Worldcrunch
PARIS – “We’re proud to be pioneers…” It was a few days before Christmas, and Air France CEO Anne Rigail had a smile on her face, as she sat in an armchair surrounded by other noteworthy personalities, including Bertrand Piccard, co-pilot of the solar-powered plane Solar Impulse. Rigail was relishing the impact of an announcement […]
The economy is expected to have a relatively strong year. But will the average Colombian really benefit?
With automated electronic surveillance systems, suspicion does not precede data collection but is generated by the analysis of the data itself.
The New Year’s Eve prison exchange between Russia and Ukraine was a rare softening of hostilities in the occupied region in eastern Ukraine. Here’s the story of one of those released.
Welcome to Friday, where lockdown protests spread in Lebanon, UK offers new HK visa and an Italian grandma has COVID-19 quarantine to thank for finding a treasure. We also check in with German psychiatrists on the mental health toll of our leaders’ see-sawing pandemic policy choices. The empty hype of India’s “vaccine diplomacy” In a […]
Modern languages are rich, beautiful and complex, and took ages to develop. Hearts and smiley faces? Not so much.
When Ecuador ditched its currency for the dollar in 2000, it deprived governments the possibility to overspend, and gave ordinary people control of their money.
It is the most delicate of roles right now, as Father Georg continues to serve his original boss, retired Pope Benedict XVI, while also heading the Papal household of Pope Francis.
Ephroim “Johnny” Jablon’s entire family was gassed to death. At 94, he can’t forget the smells and so many other details of the camps. Such memories are dying away.
Welcome to Wednesday, where global COVID cases exceed 100 million, Biden rings Putin, and space tourism gets ready for launch. We also look at the magnitude (and limitations) of Iran’s presence on the African continent, courtesy of Jeune Afrique. Aristotle to Anti-Vaxxers, internet culture and the decline of reason The virtues that laid the groundwork […]
It was 3 p.m. on January 27, 1945, when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Soviet Army. The full scope of the Nazi barbarities, which included the extermination of six million Jews, was about to be exposed to the world. That January afternoon 75 years ago also marks the beginning of the documenting process, the painful but necessary gathering of evidence, accounts, photographs and film that would later be used in the Nuremberg war crimes trials, and stand as the historical record of the Holocaust. About 1.3 million people (mostly Jews) had been deported to the Polish camp […]
Failure to address spreading anger with economic inequalities, and to check its attendant demagoguery, may undermine the very functioning of liberal democracies.
Welcome to Monday, where AMLO gets COVID, Chinese miners are rescued, and King Kong finds a worthy opponent. Les Echos also takes us to Syria, where coronavirus and a crumbling economy are wreaking havoc in a country already devastated by 10 years of civil war. Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping and a simple question for the […]
Fariba Adelkhah, a French-Iranian expert on Shia society, has critics on all sides. Since June, she’s been jailed in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. She and her companion have been on a hunger strike since last month.
When I was a young man, a major folklore festival came through my hometown in eastern France, with musicians and dancers in colorful costumes from all over Europe. Spotting this photo 58 years later, I knew right away what I didn’t know when I took it: this perfectly rotund tuba player almost certainly hailed from […]
Environmentalists and beer companies have common cause to oppose new tax rules that may reduce the level of recycling.
Throughout the country’s turbulent history, efforts to establish a government by and for the people have always come up short.
Its shared border with the U.S. could be more of a blessing than a curse if only Mexico would clean up its act.
After the U.S. assassination of General Soleimani and Tehran’s accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger jet, rising economic and political pressures have put Islamic rule in its most fragile state in memory.
Welcome to Friday, where it’s been a year since the first COVID lockdown began in Wuhan, ISIS is back in Iraq and James Bond fans get a license to kill some more time. Die Welt also takes us on a typographic journey through the infamous story of the Gothic typeface, a.k.a. the “Nazi font.” Biden […]
A group of good Samaritans gathers regularly in Trieste, near the border with the Balkans, to receive weary migrants and tend their wounds.
With a socialist government in Argentina and Brazil’s arch-conservative president cold-shouldering each other, private initiatives could restore some cordiality to a relationship that is strategic for all of Latin America.
Welcome to Thursday, where the world reacts to the beginning of the Biden-Harris era, Baghdad is hit by its worst terror attack in more than three years and Dublin cancels its St. Patrick’s Day parade (again.) We also visit the Paris Opera for a taste of the grim global zeitgeist. Behind Biden’s message of unity, […]
When people die, they should be able to dispose of their corpses in a way that nourishes the planet. For now, it’s still illegal in most places around the world.
India’s cutting digital access for political reasons also costs livelihood for small businesses, women’s safety, access to transport, food, education and almost every other aspect of a modern life.
Welcome to Wednesday, where Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th U.S. president, Italy’s prime minister hangs on, and the Tokyo Olympics may be cancelled again. We also visit six iconic businesses around the world, which have survived wars and depressions, but are now at risk of closing down due to the pandemic. Joe Biden […]
Big data can provide firms with real-time information on consumer and social trends, but only if combined with the human factor.
A pair of French architects are bringing new attention to a unique, underground section of the Chacarita cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Welcome to Monday, where Navalny is arrested upon his return to Moscow, Brazil starts its mass vaccination campaign and there are signs of life from China’s trapped miners. Meanwhile, Le Monde travels to the French port city of Calais to see how high-tech is being used to ease post-Brexit commerce with the UK. SPOTLIGHT: ON […]
A sudden rash of constitutional changes, and the government’s subsequent resignation, looks to be a maneuver for Putin to hold on to power indefinitely.
Locals are pushing back against plans to build a five-star hotel that would throw grape-killing shade on the famed Italian city’s last ‘real’ neighborhood.
The European single currency is emerging as the new global provider of liquidity to the international financial system.
From the apocalyptic Australian fires to the killer drone strike on Iran’s top military commander, these are troubling times indeed.
CAIRO — In Egypt, all imported meat must be certified as “halal,” meaning that it has been procured, stored and shipped in accordance with Islamic law. Obtaining this certificate is a crucial requirement for meat suppliers to be able to access the lucrative Egyptian market. The Egyptian government licenses a number of “certifiers’ around the […]
Welcome to Friday, where Joe Biden announces a huge COVID relief package, North Korea boasts “the world’s most powerful weapon” and Wikipedia turns 20. Les Echos also explains how the pandemic response is quietly helping us prepare for the next big bad thing. SPOTLIGHT: TRUMP DIDN’T INVENT THE SPREADING PLAGUE OF NARCISSISM When I was […]
For areas like the Mediterranean basin, tourism is huge business. But it’s also an inordinate source of plastic pollution.
Is this a movement of women from India’s liberal campuses against a new citizenship law targeting the country’s Muslim minority? Or does it run much deeper?
Welcome to Thursday, where Trump becomes first president impeached twice, China goes back into lockdown, and a 45,000-year-old wild boar makes news. We also scan what sets “Made in Africa” ID tech apart. SPOTLIGHT: D.C. TO ROME TO KAMPALA, DEMOCRACY IS A COUNTING QUESTION At 6 p.m. local time Wednesday in Rome, while much of […]
The finance mechanism for sustainable infrastructure, energy and industry may be the ultimate key to curbing, and partly reversing, the harms of climate change.
A generation after alcohol-free beer surprised the beverage market, it may be time to go one step stronger.