Known as Afrilachia, the African-American culture that spawned in the rural areas around West Virginia and Kentucky is finally seeing the light of day.
country: United States
Stay updated with comprehensive news on the United States from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on American politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and cultural events.
A nationwise tour of how the alternative reality continues to thrive in local chapters.
Rather than ratchet up spending on America’s already bloated military, the U.S. president should take a broader view of national security and help develop economies elsewhere.
A century ago, during the Spanish flu pandemic, Americans were eager let down their guard and get on with normal life. The consequences were enormous.
Imagine yourself as the first naturalist to stand in a place where little recorded scientific knowledge exists, like Alfred Russel Wallace in the Malay Archipelago or Alexander von Humboldt in the Americas in the early 1800s. The notes you record will expand humanity’s scientific knowledge of the natural world, and the specimens of plants and animals you collect are destined to be used for centuries to describe past and present biodiversity and make new discoveries in biomedicine and beyond. Now, imagine if those specimens were never collected. That’s what it’s like if samples from the field are not archived. Natural […]
Some may find this story a little hard to gobble.
Technological progressions have always changed how we behave. But AI has much more far-reaching potential to change the very meaning of what it is to be a human.
Racial and ethnic minority communities that lack internet access have been left behind in the race to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The average monthly cost of internet access, about US$70, can be out of reach for those who can barely afford groceries. Reporters and scholars have written about the effects of lack of internet access in rural areas in the U.S. and developing countries, but they have paid less attention to the harm of lack of internet access in racial and ethnic minority communities in major cities. We are researchers who study health disparities. We are concerned that even when […]
One month after the insurrection on Capitol Hill, here are the rebels of Wall Street, a place of power no less symbolic.
For many people, the lesson from the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – and more broadly from the experience of the last four years – is that American democracy has become newly and dangerously fragile. That conclusion is overstated. In fact, American democracy has always been fragile. And it might be more precise to diagnose the United States as a fragile union rather than a fragile democracy. As President Joe Biden said in his inaugural address, national unity is “that most elusive of things.” Certainly, faith in American democracy has been battered over the last year. […]
A motley crew barging into the U.S. Capitol can hardly be considered to be an attack on democracy in a country where capitalism has already systematically squeezed the rights of common folk.
The assault on the Capitol wasn’t an attempted coup, per se. But the ramifications of how to hold Trump responsible are fundamental for the future of the American democracy.
The raid of Congress by a crowd of Donald Trump supporters is the culmination of a tumultuous presidency that has deeply fractured the American political system.
From Venezuela to Belarus, there are countries that have elements of democracy but fall well short of acceptable standards of freedom and transparency. Will the U.S. end up there too?
President-elect Joe Biden’s ample support base is fluid and can melt away, if his administration ignores the social and political grievances that led millions to vote for Donald Trump.
For all his experience in government, Biden is entering unfamiliar territory. Trump, barking at the president-elect’s heels and challenging his legitimacy, will try to make the transition harder still.
With Joe Biden in the role of Brutus…?
Will Biden guarantee warmer relations with historic allies and tougher stances on human rights? A region-by-region wrap up by Le Monde.
Trump’s legacy will be profound: his impact as an unconventional politician, the way he turned the Republican Party upside down, the extreme polarization it’s brought to American society. Biden’s hardest work is ahead
By prematurely declaring victory, while the counting of votes is still ongoing, Donald Trump is taking a leaf out of an autocrat’s playbook.
In the midst of America’s election limbo, our Milan-based writer looks back on the first U.S. campaign he followed — from up close — and wonders what comes next.
Narcissists, sociopaths, hypomaniacs and more: from Trump to Erdogan and Duterte, the debate on the stability of government leaders has become increasingly relevant. Labeling them as mentally ill or giving too much power to psychiatrists is dangerous.
An immigrant’s reflections on a dying city that is bound to be reborn.
What is happening in India is casting a long shadow on the forthcoming U.S. elections.
Slovenian-born writer Andrej Mrevlje tries once again to get a read on the fiercely reserved first lady, this time with the help of new book called The Art of Her Deal.
PARIS — Grandioso, say the Italians. Kolossalt for the Swedes. The Berkeley student newspaper called it monumental, while a Buenos Aires daily was stamping it patrimonio de la humanidad. The world’s popular music critics and other sundry writer types (wink!) have spent the past few weeks trying to size up something that is much more […]
Beijing is stepping in to fill the leadership void left by a United States distracted and hobbled by its deep, structural divisions.
The movement rising up in the wake of George Floyd’s death is built on a question of identity and shared history, not a unified community of interests and experiences.
A mix of love and hate mirrors their own feelings about Beijing.
When a virus sucks all the oxygen out of the public space — and then another arrives.
With the pandemic forcing entire families to stay at home, men need to make sure they’re shouldering their fair share of the responsibility.
Ahead of Super Tuesday’s crucial Democratic primaries, a look at the unlikely ‘broken clock’ frontrunner whose time seems to have finally come.
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.
Are explicitly polemical art works, by now a tradition in modern culture, related to the wave of rebellions across the world? Or are they just a moneymaking tool?
President Trump’s erratic strikes against the world’s trading regime require a collective response, as unilateral state reprisals cannot check an ‘arrogant’ U.S. administration.
Researchers are studying brain function to better understand why and in what circumstances workers feel satisfied with their jobs.
The U.S. president’s abrupt decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria was short-lived. But backpedal as he might, the damage is already done.
Democratic candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have both taken ideas straight from US-based French professors Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez.
Economic storm clouds are gathering on the horizon. But just because everyone’s talking about it doesn’t mean governments are ready to deal with it — in fact, quite the opposite.
President Trump is not curbing global trade alone, but is part of a trend traced back to the crash of 2008. And the legislation actually dates back to the 1950s.