Worldcrunch
To most, the French countryside evokes an idyllic paradise, from the southern Provence region with its lavender fields to vineyard-covered Burgundy to the castles of the Loire Valley. In this postcard vision, you can smell the soft air, see the grazing cows and hear the silence, broken only by the rare tolling of local church […]
In its diaspora around Asia and the rest of the world, Hong Kong’s identity is closely tied to its food and tea. Now with the pressures from the mainland, the stakes are suddenly multiplied.
The so-called “White Elephants,” or massive building projects that go unused, keep going up across China as local officials mix vanity and a misdirected attempt to attract business and tourists. A perfect example the 58-meter, $230 million statue of Guan Yu, a beloved military figure from the Third Century, that nobody seems interested in visiting.
The heroic fantasy universes of the 1990s have become a new focus of investment. One card in the mega-popular Magic series recenty sold for more than $500,000, and with the introduction of blockchain technology, the market looks to expand even more.
Winning a Nobel Prize can’t be the only criterion by which we measure a nation’s scientific achievement — but it is a matter of pride, like winning a gold at the Olympics. Lower funding on R&D alone doesn’t explain India’s abysmal show at the Nobel Prizes. Some key elements seem to be missing, beyond funding and infrastructure, vis-à-vis our scientists’ ability to produce path-breaking work.
Chinese cosmetic and apparel companies that once operated in obscurity are now making a real name for themselves, at least among domestic consumers, who see brands like Li-Ning and Bosideng as providing both quality and style.
The September 11 attacks both mobilized America and showed its fragility. Twenty years later, the United States is withdrawing from the Middle East. The greatest beneficiary is not the Muslim world, as Bin Laden dreamed, but two powers reborn in the East.
Brexit has doubled the cost of studying in the UK for Europeans, which means many more students are heading to Dutch universities, which offer multiple programs in English. That’s caused hundreds to arrive at universities in the Netherlands this month without promised housing.
Across the region, entrepreneurs have been hailed for taking innovative ideas inspired elsewhere and applying them nationally or regionally. But the business and ethical dynamics involved are not so simple.
Both al-Qaeda and ISIS openly complain about the difficulty in finding new members ready to give everything for the cause.
As New Zealand grapples to bring a Delta outbreak under control and to accelerate the vaccination rollout, social cohesion is vital for a successful elimination strategy. Political consensus on elimination has endured so far. Unlike the anti-mask and anti-vaccination movements elsewhere, most New Zealanders continue to back the prime minister’s decision to place the country under the strictest lockdown. But strains on public consensus are beginning to show, with a less-than-ideal parliament, some pushback against lockdowns and agitation to “open up.” These debates will become more pressing as the government moves towards difficult discussions about an exit strategy and targets […]
Kim Jong-Un, Supreme Leader of North Korea, has been summoned to appear in a Japanese courthouse. Five people who moved to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) between 1959 and 1984 are seeking 500 million yen (3.8 million euros) in damages from the North Korean government for deceiving them with promises of a prosperous […]
In a country plagued by economic crisis, women are entering professions usually reserved for men. Against societal expectations, they are striving for independence.
The fall of the Afghan national government may be a calamity for the Afghans but not for the world’s big-money interests, which prefer to deal with ruthless, incompetent regimes that will sell out their countries.
CERVERE — It hasn’t rained in two months. The corn has not grown. Six out of ten hectares of this plain field are completely parched. “It’s late now,” says Giovanni Bedino, running his dark fingers through the dry leaves of the corn. The farmer, now 59, has been working the land since he was 15. […]
Welcome to Friday, where evacuation flights resume at Kabul airport after yesterday’s deadly attack, dozens of kidnapped Nigerian students are freed, and female hummingbirds evolve so that males get off their feathers. We also boldly explore the surprising crossroads between science fiction and real-life military strategy.
Anne-Claire Bennevault, founder of consulting firm BNVLT and think tank SPAK.fr, weighs in on the rise of the so-called “finfluencers”.
