Worldcrunch
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/yUa3mH8ixmU expand=1] Solar Impulse Above San Francisco Bay — © Solar Impulse / Jean Renvillard / Rezo.ch | OneShot Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg set out and accomplished something that still seems impossible today: the First Round-The-World Solar Flight, powered only by the sun, with no fuel or polluting emissions. Solar Impulse wanted to […]
Rowdy fans added to the annals of soccer stupidity by forcing organizers to cancel the hugely anticipated Copa Libertadores final in Buenos Aires.
Europe’s aggressive migration policy has seen Italy dive into the obscure world of national shipping flags to sabotage rescue missions.
The letter bearing the reference “MC/19/3” represents a novelty in Chinese-African relations. Kabineh Kallon, Sierra Leone’s Minister for Transport and Aviation, explains in sober tones that, after careful consideration, no new airport in the capital city of Freetown will be built. China had promised a loan and construction works worth $318 million. But Freetown already […]
PARIS — Human migration is the story of our times. Victims of conflict and climate change, pushed by poverty at home and pulled toward opportunity abroad, people on the move are both a catalyst and consequence of globalization. Yes, immigration is a polarizing political issue, but also a keen reminder of the shared circumstances that […]
WASHINGTON — I loved Amazon when it first appeared. It was the 1990s, and I was living in Italy and then China, two countries that are strongly monolingual with a scarce number of foreign-language bookstores. Rome for instance, with three and a half million inhabitants at the time, had a couple of English bookstores and […]
PARIS — Suspected of hacking a dissident into pieces in its consulate in Istanbul, the Saudi regime has become the target of public outrage — until the story dies down, at least. Which raises an important question: should French museums, opera houses and festivals accept funding from the kingdom? It’s a sensitive issue, as Saudi […]
People in Colombia seem to have forgotten that in the not-too-distant past, they were the ones seeking refuge abroad, and that Venezuela offered a tolerant and helping hand.
After being left behind in the Internet revolution, places like France, Malta and Switzerland are making a concerted effort to stay ahead of the crypto-asset curve.
MUMBAI — They say that human memory tends to shut out trauma. But the pain caused by the attack 10 years ago on Mumbai will always be difficult to forget. What happened on November 26, 2008 was an act of pure terrorism: Defenseless civilians sought out and gunned down over three days in the glare of national television. For this reason, the “26/11” incident has been a watershed in India’s attitudes towards terrorism. It hardened the country’s attitude towards terrorists and militants of all stripes. Further, it has made any kind of a dialogue process with Islamabad difficult, given how […]
While Mexico lurches left and Brazil shifts right, Argentina, under Mauricio Macri, will try to stay a centrist course — at least until next year’s presidential elections.
What if the world’s refugees could be organized into a loosely connected, transnational polity? Critics call it a pipe dream. But migration researcher Nicholas Van Hear says his ‘Refugia’ idea may be the best way out of current crisis.
Despite Kremlin denials, Western sanctions are hitting Russia hard, and prompting its president to look elsewhere for new alliances and opportunities.
Our travels didn’t exactly involve many days at the beach. But as we drove in the Turkish heat, we paused here and there so our 13 year-old little mermaid Cécile could splash around. Times like these, my wife Claudine and I regretted never having taken swimming lessons when we were kids.
A forensic expert heads a dedicated team working to try to identify those who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean. It is often to simply close the wounds of broken-hearted loved ones back at home.
A Bogota lawyer’s foray into the world of online dating opened her eyes to ‘Tinder-surfing’ — couch-surfing with benefits — as practiced by a semi-celebrity Belgian named ‘Zebotta.’
For the series ‘Cook Me,’ journalist Elvire von Bardeleben shared a table with Marianne Lecerf and Côme de Chérisey from the French restaurant guide Gault & Millau.
Argentine law has followed social evolution and now recognizes individuals who formally declare their intention to undertake the duties of parenting as legal parents.
CAIRO — The Democratic Party chalked up victories across the United States in the midterm elections on November 6, gaining control of the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years. And even if the Republicans still hold control of the Senate, the outcome of the midterms breaks up the Republican monopoly in […]
A path through Lebanon, Brazil and France, the former top Michelin manager may have met the end of the road in Japan.
It may be the most iconic photograph of the Great Depression. Dorothea Lange’s 1936 image has come to be known as Migrant Mother, though the Library of Congress references its full title as Destitute pea pickers in California.
