Worldcrunch
Humans and animals have strategies to deal with their surroundings, including the impacts of climate change. But what about trees? Researchers in Spain have identified mechanisms in plant life to learn over time from unfavorable environmental situations.
Without drawing attention to public executions like it did last year, the regime has quietly continued to mete out capital punishment: increasing both death sentences and the carrying out of executions, on pace in 2023 to double from the previous year.
March 11-12 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ What do you remember from the news this week? 1. What footage from social media has Ukraine asked the International Criminal Court to investigate? 2. Which country saw mass protests that led to the withdrawal of a controversial “foreign agents” draft law? 3. What update has Apple announced […]
Amid a severe drought, Afghan scientists are asking the international community to engage with the brutal regime.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power with the most right-wing government in the country’s history has revealed a deep schism in Israeli society between settlers and secularists.
The shoddy homes that collapse on their inhabitants in Turkey’s recent earthquake were badly, and hastily, built as part of a worldwide real-estate fever typically fueled by greedy governments indifferent to safety norms and common sense.
Vladimir Putin has used what’s believed to be the world’s only bonafide hypersonic missile battery, which are capable of evading air defenses. So, what are the missiles, and what do they mean for the war?
Russian President Vladimir Putin is often compared to Stalin, the Soviet leader responsible for the deaths of millions. In the West, it’s not a compliment. For Putin, it’s encouragement. Meanwhile, some Russian nationalists ask if he’s “Stalin enough.”
Former South Korean President, Park Geun-Hye was removed from office on this day in 2017 following her impeachment by the South Korean National Assembly on charges of corruption and abuse of power. She was the first South Korean president to be impeached and removed from office. Why was Park Geun-Hye impeached? Park Geun-Hye was accused […]
Every year thousands of young Italians apply for a Working Holiday visa and escape to Australia. They have many reasons for leaving — but many seek a better work-life balance down under. And then, there are those who cut their adventure short to return home to the bel paese.
A new report blames the attack last September on a pro-Ukrainian outfit. It is hardly the last word on the case, but a good sign that the truth will come out in the end, which is crucial to maintain support in the West.
The case of 12-year-old twins, one of whom was transgender, who jumped off a balcony after being bullied, led experts in trans childhoods to reflect on how to better protect children. And how to talk about it.
A 39-year-old fighter codenamed “Alaska,” a member of the Ukrainian Battalion 243, has decided to share his story in the battles of Bakhmut and other key frontline positions in eastern Ukraine over the past six months.
One of the chief victims of radical clerical rule in Iran has been religion, historically a bulwark of Iranian society now seen as a tool of tyranny.
The Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City on this day in 1959. What inspired the creation of the Barbie doll? Ruth Handler was inspired to create the Barbie doll after watching her daughter play with paper dolls and imagining a three-dimensional version that would allow girls […]
China is spending more money on weapons and defense than ever. The reason is evident: Xi Jinping wants to take Taiwan. Europe should follow the U.S. and support Taipei militarily as the only way to deter Beijing from war.
In India, questions related to menstrual health are largely taboo, and routinely ignored by authorities. Elsewhere in the world, there is some progress on the issue, though much more is needed.
NGOs around the world are facing difficulties as governments criminalize them. The crackdown leaves states less accountable, while the biggest victims are the most vulnerable.
… unless she’s a famous influencer?
Russian shells hit frontline cities Siversk and Lyman every day, but some people are refusing to abandon their homes. Life has gone underground. A year since the beginning of the Russian invasion, a reporter from Ukrainska Pravda meets people surviving in basements — their towns destroyed, but still alive.
Umeå in northern Sweden is a veritable feminist city. And the initiatives go much deeper than just policies and promises — they shape how the city is built.
After a visit to a holding facility, a group of lawyers and human rights activists have charged the Italian government is mistreating nearly 100 survivors of the tragic shipwreck 10 days ago.
By challenging Israel’s constitutional system and launching a crackdown on the Occupied Territories, Benjamin Netanyahu is playing a high-stakes game opposed by half his country and the country’s allies. It can’t last much longer.
Russia is losing in Ukraine not just because of Putin’s madness and the heroism of Ukrainians, but also because Russia’s army is built for rapid invasion and occupation, not for the type of grinding war it is now fighting in Ukraine.
After years of exploring the continent in a van, a couple from Buenos Aires asks: Should they ever go back to “normal” life?
Heavy fighting continues in Bakhmut, as Russia steps up efforts to take the besieged eastern Ukrainian city. But there is a subplot taking place between competing Russian factions that are forcing all sides to double down. And there are many more battles to come.
Like photography, new forms of artistic expression arise in every age. Now, new artificial intelligence is making it possible to create incredible images in an instant — but it opens up an ethical and philosophical debate.
Russians have been practicing the illegal transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children since 2014. Experts consider it one of the five main signs of genocide, and Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General has been working to prove this component of the “crime of crimes.”
From Croatia to Spain, Portugal, Germany and France, revamped LNG gas routes are providing an agile European energy response to the cutting off of Russian gas since the war in Ukraine began.
The fundamentally irrational decision to invade Ukraine was the final proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been living in a world of illusions. He may be best understood by retracing the steps of history’s other tyrants, and gauging how their stories ended.
On top of the traditional troubles some young people face on their own for the first time are the added factors of social media pressure and the effects of the pandemic. The crisis appears to have hit hard in Italy, with other countries, from India to France to the UK, reporting a similar situation.
Recent protests in Moldova confirm that the ex-Soviet country is in the Kremlin’s sights. If Putin manages to politically destabilize the ex-Soviet country, he could win an important ally in the war against Ukraine. The tactics are strikingly familiar to what the Kremlin pulled off in Donbas nine years ago.
March 4-5 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ What do you remember from the news this week? 1. To which eastern city has Ukraine decided to send reinforcements? 2. Which country has started the construction of a 200-kilometer wired fence on its border with Russia? 3. What “radical change” did Kim Jong-un say North Korea needed? […]
To meet the need, Uganda trains farmers to grow the nutrient-rich fungi. Many beneficiaries are women seeking financial independence.
It’s not just about the current diplomatic impasse between Russia and the West, it’s about the future — and that means China.
When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to reassure his fellow citizens that they could safely donate to help earthquake victims, many were skeptical. It’s a sign of a longstanding mistrust of institutions that affects the nation on the deepest level.
Putin has stated in the past that Ukraine and Belarus should be a part of the Russian Federation. But his plans in Belarus have been postponed by war on the other neighbor, and the shrinking room for maneuver of Minsk’s strongman Alexander Lukashenko
South Korean President, Yoon Suk-yeol, made a gesture of reconciliation towards Japan, the country’s former colonizer. It gives Washington hope that its two key Asian allies can overcome differences as they face an emboldened China and North Korea.
While the IOC decides whether to let Moscow’s athletes compete in the 2024 Summer Games, Russian film directors will again be fighting for the right to show their films.