Worldcrunch
Our first and only visit to South Africa was three years after the end of Apartheid. In Durban, we stayed in five-star style at The Royal, the city’s oldest hotel, which first opened in 1845.
PUERTO CHIAPAS — In the small Mexican fishing harbor of Puerto Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, drug trafficking boats aren’t that uncommon a sight. At first glance, they look like like regular fishing boats. What sets them apart are the state-of-the-art motors. Chiapas state is one of the most peaceful in Mexico, and Puerto […]
The historian and sociologist Georges Vigarello recounts the evolution of the dress, which tells the story of female representation and liberation in society.
The attachment to autocracy prevails over the current appreciation of the state of democracy. Still tottering, to be sure.
WAGAH — Here at the India-Pakistan border, thousands of men, women and children have gathered to watch a stunning ritual: On either side of the border, military march back and forth, as music roars and crowds cheer. Known either as the Wagah border ceremony, the lowering of the flags, or “Beating Retreat” ceremony, the ritual has been performed every day since 1959, as flags are lowered around sunset. “Summer, winter or in any kind of storm, whatever the weather or political conditions, the parade doesn’t stop,” said Sumer Singh, former Deputy Inspector General of India’s Border Security Force (BSF). The […]
The Afro-Caribbean village of El Paraíso is seeking reparations as it tries to put itself back together after decades of being caught in crossfire of Colombia’s civil war.
-Analysis- WASHINGTON — So Michael Wolff wrote a book about Donald Trump. Perhaps you’ve heard about it? The internet spent a few days pointing and laughing at the more extraordinary claims about Trump’s behavior (including some the book didn’t actually make), and then settled down to the serious business of figuring out which of them were true. The consensus here in Washington is that Wolff has perhaps been a little too credulous with his sources, particularly with Steve Bannon, who has since recanted. But beneath that is the feeling that while many of the specifics are in question, the underlying […]
Recently opened to visitors, the ‘816 Nuclear Military Plant’ in Fuling takes visitors back in time, to the height of the Cold War. It also brings to mind the current nuclear ambitions of China’s provocative neighbor, North Korea.
-Analysis- By the end of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, people will wonder: Was there anything he did not say? Any line he did not cross? As a lifelong businessman, he has declared war early and often on diplomatic niceties, proud to speak “like the people.” The problem is that he is a person who speaks […]
The many ways your iPhone or Android, and their apps, are built to hook you like a drug user. The UX (user experience) designers are confessing to their sins.
The numbers contradict Donald Trump’s claims that leaving NAFTA will benefit U.S. business and workers. It will harm them, not to mention their Mexican counterparts.
Safe from the disapproving eyes of their families, women writers gather secretly in Jalalabad to immerse themselves in poetry.
My daughter Cécile has a troubling history of playing with archeological treasures. Though in her defense, at the time tourists were allowed to roam freely among the ruins of Ostia, the harbor city of ancient Rome.
Many have hailed the innovations of Songdo, a planned community near the South Korean capital of Seoul. But the city, which once served as a set for the “Gangnam Style” music video, also has its critics.
Lai Wei’e wants to stay by the side her Chinese human rights advocate husband, Liu Yao, who was recently condemned to a 20-year prison sentence.
Some 100 prominent French women artists and intellectuals have issued an open letter in Le Monde condemning the movement to call out inappropriate male behavior that erupted in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
-Analysis- PARIS — Remember conspiracy theories? There was a time, not so long ago, when we used to worry about how the internet encourages the proliferation of crackpot versions of what “really happened” on 9/11 or circulated “the ultimate proof” that Moon landings were actually staged in a television studio. Nowadays, a website hocking a […]
We’re drawn to it, tempted to wade in its bittersweet waters. And yet, for the most part, nostalgia just makes us miserable. Some wisdom from Latin America.
-Analysis- PARIS — Compete, don’t kill. The idea that peace might be achieved through sporting is an old paradox. Pitting athletes and countries against each other in a non-lethal — and cathartic — demonstration of skills, is at the very core of the Olympic ideal, going all the way back to ancient Greece. The timing […]
Last month, on the same day that President Vladimir Putin declared victory over the so-called Islamic State, the militant group launched a surprise offensive against government forces in Deir ez-Zor province, killing up to 31 pro-government fighters in a three-day span. “In just over two years, Russia’s armed forces and the Syrian army have defeated the most battle-hardened group of international terrorists,” Putin told Russian forces on Dec. 11 during a visit to Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria. Just hours later, ISIS began to attack government positions north of the town of Boukamal, a former key stronghold for the […]
A young designer from Paris is applying his knowledge about natural light to the narrow streets of the Argentine capital.
I took a step away (and back) from our guided tour, to better immortalize the size of Gyllene Salen, the Golden Hall in Stockholm“s City Hall. This is where the Nobel Prize ball is hosted, under the glow of millions of glass and gold mosaic pieces.
His false promises to the working class are being exposed. But the paradox of a new expose book is that it may actually strengthen his alliance with traditional Republicans.
CHENNAI — In Murugavel Janakiraman’s office, his daughter’s drawings are pinned up next to family photographs. He proudly points out his children, Arjun and Anisha, his mother, who lives with them, and his wife, Deepa. They met on India’s most popular matrimonial website, Matrimony.com. And as the old saying goes, if you want something done, […]
Colorado was among the first states in the U.S. to decriminalize marijuana. Our European correspondent has a closer look.
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New tools rely on the influence of experts in behavioral economics, risk psychology and neuroscience to limit errors humans make to raise risk of online attacks.
Trump’s former strategist Steven Bannon was quoted as saying the families of Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner may get caught in a significant federal money-laundering investigation.
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Donald Trump has become a convenient scapegoat for problems in countries like Venezuela and Iran, where vast oil reserves leave few excuses for pervasive economic problems.
QUITO — Stashes of cocaine kept in boats and dinghies in the remote Galápagos Islands. Dozens of operatives transporting narcotics on rivers across the border into Colombia. Over the past three years, powerful Mexican drug cartels have systematically moved supplies and operations into Ecuador. According to Quito-based daily El Comercio, at least four Mexican cartels […]
NEW DELHI — Farooque was a Kashmiri. He hated India. His cousin was killed by security forces at a demonstration in Srinagar. This was 1990. We were classmates, and I always took him head on for his anti-India rhetoric. Back then, no one minded his bombast, nor our arguments — and life went on. Then came March 1992 and the cricket World Cup. The determined Imran Khan and Pakistan came from behind and won the title. I skipped college the day Pakistan won because I did not have the courage to face Farooque, who was of course ecstatic beyond words […]
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CHRISTOPHERSEN — Argentina’s Adecoagro, an industrial farming multinational has turned one of its dairy farms into a surprising source of power. A new technique for generating energy from cow dung has now proven to supply enough electricity from cowpat to power a town of 5,000 residents. Its biodigester system with a 1.4 MW capacity, began […]
Our various road trips through North Africa almost always included encounters with caravans of Berber nomads and their camels, making their way to bigger cities to resupply.
An experimental television show on France’s Canal+ relies more on sounds than images to scare the daylights out of people
Strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis are spreading across Ukraine, where armed conflict and market misgivings are making a bad situation even worse.
In villages in Minya, Christians and Muslims are confined to separate districts, a condition that feeds into sectarian dynamics.
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After Fascism and Communism, the 21st century features two new forms of evil ideology: Islamism and … Dataism.