Worldcrunch
The colored tattoo of a fortified bridge towering high over troubled waters takes up almost all of my friend Ivan’s shoulder. In his early 30s, Ivan has a footballer’s build and flawless cockney accent. He’s been a British citizen almost all his life, but was born in Mostar, in present-day Bosnia, in the late 1980s […]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/TMpEOF_VtbE expand=1] This past week India has seen more new COVID-19 cases than any other country since the crisis began, as hospitals struggle to deal with a massive influx of patients and shortages of oxygen. Meanwhile, the country has surpassed the grim milestone of 200,000 death, with crematoriums overwhelmed. The facilities are running out […]
On this subtropical island, Chien-hao Chen fought typhoons and monsoons to develop his vineyards — and to produce wines admired by some of the most important oenologists.
She looked into his eyes, he shoved a q-tip up her nose, and they may live happily ever after.
Young people no longer answer the phone if they haven’t been warned that the call is coming. Employees working remotely insist on organizing their schedules as they see fit. Women want to put an end to men dictating the tempo of their relationship.
Across the Western world, the number of men unable to have children without medical intervention is growing. Health specialists are raising the alarm and scientists are struggling to find the cause, while politicians are ignoring the issue.
SAN LUIS POTOSÍ — As Mexican National guardsmen were busy training to learn new methods to limit street violence, they began to, well, fight among themselves. The National Guard, founded in 2019 as a better-trained, more disciplined gendarmerie corps to fight organized crime, confirmed that videos circulating of the sordid incident were real — and […]
Watching the nightly news on television was a recipe for unhappiness. It’s just one lesson from two years on the road in Europe, even though the depressing headlines will follow you through other channels.
As France and its overseas departments mark 200 years since Napoleon’s death, his role in spreading slavery to the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique is prompting more and more to reverse his heroic legacy.
Police say the published novelist killed his father with a hammer and slit his mother’s wrists to make it look like the wife killed her husband and then herself. The mother is clinging to life.
The raging COVID-19 epidemic, combined with an acute shortage of oxygen, has created a nightmare scenario in places like Nashik, in the northern part of Maharashtra state.
Announced several years ago, 3D-printing in the building industry is becoming a reality with the first houses already going on sale in the United States. Start-ups and manufacturers predict this could be a revolution for the construction industry.
Using pure economic power to reorder the world of soccer was clearly a bad idea, though not necessarily a new idea. Some reflections from a conflicted fan of one particular Italian super squad.
As a growing number of people pack up and leave the former British colony, the question arises: What to do about the family dog?
Critics of Ilham Aliev’s regime accuse the government of using sexually explicit material — including images of wives and daughters — to strong-arm its opponents.
The Israeli Prime Minister has taken his cue from a bold predecessor, Menachem Begin, to curb Islamic Iran’s regional presence and nuclear threat by any means necessary.
The truth, the whole truth … and exactly what he thinks — but should never say out loud.
The Green party is in a very strong position as the campaign begins to succeed Angela Merkel. Their environmental ideals mask an illiberal intolerance for their opponents.
The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets off youth groups to enforce lockdowns and wants to control the ‘demand’ for oxygen cylinders.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/embed/lec-AslZYvo expand=1] A local murder case that set off a worldwide movement arrived this week at its verdict, after three weeks of witness and expert testimonies: A Minneapolis jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. A bystander’s video had captured Chauvin kneeling on […]
Paris has considered Chad’s army to be the most solid, experienced and tenacious in the region. But the death of Idriss Déby could change the dynamics in the French-backed fight against jihadists in the Sahel region of Africa.
Belgium’s vaccination campaign is a prime example, computer scientist Hugues Bersini argues, of how technology can not only improve efficiency, but also, in some cases, make things more fair.
Working at the town hall in Morez, we imagine, must be a busy yet somewhat uneventful affair: There’s roadworks on the main rue de la République to take care of, planning for the reopening of the Eyewear Museum — and perhaps most stressful, worrying about budget and spending for this village of 4,800 nestled in […]
Russia’s foreign minister visited Pakistan for the first time in nine years — just in time for the deadline for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan. It points to an important change of actors in one of the deadliest conflict zones in the world.
After the young Black American poet’s breakthrough at Biden’s inauguration, some say her work shouldn’t be translated by white non-women. One woman writer from Martinique says these critics are undermining the essence of translation.
Technology is turning education into a data-driven, personalized learning process. It’s up to humans to be sure it serves the needs of students, and societies.
A year after riots in Delhi and elsewhere, Muslims are being forced out of their neighborhoods.
In Austria, they call it Darmwind — literally “bowel wind.” In June 2020, a man was fined 500 euros for intentionally letting one such Darwmind go at police officers approaching him for an identity check as he sat on a bench in a Viennese park. The Vienna Regional Administrative Court has now reduced the fine […]
More than two years after the opposition leader proclaimed himself the country’s ‘legitimate’ leader, the man he was hoping to oust — President Nicolas Maduro — is still very much in charge.
Family members who lost a loved one in the early months of the pandemic, at the height of the restrictions, are now demanding a national day of mourning.
After a century-long history of political strife, Brexit risks undoing the hard-earned two decades of reconciliation.
When I blew the candles on my 29th birthday cake, on March 27th 2020, it was only 10 days after the first lockdown had begun in France. Still, I felt lucky. I remember telling myself that, even though the day included no friends, at least in 2021 for the much more momentous passage into la […]
Besides partially destroying a key nuclear installation, the suspected sabotage at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility is also exacerbating tensions within Iran’s leadership ranks. Was that part of the purpose of the attack?
With water rationing, soaring food prices and an economic crisis brought on by COVID-19, Algerians begin the month of fasting in difficult conditions.
As part of a medical study, the mid-sized Brazilian city of Serrana is now nearly 100% vaccinated, even as the rest of the country is crumbling under COVID’s toll.
Sleeping on the job is a known occupational risk for overnight security guards, long-haul truck drivers and deeply bored bean counters. But for someone robbing a home?
The region’s democratic states must close ranks and work with the United States to protect the rule of law at home and abroad against ‘an authoritarian onslaught,’ Rubén M. Perina* writes in Clarín.
While most of the attention around Iran is related to its nuclear program, an open ended deal may give China the legal foundations it needs to take a controlling stake in Iran’s economy, and in time, undermine its independence.
For the Romans, there’s no other choice but the mortal (though virtual) thumbs down for their mayor. Yes, online commentators (and no doubt offline elders around the Italian capital) are sending Mayor Virginia Raggi to the proverbial lions for mixing up the Colosseum — the one (and only) built in Rome nearly 2,000 years ago […]
From a Swiss music box to a Chilean quilt, different projects seek to leave a tangible sign of those we’ve lost.