Worldcrunch
-OpEd- This must have been the moment he was waiting for: an energetic handshake with Donald Trump, with a smile and a deep look into his eyes to top it off. The two men seemed to be sealing a fresh pact. Cameras flashed, capturing the important moment for newspapers and history books — the five […]
As a member of the National Child Labor Committee, starting in 1908, Lewis Hine photographed working children.
Rescuing the planet from the ravages of capitalism may be just the thing our dominant economic system needs to save itself, columnist Jean-Marc Vittori argues.
In 2013, Ethiopia announced a ban on domestic workers from going to the Middle East. Authorities estimate nearly 1 million Ethiopians working legally and illegally in the region. It comes with opportunity and risk, especially for women.
BEIJING — Chinese talk about ancient China as an “acquaintance” society, structured with a unique pattern of human associations. Such a pattern is also referred to as “difference in intimacy of relationship” and means that each person deals with their own social relations — close or distant, without regard for the people’s status — provided […]
None should be more dismayed by Daniel Ortega’s despotic slide than those who hailed his revolution as a triumph of democratic socialism, some 40 years ago.
-OpEd- In Germany, there are many people who criticize the policies of Recep Tayyip Erdogan — rightly so. Many of his toughest critics here are Germans with Turkish roots, who also denounce the German government’s political deals with Ankara. And many of them are now expressing their solidarity with Mesut Özil, the German-Turkish player who […]
Tour de France photographer Pauline Ballet has been capturing the cyclists around the country during the world’s most iconic cycling race.
A case study of Angul in Odisha highlights just how much urban centers rely on lower castes when it comes to sanitation.
-OpEd- PARIS — My conversation partner is a Japanese banker. He has just returned from Amman, the capital of Jordan. And he’s talking about the Chinese who were also there at a joint meeting of the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank). “They were everywhere and everyone […]
The world can do a lot better than incarcerate migrants en masse, or turn away boatloads of desperate passengers, argues former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos.
The new presidents of Colombia and Mexico may fit into the populist mould, but their pledges and circumstances differ from those of their most notorious predecessors.
Reykjavik isn’t only the world’s northernmost capital, it’s also one of the quietest. Overlooking Iceland“s beautiful Faxa Bay, the unassuming city of then 110,000 souls looked very peaceful all these years later, with its peculiar-looking church rising in the distance.
China’s efforts to maintain control over citizens now include implementing volunteer ‘stability-maintenance information officers.’
The largest saline lake in the western hemisphere gets more than half its water from a single tributary — the Bear River — which runs through three thirsty states.
-Analysis- The W-word has been dropped. The first to mention it was France’s far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon in an interview with Le Monde. He was quickly followed by his far-right counterpart Marine Le Pen. And soon enough, journalists around the world, from Germany to Latin America by way of Portugal and others, were joining in: […]
MOSCOW — Fifty years ago, in May 1968, France was swarmed with such powerful mass protests that the government feared a full-fledged civil war or revolution. This popular unrest became a turning point in the history of modern France, and eventually brought about serious changes in the French state. Vladislav Inozemtsev, a scholar writing for […]
The legendary American photographer Walker Evans spent three years secretly capturing images of passengers in the New York Subway. He produced the Many Are Called series (1938-1941) by hiding his camera in his coat, and making the shutter release button accessible up his sleeve. Best known for his work through the Great Depression, Evans was […]
Like an elaborate film set, everything about the place may look real — like a typical 1950s town square, for example, or a medieval “bastide” (fortified village). And there are certainly some real aspects to it. The cinema really does show films. The coffee shop really does serve hot drinks. But it’s also a carefully […]
When dealing with ‘distant cultures’ like China, communication is key. But a bit of business-is-business pragmatism doesn’t hurt either.
WASHINGTON — It is not hard to see similarities between President Donald Trump“s last two Supreme Court nominees: They are both white male conservatives who attended Ivy League law schools, clerked for retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and went to the same exclusive private prep school. The elite background does not end with them. If the Senate approves Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, every justice sitting on the Supreme Court will have attended either Yale’s or Harvard’s law school. (Ruth Bader Ginsburg started at Harvard and transferred to another Ivy, Columbia.) The shared elite backgrounds of Supreme Court justices, some experts […]
The UN culture and patrimony organization’s new chief, Audrey Azoulay, a former French culture minister, shares her vision for reviving UNESCO after the U.S. and Israel have announced their withdrawal.
