence and breath of fresh air. Worldcrunch has reported recent stories from Brazil to California, about the hunt for “digital detox” solutions. With the help of the Internet (!), we’ve tracked down five other examples of […]