Critics worry that by partnering with Palantir, a Silicon Valley company with ties to the CIA, police in the German state of Hesse are opening themselves up to a potential security breach.
NEW DELHI — When Shehla Rashid, a student leader in India, tweeted to welcome Irish singer Sinead O’Connor into the Islamic fold, she could not have expected much of a controversy. Islam, like Christianity, is open to new converts, and it’s not unusual to welcome new members. The attacks were led not by the usual right-wing, however, but by liberals. Rashid was accused not just of being a hypocrite, but of being the “other side of the coin of ghar-wapsi , activities of converting followers to Hinduism. This charge was reiterated by Pawan Khera, a spokesman for the Congress Party: […]
PARIS — What if the GAFA quartet (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) also became giants in the healthcare sector? Google first tried to put on the white coat more than a decade ago. After “Google Health,” its online medical record project abandoned in 2012, the company made a strong comeback with its subsidiary DeepMind Health, doing […]
Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil and the X-Men, has died at the age of 95. Lee was an outspoken advocate of equality and the value of comics as an art form. “I have always included minority characters in my stories, often as heroes. We live in a diverse society – in fact, a diverse world, and we must learn to live in peace and with respect for each other.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ [youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/1l1bdUepqHM expand=1] ©Ringo Chiu/ZUMA ⠀ OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an […]
This is a story about love, hate and Mark Twain. The object of Twain’s desire (then resentment): the typewriter. Twain first laid eyes on a “newfangled typing machine,” as he called it, sometime in the early 1870s. He was, by then, on his way to becoming the world’s most famous writer and humorist. At the same time, the tools of writing were undergoing a profound transformation — from fountain pens, with their leaking and smudging ink, to the pleasant sound of tapping a key whose corresponding letter was magically stamped to paper. The new technology did not emerge with the […]
The step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 30 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo, is the oldest remaining pyramid in the world. I pulled out this slide after reading recently about botched restoration efforts that could threaten the whole structure.
-OpEd- BERLIN — Theresa May can only lose. The British Prime Minister is fighting alone against a grand alliance of conspirators, poisoners, and wire-pullers, supported by opportunists, weather-vanes and underlings from her own Tory party — ready to tear each other apart wherever they feel they can gain power: on the one hand, ambivalent personalities […]
Spain, an industralized EU member with close ties to Latin America, could profit from easing the entry of Chinese firms keen to invest in and export to the Americas
WASHINGTON — On the night of the midterm elections, my wife and I organized an open house, inviting friends and people from all walks of life to watch the results. The TV was on, but instead of staring at the screen and following the constant predictions of electoral victories and losses, people were interacting and […]
Engineers in Antioquia decided to cross-reference data on solar radiation and cloud cover to encourage greater use of solar panels.
Against the omnipotence of ‘reality-show novels’ and costume fiction, a group of young French authors want to reassert the novel as a contemporary art.
MUNICH — The past snuck up on Adidas last spring when it issued a retro jersey for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia that copied the last Soviet Union national team shirt. It included the USSR lettering and breast emblem with the hammer and sickle. Given the millions of victims of the Soviet dictatorship, […]
Unlike countries like the US or even China, India doesn’t have a national repository to store fossil finds.
-OpEd- PARIS — While Brexit uncertainty continues with “last-chance summit” after “last-chance summit,” the hard questions are becoming more difficult to avoid with each passing day. Are we moving towards a brutal divorce? Or a compromise? Will the Irish question turn everything upside down? Can a second referendum turn the tide? All these questions refer […]
Post-modern design captures our cultural moment’s yearning for unique and inspiring objects, even if they are of little use. The French master pours it all into his legendarily inefficient lemon juice squeezer.
Policymakers have, for the most part, learned to avoid fiscal deficits. And yet, growth numbers (with the exception of certain states) have been stagnant at best.
These informal banks in Kenya help women acquire financial stability, to help them take control of their income.
-OpEd- BERLIN — Thousands of students marched through Tehran last weekend, and state television broadcast the protest march live. The crowd burned U.S. flags and pictures of President Donald Trump in front of the building of the former U.S. embassy. And, yes, they chanted: “Death to America.” After the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear treaty […]
November 11, 2018 marks 100 years since the end of World War I. The signing of the Armistice brought to an end the war that Ernest Hemingway called “the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth.” A century on, as the world celebrates the anniversary with ceremonies and memorials, this […]