Worldcrunch
Santorini and Paros are among the most visited places in the Mediterranean, a phenomenon that brought to the islands investments from around the world. Now disfigured by the unbridled development of tourism, many of Greece’s most famous islands are under suffocating pressure and concerns are growing among locals.
How can trucks be powered in a non-polluting way? The industry has been looking for good solutions for a long time. Now, electric trucks are gaining ground. The shift towards electric could actually happen faster than with cars.
A milk-free vegan version of the famous Nutella spread hits the shelves this week in three European countries. With this move, the Italian company Ferrero that makes it intends to triple sales of its chocolate plant-based category within a year, across all brands.
Cruise lines around the world are heading for a record year in traffic in 2024. While companies continue toward larger liners, luxury hotel groups are making inroads with smaller ships and exclusive experiences.
France has accused Telegram CEO Pavel Durov of complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group. But should businesses be left responsible for making decisions about the costs of risks?
The golf industry claims it generates 225 million euros each year in Murcia, or 0.8% of the southeastern Spanish region’s GDP, which is also the driest in Spain.
With record-breaking ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s concert tour — mobilizing fans from all over the world to secure tickets — has it all been worth it?
In France, the ratio of around 1.5 contributors to one pensioner is threatening the balance of the pension system. As in Anglo-Saxon countries, the possibility of pension underfunding is looming. But the creation of a National Pensions Fund could change all that.
Once crypto-cautious Russia has started experimenting with the digital financial market, prompting new regulations, formal exchange markets, and, as President Vladimir Putin hopes, new means of skirting Western sanctions.
The global fight against climate change is essential, but the solutions are not universal. Measures must account for the local realities of the Global South, where economic development is equally important and where the imposition of strict environmental standards by the North has devastating social and economic consequences.
Armenia, under pressure from its aggressive neighbor Azerbaijan, is seeking security in closer ties with the European Union. Just next door, Iran may welcome this Western alignment if it means winning a shorter land route for exports to the Black Sea and EU markets.
The smallest country in Africa, Gambia is a net importer of plastics. About 84% of this waste is not managed properly, with dire consequences for the people and the environment.
Over the past five years, tuk-tuk prices have soared because of a government ban on importing the vehicle, and the inflation waves that rocked the Arab world’s most populous country. But tuk-tuks are not only a preferred system of transport, they are also a source of income for a large part of the Egyptian population — and the price hikes are crushing many young people’s dreams.
While most of its competitors, crushed by competition from Asia, have closed their doors, this family company founded in Limoges in 1863 has never been doing so well thanks to to collaborations with artists and starred chefs, as well as some unexpected uses.
The cities of Amsterdam and Bruges may inspire the Portuguese capital to reinvent its approach to tourism. As Porto launches an experimental new vision map designed to disperse tourist flows, could Lisbon do the same?
The biggest firms and richest people in the world have the money states need to invest in services that can improve the lives of billions of people. That could help stop a collective slide into acute social and political tensions.
While tourism is a boon for the Spanish economy and has seen record numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic — more than 85 million visitors in 2023 — locals say the current model is untenable, and are taking to the streets to demand limits be set.
The West will be weakened should the United States turn its back on its alliances, but does the isolationist Donald Trump understand what that could mean for U.S. strength and security?
The crushing weight of Chinese loans to socialist Venezuela may yet become the biggest, if less publicized, obstacle to the restoration of liberal democracy there, if its power-drunk president were ever to abandon power as he once again appears unwilling to do after a highly contested election.
Scenes of violence against Syrian refugees are no longer unusual in Turkey, a country marked by rising nationalism amid a deepening economic crisis.
Tourists have been flocking to Krakow for cheap alcohol and bachelor parties, a trend that residents say is making the historic Polish city unlivable.
Asia and above all China, have shown how the size of a market can drive state relations, and nowhere is this truer than in the Mercosur bloc’s increasing dependence on Asian exports. But regional integration in South America is stalling, as Argentina and Brazil are in another nasty spat.
Argentina’s rabidly neo-liberal president, Javier Milei, is downsizing the state at home and curbing diplomacy to the bare minimum of promoting the free market, lambasting communism, and nurturing ties with just two, cherished states, Israel and the United States.
Struggling to find drivers in Germany, the Cologne-based trucking company Emons is now successfully recruiting apprentices in the crisis-hit central African countries of Congo and Burkina Faso. While recruiting skilled workers abroad is a slow process, it is always better than unregulated migration.
If rail is to become the preferred means of transport, it must inspire people to dream again. Designers and interior architects are on a mission to restore the image of rail travel. High-speed rail, night trains, luxury trains — each has its own challenges.
Chiquita — the former United Fruit Company — is being ordered to compensate victims of the paramilitaries it financed in Colombia in the late 20th century. Like Monsanto with pesticides, it might begin saving funds to pay more such fines.
Aggressive lending is undermining Russia’s economy, and citizens’ incomes are not keeping up with expenses. It’s the clear sign of a looming economic crisis.
Despite sometimes heated debates and increasing regulations, the king of short-term rentals has never performed as well as in this post-COVID period. The announcement this week of a whole set of new features shines the light on one of the digital era’s great success stories.
Satnam Singh, an undocumented laborer from India, was left dead after losing his arm in a work accident near Latina — just 50 kilometers from the capital, Rome. Could it be that no one in power saw the realities like the one that sealed Satnam Singh’s fate?
Peru’s President Dina Boluarte is traveling to China to fine tune free trade with this vital, if overbearing, business partner. It will also help her flee the deep and wide popularity among Peruvians.
As the Olympic flame of Athens prepares to illuminate the world of sports, Africa remains in the shadows. Yet the world’s youngest continent has an unparalleled potential to become a major hub for sports on a global scale.
Our battle to keep local stores open, despite the evolution of our consumption habits, may just be the expression of nostalgia of a rural dream that is gone. Or is it really?
Global sand consumption has tripled in 20 years, to the point where the United Nations has called for countries to rethink their use of this “strategic resource” that is fueling tensions between states.
More workers are leaving the country by illegal means. Those who are caught are deported back home, but often have nothing to return to — except government surveillance.
The United States has shown it prefers economic incentives over penalties to help keep regional democracies within its orbit and away from China. That is a national-interest opportunity Latin American states cannot ignore.
Britain’s prime minister has announced a surprise decision to hold a general election six months early, on July 4.
Gardening, cooking sweets or binding books are tasks associated with monasteries. But today, a growing number of Spain’s contemplative communities have turned to activities such as gourmet products, tourist rentals through digital platforms, astrotourism and even sushi making to achieve economic sustainability.
With every economic crisis and surge in inflation, Egyptian households reshape the quantities and varieties of food on their dining tables. The current economic crisis, however, has placed an even tighter strain on families striving to afford food, especially sources of animal protein.
The UK government wants its farming sector to transition to a more sustainable model. But farmers fear the complex post-Brexit agricultural policy and lack of EU subsidies are threatening their livelihood.
Russia’s investment in the Arctic continues with reports of a new joint project with India. This comes with the development of a Siberian station called Snezhinka (Snowflake), at the center of both scientific and economic development of the Northern territories in the times of global warming.