At a time when crime and violence peaked in Colombia’s second city, some young people sought refuge in the rough, head-banging vibe of punk music.
-Analysis- MUNICH — As far as industrial strategies and international competition are concerned, there’s no greater contrast than that between Europe’s resignation and China’s iron determination. It’s not surprising that it was China — and not Europe — that proposed to form an alliance against Trump’s raving protectionist madness. With little success: Even Washington’s harassment […]
French experts doubt that a machine can help you find your soulmate better than trusting the eternal language of love.
The United Kingdom isn’t exactly renowned for its gastronomy, but I (lifelong French bon vivant ) have a special fondness for English pub food. Here in Cornwall, southwestern England, you could feast on delicious seafood — provided you first got past the local pirate.
Egypt’s ‘operating system,’ to borrow a tech-world term, needs replacing — and the military must relinquish power. It looks impossible today, but is inevitable in the long run.
“Sport … is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all kinds of discrimination.” Ever relevant words for 2018 from one of the great figures of the past century. Nelson Mandela, the man who spent 27 years in prison for his fight against South Africa’s Apartheid system […]
Located in one of southern Italy’s poorest regions, once thriving Crotone has the worst youth unemployment rate for women in the entire country: 90%.
The world is marking the centennial of one of history’s towering figures. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born 100 years ago, on July 18, 1918, in a small village on the eastern cape of South Africa. The man known as “Madiba” would go on to lead the struggle against Apartheid, before being sentenced to life in prison in 1964, on charges of treason and conspiracy. Mandela would wind up spending 27 years at Victor Verster Prison as his writings and the cause of black South Africans slowly began to spread around the world. Mandela’s release on Feb. 11, 1990 was one […]
The victory of Les Bleus is a real boost for a nation that has been the repeated target of Islamist terror. Still it is not a magic solution to its many divisions.
They’re cute, affordable and simple to use. But upon further review, Lucky Iron Fish aren’t, perhaps, a legitimate cure to the widespread health problem of anemia.
France has brought home its second World Cup trophy, with a 4-2 victory over Croatia in the final in Moscow. For OneShot, we chose the image for the history books, accompanied by some locker-room singing … that maybe we should have left in the locker room!? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/a7T_w0sK5Go expand=1] World Cup Champion France, Frozen In Time — © Ulrik Pedersen / ZUMA / OneShot OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video. Follow OneShot:
GWADAR — Landing at Gwadar International Airport is a bit like landing on the moon. The tarmac lies in the middle of a desert, and there’s no other aircraft in sight except for a C-130 from the United Arab Emirates Air Force. The place seems all but abandoned. In the area around the airport, houses […]
As Uber and Cabify continue to carry passengers in Argentina despite a court ban, some taxi drivers have decided to take matters into their own hands.
The leftist president-elect has an opportunity to end shoddy political practices and turn the county — finally — into a lawful, thriving democracy.
The Santa Cruz River, once the city’s lifeblood, has been bone-dry for the past 70 years. But if all goes according to plan, the ancient waterway could be back in action by as early as next year.
-OpEd- WASHINGTON — After many weeks of claiming, dishonestly, that European allies “owe us a tremendous amount of money for many years back” — in fact, Europeans spend far more money on European defense than does the United States — and after referring to NATO members as “delinquent” and worse, President Donald Trump appears to have handed America’s European allies an ultimatum: Pay up, spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on the military, do it fast — or the United States will pull out. We can “go it alone,” he told them, by some accounts. During the news conference […]
The Asian giant is like a super-charged Formula 1 car racing past a beautiful, but old Fiat 500.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — There has been an alarming spike in targeted killings of activists since the decades-long war between the state and FARC guerilla force finally came to an end. Cases are particularly prevalent in territories formerly controlled by the FARC. Since the peace accords were signed in 2016, nearly 180 social, community and indigenous […]