The global warming we have been warned about is here, and it will, with its calamities, change so many ideas about what we need to live well.
A stand-up comedian in China recently used the term “single panic” to describe fears among women about being alone, and the words have since resonated in online discussions. The “panic” is a product, the female comedian pointed out, of pressure and prejudices in Chinese society against single women. The only way for single women to […]
Discriminatory comments and practices still reign supreme in wine cellars. But the women of the French wine industry are determined to break down old barriers.
After years of letting overnight rail travel fade into oblivion, France and other European countries are rushing to reverse course. Doing so will be easier said than done, however.
The stigma around so-called “non-custodial mothers” has prevented us from expanding our own imagination of what motherhood can, or does, look like when it is practiced by non-residential mothers
BERLIN – Now, in the opera, there are Black people portraying Germanic gods, Russians appearing as Chinese people, and Don Giovanni may even be played by a trans woman. If ethnically correct casts are required to be politically correct, this would mean the end for many classics and several would become unemployed. Trinidadian-born soprano Jeanine […]
The legendary soccer star of FC Barcelona has signed up with the Parisian club, owned by the Emirate since 2011…and just in time for the World Cup slated next year in Qatar.
Welcome to Friday, where China blocks the WHO on COVID origins, the Taliban capture Kandahar and a Russian politician makes a deadly bear error. We also have a Die Welt article on the tiny country that isn’t afraid to take on China.
L’Oréal and other French cosmetic brands are delving into the creepy realm of printing the equivalent of human flesh.
Over the past 30 years, more than 170,000 Chinese-born children have been raised by U.S. families. Most of the parents are white and many live in areas where Asians are almost nonexistent.
Putting New York Governor Cuomo’s delayed departure in light of the #MeToo movement.
In the midst of an ecological crisis, the octopus has become an object of fascination. This animal, once terrifying to the human imagination, is now recognized for its intelligence and ability to live in symbiosis with nature.
The Taliban insurgents continue their deadly war to seize control of Afghanistan after the departure of United States and NATO forces. As they close in on major cities that were once government strongholds, like Badakhshan and Kandahar, many Afghans – and the world – fear a total takeover. Afghan women may have the most to fear from these Islamic militants. We are academics who interviewed 15 Afghan women activists, community leaders and politicians over the past year as part of an international effort to ensure that women’s human rights are defended and constitutionally protected in Afghanistan. For the safety of […]
From global politics to the pandemic, problems abound for the Tokyo Games. Next year, when Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics, things could get messier still.
Hong Kong’s national security police recently arrested five people over the publication of children’s books featuring sheep, which it says represent Hong Kongers, attacking wolves, allegedly standing for mainlanders.
What else…?
ORLÉANS — Along the road in France’s central region of Sologne, patches of the forest stretch one after the other as far as the eye can see. The region, dotted with 3,000 ponds and smack-dab in the middle of France, is also home to the Saint-Marc farm, where dozens of ewes stand guard as bees […]
BEIJING — “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to join the party…” Yanru, a 22-year-old university student studying at a well-known university in northern China, just became a CCP member last year. For her and her peers, joining the Chinese Communist Party is something that just seems natural: “It has led us […]
The idea that the streets of Monaco are lined with luxury vehicles isn’t an overstatement. The recently crowned “supercar capital of the world” also comes with risks, as stretch limousines and sports cars must navigate the tiny city-state’s meandering streets and narrow squares. Yet last Friday, when a Bentley crashed into a Belgian man outside […]
The process machinery to master vowel-heavy Danish explains that way adults tend to interact.
If someone is unhappy, that’s one thing. But if a city is unhappy, that means something very different.
A new high-end food retailer, Gourmet, is helping reshape Egypt’s supermarket industry.
Since Agnès Varda, Louis Malle and Michel Gondry, trying one’s luck in Hollywood has become an obsession for some French filmmakers. But Netflix and friends are changing the formula.