Worldcrunch
-Essay- COVID-19’s economic impact on travel is matched only by the existential impact on the modern traveler. In a sign of the desperation of both, several airlines and cruise ship companies have been offering trips to… nowhere. In Australia, Japan and Taiwan, passengers can book a flight that takes off and lands at the same […]
Sweden’s youth see caring for the old and sick as the business of the public sector. But as the welfare state gets weaker, the elderly can rely on neither the system nor the family.
Concurrent emergencies have given rise to ‘exceptional’ measures that then have a tendency of being institutionalized.
From security and trade to COVID and climate change, the candidates differ on nearly every global topic. On Nov. 3, the world will be holding its collective breath.
Forging a new constitution to replace the one from the Pinochet era is necessary for Chile to move forward. But it alone cannot solve tough socio-economic problems plaguing the nation.
What began as a small U.S.-based conspiracy theory on the fringes of the internet is shaping up to become a global movement. QAnon today boasts adherents in more than 70 countries around the world, according to research from Canada’s Concordia University. In some of these, the movement is estimated to have tens of thousands of […]
Dismissed in much of the world as ‘charlatanism,’ homeopathic medicine, developed in the 18th century by Samuel Hahnemann, has long had a healthy following in his native Germany.
If you hated greenwashing, you’ll be appalled by green colonialism.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei claims he has no interest in engaging with Washington. But the U.S. president, fighting right now to win reelection, tells a different story.
For a Milanese writer, this is how his family lunch looks right now.
Things are heating up between Erdogan and Macron, leading to the recall of the French ambassador in Ankara. France’s efforts in training local imams may thwart Turkey’s policy of influence through religion.
Political chaos in Kyrgyzstan, revolution in Belarus, war in Nagorno-Karabakh: three decades after the collapse of the USSR, Vladimir Putin’s “near abroad” is currently marred by instability.
The U.S. killed the ruthless leader last October in Syria at a low point for ISIS. But under his successor, the group is beginning to strike back, in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
Pope Francis, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, has had a longstanding tolerance of and friendship for homosexuals, and yet rejection of marriage as anything other than a heterosexual institution.
Chinese-backed projects are bringing irreperable damage to the Mekong, the largest freshwater fish source in the world feeding millions of people living along its banks.
PARIS — Are you sitting down? Probably. Yes, there are new studies that show the collateral health effects (beyond the virus itself) of COVID-19 and the rolling lockdowns include serious maladies linked to an increase in the sedentary lifestyle. For millions of people suddenly forced to telework and spend more time sitting down, and far […]
The decisive reelection of the left in Bolivia, after Evo Morales was crudely ousted, is a message to all those powers that aim to unseat the popular will.
From the moment the movie began, I had a funny feeling. First, there were no opening credits — nothing to tell us who the producers or director were nor what famous actors would appear. No sign of even the author’s name, like they showed in The Godfather. But I had seen Batman Begins, so I […]
-Essay- PARIS —The rendez-vous was for last January 21, on the anniversary of Louis XVI’s death. A friend had tipped me off that hundreds of French citizens gather each year in Paris to honor their last king and lament their fallen monarchy. Les Royalistes held mass for Louis and Marie-Antoinette, followed by pro-monarchy street protests. […]
The scale and spread of the coronavirus pandemic may make so-called ‘herd immunity’ virtually inevitable, but it can also prompt Argentina to integrate its scattered healthcare services into a single, national service.
Criminal turned YouTuber Max Cameo is one of several German vloggers using their knowledge of the streets to create compelling portraits of Europe’s toughest neighborhoods.
Rafaela Dutra was working in Rio de Janeiro’s tourism industry and studying to become a nurse when the coronavirus arrived. A resident of the sprawling low-income favelas in the city’s Zona Norte, she had worked in one of Copacabana’s shiny, high-rise hotels, earning up to twice the region’s minimum monthly wage of 1,200 reais ($220). […]
An immigrant’s reflections on a dying city that is bound to be reborn.
A new crop of Tunisian engineers are coming up with clever ways to help farmers streamline their operations and adjust to a changing climate.
The pandemic has prompted many city workers to seek refuge back in the countryside roots. For the government, it’s an extra challenge, but also an opportunity for long-term rural development.
Across the globe, travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders and shifting health care priorities have combined to make abortion an even more difficult procedure to obtain.
Le Monde’s editorial board warns that the brutal killing of a middle school teacher is another direct attack on the same basic freedoms targeted in France since the Charlie Hebdo murders in 2015.
Prostitution was officially a crime in German Democratic Republic. But documentary filmmaker Axel Nixdorf discovers how widely it was tolerated, and even encouraged,
Italy was hit particularly hard and early by the first wave when northern region of Lombardy became the first epicenter of the virus in the West. Now all eyes are on the less developed, more vulnerable southern regions.
In Lebanon and Iraq, two countries that Iran’s clerical regime has long tried to control, some Shias are fed up with Tehran’s machinations and affiliated militia groups.
The pachyderm was believed to have special powers, but was also seen as dangerous, and ultimately was transferred to a nature reserve. What does his story tell us?
What is happening in India is casting a long shadow on the forthcoming U.S. elections.
“Bienvenue en Absurdie…” President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of at least four weeks of an all-night curfew in France’s biggest cities sparked some colorful reactions — political and personal — across the country. “Welcome to Absurdia” came from opposition leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a firebrand leader on the political left, who noted that most COVID-19 infections happen […]
No country has profited from the Pax Americana as much as Germany. Now, as U.S. influence wanes, it has a key role to play in filling the power vacuum.
A new documentary uncovers some disturbing truths about the unregulated networks that provide more than half of the horse meat that Europe consumes.
France is just one of many countries that have long shunned online consultations. But now that it’s skyrocketing in pandemic times, there may be a mini revolution in health care.
Valuable pieces of art have a special appeal to people in organized crime, both as trophies — conveying power and prestige — and as a means to launder ill-gained earnings.
*Other than Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping push for a second term, we will also see Maduro’s Venezuela and Myanmar (also) testing the limits of democracy in the coming weeks.
Latin American economies, like others, have suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism could help fuel a recovery, but only if countries do a better job of protecting their natural wonders.
A leader can, in good conscience, conceal dysfunctions, hide problems or mitigate difficulties. Telling white lies allows him to restore hope for his allies, and rekindle their desire to act. But what happens when it is the very definition of self-serving